Category: Life

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Animals God Life Music

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

This morning I took a nice hour-long walk around the peaceful and quiet suburban Allen Texas neighbourhood of my brother and sister-in-law. The first 20 minutes of the walk was stop and go – and stop and go – and stop and go. I was actually walking their dog Buddy with me, so whenever he stopped to smell the landscape I had to stop too. And once he was done smelling and ready to walk again I was able to do so as well. But then Buddy reached a certain point in the neighbourhood where he refused to go forth any further. I tried to pull him – even drag him – but he wouldn’t budge. So we turned around and went right back to where we came from, and Buddy enthusiastically led the way. In fact he led us straight back to his own familiar turf again. I relinguished control of him, and he went back inside. I stayed outside, and continued my walk for another 40 minutes – as free as can be – no longer being held back by the canine.

It’s sort of like ‘My Fantastic Journey’. For over 30 years I was held back by an uncaring world that tried to tell me what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. It was a runaway world that was running away with my so-called life, and I was merely a sad and miserable existence on her out-of-control ride with no real say-so in the matter. But then a miracle truly occurred some 45 months ago when I least expected it. I was rescued and saved by my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He’s the Christ that knew me all along, and although I always believed in Him – I never really knew Him. I let go of the leash that the world was pulling and dragging me with. She nearly pulled me to the edge, but then Christ stepped in to stop the madness. I went the other direction as He guided me and led me towards the light. I was free at last – free at last – free at last. I have never enjoyed as much freedom with my new Life of the past 45 months as I did with my previous life before that. Thank You Jesus for keeping this journey alive and kicking !

Some people tell me to step out and do my own thing.
And others say I got to blend in just to be the same.
And stop being me.

But this shallow world is no longer what I’m made of.
I’ve been changed by Grace.
I’ve been saved by Love.
What more do I need ?

It’s in the lyrics:

Categories
History Life Music Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

23 years ago this week on the 19TH of May of 1987 me and a friend traveled from our airbase near Fairford Gloucestershire England eastward to the bright lights and big city of London where we saw Duran Duran LIVE in concert at the Wembley Arena. Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, and Nick Rhodes brought their “Strange Behaviour” world tour there to accompany their hit album at the time “Notorious”. It was 1 of 19 LIVE concerts that I attended with friends during my two years of living in the United Kingdom.

I consider 1987 to be one of the greatest and most memorable years of my early life. It was all about the music back then – the music on the radio – the music at the concerts. It was the greatest year of music of my life at the time during a year in which I fondly look back at as being simply smashing and very British.

This was one of the most memorable (for me) and biggest commercial hits of the year in 1987 – a # 1 gold-certified HI-NRG dance smash from sisters Mel and Kim. It had the entire European continent dancing in unison – including a rather young not quite 20-year-old Chris M. Day. It’s “Respectable”, and it’s ‘Retro’:

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Animals Blogging Life Money Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – It’s been a rough couple of weeks with the stock market experiencing a near meltdown due to European economic crises and apparent human error on Wall Street. It’s negatively affected my retirement savings plan in a big way. After reaching a new record high on Friday April 23RD my savings had dwindled in value by a MASSIVE 6.5% as of this past Friday May 07TH. It’s the biggest one-week and two-week drops percentage-wise for me in nearly 18 months – since the two weeks immediately following the 2008 Presidential election. The good news is that even with the recent short-term drop my retirement savings plan is up by nearly 65% over the past 18 months. It’s all temporary. What goes down – must come back up again. It’s reverse gravity. The immediate goal is to not panic during these occasional financial meltdowns. The ultimate goal is to have enough money in the plan to live on when it comes time to retire – whenever that may be.

Boots: 1993-2007 – My little buddy Boots died 3 years ago next week on May 17TH 2007. Boots carried my unique personality in a little 10-pound feline body. Anybody who thinks that a cat can’t be trained to do what you want them to do obviously didn’t know my cat. I was fortunate to live with Boots for nearly 12½ years until his premature death. He died way too young, but he was actually dying a slow and increasingly painful death during his final few years. His longtime doctor finally convinced me that putting him out of his misery would be the last great deed that I could possibly do for him, and so on that very sad morning I watched him go to sleep for the final time. A memorial still exists today at the far end of one of my living room couches where he often relaxed.

Happy 21ST Birthday To Taylor Lesley Day ! – That’s 21 days young. Two days from now on Thursday afternoon I’ll be meeting the newest member of the Day family for the very first time. She’s Taylor Lesley Day, and she’s my niece born on April 20TH 2010. She was born to my lovely sister-in-law Christina and my little brother Danny. She weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces at birth and her height was 20 inches. I’m sure that she’s above 8 pounds now and perhaps an inch taller. I can’t wait to meet her in person. In fact I can’t wait to buy her very first teddy bear. I’ll have my brother use my phone to take a picture of  Taylor and I and then I’ll tweet it to my followers.

Blatant Promotion – The regular blogging continues on-location from the northeastern suburban corridor of Dallas Texas. After flying from MIA to DFW and then meeting my niece I’m sure that I’ll have about 50 or so ‘Mini Thoughts’ to share this Thursday night. On ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I’m hosting a HI-NRG dance party straight from the heart and soul of 1987. On Sunday The Truth that is ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’ continues. It’s all right here on my blog – my Life. Thank You for being a friend and living Life with me !

Categories
God Life

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

It’s easy to make yourself look and smell presentable for the church on Sunday mornings, but are you simply going to church – or are you being the church ?  Are you bringing the church with you everywhere you go ?  Are you representing the church admirably out on the streets and in your own homes ?  Are you investing in your church family ?  Do you care for and love your brothers and sisters within the church family ?  Are you living Life to its fullest with your church family ?

Sadly a lot of people of the world think of church as that building down the street that has the steeple up on top of it and lots of cars in the parking lot out front on Sunday mornings. They think of the church as a brick and mortar building. It is their ritual to go to church on Sunday mornings, be seen, be heard, and then disappear until next Sunday morning.

Bringing the church family to what’s considered to be an unconventional location such as a movie theatre, a school, a banquet hall, a hotel, a park, a beach, and in each other’s homes states just that. It doesn’t matter where you are. The Bible says, “For where two or three gather together as My followers, I am there among them.”

We must always be the church, and never let our guard down. The enemy awaits in the darkness when we are weak. He will strike at anytime. Represent the church well. Be the Disciple that God created you to be. Expand God’s Kingdom everywhere you go.

Here’s a song about a young woman who has clearly hit rock bottom. She’s ready to end her life as she knows it. She takes a knife. She cuts. Deeper and deeper. The blood flows as she cries. But then a miracle truly occurs. Jesus Christ comes in to rescue her from the darkness. He saves her from the enemy. She believes. She’s got new eyes. She puts down her life for Christ. A new Life begins. Thank You Jesus for all of your miracles on this fantastic journey. It’s in the lyrics: