Forget traditional diets and fad work-outs. They require hard work and dedication, sometimes even requiring discomfort, pain and fatigue. Here’s the perfect weight loss program for those of us who really kind of want to lose weight without all the effort. The good news is that all but a few of these suggestions are relatively painless. Think about it--we all carry unwanted pounds and ounces in places we don’t even think about. The key here is that every little bit counts. And here’s the best part of all: While these tips may not get you the bikini results other plans can deliver they will help you achieve your weight loss goals at your next Weight Watchers meeting! So come one, America--step on the scales! It’s weigh-in time!
1. Don’t eat or drink anything the day of your weigh-in.
2. Take off your shoes.
3. Remove jewelry.
4. Go to the bathroom.
5. Take a laxative if necessary.
6. Cut your hair.
7. Trim your nails.
8. Shave your legs.
9. Wax your eyebrows.
10. Clean out your ears.
11. Take care of toe jam.
12. Blow your nose.
13. De-lint your belly button.
14. Donate a kidney.
15. Hock a loogie.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A Change of View
My husband and I had a conversation the other day that really got me thinking. He was talking about reexamining a particular belief he has held to for some time. Just as a matter of note, he and I have had differing viewpoints on this issue for years. Now he is saying that after consideration, study and prayer he may need to change his stance.
I should be thrilled that he is thinking about "coming over to the light”, but I’ll be honest. It scares me to see him being willing to change. That may be because I depend on him to provide stability in my life. As much as I’ve fought for my way, I always feel I have an anchor in him. He is unchanging. This may all sound like the perfect set-up for me, but it denies the power of the working of the Holy Spirit in his life. God wants change from us. Sometimes He will reveal something to be wrong that we have held to for some time. Then the question is up to us. Do we change as He directs? Or do we hold onto our former stance for fear of disappointing those who watch our lives? No one wants to be labeled wishy-washy, unstable or worse--a turncoat. We want to appear to have it all together. It’s no fun to have someone point out our inconsistencies. We even laugh at our nation’s leaders (maybe rightfully so) when they make comments like, “I voted for it before I voted against it.” Our culture doesn’t like uncertainty in its leaders. Fear of rejection from those following us or of letting down those who depend on us can put tremendous pressure on even the most personal of decisions.
It’s a hard place to be in, but sometimes we find ourselves choosing between the status quo and maintaining the peace, or making a few waves to move in the direction God calls us. Yes, it will rock the boat. It will upset the consistent environment that people are relaxing in. But we, as leaders must think: What is more important? A secure insulated environment or a flexible one with allowance for improvement?
While there is something to be said for being consistent, there is nothing noble about being consistently wrong.
Be brave. Follow God.
I should be thrilled that he is thinking about "coming over to the light”, but I’ll be honest. It scares me to see him being willing to change. That may be because I depend on him to provide stability in my life. As much as I’ve fought for my way, I always feel I have an anchor in him. He is unchanging. This may all sound like the perfect set-up for me, but it denies the power of the working of the Holy Spirit in his life. God wants change from us. Sometimes He will reveal something to be wrong that we have held to for some time. Then the question is up to us. Do we change as He directs? Or do we hold onto our former stance for fear of disappointing those who watch our lives? No one wants to be labeled wishy-washy, unstable or worse--a turncoat. We want to appear to have it all together. It’s no fun to have someone point out our inconsistencies. We even laugh at our nation’s leaders (maybe rightfully so) when they make comments like, “I voted for it before I voted against it.” Our culture doesn’t like uncertainty in its leaders. Fear of rejection from those following us or of letting down those who depend on us can put tremendous pressure on even the most personal of decisions.
It’s a hard place to be in, but sometimes we find ourselves choosing between the status quo and maintaining the peace, or making a few waves to move in the direction God calls us. Yes, it will rock the boat. It will upset the consistent environment that people are relaxing in. But we, as leaders must think: What is more important? A secure insulated environment or a flexible one with allowance for improvement?
While there is something to be said for being consistent, there is nothing noble about being consistently wrong.
