Random But Fond Memories

Today while sitting at my desk, I started having all sorts of random memories. I started to tweet some of them, but then realized that twitter couldn't contain the detail and number of memories I was enjoying. So, if you read my blog (even thought I haven't posted in like...forever) hopefully you'll be someone that is a part of one of these memories. In no particular order:

1. Dry Lake Swimming Pool during the Summers. My mom finally started buying me a summer pass for this public pool. Needless to say, the Indian in my genes definately showed up those summers. I remember hearing songs like "Electric Avenue" and "Too Shy" while swimming and running around the pool. I also remember putting 50 cents in a drink machine to buy a can of Coke and winning a can that had a free "Coke Is It" T-shirt in it. Dry Lake Pool...I miss the days with you.

2. Mazzios Pizza. I remember going there after church on Sundays and playing Yei Ar Kung Fu while the parents talked..and talked...and talked...and talked. It was a pretty rare game in arcade form. Although, you can find it now on Xbox Live Arcade. As I got a little older, it became the hangout for me and my friends on the weekends. The movie theater was right behind it, so parents would drop us off for pizza and video games; then we could go to the movies (memory number 3) at Parkway Cinemas. As mentioned in my tweet today, I can still remember the smell of their nachos and the way things smelled from the arcade area. LOTS of memories. When I was old enough to drive I used to hang out there after closing with my friend that worked there. We'd play Mortal Combat and drink Mr. Pibb all night long. LOLOL. Boneheads; we would spend almost all of our tip money from delivering pizza on the games. NBA Jams was the other game we'd waste our brains and coins on.

3. Parkway Cinemas. I had a very vivid memory today of going to see Back to the Future with my Uncle Clyde and my sister Regina at Parkway. Cherry Coke was brand new at the time and you could get it from the snack counter at Parkway. What a classic movie! To this day, whenever I drink Cherry Coke I'm immediately transported back to that night. I also remember seeing Karate Kid 2 there.

4. Pirates Cove and the Theater in Kentucky where my Mammaw and Grandaddy lived. Me and my cousin Steve and My Dad and Uncle Ed would go and play games like Tempest, Galaga, Omega Race, Space Duel and Asteroids. What fun memories! I remember going to see The Empire Strikes Back at the theater one year. I had not seen Star Wars, but I distinctly remember Steve telling me before we went in the theater that we would be finding out that Darth Vader was Luke's father. LOL...talk about a spoiler. I also saw Uncle Buck at that theater with some other cousins and my friend Nick Kline.

5. The Barrel of Fun. My dad, me, and my sister Tiffany would visit The Barrell every so often. Another arcade, The Barrell was one of my favorite things to do with my dad. I remember seeing Dragon's Lair for the first time there. And afterwards, we would almost ALWAYS go to Orange Julius and have a hot dog (usually a pizza dog) and an orange or peach julius. What great times!

6. Playing baseball with my Mom. I remember like it was yesterday standing on the sidewalk in front of the duplex on 24 mile road. I was probably 3 or 4 years old. My mom pitched a plastic ball to me, I swung the short little fat green bat I had, and smacked the ball clear over her head. I remember playing with my cousins and sisters in the yard there. The corner of the duplex was first base. Something was put in the grass for second. The corner of the porch of the Farm House was third. And back home to the sidewalk. I miss you mom. I'm still swinging for the fence! Sometimes I strike out. But when the bat connects it's out of the park!

7. Grandaddy's 80th birthday. It was just..."Epic". As a kid, it seemed like there were 200 people there. All the old dudes stayed up all night watching the whole pig Barbecue in the pit they dug, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Us kids all enjoyed the pool at the hotel and breakfast at Grandma's Kitchen next door to the hotel. French toast. Yep, that's what I had for breakfast. What a great reunion of family and friends.

8. The Air Force Base Bowling Alley Grill. I remember mom and dad bowling fairly frequently at the Base Alley. And they had the ABSOLUTE best hamburgers and french fries. Nothing has ever matched up to the memory I have of their burger and fries combo.

9. Freedom Lanes. What a stinky place! It always smelled like an ash tray. I remember finding a 5 dollar bill on the floor and taking it to my parents. When my mom told me how many quarters were in a 5 dollar bill...I was blown away at how many video games I could play!!! Of course, then someone came around looking for their money. They did reward me with a couple of quarters though so I could play some video games.

10. I miss the smell of my baseball mitt, freshly oiled and broken in. I LOVED playing baseball as a kid. I remember telling my dad that I wanted to play for the Braves one day. Yea, that didn't happen. LOL. Coach McKinney was my first coach. He coached me for several years before they started splitting up all the kids.

Of course I could go on and on and on. These are just the thoughts that came to me today. There are so many fun times and "staples of life" from growing up that I'm sure I'll be posting soon.

If you read this, I hope you enjoy it. Otherwise, I'm glad I captured some of this today while it was fresh.

Obedience

Amazing...hiliarious...but powerful story for me this morning. Just a few minutes ago I was trying to talk to my wife to give her an update on my brother-in-law who is at the hospital right now. While I was trying to talk my son, Cooper, kept interrupting me to tell me something about his train, Percy. I finally paused from talking to Suzii in order to tell Cooper that he needed to be quiet and wait a minute. He looked at me and said, "But daddy, Percy's brakes aren't working!". I looked at him and said, "Well, I need you to put the brakes on your mouth for a minute while I talk to mommy. Do you understand?". He looked at me and very obediently said, "I'm understand". 5 seconds go by and I hear him say, "Ow!". I look up at him and he has Percy's wheels on his mouth. He literally, obediently, put Percy's brakes on his mouth. LOLOLOLOL.

Of course, Suzii and I busted out laughing. Then, I explained to him that I simply needed him to be quiet for a moment, which he did.

Then it hit me how blessed God is when we are obedient to what we believe He is telling us to do. I honestly think that even if we misunderstand what He's telling us, He's still blessed as a Father to see us attempt to follow through with what He instructs us to do. Sometimes it may seem silly what God is telling you to do. A tender heart towards Him should lead us to attempt it anyways. What's God telling you to do today? Give somebody something? Call someone and tell them you love them? Go to the mall and dance around like an idiot? Put Percy's brakes on your mouth?

Love y'all
Johnny

Mario Kart

You know you've been playing too much MarioKart on the Wii when you start doing the following in your REAL car in REAL traffic:

1. You start revving your engine at the last second before a light turns green in hopes of getting a power boost.

2. You start looking for Floating Question Mark boxes at intersections so you can blast the person in front of you out of the way.

3. You wish you had a banana peel to drop behind your car to make that person who's following right on your bumper spin out.

4. When you go over hills you flick your wrists out of habit thinking that you'll get a super jump and boost when you come down the other side.

5. In tight turns your thumb habitually presses down as if you'll engage a jump and slide move.

6. When you make it through a green light before the person in the next lane...you hear the MarioKart "whistle" sound in your head as if you just crossed the finish line.

7. The pre-race music plays in your head when you sit at a red light.

That's all I got for now. Anyone else have any?

Indiana Adventure

This last weekend me and two band-mates made a trip to Indiana to lead worship for a youth retreat. It was the most eventful trip I've ever taken. So I decided to try and capture the excitement in a blog. I'll attempt to include all of the details. There will be no exaggeration. Brace yourselves.

Day 1:
We leave around 5 o'clock. Matt decides to run through a "quick" carwash to get the van ready for the long drive. "Clean the windshield", he says. "It'll only take a minute", he says. He decides to go ahead and swipe his credit card while the person in front of us is still in the wash. The machine dries the guy in front of us...then he just sits there. The wash starts over. He doesn't move. The idiot TOOK OUR CAR WASH. 8 DOLLARS! It has now been 25 minutes. We ask the guy if he let it wash his truck twice on purpose. He says...Yeah I think so. I've never used this before. We decide to go ahead and get on the interstate.

