What's that bumpin in the back?

Ok so this was my morning text today...

"What's playing with the bass pumpin? With various aspects of life groovin to the beat, is it to God's rhythm? First we must turn down our volume. Seek. Matthew 6:33"

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

It was demanded to blog something [Steven] about this thought so I shall.

Origin:
This thought came from the fact that I had both the radio in the living room and the radio in my room on. Both were on the same station and at one point my alarm started going off turning off the radio in my room. During this time I could only hear the station in the living room.

I thought about the fact that while my radio was on in my room I could really in essence only hear my station or a partially amplified version, but I didn't discern the other radio's tunes.

Thoughts:
Like all radio stations we have to "seek". There are times when we are told about a good station or what not, but at some point we have to put in the coordinates.

Similar to when my radio in the room was off... there are times when you may not know exactly how to turn the radio on in particular rooms (i.e. lovelife, school, friendships, work, depression, etc). At those times sometimes just turning the radio off helps. That way you can hear what's playing in the main room of your heart. Hopefully that's God. Sometimes it's not. There are times when we depend on ourselves to not only live our lives, but to DJ at the radio station too. So we're living life and advising the same life... A life that we know nothing about. A life that we haven't lived or seen before and can't see past the next second, let alone where we're going to be in the next five years.

You know how when you call a radio station you have to turn your radio down so that they don't clash?? (lol... wow) This is so our lives. Whether we're listening to HVN 77.7 or our own FLSH 98.6 it's important for us to turn it down when we're calling in. They'll be feedback on both lines and neither of us will be able to hear. On one hand we're calling in with our positions at church before us, filling the air essentially with booti-chatter. We aren't coming humbly to Him and attempting to listen. We're calling and all He hears is stagnant... I mean static :) On the other hand we're calling and all we hear is us. We act as if we've called the request line and just have a list of songs we want on the countdown at 7.

I thought about how this happens in our spiritual life. Being one that is IN LOVE with music I feel our spiritual lives are somewhat represented by what we have on our ipods. What exactly do we "blast" in our lives? What are people hearing without us saying a word?


hmm... personally I think of how my music changes at different times. There are times when I listen to strictly gospel, other times when there's a mix. If my packaging had the ingredients of my life it would vary.

At times it looks like this...
Ingredients: Jesus, devotion, prayer, Kiki Sheard, Kirk Franklin, conversation with God, Cece Winans, Daryl Coley, "Cool" by Anthony Hamilton, "Respect" by Kendra Foster, inadvertant gossip, and various types of idleness (i.e. Bad Girls Club, House Hunters, Property Virgins, Color Splash, flipping channels, Wii).

Then there are times when it looks like this...
Ingredients: Half-Prayer, The Foreign Exhchange, conversation with God, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, John Legend, "War" by Kiki Sheard, "Look Up" Tye Tribbet, attempted devotion.

I know that my midset depends on which ingredients I'm working with or which station is tuned louder. Which station is in all the different rooms of my life... To be honest there's one room that He's in and out of and it's the last place I need Him to reign.

This blog is essentially why I created this blogspot. I want us to check our ingredients a bit, see what we're working with. You frost a cake with gravy and you can't baste a turkey with frosting.

What would you like to add to the stew?

So I decided to write a letter to my unborn, un-conceived child.


Dearest [Angel],

Yesterday history took place and I'm so glad it did. See that President that we have/had was the very first Black President in America and it was a super big deal. Mommy didn't go to the inauguration and that is the one thing that makes her sad to this day. One thing that I want to share with you is that you should ALWAYS take risks and follow your heart. There are going to be many things in life that seem to have logical answers, but sometimes the answers are not actually logical. Feed your imagination. Mommy and Daddy have been inspired by the President and First Lady and that is why we plan to give you the best life we (through God) can offer you.

When I first heard that President Obama was going to run for president I was excited and I near about held my breath waiting for him to announce what he was going to do. Even then I didn't quite see ALL THIS, but I was very excited that a man of such character would run for President of the United States of America and try to beat the odds. Moral: always live life like you would run for President & step out on faith.

The campaign trail was interesting. People were split between him and other candidates for the democratic nomination like Hilary Clinton (former first lady). He ran a VERY CLEAN campaign and held his head up with pride. They found NO DIRT. The most they could pull out is that he smokes. Now that is a small thing... but I don't want you to ever smoke because that is a habit that even a man that wonderful has a hard time breaking. Plus it's nasty and the boys won't want to kiss you. I had a wager with our Pastor that he would win the nomination to represent the democratic party. The winnings were to go to the building fund... well... I won! And a piece of that front pew is due to our little wager. ;) Moral: always stand behind what you believe and sometimes you can get something out of it ;P

He remained steadfast and many people were behind him. Although in Alabama there wasn't a lot of Obamanation going on, back in my homestate of Oregon there was a lot of hoopla! All different races and everything. This is the type of dignity I want you to have. Always treat people with respect and never say never. Believe in your dreams and with God you can catch them all!! I voted for him on November 4th even though I knew Alabama was going to be a state that voted for his opponent. They did. President Obama didn't win Alabama, but he won SO MANY other states and he became "President Elect". Moral: always vote for who you believe is best even if you think the majority will go against you

As I said before, one thing I am so sorry that I didn't do is go to the inauguration. I tried to think so much about it and rationalize it. From well before President Obama was nominated I planned to go and was waiting for tickets. When I emailed my senator he informed me there were no more tickets and I didn't understand that there were going to be different events taking place. Your auntie Tanesha was very sure and purchased her tickets even two weeks before he was elected... I wish I had done the same. I thought that the cost of the trip to not actually see the President was not going to be worthwhile, but I was wrong. I didn't think about the people that would be there and the fact that I would have such an amazing experience to share with you. I didn't realize that the campaign was about the people, so in essence THE PEOPLE were the reason I should have gone. I have many friends that have stories to tell so I will let them share stories with you below and you can see what it was like through there eyes...

[share your story below]

I love you so much,
Mom