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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I Let Me Down (Written in 2009)

It is often said that everyone plays the fool a time or two in life, but what if you are always playing the fool. It seems like everyday is spent as the outsider and dummy of the group. “Why am I the one always getting hurt?”, “What is it about me that attract people that I allow to hurt me?” “Why do I fall for it every time?” These are questions that are often asked in that type of situation. And it’s all because of the one emotion that plagues mankind more so than any infectious disease: love.

It seems so simple in the storybooks-boy meets girl, girl meets boy, and they fall in love and live happily ever after. That is how it’s supposed, or so I thought. If I would have known then what I knew now, I think I would have saved myself a lot of heartache.

You don’t want much out of it, just some reciprocity, but I guess even to some people that seems to be too much to ask. And in your mind, you know the reality of how the story ends, but your heart is another story. It longs for the storybook ending at every available opportunity. No matter what the logics of the mind say. That is how a heartbreak occurs. When one person is stuck on a thing and they are determined to prove other people wrong and at times prove themselves wrong and then they are let down by the very thing that they are fighting for.

As an adult, you wish on a star for that one thing that you think would satisfy you in life; even though you think in your head “Yeah right, like a star can grant me that!” But somewhere deep in the crevices of your soul, you think “maybe this time, it just might work, maybe this time it will be different.” Other than that you wouldn’t have tried to wish it. And whether you care to admit it openly, you can’t help but to be a little disappointed when it doesn’t happen.

That is how children stop believing in Santa Claus for Christmas. They ask for one simple (to them that is) thing every year. And they get everything else that they ask for but that one thing. That one thing that would make it the best Christmas ever to them. The sting of disappointment every year is enough to make them stop believing in the magic that the holiday season is supposed to bring.

That is how I feel now. I’m not hurt, but I am disappointed. More so at myself than anything or anyone else. I knew better in my head but I allowed emotions to take over and get the best of me. And now, once again, I’m the one with the gaping hole in the middle of my chest that used to be filled with something that I thought was the greatest thing on this natural earth. No matter how or why it ends, it always ends. And I’m the puppy that is left going home to lick her wounds after the fight that should have never been.

The world of hip hop has let me down again. Hopefully for the last time. I need to take a break from it all and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to return to it the way that I used to. It has become the very thing that it has tried to hard to protest against musically. It has sold out to the main stream and didn’t even realize it. And I was so busy listening and thinking of my own songs that I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t realize it either. Until now that is. My eyes have been opened and now I see the truth. I have been forced into the realization that Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh are no longer in the game. They have been replaced with watered downed renditions of emcees. And I am left with that and not by choice.

My love for hip hop has been tainted. A love that was once so pure and innocent is now slowly becoming non-existent. Which is not necessarily a bad thing I’m coming to realize.

What once was, is no more.


Drummer One (written back in 2010)

Over the years, I have tried to get over it but time and time again, I find myself back where I started. Listening for the rim shots of my Drummer One. With every lick of the sticks and kick of the bass comes floodgates of feeling and emotions that I try so hard to convince myself aren’t there. Feeling that I try to forget. We’ve played this song below. More times than I care to admit. Repeating the same rolls and breaks every time. But every time I’m like a child that watches the same movie over and over again. I know how the song ends but yet and still every time I hear the intro, I’m glued to it, anticipating the surprise ending that never comes. So I am posing a question to myself. Why don’t I turn off the radio? Why is it that I am still shocked about something that I’ve heard before? I know it’s not the special edition with all of the added and deleted scene footage, and the alternate ending. I keep hearing the same song over and over again. Every phrase is the same, every hook, and every vamp. The only difference is the performance. Because it is live, there are a few different variations from time to time. There are some new rolls and possibly some that I will never hear again for whatever reason. But as I said before, the skeleton of the song is the same. It is a track, so it never lets me down. With it being on a board, the timing of the song can be alternated. It can short, it can be long, and it’s all up to Drummer One. It is set up to adjust to the mood of Drummer. He can play it in regular time or in half steps. The bass line is always consistent. One thing any drummer is taught is to stay in the pocket, no matter what else you do stay in the pocket. So that’s what he does. His style varies; by he always remains in the pocket. And unfortunately for me, he makes it every time. He doesn’t miss a beat. And neither do I.