Be brave. Follow God.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mullygrubs
Frustration. Gloom. Boredom. Angst. Blah. Mullygrubs.
Yep, we’re back in Midland all right. Back to the desert. The heat. The unview. The grind. If I was on the mountain a couple of days ago--and I was--the Smokey mountains to be precise--I’m on flat land now. Literally. Pump jacks and tumbleweeds. Breathe it in. Well, better not. Ahhhh. Home at last.
Isn’t home supposed to be that sweet place you long for? That place where you lay your head on your pillow and breathe the warm scent of honeysuckle streaming in your window on the midnight air? Home is the place of intrinsic comfort and security. You know, home sweet home?
Why then am I so unsettled?
Home also represents routine living. Normalcy. It is the reality of what we must be a part of every day. It is responsibility and pressure. It is imperfect relationships. It is the feeling that this is all life is and all it will ever be.
Dreams are big on vacation. Do dreams ever occur at home? Does anyone ever just sit in their living room and have an epiphany, hear a calling, or come to the best life decision they ever made? Here in this place can I fix what is broken in my life? Can I relate to someone who loves me with all their might? Can I sprout wings and fly in this place?
To what better place would I fly? I have traipsed off to many varied destinations, only to find myself longing for the peace of a place to call home. I have gone looking for love, only to lose security in the love I already possessed. I have sought adventure, only to wish for solid ground again.
What a creature of discontent I am. A dreamer, some would say. I’m always chasing the next rainbow. Look around. I have everything. Is there nothing left to dream of? And if there were, would I waste my life away pining for that dream?
Unsettled.
Today I sat down on my front porch with an apple. It was sweet and good. The breeze was nice and the birds were singing. While there may be some charm in sitting down and eating an apple in the open sunshine like I did this morning, a wanderer like me wonders why she can’t enjoy it. There needs to be more. Someone to share the apple with, perhaps? An apple tree to plant, maybe? And the dreaming begins. Oh it will be a fabulous apple tree, and people will come from miles around just to see it and eat from it, and then I can have all the apples I want and sit down in the sunshine and eat an apple just because I want to. Oh wait…I’m already doing that. It’s not as neat as it sounds. I throw the half-eaten apple into the yard for the birds and go inside not taking the time to watch them swarm around and eat it. The fun was all in the dream.
For people like me, the joy in life often comes from expectation of things to come more than in their fulfillment. La esperanza, in Spanish is one word that envelopes three distinct English words: expectation, waiting, hope. Maybe in that sense I was aptly named. The hope of sweet idleness tomorrow is better than the simple relaxation I find in today. I kick myself for living in tomorrow and not enjoying the pleasures at hand.
And yet, expectation can be good. Those who are content in their surroundings have no need for improvement. Those who don’t dare to dream sit still. They never realize their full potential. They never reach the heights available for them to scale. I want to reach as high as I can. To go as far as I can. And yet, as I scale the heights, I glance around and wonder what the next peak will bring. Isn’t there a higher mountain to climb? Isn’t there something bigger I can be a part of? I feel compelled to keep moving forward. Is there some great feat just waiting for me around the bend? This is more than just boredom. It’s more than just needing something to fill my time. It is a gouging within my soul to take a risk. To put it all on the line for the ‘big one’. To conquer. To jump.
Is all of this thinking just selfish ambition? Do believe that I have to do something big or accomplish some new thing to be valuable? Is all my running an attempt to validate my own importance as a person?
Didn’t God already do that?
Is my itching a result of some lie written on my heart at some time in my life? A lie like, ‘You’re only as important as the things you accomplish?” Even now as I sit and write, thoughts come pouring in from my childhood. Phrases, meant for good, that perhaps were overused or over drilled. “Good, better, best, never let it rest, till your good is better and your better is best.” Never let it rest. Hmmmm. Sounds like my life motto. Or this one. “Do right till the stars fall.” Do. Story of my lie. Do. Serve. Work. Get busy. Accomplish something. Mark off a goal. PERFORM FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE! Haven’t we all heard something like “You’ve only got one life? Make it count.” What do I have to DO to make my life count? Does my life not count if I sit down and eat an apple in the sunshine? What if I die before I do whatever it is I’m supposed to DO? I’d better get up and get busy and make myself worthy to be counted.
