And so, all my hard work (and God's work in me) was brought to fruition. But this is just the beginning, and I hope you all can join me on this incredible journey!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The story thus far... (Part III)
So on that Wednesday, Dustin and I made plans to do an audition on the Monday of next week. But I had to come up with a song to sing. Hmmm. So I went through some songs that I liked and ran them by him, which he shot down and in turn gave me some ideas, which I frankly didn't like either. So it was about three days till the audition, and I called him to talk for a second and suddenly came up with the perfect song, "Blessed be Your Name." After all, it is quite appropo to everything that was going on. I asked him, and he said he agreed it would be a good choice, so now we were all set. Monday came around and I started off on my journey up to Athens on my own. I left a little early since the meeting was at 5:30, and I didn't want to get stuck in traffic. So after driving, for a while, I finally found the church the team was at...an hour early. So now what? I decided on rolling over the McDonald's right next door and proceeded to sit there for the next hour, switching from my Bible, to music, to reading the lyrics of the song, and repeating. But eventually, the clock hit 5:20, so I decided to go ahead and go for it. After I had gotten out of my car, I walked into the worship building and...there was no one there. Hmm ok, well maybe they were somewhere else. So after I walked down the hall for a couple of steps, I turned the right and walked into a room where the entire Life Action Staff was having dinner. Well, here we go. As I walked over, Dustin (Thank the Lord) saw me and called out my name. He walked over, shook my hand, and said he wasn't quite done with dinner yet, but asked if he could introduce me to someone before he went back to eat. Sure why not, sounds cool. So without further adieu, he spun me around and said in a loud voice "Hey everyone, this is Josh, he's trying out for a singing part in the auditorium in about 15 minutes so everyone say hey!" Cue heart attack number two. Well, after that little stress attack, we went into the auditorium, and get ready to sing the song. Dustin got one of the other guitar players to play for me, and after a little bit of tuning, off we went. I had disciplined myself so that when I was ready to sing, I would try my very hardest to block everything out of my mind except for me and God. After all, isn't that the only one we should be singing for anyways? Well, the song came to a close and I felt very confident. And then, I hear the words "Ok, good practice. Alright, you can turn the recording on now." Well...that stinks. So I got to do it a SECOND time. And once again, God was there, so encouragement times two! Well, my audition was over...well in a perfect world it would have been. "Ok Josh, let's try some vocal exercises." Some vocal what? For those who are reading this who may not know my background history in singing, let me summarize: I have none. I sing completely by ear, so the concept of a "vocal exercise" is a tad unfamiliar to me. No matter, I was there and really had no place to go, so I prayed asking God to somehow allow me to know how to do these exercises to my best, and then whatever happened after would happen. After another grueling 20 minutes of vocal exercises, I came away, actually having sounded not terrible! Well, God's good, because I know it wasn't me. For the rest of the night, I hung out with the team, and really enjoyed myself (thank goodness the audition was at the beginning of the night0 and as I sat in the car before driving off, I remember thinking "I can do this for a year." There was no feedback at all, except for "We will see what God has." Well, fast forward to two days after, and on a Wednesday morning in a study room at my school, I received a phone call from Mrs. Thompson (remember the secretary?) saying that she was so excited to tell me that I had been accepted to the Life Action Blue Team!
And so, all my hard work (and God's work in me) was brought to fruition. But this is just the beginning, and I hope you all can join me on this incredible journey!
Proverbs 3:5-6
And so, all my hard work (and God's work in me) was brought to fruition. But this is just the beginning, and I hope you all can join me on this incredible journey!
Proverbs 3:5-6
The story thus far... (Part II)
And so we waited. And waited. And waited. One month. Two months. However, God was using this time to set up some important things for the next chapter in this story. Remember the aptitude test I took, the one that said I was going to be a flight attendant? Well, we got it back out, and it chose a flight attendant because according to the test, I "Liked to go new places" "Learn new things" and "Meet new people." And what exactly would I be doing on Life Action? :) However, not all things we learned were beneficial. We learned from my pastor that He had called up to the ministry and told Mr. Steven Canfield Sr. that he had a possible member and Mr. Canfield's response was "Send him up, I have a spot for him." However, in that moment, I think that my faith was taken off God and placed in people. Well, not to be outdone, God had to "free" me from that mindset, so one day in April, things suddenly became very complicated.
