No matter your beliefs… I like you… I’m for you. Together… we can lift each other up. We’re not meant to live this life alone.
Work on trying to let someone in… even if it’s just one.
Ain’t no life outside each other.
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I have two excellent songs for you today
🎵 No Man Is an Island 2o14 🎵 I Have This Hope 2o16
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Be blessed… and don’t forget.
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Hebrews 10:24–25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another
Two more great ones this week from Matthew West… (not hidden gems… 2 of his more popular ones)
Broken Things 🎶 Hello, My Name Is
Both are among my favorites of his.
I saw this comment on YouTube and thought it was pretty cool…
“Imagine you have two ceramic pots. One is cracked and missing pieces. The other is perfect. Now put a candle inside both and place a lid on them. Which pot do you see more light coming through? The broken one. That’s what God does. Sometimes you have to be broken to let God’s light shine through.”
Hope you enjoy. 🎧
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2 Corinthians 5:17 🎵 Therefore… if anyone is in Christ… he is a new creation. The old has passed away… behold… the new has come.
If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
This prompt reminded me of a story that happened to me years ago…
I was probably 19 or 20 years old. Early ’90s.
My uncle owned a tree cutting and removal company, and every now and then he’d call me if he needed an extra hand. One spring, Atlanta got hit with some nasty weather. High winds came through and left trees down all over the place.
We spent the day working in some of the high-end neighborhoods around Buckhead. On one particular street, there were trees down everywhere. My uncle and I split up and started knocking on doors to see if anyone needed our services.
One property caught my attention.
A massive oak tree had fallen across the front yard. The place was beautiful. A long winding driveway climbed a hill to a huge old house that looked like something out of a movie.
So I made the walk up.
It seemed to take forever.
When I finally got to the front door, I noticed it was open. I stopped for a second and called out.
“Hello? Anybody home?”
Nothing.
I knocked a few times.
Still nothing.
I called out again.
Nothing.
So I leaned my head just inside the doorway.
All the lights were on.
And sitting in the middle of the room was a large table.
Now that was strange enough.
But what was on the table was stranger.
The entire thing was covered in stacks of cash.
Not a few piles.
Stacks and stacks of money.
The table was loaded with it.
To this day I have no idea how much was sitting there, but it was more money than I’d ever seen in one place in my life.
Naturally, all kinds of thoughts started running through my head.
This just isn’t a situation a person finds themselves in very often.
But along with the surprise came a strange feeling that I shouldn’t be there.
Something told me it was time to leave.
So I left.
End of story.
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As for the prompt itself…
I’d use it to help people who actually need it.
The funny thing is, I can still do this without an unlimited budget.
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I don’t want to grow up… I’m a Toys R Us kid… they got the best… for so much less… you’ll really flip your lid… from bikes to trains to video games… it’s the greatest toy store there is… gee wiz… I don’t want to grow up… cuz baby… if did? I wouldn’t be a Toys R Us kid… 🤷♂️
Man… I’m so loaded up with music and bands… sometimes I just sit there like… who’s next?… there’s just too many…
But yeah… Fuel… one of my favorites. They’re a little different… some songs are slower… easy… almost laid back… but when they decide to… they can come in hard and rock the absolute crap out of you.
I’ve seen them a few times… but here’s a cool one…
I lived in Leesburg, Florida from 2o16–2o21… little old house… about two blocks from downtown. Leesburg is known for Bikefest every year… bands playing all week long…
And I’m not kidding… I could always hear it all from inside my house… loud and clear.
So it’s 2o17… I’m laying on my bed one day… windows open… just chilling…
Then all of a sudden…
music cuts through the silence…
this band starts rocking… hard… sounding really good…
I’m laying there like… hold up… who is that?…
then it hits me…
duuuude… it’s Fuel !!! 😁🥳😎
So yeah… I just laid there… in my bed… and listened to their whole set that evening…
super cool.
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I got two for you now…
🎧 Shimmer — Sunburn (1998)
🎧 Bad Day — Something Like Human (2oO0)
Shimmer is the song that put them on the map… these 2 are a little more chill… in coming weeks… I’ll let them rock harder for you… thought I’d take it easy on you for starters 😏…
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had…?
I’ve done a lot… I love a lot.
Sports… fishing… music… writing… working out pretty religiously these days… and I’ve always loved driving… oh… I’m a people and animal whisperer too…
I drove 18-wheelers all across the U.S. for 17 years… professionally. Spent time training student drivers with FedEx Ground… that part stayed with me… something about watching it click.
Same thing with teaching guitar and music back in the day… there’s something about passing things on.
But if we’re talking secret skills…
I can juggle.
Learned it as a teenager from a guy at a pool hall… with billiard balls.
And this one’s a little ridiculous but true…
I can throw grapes so high they disappear… wait… track them back down out of the sky… and catch them in my mouth.
Oh… and I can juggle grapes and eat them at the same time…
Yeah… I know… lol…
Nothing special… just a fun way to feed your face.
Not today though… too much other stuff to juggle…
˙uoıʇɔǝlɟuı ɥʇıʍ ƃuıs I sɐ ƃuol oS …ʎɐs I ʇɐɥʍ ɹǝʇʇɐɯ ʇ,usǝop ʇI
I’ve had some kind words over the years… but one stands above the rest…
It came through a window…
Back in the late 90s… I was living in a little downstairs apartment outside Atlanta… just me… a guitar… and a lot going on in life…
Most nights I’d sit by that open window and play… sing… pour it all out…
What I didn’t know…
Was that someone was listening…
There was a girl in the neighborhood… and for about a month… she would come by at night… lean up against the outside of my building… just out of sight…
And listen…
She told me later… she’d wait, hoping I’d be there… that my songs helped her get through things she was dealing with…
That she would just stand there… breathing it in… and for a little while…
She could forget her life…
One night… she finally said hello…
And I’ll never forget all the things she said to me…
That my music gave her peace… even if just for a moment…
I’ve never had a better compliment than that…
Not applause… not praise…
Just knowing that something coming out of my heart… reached someone else’s…
Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 