Didn’t God already do that too?
God, fill my fears. Help me to realize the truth of all You did for me when you paid for me in my unworthy state. When I think of You I realize I will never be good enough. I’ll never be worthy. But You are. And because You are, I am.
Help me to do what you want when you want me to do it. Not out of obligation. Not out of fear of not being good enough. I am good enough in You. Help me to do life with you instead of for You--not leaving You behind as I rush about chasing perfection I’ll never attain. Sit beside me and enjoy a morning on my porch with me. And help me to enjoy it too.
Yep, we’re back in Midland all right. Back to the desert. The heat. The unview. The grind. If I was on the mountain a couple of days ago--and I was--the Smokey mountains to be precise--I’m on flat land now. Literally. Pump jacks and tumbleweeds. Breathe it in. Well, better not. Ahhhh. Home at last.
Isn’t home supposed to be that sweet place you long for? That place where you lay your head on your pillow and breathe the warm scent of honeysuckle streaming in your window on the midnight air? Home is the place of intrinsic comfort and security. You know, home sweet home?
Why then am I so unsettled?
Home also represents routine living. Normalcy. It is the reality of what we must be a part of every day. It is responsibility and pressure. It is imperfect relationships. It is the feeling that this is all life is and all it will ever be.
Dreams are big on vacation. Do dreams ever occur at home? Does anyone ever just sit in their living room and have an epiphany, hear a calling, or come to the best life decision they ever made? Here in this place can I fix what is broken in my life? Can I relate to someone who loves me with all their might? Can I sprout wings and fly in this place?
To what better place would I fly? I have traipsed off to many varied destinations, only to find myself longing for the peace of a place to call home. I have gone looking for love, only to lose security in the love I already possessed. I have sought adventure, only to wish for solid ground again.
What a creature of discontent I am. A dreamer, some would say. I’m always chasing the next rainbow. Look around. I have everything. Is there nothing left to dream of? And if there were, would I waste my life away pining for that dream?
Unsettled.
Today I sat down on my front porch with an apple. It was sweet and good. The breeze was nice and the birds were singing. While there may be some charm in sitting down and eating an apple in the open sunshine like I did this morning, a wanderer like me wonders why she can’t enjoy it. There needs to be more. Someone to share the apple with, perhaps? An apple tree to plant, maybe? And the dreaming begins. Oh it will be a fabulous apple tree, and people will come from miles around just to see it and eat from it, and then I can have all the apples I want and sit down in the sunshine and eat an apple just because I want to. Oh wait…I’m already doing that. It’s not as neat as it sounds. I throw the half-eaten apple into the yard for the birds and go inside not taking the time to watch them swarm around and eat it. The fun was all in the dream.
For people like me, the joy in life often comes from expectation of things to come more than in their fulfillment. La esperanza, in Spanish is one word that envelopes three distinct English words: expectation, waiting, hope. Maybe in that sense I was aptly named. The hope of sweet idleness tomorrow is better than the simple relaxation I find in today. I kick myself for living in tomorrow and not enjoying the pleasures at hand.
And yet, expectation can be good. Those who are content in their surroundings have no need for improvement. Those who don’t dare to dream sit still. They never realize their full potential. They never reach the heights available for them to scale. I want to reach as high as I can. To go as far as I can. And yet, as I scale the heights, I glance around and wonder what the next peak will bring. Isn’t there a higher mountain to climb? Isn’t there something bigger I can be a part of? I feel compelled to keep moving forward. Is there some great feat just waiting for me around the bend? This is more than just boredom. It’s more than just needing something to fill my time. It is a gouging within my soul to take a risk. To put it all on the line for the ‘big one’. To conquer. To jump.
Is all of this thinking just selfish ambition? Do believe that I have to do something big or accomplish some new thing to be valuable? Is all my running an attempt to validate my own importance as a person?
Didn’t God already do that?
Is my itching a result of some lie written on my heart at some time in my life? A lie like, ‘You’re only as important as the things you accomplish?” Even now as I sit and write, thoughts come pouring in from my childhood. Phrases, meant for good, that perhaps were overused or over drilled. “Good, better, best, never let it rest, till your good is better and your better is best.” Never let it rest. Hmmmm. Sounds like my life motto. Or this one. “Do right till the stars fall.” Do. Story of my lie. Do. Serve. Work. Get busy. Accomplish something. Mark off a goal. PERFORM FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE! Haven’t we all heard something like “You’ve only got one life? Make it count.” What do I have to DO to make my life count? Does my life not count if I sit down and eat an apple in the sunshine? What if I die before I do whatever it is I’m supposed to DO? I’d better get up and get busy and make myself worthy to be counted.
Didn’t God already do that too?
God, fill my fears. Help me to realize the truth of all You did for me when you paid for me in my unworthy state. When I think of You I realize I will never be good enough. I’ll never be worthy. But You are. And because You are, I am.
Help me to do what you want when you want me to do it. Not out of obligation. Not out of fear of not being good enough. I am good enough in You. Help me to do life with you instead of for You--not leaving You behind as I rush about chasing perfection I’ll never attain. Sit beside me and enjoy a morning on my porch with me. And help me to enjoy it too.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
My Own Personal Miracle
Sitting in the airport for five hours in Midland, Texas on Saturday, I never would have thought that on Sunday morning I would be sitting here in my hotel room basking in my own personal miracle. I can’t wait to tell you about it!
Here lately God has been working in my life in a big way. Of course, He has always tried to work on me, but it has been only recently that I have really let Him. My turn around happened after a big fall (what we sometimes like to call sin when we don’t want to say ‘sin’). I had sinned. I had been “overtaken in a fault” as the Bible says. On my return trip from the habitual sin that had consumed my life I really comprehended the words I had heard so often before, that I could not “do it in my own power.” I had been working all my life for God. I felt an all-consuming drive to please Him in all things. Now don’t get me wrong….pleasing God is good. It’s what would happen when I didn’t please God that wasn’t so good:
You know we can never do it right? We “come short of the glory of God,” and “our righteousness is as filthy rags,” etc. When we live to please God we are set up for failure. I have equated that mindset to swimming but never getting anywhere. You can sure get tired, frustrated and depressed when you feel you are working on something you can never quite accomplish. In my experience, I gave up trying to please God altogether and gave myself completely to the sin that I had struggled against for so long. I felt like if I couldn’t win completely and make God happy, I would just give up altogether. You know, God never intended for us to just keep swimming while He watched from above criticizing our mistakes. If that is the view you have of God, I pray you will begin to learn a little of what He has been showing me. What I have been learning lately is that I should live with God instead of for God. After all, He created me for fellowship, not service. As Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North puts it in his blog, “Don’t live for God. Live Because God.” Those words are so profound. It was fresh to read those words and thoughts that God had already been nurturing in my own mind. But it wasn’t the first time God has used this musician to touch my life.
I never realized before how important music is. When the changes first began taking shape in my life and I began to return from the pit I had gone into, my first response was to praise the Lord in song. I would hear a new song and the words would knock me off my feet. Fresh words in the music I discovered came pouring into my life like a cooling rain to parched skin. I knew music was going to be a crucial part of my devotion with God from now on, so I started looking for music that I could use to express myself to God and that He could use to speak back to me. I found several groups and artists that I liked. One of my favorites was Tenth Avenue North. The first song I heard by them was “By Your Side”. It was amazing how closely the words to that song echoed the words I had expressed in my writing about the very things I was going through:
Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Whoa, whoa…stop the music. Trying to earn grace? That was exactly what I had been doing in keeping swimming. I believed in grace at the point of salvation, but by the way I lived my defeated life it was apparent that I believed it must be earned after that. My striving and trying had gotten me only tears and frustration.
