Mental Musings

I woke up on Thanksgiving morning to discover that the hard drive in my Macbook Pro had failed. I was very disappointed because I have been so happy with my Mac. I decided that I would brave the crazy crowds of Black Friday to visit the Apple Store with my ailing laptop. Here is a short synopsis of my journey. We drove to the Towson Town Center Mall, and after driving around 6 levels of the west parking garage we finally found a spot on the 7th (roof). I knew that the crowds would be crushing, so I braced myself for waiting a few hours to even see anyone at Apple. I walked into the store and stepped up to the Genius Bar. I was only there a few minutes at most when somebody asked if they could help me. I explained my situation and was asked if I had an appointment. Appointment? I did not realize that I needed to make an appointment to bring in my ailing Mac. I am sure that my face started to turn slightly red with embarrassment as I sheepishly responded, "No." The employee sai...

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I would post the drama that we did this past Sunday for our Contemporary worship service. Thankful © 2004, Stephen R. Poole Martha: [looking toward heaven] Do you see what I have to do just to get a little thank you around here from my family? I worked my hands to the bones. I have been cooking desserts for days. I got up at the crack of dawn to prepare everything for the meal. Why do I bother? Why should I spend so much time and effort when all I get is a quick, “Thanks, Martha,” as everyone gets up to watch the football game? God: Martha. Martha: Do they think that pumpkin pie just baked itself? Or the pecan one? Or the chocolate one? How often do they get fresh, home-made bread or made-from-scratch biscuits? They just do not appreciate me at all. God: Martha. Martha: Well not next year. There is no reason I should do all this work next year. They will not have me to just walk all over. They can just…well they can j...

Saturday I was invited to come and sing at a Gospel Song Fest held at a local Baptist Church (Calvary Bel Air - we call them a sister church among the Southern Baptist). We had about 80 people in the choir from multiple church choirs, a gospel quartet, a gospel trumpet duet and a small brass and winds ensemble. I believe it is amazing how popular these are in an area that is definitely not "Deep South". The host church was packed, mostly with 50+ year olds as is usual with gospel music. Southern Gospel music is one of the true American styles of music. The music borrows from Appalachian folk music, jazz and spirituals. Many of the early gospel songs came from the Methodist Camp Revivals, but many other evangelical churches were quick to adopt the style as well. By the early 20th Century the music started to transition even more with some jazz influence and eventually became the modern Southern Gospel style. While studying Baptist History at the seminary, I remember reading a ...

I have lived in many different places and have noticed something...each area seems to believe the following two things only apply to their location: "If you don't like the weather here, wait around 15 minutes and it will change." We never really noticed this to be true anywhere we lived, but people love to say it with pride. "I never had allergy problems until I moved to this place, it is known as being the worst location for allergies." This could actually be true for each location. How? Because people tend to get new allergies when they move to new locations. I have been told that one way to minimize allergies when moving to a new location is to purchase local honey and eat a tablespoon full every day. This is supposed to help your body become used to the various local pollens which cause most allergies. BTW - I have lived in Massachusetts (3 months), California (2 years), Virginia (8 years), Maryland (2 years), Mississippi (8 years), Alabama (2 years), Texas ...

Have you ever spent a month practicing the wrong version of a duet only to find out the day before a program? Now, after singing the Larnelle Harris Sandi Patty version of "I've Just Seen Jesus" all day long, I am seriously sore afraid. I am sore, because I think I have overdone the practice and my throat is feeling scratchy. Not as bad as it was a few weeks ago following a moderate asthma attack, but still enough that I have to stop singing for the day. And afraid because I still have not learned the last chorus correctly and only have until 3 PM tomorrow to learn that. This makes the 11th song in a month that I have had to learn just by listening to the track, which is not my strong suit. Actually the 12th song if you count the wrong version that I learned. Life is so much easier with printed music. Even the shaped-note kind is better than nothing at all.

The Obama administration which promised not to tax the middle class is the cause of my cell phone bill increasing by $5.50 in one month. I checked my fees and nothing has changed except the amount of taxes. I guess Obama believes that most of us are too dumb to actually check our bills for these types of increased taxes. BUT we all knew it was coming. How else will they pay for all of these government handouts such as bail outs, stimulus and health care.

I really appreciate those with the gift of encouragement. There are two senior ladies from our church who are constantly sending out cards and letters to members and ministers alike. Remember the days when we everyone brought little gifts to our Sunday School teachers, RA directors, ministers, choir leaders, etc. Parents that were truly thankful for those who gave their time and energy to teaching their children and youth about the bible, music, missions, etc., made a point of letting these individuals know about it. Letters were written, cards were sent to let people know how much we appreciated them. That age changed to one where the leaders were expected to be the encouragers. If workers were getting burned out, the leaders were blamed because they were not doing enough encouragement. Ministries started to include extra money each year to pay for little gifts of appreciation to workers for their service to God. Dinners were planned to thank people serving the church for giving their...

It was a busy week, but with the help of about 50 volunteers we were able to get the structure for the Living Christmas Tree up, decorated (as well as Christmas decorations all over the church campus), and the electrical connected. We had many more people help provide meals for all of these volunteers this week as well. Now we continue with more choir rehearsals, the video editing and light programming. Thanks to everyone who is helping all eleven performances for this year's historic Living Christmas Tree.

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