We make it to Nashville. So far the trip has been lots of fun. We've been listening to some funny CDs and laughing a lot. We get to the hotel/suite that was booked for us only to find that the office is closed. Not a good sign. The security guard opens the door and gets us a key. The place feels kinda creepy. Sorta like a trailer park. We go to our room and find it has only one bed. So I call the security guard and he lets us in a different room with two beds. And then he says, "You make sure to close your door". I say, "Of course we're going to close our door." He says, "No, I'm serious. Make sure and lock your door. I mean it. For your own safety. This isn't a good place for you to be." ??!!??!!!
So now we're just a little freaked out. Now the picture is becoming clear. the liquor store and the adult video store across the street should have clued us in. This is a BAD NEIGHBORHOOD. And we've got thousands of dollars worth of gear in the car. And Marshall is too scared to sleep on the couch near the door. So around midnight. I finally say, "If you guys want to just keep driving we can." Without hesitation, both guys jump up and start getting their shoes on. LOL.

Day 1.5
So we load back up in the car and head for Indiana. It should only be about 2.5 hours. We get some coffee and stuff and are doing great. Then we hit Louisville. Rain like you've never seen is dumping on us. It was so heavy that we had to drive 20 mph. Then it starts going sideways from left to right. The rain that is. It's completely at a 90 degree angle. Then all of a sudden, the rain starts going sideways from right to left. A TORNADO??? There are cars spun out all over the place. Needless to say, we were no longer fighting sleep. We were, could you say, just a little puckered? After we made it through what seemed like a never ending storm, we were even more exhausted from being to tense. Props to Matt for driving through that mess.

Day 2:
4 a.m. We arrive at the campground. Their office is closed as we expected. We decide to sleep in the car. Matt has some sort of sleep apnoea grizzly bear snoring type thing he does when he "sleeps". Marshall and I are so buzzed from no sleep that all we can do is giggle. By this time we were so miserable that it actually was laughable.
5:50 a.m. Matt wakes up and says he's cold. I say, let's check the office. There's a very nice girl there who let's us follow her to our dorm and opens it for us. We go inside and lay down on the beds and sleep for a couple hours.
8:00 a.m. I wake up with what most assuredly looks like strep throat. And I have to sing all weekend. So I call my Dr. and he calls in some antibiotics for me to the local Walmart (which by the way was even more like a trailer park). So Marshall and I drive to Walmart. We get out of the car and it smells like cow poop. No lie. It took an hour for the pharmacy to get my stuff ready. We head back to get Matt and then meet my Aunt and Uncle for lunch. That was a highlight of our trip. They bought it for us and my Aunt brought me some snowcream in a cooler.
9:30 p.m. The youth group arrives. We set up our gear and have a great worship service with them. Tom Agnew speaks and does a great job. It's good to be with Ben Taylor again.

Day 2.5
2:30 a.m. After much laughter and funny stories, I finally go to bed.

Day 3
Saturday morning and all day Saturday is good. The services were good, the free time was good. The meals were good. Matt purchased a guitar. Saturday night we had what was supposed to be a bonfire. It was more like a small campfire for 30 people. It kept going out. It was cold out. Once all but 7 or 8 of us left...the fire started roaring so the remnant enjoyed a great fire and some s'mores.

Day 4
Sunday morning at 5 a.m. I wake up and cannot breathe. I don't just mean that my nose was stopped up. My throat was closing up. My gagger was as big as my thumb and was getting stuck in my throat. I wake Marshall up and type out a text on my phone for him to read cuz I can't talk. He gets the nurse. She says, "go to the hospital". We get Matt and head out the door. The campgrounds decided to lock the gate to the outside world; something about "keeping people safe". So we call for them to come open it. It takes them 15 minutes. My adrenaline is pumping and I'm getting nauseous. After the lady finally opens the gate, Matt takes off while following his GPS on his phone. It's leading us turn by turn to the "nearest hospital". Finally the GPS tells us we're at our destination. But guess what. We're in the middle of a field. There's no hospital around us. Now I have to barf. And I can't breathe already. I literally thought at that moment that I was about to die. How do you barf when you can't breathe?

Matt calls 911. The lady offers to send an ambulance. I muster out of my swollen throat to Matt, "That'll take too long..have her give you directions". So she does. And we make it to the hospital. Not after me barfing though. I threw up so hard that my whole face swelled up where I couldn't open my eyes. And I didn't die.

