The Fighting Temptations

O.k. I'll confess it. I like movie musicals. If it's a musical I pretty much like it. And I got into one last night that I really enjoyed. The Fighting Temptations starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce Knowles is literally packed with great music.

Aside from the R & B star power that they throw at you. I love the progression that they slyly take you one. They start you out with the most old fashioned southern gospel spiritual, sung at a funeral featuring Shirley Ceasar. From there you move to the O'Jays and their Do-wop, Beyonce and her sensual R&B, to T-Bone and Zane with their Rap/Hip Hop. Without trying I think this movie preaches pretty convincingly how so many musical styles branch from the same tree.

A few other messages in this movie hit home. As the main song constantly says, "I ain't good enough, but he still loves me." People struggle, they mess up and make mistakes. Unfortunately there aren't enough people in the church broadcasting the message that God gives second chances. That Jesus is about loving you where you are and turning your life around.

The movie also shows the constant style conflict between the old and the new. But the members of the choir seem to transcend the issue. Why is that? How can they do it? Is it because they have a common goal, because they love music or is it just unrealistic to think that 3 generations of music lovers each with their own styles can perform together?

Money drives all the characters in the movie. Pretty accurate to real life. Pretty scathing commentary on music in general, both mainstream and gospel. And it's not just money, its the desire to compete and be the best that spoils music sometimes. Toward the end of the movie (of course, it's a feel good musical after all) the main characters are singing just for the joy of it! This leads me to one of my pet soap boxes. I think people should just love music. I think they should live music, all day and night. Who are you if you are always worried about practicing for the next performance? Getting tight just so people can say how good you are? In the movie, the Barbers (the O'Jays) just sing because they love to do it. As a Christian, I want to find ways to make music, just because I love music and my music honors God. I think that most of my efforts go into performing music for people rather than making music for God's sake. For the simple fact that I love to do it.

Other notable themes in the movie: judgmental church people, the dual lives many people live as they are involved in church and hide there other activities, music as power to motivate and help people overcome challenges, belonging to a community, lying, and materialism.

Check out one of my favorites, T-Bone, in this movie. He plays a convict does some nice work on the soundtrack. Check out his website at www.houseoftbone.com

All in all a fund movie, with great music, but what am I going to say....I love music.

Easter Pics and New Addition

We had the greatest long weekend ever. Good Friday we tore up the crappy while fishing a little pond near where Jennifer's Mom and Dad live. It seems that Joby and Winfield, beat Zeke and I, in our little fishing tournament 23 to 19 (or something like that). Saturday was fun as well.

Here are a few pictures of the children on Easter Morning.



After watching the movie, Cheaper By the Dozen, we decided that maybe our family was too small, so we added this little ball of joy. Her name is Queen Maxine, but we have all taken to calling her "Queenie". All the kids are absolutely crazy about her, as are Jen and I.

Flowers

These crazy tulips in our yard. They explode into bloom literally over night. I began to question what the world would look like from the perspective of a flower sprout. These pictures are what followed.

Weekend Pics

This past week was a marathon. Jennifer and I were involved at the CMA Pastor's Retreat all week, followed by a regional evangelists staff meeting. It was a great week, and we had a blast, but by Saturday we were ready for some rest. Saturday afternoon, Jennifer got on my bike and for the first time rode it around a little bit on Iron Mountain. She did so good. Later that evening we watched the final four and hung out with some of our friends.

Sunday afternoon was a special treat as we took the kids to the park. The wind was coming and going, and even though it wasn't the greatest of days for it, we managed to get the kite up a few times. It was so fun.





All in all a great weekend and a memorable Palm Sunday. We are really looking forward to observing this Holy Week and Easter. There is much to do here at CMA and lots for us to do as we prepare to travel all summer.

Daffodils

Here are some recent pictures of daffodils that have recently been in bloom in our area.




One day while outside I was completely taken by how fast these flowers come up and how quickly they orient themselves to the sun. Over the course of a few hours these plants break through the surface reach toward the sky, and then with a explosion of color, burst into bloom overnight. I like that they always point to the sun. I'm trying to learn something from that.

What's New

It seems like the last few weeks have been a blur since we returned from our trip to Florida. Weekend before last the guys from Inside Out came up to Mena to play the Rocking the Rose Show at the Mena Airport. They were absolutely great. Here are a few pics from their concert. We also took some great video and I am trying to find some time to edit it and put it into some sort of usable form.



After staying up hanging out with the guys, we got up bright and early to head to Texarkana for a Piker family portrait. It was a very fun day as well. Here are some pictures from our meal together and a silly shot of Jerrod Piker eating strawberry pie.



Sunday was also a great day, in the afternoon we had a great day in the park. All the kids played on the playground, and in the sand. Here are some pictures of that afternoon.





After that the week came on pretty fast. Jennifer and I have a lot to do on the upcoming Pastor's Conference here at Iron Mountain. Then out of the blue, I hurt my back on Tuesday. Turns out, it was pretty rough for the next few days. So I spent the rest of the week trying to recover. During that time they poured the slab at the new house site. We are so excited.

This week is going much better and we are getting alot done.

New Bike?

Things are in the works to get this cute little Honda CBR 600 F2. Plans are to paint it and make it my own.

Ministry Pics from the Road

On February 20, we stopped into Cabot High School in Cabot Arkansas for a special service that they were having. There was a group of teenage guys there that had a worship band, and they were really good. I was privileged to get to talk with this group for a few minutes. What I am always so amazed by is how passionate for Jesus some teenagers can be. In my life I fight apathy on a moment by moment basis, so it always spurs me just a little to see someone of any age who really cares about something. There were a few teenagers in Cabot who were taking their life and purpose for the Kingdom of God very seriously. I really liked seeing that. From there we shot over to Memphis, spent the night in a hotel, and drove the next day to Atlanta.

The Florida state CMA rally was held at Camp Keystone, a Salvation Army facility near Keystone Heights, Florida. The place was truly amazing. Beautiful grounds with plenty of rooms and meeting places, as well as fun activities like a great lake, and a putt-putt course. We had a great room to meet with teenagers, and some CMA friends from Orlando organized everything in a great way. We met Friday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday evening and did a whole lot of hanging out in between. Saturday evening especially we had a great time of worship and got the opportunity to pray for the young people who wanted us to. It was a very special time. We also made some really great contacts in helping us establish local CMA youth movements in Florida.

Back in Town

It is good to be back home. After an amazing few weeks we are finally back home and have, as always, hit the ground running. I am going to attempt to blog all the things that happened over the past few weeks during which I have been a horrible blogger.

We were excited to see new progress on the house site on Iron Mountain. Check out these pictures.



The Block work was finished around the end of February and it has been backfilled and the plumbing has been started.

Jen and I are still on the road, and we will be back to Mena after this weekend. There is lots to tell so check back in soon. We saw the Passion, we went to a CMA Rally in Florida, and visited some friends in Jacksonville. I also spent a little time at Bike Week in Daytona. More to come...