Rest in Peace My Drummer... 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Is Your Yes Sure (First Bible Study Lesson Notes)

I promise you, It’s just like your mind to mess with you when you're given an assignment. And the enemy just sits back and watches you destroy your own self. Enjoying that you’re doing all of his work for him.  Less work of him to do.

When the man of God gave me this assignment, I promise it felt like my insides were caving in on me. My heart hit my toes and tears formed in the corner of my eyes. And every thought was why I felt like I couldn't do this. I said to myself (and God) “In all the years that I’ve been around, this was the place that was only held by my leader and the ministerial staff, who am i to stand here in this position”. I looked at my life’s choices and where I feel like I am in my walk with God and said “surely, I’m not worthy. What in the world am I going to bring to EVERYBODY. I’m the least of them all”

Then He said to me “none of them has lived a perfect life either. None of them haven’t lived without mistakes or decisions that they weren't proud of. None of them are without fault, so why should you be any different."

We so often say that “Lord you can use me. Use all of me” but that one phrase is so loaded and misused.  We honestly don’t know just how much we’ll give and allow to be used until we get to a place where we have to give more than what we bargained for.  I was (and still am) perfectly content with being where I was. In an effort to "stay out of the way” and stay "under the radar”. I enjoyed staying in that corner behind that there camera.  It allowed me the comfort and peace of knowing that I wasn't being charged like those on the other end of my flash.  I was held to a standard, but not as high as those on the other side.

Isaiah 29:13
(KJV) Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

On Sunday we talked about the women in the lineage of Christ and how all of those women had a couple things in common. The biggest one was shame

Shame-a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.

Synonyms for Humiliation

embarrassment, mortification, shame, indignity, ignominy, 
disgrace, discomfiture, dishonor, degradation, discredit, 
belittlement, opprobrium; loss of face; 

informal blow to one's pride/ego, slap in the face, 
kick in the teeth, comedown

The man of God talked about shame and how with our own shame and our own secrets that we carry, it cripples us from stepping out.  I remember when I was pregnant (both times) and I used to literally pray and cry to the Lord “why me????” “Why do I have to be the one pregnant. I’m the youngest adult, we've only been here so many years, I moved here with my CHURCH, I’m not married, and yet, I’m the one with the baby”. I didn't get an answer the first go round.  And then the second time, my petition got worse. I literally cried saying “Lord, WHY ME?!” and then one day, just as clear as I’m standing here speaking, I heard Him say to me “why not you?”. So even now, as we’re entering this different phase of ministry, the Lord is still saying “why not you? You say that I can use you...Why are you limiting me through your own hands?”

Isaiah 29:13
(NET) The Sovereign master says “These people say that they are loyal to me; they say wonderful things about me, but they are not really loyal to me. Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual”

(MSG) (verses 13 and 14)
“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
    but their hearts aren't in it.
Because they act like they’re worshiping me
    but don’t mean it,
I’m going to step in and shock them awake,
    astonish them, stand them on their ears.
The wise ones who had it all figured out
    will be exposed as fools.
The smart people who thought they knew everything
    will turn out to know nothing.”

We’re a people that likes to say that we know what God wants us to do with us and because of that, we’ll give our all. We’re so quick to say “Lord if you send me, I’ll go”. But is your yes sure? Is your yes truly from your heart, or is it just with your lips or your mind and understanding of what you think He has for you to do? 

When the Lord gives you a task that steps your out of your comfort zone, I firmly believe that it’s at that moment that He is seeing what’s really in your heart.  The way you respond and the way that you execute the task is what your heart truly believes. 

The one thing that we try to keep to ourselves and cover up and conceal, can God use that very thing to speak life to someone else? Their shame was their ministry. Can He really use your womb, can He use your voice, can He use your broken decisions, Can He use your shame? Or is it too much of an embarrassment to allow God to use? That struggle doesn't fit the life that I’m portraying now, so people are going to look at me differently…I don’t have that issue anymore, and I don’t want people took treat me like I’m still that way. God wants to know if He can use that too. Or is your pride too strong to let it be used? 

Psalm 4:2
O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

I’m not saying to go and profess to the rooftops all of your dirty laundry and say “now that I've confessed my all, you can come to Jesus now!” I’m not saying to divulge it all. The Word says in Proverbs that “a fool uttereth all his mind…”. But God is saying “can I use it if I see fit for it. Will you allow it to be a part of your all too"