The emergency room people were great. They were timely and kind. They gave me a steroid injection and some stuff for nausea. They took an Xray to make sure there was anything else going on. They took a throat culture to check for strep. That was fun. The guy said, "open your mouth". I couldn't even begin to open my mouth without gagging 'cause my gagger was still so swollen it was resting on my tongue. Yuck. We got it done though.

8 a.m. or so: We left the hospital and went back to pack our bags. Then Matt drove us all the way home through the snow.

Today:
I still feel like crud. I'm taking meds and resting. Matt got in trouble for purchasing the guitar. Marshall is just glad it's over. I think he may have cried a little from the overload of emotions and adrenaline. That's why we love him though. He's real.

OVERALL: The retreat was awesome. The ministry and worship and fellowship was great. The TRIP however was the most horrific experience.

There ya have it. Sorry for the long read. A lot happened.
johnny

Top 10 Least favorite Sounds

Several weeks ago I posted my top ten favorite sounds. I've been prompted to write out my top ten LEAST favorite sounds. So here goes:

1. An out-of-tune piano. Mr. and Mrs. bride and groom...when you ask me to play for your wedding and I ask you to make sure the church has their piano tuned...don't just assume like every other bride and groom that the church always keeps their piano tuned. I stopped playing weddings because of you.

2. A piece of junk car sound system with the Bass cranked all the way up. Like...ok...if you actually have a decent system...go ahead and crank it. But some of you poor wannabes are turning the treble down and the bass all the way up on your stock speakers and you actually think you are booming down the street. It SOUNDS LIKE CRAP. Yes. I just said crap.

3. When Cooper turns all his trains on and sets them on their side and goes to play in the other room. It's like....whirrr...zzzzzzzz.....ssshhhhh.... times 50.

4. There's a certain rendition of a certain patriotic song that I saw in a video once that made a little vomit come up in the back of my throat. Only a couple of my friends will know what I'm referring to on this.

5. The drill at the Dentist. I know y'all are with me on that one.

6. Somebody else's kid whining. I have to deal with my own kid whining lady...would you please smack your kid?

7. The sound of someone singing "just" sharp or flat on a sustained note. No matter how hard I try...I can't stop my face from contorting on that one.

8. When the TV, the washing machine, cooper's trains, and the neighbor's blower are all going at the same time and Suzii tries to talk to me about anything important, I break down.

9. Hearing someone make fun of how much I love my kid

10. This last one is sort of a LEAST favorite AND a favorite. I went to my niece's 5th grade Christmas orchestra recital a few years back. It was so horrible...the total combination of "out-of-tune" with the "timing" of all of their playing...the fact that I could actually tell you what song they were "trying" to play. It was the most hilarious thing I've ever heard in my life. I literally almost wet myself and was gasping for air from laughing so hard. Imagine it with me: Violins, Clarinets, Horns, Flutes, and Drums. Boom...chick..crash..whine...pbbpbbb...wwhiiirrr...boom.

Well there ya have it. This was for you Russ.

Desert Pt 3 - The Prodigal's Desert

This will be my last post for a while regarding the seasons of "desert" that we find ourselves in. This post should be one of the most obvious to us, but somehow when we actually drift into this type of desert we get caught up with mirages and confusion and can often have a hard time discerning where we actually are.

I'm referring to this desert as "the Prodigal's desert". This is the desert you wander off into at some point all on your own. The thought process usually goes something like this, "They don't understand me...God doesn't understand me...life isn't fun enough as part of the caravan...I know what's best for ME..." and so on.

So we pull away from relationships that give us accountability. We stop trying to pursue God's will by praying and studying His word. We start making selfish decisions and disregarding what we've been taught by those who love us. Like the prodigal, we take what's "rightfully ours"...our time, money, and resources, and we think only of ourselves.

Before long, we find ourselves empty inside; longing to feel loved...desiring to belong.

When I went through this desert as a younger man, I could only describe it this way: Have you ever had a sunburn that was so bad that even the wind blowing would hurt and ache? It was like my soul was sunburned. From the inside out I ached. I was irritable, sad, depressed, lonely, and thirsty in a way I'd never experienced. I was in the prodigal's desert.