I was walking to my car one day after church, and my pastor was standing outside his office. He called to me to come over, and asked me how Life Action was going. I told him that I was still waiting, to which he got a little surprised, and said "That's not right for them, remind me, and I will email them this week." So I felt great about that. On Monday, he emailed them and on Tuesday, he got a reply, and the bottom fell out of my world.
In order to sign up for the drumming spot, I had to record a drum audition, and send it in. I found two good friends, Mark and John, to help me with the recording, and soon I had a CD, ready to go. So all I had to do was send it in. And all I had to do was send it in a week later. And a month later. And, I just didn't send it in. Why you might ask? Well, I am right there with you. To this day, I honestly have no clue why I didn't send it in, so your guess is really as good as mine. Maybe I thought it wasn’t good enough. No matter what the reason was, I had never sent it in, and soon, I had forgotten about it. Until that Tuesday. Life Action wrote back to my Pastor saying that they had checked their files and that they had no auditions sent in by me. So, not only did I look like an idiot (which I was), I unfortunately made my own Pastor look like an idiot too. I was called later on that day by the Life Action Blue team worship leader, only to find out that there was one spot left on their team...and it wasn't a drumming part. It was a singer's position. God, in his infinite sense of humor, had decided to give me a last chance at Life Action in a singer's position....of course He did. As I talked with the worship leader, I instantly started asking about how fast I could put together a vocal track for him, when he simply said "Instead, could you just come and do a live audition? We are actually in Athens right now." Cue miniature heart attack.
I was walking to my car one day after church, and my pastor was standing outside his office. He called to me to come over, and asked me how Life Action was going. I told him that I was still waiting, to which he got a little surprised, and said "That's not right for them, remind me, and I will email them this week." So I felt great about that. On Monday, he emailed them and on Tuesday, he got a reply, and the bottom fell out of my world.
In order to sign up for the drumming spot, I had to record a drum audition, and send it in. I found two good friends, Mark and John, to help me with the recording, and soon I had a CD, ready to go. So all I had to do was send it in. And all I had to do was send it in a week later. And a month later. And, I just didn't send it in. Why you might ask? Well, I am right there with you. To this day, I honestly have no clue why I didn't send it in, so your guess is really as good as mine. Maybe I thought it wasn’t good enough. No matter what the reason was, I had never sent it in, and soon, I had forgotten about it. Until that Tuesday. Life Action wrote back to my Pastor saying that they had checked their files and that they had no auditions sent in by me. So, not only did I look like an idiot (which I was), I unfortunately made my own Pastor look like an idiot too. I was called later on that day by the Life Action Blue team worship leader, only to find out that there was one spot left on their team...and it wasn't a drumming part. It was a singer's position. God, in his infinite sense of humor, had decided to give me a last chance at Life Action in a singer's position....of course He did. As I talked with the worship leader, I instantly started asking about how fast I could put together a vocal track for him, when he simply said "Instead, could you just come and do a live audition? We are actually in Athens right now." Cue miniature heart attack.
The story thus far... (Part I)
For those of you who are just coming on board, I wanted to use this first post to give you a little synopsis of how I have come to this point. As of today, I am waiting to leave for Life Action Ministries in a little over two months. However, this process has taken a BUNCH of twists and turns and there were some times that I really thought that maybe God was going to close the door. But we'll get to that a little later, let's get started, shall we?
For a little background, I was enrolled at Georgia Gwinnett College for the first two years of my college career. It was a good way to move from home schooling into the college life, but with my first two years and my core classes out of the way, it was time for me to move on. I did things like take an assessment test from my old school, which told me that my main job in life would be a Flight Attendant (we promptly dismissed this test, but remember it for later) so we started looking around for new colleges, and we finally settled on Georgia College and State University. And so, after a trip up there to explore the campus, I went about getting ready to enroll and start signing up for scholarships. And so the trouble started. My family and I are still not sure what happened, but suddenly, the harmony was gone. When we had signed up for GGC, it was just very simple and we all were on the same page and felt good about it. However, when GCSU came up, it was suddenly like we were not only on different pages, but different books. The tensions kept rising as we had conflicts about school, and we started to wonder how this was even going to work out.