Why are you crying?
Let me lift up your face.
Just don’t turn away.
God was embracing me, loving me in my failure. I had tried to run from Him. I had run to my own sin to comfort myself for my failures. The song asked the question:
To where will you go child?
Tell me where will you run?
To where will you run?
My running had gotten me nowhere. I knew that now. One of the things I had realized as I lay in the bottom of the pit was that He was right there all the time. I had wrenched myself free from His hands and ran to a place that He could never be, but He was there. The song continued.
I’ll be by your side wherever you’ve fallen...
Please don’t fight these hands that are holding you.
The message was exactly what I was needing to grasp from the Lord. Of His undying unconditional love. I ran out and bought the CD to listen to whenever I was down or needed to hear that message from the Lord again. He is “by my side”.
When I got the CD I found it wasn’t just that song that I identified with. The song “Let it Go” speaks of letting go of works as a means of acceptance to God. “Times” is a song that lists every possible time that God could not love us, and yet He does. I fit a lot of those times on the list. “Beloved” is a love song to me, the Bride, from a loving Husband, my savior. I am astounded that He is that crazy about me. His undying devoted love for me was just what I was looking for, and I had looked everywhere for it but from Him. Now I have come running home to Him and I rest in His arms. I feel particularly blessed to have discovered music that speaks to my heart in such a significant way.
Saturday we had a chance to go hear these songs in person. We were traveling to Tennessee to see some kids we love graduate from Bible College. I noticed on TAN’s website that they would be in Hartsville, South Carolina just two days before the graduation. We decided to book the fight to come early, make the drive to the concert and then another drive back to Tennessee for the graduation. It would be a lot of extra effort and money but it would be worth it. We got our hotel rooms and rental car and all that we needed to make it happen with a couple of hours extra to spare…we thought. Our unexpected delay in Midland caused us to miss our connecting flight in Houston by two minutes, ultimately making us almost three hours late for the concert I had so been looking forward to.
My first reaction was to be angry with the airline. But my second (and better) reaction was to pour out my heart to God who cares about me and my hurt even over a small thing like missing a concert. I didn’t need to go to the concert. God knew that. Nevertheless, because of things I had been learning, I knew that He cared about my dissappointment. I dared to ask Him for a miracle as we drove in the rain to Hartsville, even while we knew the concert had already ended.
As we drove up to Emmanuel Baptist Church, most of the lights were off. There were a few cars in the parking lot. We parked, walked into the building and began chatting with two girls about our woes of missing the concert. We soon learned these two “girls” packing away the merchandise were Jeff’s and Mike’s very sweet wives. They insisted on taking us to meet the guys. We were elated about the special treatment as we walked in and among mic cords and boxes to shake hands with Jeff, then Jason, Scott and lastly Mike. As we stood talking, Jason was telling us about their upcoming album and the recording that would start on Monday. I was pretty excited to hear that a new album was on the way and wondered if the songs would be as meaningful as the first CD had been. While we were talking Mike walked away and reappeared with his guitar strapped around his neck. He asked if we would like to hear a song. Would we?!? He asked what we would like to hear and I quickly piped up “By Your Side”. It was the song that had meant so much in the beginning and had introduced me to the group. He began to sing and play. And just at the time that I was used to hearing Jeff’s voice join in on the CD, Jeff stepped up with guitar in hand and joined in playing and singing. The guys didn’t lift their eyes to us as they stood less than two feet away from us, singing for us. They did it as to the Lord, humbly.
