Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Reason for the Season

It's that time of year again!!! HOLIDAYS! And I am not going to shy away to "make people happy" by saying Happy Holidays. It's Christmas time. We celebrate this time of year with the birth of Jesus.

Not Santa. Not candy. Not presents. Not little elves.

There is a reason for this season and people have slowly over the years forgotten the reason we celebrate. Retail has played a big part in everything too. Buy this!-it will make you thinner! By that!- you will make over a $100,000 in 24 hours! Crazy how we let ourselves get caught up in pleasing "us".

How can we forget that one person that humbled himself as a baby, in a feeding trough, in a barn....

Really if you think about it, even as Christians we romanticize the birth of Jesus. We think of Him as this bouncing blue-eyed smiling baby. Ponder the origin of His birth. I am pretty sure He wasn't blue-eyed and fair skin. Nor did He have a halo glimmering around His head.

He was born a normal baby, Mary with complications, like any child. But it was the best birth anyone could have.

Could you imagine being chosen to carry the Son of God? I would be like Mary. I admire her. She was so strong for such a young girl. 13! I have a niece that's 13 and I couldn't even THINK of her getting pregnant in our day and age. But at that time, it was normal.

I wish I had a heart like hers. Even being ridiculed by her peers and village, she trusted God. I want a faith like that.

So with all the hustle and bustle of buying things, take time to really sit and think why we are celebrating. Jesus came for you. He came for me. I will close with the chorus from How Many Kings written by Marc Martel the lead singer of downhere:

How many kings stepped down from their thrones
How many lords have abandoned their homes
How many greats have become the least for me
How many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that's been torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.



Please take a listen to the song at www.downhere.com

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Love Never Fails

Last night while journaling, I wrote this little poem based on 1 Corinthians 13:1, 3-8. It was actually part of my Bible study for church and I decided to meditate on it last night before bed. I know that love is something that I am working on. Not so much love my family and friends and such, it's the showing the love to my coworkers that irritate me and cause Satan to jab into me and make me falter. He knows my weakness and plays on them daily...and it's so hard to ignore him. Though I have noticed a change where I don't fall as easily. And I am learning to pray about the situation as it happens. Love is the greatest gift of all. I only know of one person who was willing to give His life for this wretched soul. And I thank him every day.....

1 Corinthians 13: 1, 3-8

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.

If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices w/truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. LOVE NEVER FAILS.



Never Fails

If the sky would crumble away
Would you doubt me?
My love never fails.
If the last note in a song was played,
Would your ears reject me?
My love never fails.
If your last breath was taken in vain
Would you curse me?
My love never fails.

For I am patient; kind
Never boastful, nigh am I envious
I shall never be proud or easily angered.

Even on the darkest day
And you despise and forsake me,
My love never failed.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I'm Not Going Down...I'm Rising Up

So....once again, my journey is through a song....

Not Going Down from Jason Gray


Not Going Down:
I'm not going down
I'm rising up....woah
I'm gonna stand my ground
and I won't give up...oh, no
And I'm not Goin' down


I have been really trying the last couple of days to stay on track...it's really hard. Especially yesterday when they decided to rearrange the office before I got there. It took nearly four hours later to get the office back in shape where I was able to sit down and do my work. I hadn't eaten since 9am and I didn't get to eat until 6:30 That's a long time. Not good when you are trying to keep your metabolism level and eat every 3-4 hours. I was getting really cranky and whiny and I could tell my body was telling me to eat....But I didn't

And I have been trying to keep up with cardio. I HATE sweating! It's yucky and I just feel disgusting! But today I cycled for 30 minutes and every last song I would like, I'm done...I can't do this anymore. Then another one of my fave songs would come on and I would just keep going. I finally said, "That's it. 25 is good. I'm done!" then Not going down came on. I got back on the bike and said....5 more minutes, Mindy....just 5 more minutes.....


This song motivated me through the last stretch of the exercise. I focused on God and pushed through and persevered. God is amazing at pushing. No....the SPIRIT is great at pushing me. He kept whispering in my ear and saying, just a couple more rotations...you can do it. I'm giving you strength.

Not only does it motivate me through my workout, it motivates me through life. This has been a song that I sing regularly to myself to help push me. Jason is a great lyricist....and it's great when you really can connect with someone's music. It makes it part of you; not just a song.

Thank you, God for pushing me to the limit. You are awesome!

Monday, November 09, 2009

Roadtrip, Rockstars and Running

As I sit here and write this, I am listening to Concerto Grosso in D Major Opus 6, No. 5:Larghetto e staccato and I am overwhelmed by all the crazy and amazing events that took place over the past seventy-two hours. My body is still completely exhausted and having a hard time keeping up, but my brain is on full throttle! But I will do my best to make an accurate account of my downhere weekend.


DAY 1


We started off on our roadtrip to MI at 5:30am. Getting a slightly late start, and making a last minute Walmart stop, we still made it to the venue by 4:30. I know it was really early and there were no cars there yet(except the downhere van...) so we decided to scope things out. We were walking up to the door and a gentlemen points to me and says:"Mindy?" I didn't know what to think or say since I had never seen this man before in my life. His name was Bill and somehow he figured it was one of the crazy fans from WI. I'm guessing it was due to the "Downhere Bound" writing on the back of our car :) We sat and talked for a bit. He apologized by saying he couldn't let me in, but he ran and got something for us. We got guaranteed front row seats since we were here so early and drove so far. So the downhomies would for sure be able to be in front to take pics! Yes! He also told me that I was the first person to buy tix to the show. Crazy.....

Hannah got there and I promised myself that I would behave to make up for the crazy antics I did at the Peoria show a couple months earlier. Well, when I saw Hannah I geeked out. :) What can I say, I haven't seen her in forever!! So I was allowed.

We headed inside and waited around for Gina and Liz to get there. The whole time we were there people kept coming up to us asking if we were the group from WI. Everywhere we went people looked at us. We all had our downhomie shirts on so, we were a dead giveaway that we were there for the band...lol We all had our 15 seconds of fame. I found it funny that we were as "famous" as the band was. Crazy times.

The show was awesome, complete with random dance moves, outbursts about "Pluto" and everything in between you would get from a downhomie. I have never cried at a downhere concert before and I was most effected by "How Many Kings", "A Better Way" and "Here I Am". Something about the songs that moved me so much and meant so much. I have been having a hard time with a lot of stuff I think God was speaking to me so much that night.

Plus I got to FINALLY meet Jess Lewis! Such a sweet lady! I didn't get a chance to say Hi to her at the downhomiepalooza back in July so it was great to see her.

We hung around for a bit before heading back to see the guys. We grabbed our stuff and chatted. The people there taking pics were as interested in us downhomies as they were the band. So we were in a lot of pics. Now I know what the guys go through every night when they just want to sit down and relax.

We gave Marc his birthday present and he got quite a kick out of the Frankenberry and "Freddie Mercury" shirt we made for him. (you can check out pics on my flickr account-link posted below)

We were saying our goodbyes and Jason was like, "see ya guys tomorrow!" And I randomly started singing "Tomorrow" from Annie. See, I told you my brain is slower than my mouth at times....I had forgotten where I was and just started singing. Did I really just do that!? In front of downhere? Oh goodness....

Jason came back and said "Wow. You have a really good theatre voice." *shock*

We headed to the hotel chatted for a bit, contemplated walking through the drive-thru at McDonald's right next door and went to bed. I didn't get much sleep. I was running on 3 hours of sleep the next day.


DAY 2


Gina, Liz, Mom and I all headed to Tim Horton's for breakfast/lunch! It was my first experience and I loved it! I think I may move to Canada just for that purpose alone.

Gina and Liz headed to run some errands and Mom and I headed to Hannah's Uncle's house to record a song I had written. I was so excited. It turned out well, even though I was still getting over a cold thing and had "concert voice". Hannah is going to take it home with her and play around with it and add some stuff! So I can't wait to hear it when it's done!

We headed to the venue to get the merch table set up. The guys were sound checking when we got there, so we had background music while getting the table ready. We got done with that and we went in to catch some soundchecking.

Martel never ceases to amaze me. He started singing "Man in the Mirror" from Michael Jackson and I think I fell in love with him. *sigh* I just sat there listening and having a great conversation with Jaclyn and Hannah. It was good to have girl time too, before we headed to "concert mode".

Everything was set and we were ready for the show to begin. We took turns literally running around the auditorium to get up to the merch stand. We would wait a couple songs and then switch guards. Once again, the show was great and there were more random outbursts, dancing, and just plain downhomieness. During "Rockstars" I had made a sign that says SPAM on it. I tried getting Marc to see it and he avoided me at all cost. So I pouted until he saw me. I think Glenn did at one point and smiled.

Marc had also made a comment about our "square dancing". We were just being complete goofballs and dancing like fools. But it got the people to come out and dance with us. For the longest time I think it was just us.....

But the night wasn't over. We had a few more things up our sleeves. On "Bleed" we pulled out our cue cards for Marc. the past few times we had seen them, Marc always forgot the words on the verses or switched them. So we helped him out a bit. When he saw them, he couldn't help but laugh into the mic. Then continued to follow the cues by reading them. We giggled and danced some more. Then came the echo of the "OOHS". I broke out my best harmony and Marc turned to our side, smiled and said, "Nice harmonies!" *shock once again* Instead of nodding and smiling, I turned around and giggled like a crazy fan girl. I mean, Marc Martel just gave me a SHOUTOUT! WOW! Then Hannah and I broke out the Tambourines for Glenn's part. We found out that he really got a kick out it.

We headed back to the merch table where we sold LOTS of How Many Kings, tshirts, and jewlery! I stood there and smiled and couldn't help but love God and thank Him for letting me serve him in this way. Liz and I were talking in between customers and Marc shouted something to us and was making weird hand motions. We had no clue what he was talking about. But we tried everything on Glenn and Jeremy to let us come to Denmark with them....lol

We hung with the guys for a half hour or so, gave Glenn his VERY BELATED BIRTHDAY PRESENT and chatted. It was hard saying goodbye, but I get to see them in a month again.

We headed back to Gina's house. I was extrememly tired and the fog and late night wasn't helping. Gina almost hit a cat and deer. It was soooo foggy. We made it back and talked some more nonsense about hair and other girly stuff.


DAY 3


Liz had to leave early on Sunday, but we still got to hang out. Gina, Hannah, mom and I had a great talk about a lot of stuff and it felt good to have a conversation like that. It was so hard to leave, but after eating lunch at Pizza Hut, we had to "peel the band-aid"

Over all, it was a great weekend and I have so many more memories bottled inside for safe keeping than I could put down here(hahahaha....downhere....)If I did, it would be a book. And I am sure that your eyes are already tired from reading this!!

God it good all the time. All the time, God is good. Thank you for friends, family, rockstars and an amazing witness to the world.


You can check out my pics from the show here:
Oxford Show, MI-November 6, 2009

Farwell Show, MI-November 7, 2009

Ahoy! Thanks for stopping by. Sometimes life should be an open book and here you will find that true. My mind is always on full speed and I will be heading over many waves. I hope this journey is as much of an adventure for you as it is for me~ ~Mindy