So after all these problems, I found myself sitting in my church on the second Sunday in January, wondering what was going to happen to me with school for next year (and unfortunately not paying attention to the sermon) However, God in His infinite grace, knew that I just wasn't getting the point, so He decided to use a slightly more subtle method to get me on the right track. As I sat there, my pastor started to use an illustration that had to do with his days in Life Action...and it was like a 2 by 4 hit me upside the head. This idea had never even been in the back of my head, and suddenly, out of nowhere, it was a possibility. And my first thought of this new idea? "That's the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard of!" And I immediately tried to dismiss it. But, it kept in my mind and kept nagging at me during the service, so I decided to plan a meeting with my pastor, just to go ahead and get it out of the way so I could go back to thinking of REAL possibilities. After the service and scheduling a meeting with my pastor, I went home and looked up the Life Action website and started looking around, and it started to look even better than I had thought. So that Wednesday I went to meet with my pastor and laid out everything in front of him of what I was thinking. After I was done, I sat back; preparing to get shot down and then that would be that. But surprisingly, I sat there for about 20 minutes hearing what a great idea that he thought it was, and that he thought I should definitely pursue it. Um..........ok? Well, ok so one person thought it was a good idea, but there are a LOT more people in the world. So I decided to email my former youth pastor and ask him. His father was a leader on one of the teams so he had grown up in Life Action, so he would be able to give a different view point. And when I got the reply back, he said that it would be a great idea and encouraged me to move forward. Um..........ok?? Well, this was getting a little strange for me, considering that two men who I highly admire have just told me to go ahead with this. Well, that Saturday, I decided to take an off day and just go off and spend it with God, to seek what He wanted me to do with all this. After a day of Bible reading and music playing, I came to an ultimatum (which in hindsight was not the most spiritual thing to do) that if God wanted me to continue in this, that I would need a miracle or some definite sign to show me to go for this. So I walked back home that Saturday, ready to find out what was going to happen. The next day (Sunday) my Mom had told me that after lunch, she wanted to "share some things on her heart", which meant that something big was gonna be said. So after church, we all sat down, and she shared that she had seen that there was a lot of stress in between me and her about college, and that she knew that it was not healthy for us or for our relationship. But also, she felt that she had been trying to push "college" to happen instead of trusting God for it, and that since she had been sick the previous two weeks, she had been praying for my direction in life more in last two weeks than in a long time (two weeks in which right in the center of was the Sunday I had my idea of Life Action) Finally, she said that she believed that God was telling her that in order to trust in Him, and give her concerns to Him, she should not go out and get a second job, just to pay for my college. After all this, she sat back and waiting, fully expecting me to be angry or frustrated.....while I just sat in my chair trying very hard not to smile. This was the miracle and direction I had asked for! God had it already planned out before I had even asked Him for a miracle. Well, after this, I told my parents that I had an idea, but that I wanted to talk with another person about it before I brought it before them. Mom's exact response was "Well, as long as you don't drop out of school or anything" which almost gave me a heart attack. But I felt a voice come over me and say "It's not leaving, just taking a day off." So after that little meeting, I met with Brad Christian on Thursday, someone who had actually been a student on the road with Life Action for a year. As we sat down to eat, I asked him what he thought of me going to Life Action, and he sat back, took a breath and said "I can't tell how great it is Josh," and proceeded to tell me for two hours about how awesome Life Action. Well, three people as a confirmation was good enough for me, it was time to take it before my parents. So that Saturday, I got home from work, got them together, and spent the next two hours telling them all about what I was thinking about Life Action. When I was done, I sat back and waited. My dad spoke first, and he simply said "I can honestly say I have no checks in my spirit about this" .......O_O Wow, awesome! My mom came in next and said "I can definitely see God's plan in all this." O_O Double wow! So after this meeting, we started going about, getting things ready, and two weeks later, I was all signed up for Life Action, as I applied for a drumming position on one of their teams.
For a little background, I was enrolled at Georgia Gwinnett College for the first two years of my college career. It was a good way to move from home schooling into the college life, but with my first two years and my core classes out of the way, it was time for me to move on. I did things like take an assessment test from my old school, which told me that my main job in life would be a Flight Attendant (we promptly dismissed this test, but remember it for later) so we started looking around for new colleges, and we finally settled on Georgia College and State University. And so, after a trip up there to explore the campus, I went about getting ready to enroll and start signing up for scholarships. And so the trouble started. My family and I are still not sure what happened, but suddenly, the harmony was gone. When we had signed up for GGC, it was just very simple and we all were on the same page and felt good about it. However, when GCSU came up, it was suddenly like we were not only on different pages, but different books. The tensions kept rising as we had conflicts about school, and we started to wonder how this was even going to work out.