When the song was over, we got to talk to Mike a few minutes. We talked about grace and what we had been learning. He talked about what he had been learning as well, and reiterated the phrase I had read in his blog just the week before. “Don’t live for God. Live because God.” Then out of the blue he asked if we would like to hear a song that would be on their new album. “It’s about confession,” he told us. Wow. Confession. Another topic that had been on my mind. In fact, very recently I had taken it upon myself to share with my church family the fact that I had been struggling with sin. I had personally confessed to some close friends the nature of my struggles and my particular sin. This had been so liberating, to take off the mask I had been wearing. Was it coincidence that the song Mike chose to sing for us addressed this very topic? Once again, their music had touched my life. This song, in particular was there when I needed it, even though CD’s wouldn’t hit the stores for months. I had my miracle. Meeting the guys, hearing my special song, discussing our struggle and growth with a Christian who gets what it means to fail and doubt and still have God. There is even more to the story, like the t-shirts and posters they showered us with, photos they took of us at their suggestion and will email to us, crew members escorting us to our hotel and on and on. What is special about it all is not Tenth Avenue North, but the fact that God used them to give us the miracle. And the most special thing of all is that God cared enough to give it to me. I am His beloved. I thank Him so much that he has brought so many things in my life so that I will know that for sure.
Here lately God has been working in my life in a big way. Of course, He has always tried to work on me, but it has been only recently that I have really let Him. My turn around happened after a big fall (what we sometimes like to call sin when we don’t want to say ‘sin’). I had sinned. I had been “overtaken in a fault” as the Bible says. On my return trip from the habitual sin that had consumed my life I really comprehended the words I had heard so often before, that I could not “do it in my own power.” I had been working all my life for God. I felt an all-consuming drive to please Him in all things. Now don’t get me wrong….pleasing God is good. It’s what would happen when I didn’t please God that wasn’t so good:
You know we can never do it right? We “come short of the glory of God,” and “our righteousness is as filthy rags,” etc. When we live to please God we are set up for failure. I have equated that mindset to swimming but never getting anywhere. You can sure get tired, frustrated and depressed when you feel you are working on something you can never quite accomplish. In my experience, I gave up trying to please God altogether and gave myself completely to the sin that I had struggled against for so long. I felt like if I couldn’t win completely and make God happy, I would just give up altogether. You know, God never intended for us to just keep swimming while He watched from above criticizing our mistakes. If that is the view you have of God, I pray you will begin to learn a little of what He has been showing me. What I have been learning lately is that I should live with God instead of for God. After all, He created me for fellowship, not service. As Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North puts it in his blog, “Don’t live for God. Live Because God.” Those words are so profound. It was fresh to read those words and thoughts that God had already been nurturing in my own mind. But it wasn’t the first time God has used this musician to touch my life.
I never realized before how important music is. When the changes first began taking shape in my life and I began to return from the pit I had gone into, my first response was to praise the Lord in song. I would hear a new song and the words would knock me off my feet. Fresh words in the music I discovered came pouring into my life like a cooling rain to parched skin. I knew music was going to be a crucial part of my devotion with God from now on, so I started looking for music that I could use to express myself to God and that He could use to speak back to me. I found several groups and artists that I liked. One of my favorites was Tenth Avenue North. The first song I heard by them was “By Your Side”. It was amazing how closely the words to that song echoed the words I had expressed in my writing about the very things I was going through:
Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Whoa, whoa…stop the music. Trying to earn grace? That was exactly what I had been doing in keeping swimming. I believed in grace at the point of salvation, but by the way I lived my defeated life it was apparent that I believed it must be earned after that. My striving and trying had gotten me only tears and frustration.
Why are you crying?
Let me lift up your face.
Just don’t turn away.
God was embracing me, loving me in my failure. I had tried to run from Him. I had run to my own sin to comfort myself for my failures. The song asked the question:
To where will you go child?
Tell me where will you run?
To where will you run?
My running had gotten me nowhere. I knew that now. One of the things I had realized as I lay in the bottom of the pit was that He was right there all the time. I had wrenched myself free from His hands and ran to a place that He could never be, but He was there. The song continued.
I’ll be by your side wherever you’ve fallen...
Please don’t fight these hands that are holding you.
The message was exactly what I was needing to grasp from the Lord. Of His undying unconditional love. I ran out and bought the CD to listen to whenever I was down or needed to hear that message from the Lord again. He is “by my side”.