So here's the deal. If this desert is so obvious...why do people stay there? Here's a few reasons I think you might still be there:

1. You feel that you've let God down so much that He won't let you rejoin the caravan. But let me tell you...God is waiting at the end of the driveway...with binoculars...searching for you to come home. He can't wait for you to get back so he can wrap His arms around you and sprinkle clean water on you and bring healing to your sunburned soul.

2 .You think it's too far of a journey to get back out of this desert. Like, you might not survive if you try to make it back. Let me tell you something. You aren't going to survive if you stay where you are either. And it's not as far a journey as you think. No matter how many steps you've taken away from God's plan for your life...it's only one step back. God is waiting right behind you friend.

3. You keep chasing mirages that offer hope and survival in your lonely desert. Remember my first post. Just because good things may happen in the desert...it doesn't mean that's where you are supposed to be. Don't let those mirages fool you into thinking that they can actually sustain life for you. You are delirious friend.

Action points:

1. Remember that God has never stopped loving you...there's no power in heaven or on earth that can separate you from His love.
2. Don't let the howling winds and the scary heat convince you that the journey is too far. Stop right where you are...turn around and crawl, walk, or run back to the place God has for you.
3. Wake up. The vultures are circling above you. And it's not to entertain you. This is serious business. Quit staring at the mirages.
4. Don't let other people who have decided to stay in the desert convince you that you can all make it together. There is no "together" in this desert. Everyone else in this desert is looking out for only themselves, just like you.

I hope this is helpful and not too preachy. I hope you'll find your way out of whatever desert you may be in. And, I pray that you'll be able to help those near you out of their deserts as well.

God bless,
Johnny

Desert Pt 2

In this post I'm continuing a series that I started a few days ago regarding "desert" seasons in our life. In the first two posts I talked about being in a desert that we find ourselves in because of rebellion and lack of faith.

In this post I'd like to talk about what I'll refer to as the "Rite of Passage" Desert. This is the desert that we sometimes are led to by God Himself. This is a desert that we are actually "supposed" to be in. I think there are several purposes for this type of desert experience. I'll try to cover a couple that stand out to me.

Purpose 1: To come to the end of ourselves. This is a place that we MUST come to in order to walk a faith filled life. If we don't decrease so that the Father can increase...we're liable to stay stuck in mediocre land. So we realize in this desert that we aren't enough for ourselves. We realize that Man doesn't live by bread alone...but by the word of the Almighty God. We stop trying to rely on our own cleverness and start looking for God's provision, direction, and protection.

Purpose 2: To prepare us to follow Jesus. Jesus said that anyone who would want to follow Him would have to deny their selfish ambition and take up their own cross. This desert experience is a big fasting experience. One of the things that Christ's desert experience did was prove to his flesh that it was not God. It prepared Him for the ministry that lay ahead. It prepared Him for a homeless, poor, misunderstood life.

Purpose 3: To get us away from all the noise and learn to recognize God's voice again. Think about this: There's no way that I could describe my wife's voice to you with enough detail that you'd actually be able to recognize her if she called you. However, if you talked to my wife on several occasions over the course of a few weeks you'd have "learned" her voice and would recognize it very quickly. After long enough, you'd be able to hear her across a crowded mall. You'd recognize her laugh and probably even her "gasp" or "sigh" from within a crowded room. So it is with God's voice. And the best way to learn what His voice sounds like is to be removed from all the other noise and clutter that's in this world. The desert is still and quiet. Then, you'll be able to recognize God's still small voice even in the midst of the craziness.

So what do you do if you've been led into this desert?

Action points:

A. Realize that this is a controlled experiment. All the factors have been predetermined by God Himself. Nothing comes as a surprise to God.
B. Be willing to "let go" of the parts of yourself that may be getting in the way of you fully pursuing God's will for your life. Let the heat sweat some of the carnality out of you.
C. Listen for God's voice. He's gonna speak to you in this desert. If you're busy freaking out and running in circles hollering for help from everyone you know...you might miss Him even in the desert. Be willing to be quiet and still.

I hope this is encouraging to someone. More to come tomorrow. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Johnny