Tuesday, October 19, 2010

"I never really expirienced change...."

This title could spark some conversation! I haven't updated in a while and surprisingly I have some things to say. To start: Life has been absolutely amazing. Work has been busy, Jesus has been teaching me a lot, my family has been awesome, and chuch has been beyond belief!

I am actually going to share with you something that Jesus did last week and it completely rocked my world!

As some of you may know I am one of the drummers for worship at "The Harbor". Last week I was asked by Jenna to play drums and for the first time in my life I didn't want to play. I didn't know where these feelings were coming from and they were extremely frustrating. I tried praying through them and the only answer I got from Jesus was "play". I felt trapt because I LOVE playing but it's really hard to play when you don't want to... As the week went on I came to term with a lot of pride in my life. God really showed my how prideful I can be with the gifts he has blessed me with and how cocky I am behind the drumset. I come across as really arrogant sometimes... it was disgusting for me to see.

When Sunday came I spent the morning at starbucks. I did some reading and listened to the worship slections for service. At this point I still had absolutely no desire to play drums. I get a phone call from my Mom sharing with me some extremely surprising and disipointing information about a family memeber. To not go too deep into it... I was crushed. I wanted to leave and spend time with my family and pray for them, with them (for the first time) and just show them my love. God had bigger plans though.

As I left starbucks I recall sending Neil (my pastor) a text message asking him for prayer. I couldn't sense God's presence but somehow in 4 hours I was going to be "worshiping Him". All I could feel was pride stepping in. I contemplated calling Jenna and backing out of my commitment... I contemplated not calling and not showing up. However, I knew one thing and that was "God is in control whether I feel Him or not. He is going to step in and I need to let go over everything that is going on and give it all to Him."

I showed up at the church and got behind the set. Immediately went to the drumset to relase my feelings. I'm not a very verble person with many people about how I feel. I only spoke to one person all day about what I was feeling. Pride set in immediately... I couldn't hit parts I wasn't feeling comfortable behind the drumset. I was faking everything, I didn't WANT to be there but I knew I had to be.

As practice ended I felt like I needed to get before God, alone and seek Him. I begin praying for God's presence to overcome me and help me worship Him. Help me not play to show off. I wanted to play well but it didn't matter if I made mistakes. I wanted confidence in my playing but I didn't want to chase perfection. There's was so much junk going on in my life I had a lot of pain.

As we started the first song I felt God take over. It was something I have never felt in my entire life. Usually when I play I want to play well and have people tell me I did a great job. I chase perfection constantly. Since I was a kid I wanted to be the best drummer out of all the people I knew. In high school I was always one person away from being the best. Starting college I met a kid who is now my bestfriend who out did me too.

Essentially, the past 15 years of my life were all based on personal gain with all the types of drumming I did.

I came to realize that God is the one who gave me this gift. It didn't come from my own doing, it came from Him. As I seek Him more he provides everything I NEED.I probably made a ton of mistakes this past week but I felt like I worshiped God and grew closer to Him. I wasn't looking to hear "You did a great job Jon". For the first time in my life I felt like I gave my life fully to God's plan for me. It was only 2 hours!However, it made me realize how reliable God is and how much He loves me. I never expirienced His love like this. It was overwhelming and amazing! It broke down a ton of walls in my person relationship with Jesus....


Here's a video I watched mid-week. It made me realize a lot in my life. Aaron Gillespie has been a drummer I listened to and imitated since being a Christian....


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

"Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?"

I haven't blogged in quite some time. Life has been extremely busy but extremely rewarding. Where can I start?!... Some of you may have heard that I was in the Hospital for a day, I am completely fine! All healed from the infection I had, Praise God! Taking the day off from work to get everything done was not what I wanted to do, but was necessary.

Work has been extremely busy! I am blessed to have this position with great employees working for me! I enjoy working for this company a lot! I found out today that I have 40 hours of vacation that I can use at anytime before the end of this year... hmmmm... Where should I go? Throw me some ideas people!

Navigate started last week and I am loving it already. Waking up early, reading, waiting on God... It's all amazing! I love the people in it too! It's a great community I am excited for life!

ummm anything else??? Oh ya! Faith Group is tonight! It's going to be a great time...

Here's a song!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Take me down to the water's edge...

It's 2am... First things first. This blog is more confusing because of the way the layout inserts my entries. I actually type in paragraphs but the layout is apparently against the whole idea of that... So on... My life has taken a turn for the better. I am actually in Norwood right now, watching my parents house. I watched the movie "Letters to God" tonight. I was blown away! I heard a ton of girls talking about how they saw it and sobbed for hours after... Well I am another sob story. I'm not much of a fan of "Gospel Promoting" main screen movies... You're probably thinking "what is wrong with you?" Well to answer you... I find that the majority of these movies are filled with bad acting and it becomes hard for me to focus through that... just my opinion though! However, I loved "Letters to God" it was the most powerful movie I have ever seen. Just watching how one kid with Cancer can touch THOUSANDS of people across the world is insane. He never gave up, EVER. He truly believe that He was sent by God to live and no matter what His life looked like (cancer or not) he was going to live according to God's will. The concept that hit me so hard was that this kid wasn't writing letters to God for personal healing. He was writing/praying for OTHERS. In the midst of his pain he put others first. That is an example of Christ! I am blown away.... I don't have much else to say but I do have MUSIC...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

God's Movin'... I'm Learnin'...