So after all these problems, I found myself sitting in my church on the second Sunday in January, wondering what was going to happen to me with school for next year (and unfortunately not paying attention to the sermon) However, God in His infinite grace, knew that I just wasn't getting the point, so He decided to use a slightly more subtle method to get me on the right track. As I sat there, my pastor started to use an illustration that had to do with his days in Life Action...and it was like a 2 by 4 hit me upside the head. This idea had never even been in the back of my head, and suddenly, out of nowhere, it was a possibility. And my first thought of this new idea? "That's the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard of!" And I immediately tried to dismiss it. But, it kept in my mind and kept nagging at me during the service, so I decided to plan a meeting with my pastor, just to go ahead and get it out of the way so I could go back to thinking of REAL possibilities. After the service and scheduling a meeting with my pastor, I went home and looked up the Life Action website and started looking around, and it started to look even better than I had thought. So that Wednesday I went to meet with my pastor and laid out everything in front of him of what I was thinking. After I was done, I sat back; preparing to get shot down and then that would be that. But surprisingly, I sat there for about 20 minutes hearing what a great idea that he thought it was, and that he thought I should definitely pursue it. Um..........ok? Well, ok so one person thought it was a good idea, but there are a LOT more people in the world. So I decided to email my former youth pastor and ask him. His father was a leader on one of the teams so he had grown up in Life Action, so he would be able to give a different view point. And when I got the reply back, he said that it would be a great idea and encouraged me to move forward. Um..........ok?? Well, this was getting a little strange for me, considering that two men who I highly admire have just told me to go ahead with this. Well, that Saturday, I decided to take an off day and just go off and spend it with God, to seek what He wanted me to do with all this. After a day of Bible reading and music playing, I came to an ultimatum (which in hindsight was not the most spiritual thing to do) that if God wanted me to continue in this, that I would need a miracle or some definite sign to show me to go for this. So I walked back home that Saturday, ready to find out what was going to happen. The next day (Sunday) my Mom had told me that after lunch, she wanted to "share some things on her heart", which meant that something big was gonna be said. So after church, we all sat down, and she shared that she had seen that there was a lot of stress in between me and her about college, and that she knew that it was not healthy for us or for our relationship. But also, she felt that she had been trying to push "college" to happen instead of trusting God for it, and that since she had been sick the previous two weeks, she had been praying for my direction in life more in last two weeks than in a long time (two weeks in which right in the center of was the Sunday I had my idea of Life Action) Finally, she said that she believed that God was telling her that in order to trust in Him, and give her concerns to Him, she should not go out and get a second job, just to pay for my college. After all this, she sat back and waiting, fully expecting me to be angry or frustrated.....while I just sat in my chair trying very hard not to smile. This was the miracle and direction I had asked for! God had it already planned out before I had even asked Him for a miracle. Well, after this, I told my parents that I had an idea, but that I wanted to talk with another person about it before I brought it before them. Mom's exact response was "Well, as long as you don't drop out of school or anything" which almost gave me a heart attack. But I felt a voice come over me and say "It's not leaving, just taking a day off." So after that little meeting, I met with Brad Christian on Thursday, someone who had actually been a student on the road with Life Action for a year. As we sat down to eat, I asked him what he thought of me going to Life Action, and he sat back, took a breath and said "I can't tell how great it is Josh," and proceeded to tell me for two hours about how awesome Life Action. Well, three people as a confirmation was good enough for me, it was time to take it before my parents. So that Saturday, I got home from work, got them together, and spent the next two hours telling them all about what I was thinking about Life Action. When I was done, I sat back and waited. My dad spoke first, and he simply said "I can honestly say I have no checks in my spirit about this" .......O_O Wow, awesome! My mom came in next and said "I can definitely see God's plan in all this." O_O Double wow! So after this meeting, we started going about, getting things ready, and two weeks later, I was all signed up for Life Action, as I applied for a drumming position on one of their teams.
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