When I got the CD I found it wasn’t just that song that I identified with. The song “Let it Go” speaks of letting go of works as a means of acceptance to God. “Times” is a song that lists every possible time that God could not love us, and yet He does. I fit a lot of those times on the list. “Beloved” is a love song to me, the Bride, from a loving Husband, my savior. I am astounded that He is that crazy about me. His undying devoted love for me was just what I was looking for, and I had looked everywhere for it but from Him. Now I have come running home to Him and I rest in His arms. I feel particularly blessed to have discovered music that speaks to my heart in such a significant way.
Saturday we had a chance to go hear these songs in person. We were traveling to Tennessee to see some kids we love graduate from Bible College. I noticed on TAN’s website that they would be in Hartsville, South Carolina just two days before the graduation. We decided to book the fight to come early, make the drive to the concert and then another drive back to Tennessee for the graduation. It would be a lot of extra effort and money but it would be worth it. We got our hotel rooms and rental car and all that we needed to make it happen with a couple of hours extra to spare…we thought. Our unexpected delay in Midland caused us to miss our connecting flight in Houston by two minutes, ultimately making us almost three hours late for the concert I had so been looking forward to.
My first reaction was to be angry with the airline. But my second (and better) reaction was to pour out my heart to God who cares about me and my hurt even over a small thing like missing a concert. I didn’t need to go to the concert. God knew that. Nevertheless, because of things I had been learning, I knew that He cared about my dissappointment. I dared to ask Him for a miracle as we drove in the rain to Hartsville, even while we knew the concert had already ended.
As we drove up to Emmanuel Baptist Church, most of the lights were off. There were a few cars in the parking lot. We parked, walked into the building and began chatting with two girls about our woes of missing the concert. We soon learned these two “girls” packing away the merchandise were Jeff’s and Mike’s very sweet wives. They insisted on taking us to meet the guys. We were elated about the special treatment as we walked in and among mic cords and boxes to shake hands with Jeff, then Jason, Scott and lastly Mike. As we stood talking, Jason was telling us about their upcoming album and the recording that would start on Monday. I was pretty excited to hear that a new album was on the way and wondered if the songs would be as meaningful as the first CD had been. While we were talking Mike walked away and reappeared with his guitar strapped around his neck. He asked if we would like to hear a song. Would we?!? He asked what we would like to hear and I quickly piped up “By Your Side”. It was the song that had meant so much in the beginning and had introduced me to the group. He began to sing and play. And just at the time that I was used to hearing Jeff’s voice join in on the CD, Jeff stepped up with guitar in hand and joined in playing and singing. The guys didn’t lift their eyes to us as they stood less than two feet away from us, singing for us. They did it as to the Lord, humbly.
When the song was over, we got to talk to Mike a few minutes. We talked about grace and what we had been learning. He talked about what he had been learning as well, and reiterated the phrase I had read in his blog just the week before. “Don’t live for God. Live because God.” Then out of the blue he asked if we would like to hear a song that would be on their new album. “It’s about confession,” he told us. Wow. Confession. Another topic that had been on my mind. In fact, very recently I had taken it upon myself to share with my church family the fact that I had been struggling with sin. I had personally confessed to some close friends the nature of my struggles and my particular sin. This had been so liberating, to take off the mask I had been wearing. Was it coincidence that the song Mike chose to sing for us addressed this very topic? Once again, their music had touched my life. This song, in particular was there when I needed it, even though CD’s wouldn’t hit the stores for months. I had my miracle. Meeting the guys, hearing my special song, discussing our struggle and growth with a Christian who gets what it means to fail and doubt and still have God. There is even more to the story, like the t-shirts and posters they showered us with, photos they took of us at their suggestion and will email to us, crew members escorting us to our hotel and on and on. What is special about it all is not Tenth Avenue North, but the fact that God used them to give us the miracle. And the most special thing of all is that God cared enough to give it to me. I am His beloved. I thank Him so much that he has brought so many things in my life so that I will know that for sure.
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