I'm not even going to lie. Today was difficult. I haven't had a day off from work in 3 weeks. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but being manager pays me NO OVERTIME. There is a price to pay when you first get promoted. I am willing but was not expecting all of this. Needless to say I am EXHAUSTED... The past few days will be described in probably the most confusing context ever because that is how I roll... I purchased an iPad as you probably saw from the entry below. It is by far the most useful apple device I have. It's extremely compact and easy to use. It's helping me be more organized. Also... "Mobile Me" is a great tool if you are a Mac/iPhone/iPad user. Mainly because it keeps everything in sync by you just updating one device. Last night I worked until 8pm. Work started out great until my brand new blackberry was stolen. I wouldn't say it was that big of a deal. It's just upsetting knowing that I have to pay for it now. So besides being out $600 I learned from the situation. I was extremely frustrated when I figured out that it was stolen. Mainly because I know exactly who did it. I helped the two people with so much and they took something from me. I think it is a prime example of my relationship with God recently. He has given me a lot. Yet I still don't acknowledge him all the time. I still sin constantly and from some periods of time live deep within that sin... So the outcome is that the stolen phone made me realize how I don't love God enough... if that makes sense... I got to hangout with Brad TODAY! (yay! out of order stories!). Him and I grabbed lunch and I saw some of his new cars/new dealership. He's doing extremely well for himself. God has blessed him and Brad gives him all the glory. MUSIC TIME: I was told about this artist by two people: Jenna and my new friend Bonnie so all the "street cred" goes to them... Enjoy it! It's a great song!

 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

iPad is legit

Just wanted to make a quick post from my new iPad letting you all know that it is the greatest apple product on the market. The touchscreen keyboard it extremely comfortable and easy to use! Only downside it a lot of the application are iPhone sized. However, the netflix app is AMAZING!!

That is all.....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Paradise Ave,Salem,United States

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Busy, I don't like Busy.

Too start I owe you all a video so here it is! Something Corporate - "Konstantine" Live @ The House of Blues Boston, MA I have been on a "concert hangover" since thursday. I want to see soco live again. It was definitely the best concert I have gone too. Since thursday I have been extremely busy. Friday was tiring to say the least. I went to dover with Dan & Josh. We met up with Kerriann, Lauren, & Clara at a house that Clara was watching. It was a great time! We were children haha. Ate a bunch of food, played games. Hide & Seek in the dark was probably the best. The ride home was hilarious because apparently Dover center has a speed limit of 20MPH (though it's a posed 30)... I got pulled over on the smallest road ever and couldn't find my registration. I eventually found it and all the cop asked was how much I drank. Clearly I was drinking a lot in between dinner and Hide & Seek! Josh prayed before we got pulled over and I am convinced that I didn't get a ticket for that reason... It was hard enough explaining what someone from BEVERLY was doing in "the middle of nowhere - Dover" Saturday I headed down to Millville for a "Man-Night" at Jasons. I killed everyone in Poker then lost to everyone the second game! I didn't get home until 1am... being able to sleep in was the best part! I just got out of church. Playing drums was awesome... Jenna picked some AWESOME SONGS and Neil's sermon hit me hard. I am so blessed to live in such an amazing community! God is so good! ... busy week ahead!

Friday, August 13, 2010

"This is because i can spell confusion with a 'K' and I can like it."

As you can see I saw "Something Corporate" recently... recently being about 4 hours ago. It was amazing! Hands down the best concert I have ever been to. I am posting a few of my favorite pictures from the concert now but video will follow later... I went in with my sister and we got to meet up with her friend Amy (I guess you can say my friend now too?). Funny story... last concert I went to that was this good was with both Amy and my Sister... weird. I guess we all just love awesome music! I am probably obsessed with SoCo more now then I was before... deal with it.

               


As for the weekend... I am working a whole bunch. Which is a good thing! For those of you who don't know this Saturday is Tax Free Day! Go out and buy ridiculously expensive things that the government won't make money on... Oh... I am playing drums at church on Sunday... that's fun too... I like drums... the end.







Thursday, August 12, 2010

Why, Who, What?

It's official... I have entered the world of blogging. Some of you might be asking "what the crap do you have to talk about that is so important." To give you a completely honest answer... EVERYTHING... (that's a joke). I honestly have nothing important to say on here. This blog is intended to be nothing more than random things that happened throughout my day(s) and probably a whole bunch of music that I am addicted to at that very moment. I am excited to share with you the music portion of the blog more so then the actual "day-to-day" part.I must say I am already searching for words to type out and I am going to continue thinking while typing in a long sentence...My Past week... I have definitely realized how important community is this week. Friends are amazing and the community I live in challenges me more than anything else in my life. I desire so much to be a man chasing after God and I am surrounded by people who desire the not just the same thing for their lives but mine too. It's an amazing experience when shares in your desire.I got promoted to Retail Sales Manager (ya!) it's a pretty big move. I'm a little nervous because I am the head of the busiest store in the District but other than that I know I can do it. Only thing I am nervous about is being the go to guy when things go wrong... usually when you're the manager and things go wrong, YOU'RE the one who has to take all the blame. I will just have to keep mistakes at a minimum and manage by example.Now to the fun part... MUSIC!!!!Recently I have been listening to a variety of music and by recently I mean since I was born... I came out of the womb listening to drum corp so you will see some of that on this site.The first video/artist I want to share with you is going to be Ben Rector and his cover of "Free Falling". This song is AWESOME. Enjoy it and let me know what you think!