Who…me worry??
August 29th, 2008 by calledout
Hey folks! Hope you all are having an awesome week. Got to apologize for the “down” tone I had in the last post. I re-read it and realized…wow, I must have been tired when I wrote that! God is good, and he is not only good, but great all the time. I got an email from my pastor’s wife this morning and it wasn’t the content of the email that caught my attention as it was basically some church type business, but it was her “signature” at the bottom. Don’t know that I have ever heard it stated like this, but talk about a timely bit of information….this was cold water to a thirsty soul. Her signature line reads like this…”Remember, things are not falling apart, they are simply falling into place”. Thank you so much Jill Carver…what a pick me up. Also, this week my pastor teaches the Wednesday night class I attend at church…and he taught on (get this) worry. Don’t think I need anymore messages from God to tell me to take a chill pill! One thing he said was “when things go wrong, I like to sit back and think…wow, won’t it be cool to see how God fixes all this”. And I paraphrased a bit…so my apologies Johnny. Good, good stuff. Take that devil!
Have you guys noticed we are quickly approaching NQC, which to those not “in the know” in Southern Gospel music, is The National Quartet Convention held annually in Louisville, KY in September. This year will mark the return of Bill Gaither and many of his artists that regularly tour on his Homecoming circuit. I’ve missed them from the equation and will be glad to hear and see them while there. Don’t know much about this NQC deal? Well…in a nutshell it’s a huge building full of your favorite artists sitting at a booth waiting for you to come by and see them. In the afternoon and at night they have concerts featuring some of your favorite artists lined up all the way until midnight sometimes. Truly an SG fans dream. We will be performing again this year at one of the afternoon showcase spectaculars…specifically the Friday afternoon showcase between 12:00pm and 1:00pm in the East Hall room A-B. Oh…and please come by and see us at our booth…well, actually “booths”. We have two booths put together to make one…so you’ll have to look us up at booths 816-717, which I promise on at the same location….just on a end I think. Actually we will be located very near to the entrance/exit to and from Freedom Hall where the night time festivities take place. Make plans and come on up (over, or whatever). We’ve got some good friends making plans now…like Randy and Hannah, and Pam and Sara. We’d love to see as many as possible…and please don’t come to NQC without at least coming by and saying “hi”…we plan to have a big, comfy couch in the booth and believe me, if you walk the floor for a while you will be searching one out!
I think I left off in the last post in the hotel in Madisonville expecting the Lord to do great things on Sunday at Carter’s Chapel for their homecoming and at Graingertown Baptist on Sunday night. Well…there were no disappointments. Sunday morning was a great service…Bro. Barry preached great and the testimonies of God’s people filled the church. The spirit was sweet and no one wanted it to end (in particular Darrell, who got filled to the brim). All good things though must eventually wind down….but fortunately when the morning service wound down it wound up with lunch in their fellowship hall! Got to love that. From top to bottom it was just great being there….love everyone there (can’t name names as I would for sure leave some important ones out) and will always look forward to opportunities to go back.
Sunday night found us back at a church we hadn’t been to in a couple of years…. Graingertown Baptist just outside of Sturgis, KY (I guess technically it was a suburb of Sturgis). Got there in time to enjoy the tail end of their ice cream social….which consisted of a solid row of home made ice cream vats straight out of the ice cream makers. Lots of exotic flavors…and of course I selected vanilla. Ahh….but I had an ulterior motive with that….across the gym they had a table full of home made brownies and cookies. I determined it would be real fine if I loaded up a bowl of home made vanilla with a few rich and chewy chocolate chip cookies. It was definitely the ticket! Chocolate chip cookies happen to be my favorite dessert item…so a taste of heaven was found. The service again more than lived up to our expectations…and following a theme for the weekend, the pastor stood up at the midway point and asked all the folks to pray, but specified for them not to pray for any of their own problems, but to look at the folks next to them and pray specifically for them and their troubles. What an invigorating experience to pray for friends and strangers alike, not knowing their plight, but understanding fully that God did and had all control. Made whatever we were dealing with seem small. Enjoyed the service and as always, look forward to returning sometime down the road.
This weekend we will be heading southwest from Nashville to Mississippi Sunday morning and Memphis on Sunday night. If you guys live in the area, come on out….and if not…toss a prayer up our way for traveling grace.Real quick I have to take a moment and thank the guys I sing with week in and week out. It’s a hard job, leaving our families and friends….missing school functions, soccer games, church events, and generally fun times. We are constantly having to apologize to all kinds of folks for missing their events. It takes it’s toll…ask anyone who does it. It can leave you a bit agitated and sometimes down right ill. One thing it does do is bring you closer to the Lord if you’ll let it and really close to the guys you share all these experiences with. With that closeness comes a feeling of family, and in that spirit I would like to thank my “family” for stepping up and helping me last week in a very special way. God knows all about it and so do they…and that’s probably where it needs to stay, but if you have ever wondered where the hearts of these guys might be…it’s full of God’s love. As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13, love is what we should strive to do (and yes love is a verb and not an adjective…it’s action not a description) at every corner. At the end he wrote…”And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” We may not do the right thing all the time and God knows our hearts, but too often when the right thing is done, it is not seen. Props to my boys for expressing their love in a very tangible way.
Have a great Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you all very soon….maybe even in Gatlinburg (hint, hint Tom and everyone else who hasn’t signed up yet)…
Von and all the guys at CO4
Posted in General | Comments Off
