the bandwagon
one of the biggest mistakes i ever made was deciding to be a host at jamboree last year. not that the experience was even that bad- i thoroughly enjoyed singing songs not made for my vocal range and faking like i knew what i was doing, all the while attracting the lusty stares of pre-adolescent girls with big lumpy horsebutts and purses full of anti-psychotic drugs.
why did i do it?
for fun?
for my public?
for a teenage fanbase that would rival that of a cornerstone member?
on all counts, maybe. i don't know really, other than that i would get to perform, since i like performance-oriented stuff. i love singing, and there'd be plenty of that. really, in the end, i just don't know.
one thing i do know, though. i know what i missed out on by spending my time and energy entertaining a crowd and being popular. i missed honduras. a team of incredible people, including my best friend and wife-to-be-to-be jen maddox, took a week to go to another country and be Jesus to some people who needed Him. they loved children and families and poured a great amount of time and energy into making sure some folks were taken care of. they made friends, got sunburned, and messed with concrete. they painted walls, built homes, and worshipped God together.
i could have had that and i traded it for my own kingdom of spotlights and publicity. how much more fake could i have possibly been?
i write all of that to say that i too once supported the jamboree-machine of faulkner university. (side note: my grades were pretty good that semester. not to draw attention to my grades, but to the fact that if you fail out it is not the fault of jamboree, but your fault for not taking responsibility, bucking up, and doing whatever it takes to keep your grades from plunging into hades.) i don't think too fondly of it these days. especially when shallow money-grubbing egotists decide to raise $100k just to put nicer comfy chairs in the gym. how many mouths could be fed, children clothed, diseases treated, and families housed for $100k? it's too bad we won't be finding out anytime soon. i do, however, know what $250k, raised by landmark in 1 sunday morning, will be doing for countless numbers of people all over the world who need it the most. but just think of all those people putting painstaking hours into perfecting retarded dance moves and fake smiles, on top of spending a nice bit of time and money on their little clique of fake people, when they could be spending all of that on helping and loving people as Christ helped and loved the poor?
wood and straw. dust in the wind.
Father, give me gold and silver that will not burn away.
check it out - 01.20.07
vapor - 11.15.06
can't complain - 11.10.06
turn the page - 11.09.06
who invented the word "me-maw"? - 09.28.06