Wait Patiently....and Delight

This has to be one of my favorite Psalms, man I wish I could write like this. I found new meaning in it this morning.

I need to do some more delighting :)

Psalm 37

A Psalm of David.

1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

9 For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the LORD,
They shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Hope

So I have started listening to podcasts lately, and I recently have discovered a podcast from old church's pastor(in Nashville), Dale Evrist.

Today he had a quick devo that was entitled "our help and our shield". I've always heard the word hope and said I have it, but Dale who's definitions I love, explained hope this way...." A settled confidence in a certain positive future" make me wonder sometimes. Am I really in a settled confidence of a certain, positive future? Or am I hoping He just "shows up" or "comes through" in my crisis or famine or anxiety for the day? Our hope is in the mercy of God, and His steadfast love for us.

How often I forget how many times the Lord provided for people in the bible during seasons of famine?

There is provision in the Lord!

When

For everything under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (taken from the message)

Everything Has Its Time

"1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace."

Man what insight!!! I pray that I can be as wise as Solomon. When was the last time I lamented? or counted my losses? what am I holding on to that i need to let go? Do I speak up enough?

Most importantly how will I know when.

Oh Thank God for good Friends

The Following was not written by me....however, I'll let you choose you choose your own adventure.(she should write my blogs all the time) The said friend who wrote this also loves the Mayer. Enjoy


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZEXY
First, a new addition to the blog...

MAYER WATCH 2007
I have taken the liberty of trying to introduce my fair blog to new friends...so I have sent John Mayer's blog with a note asking us to be blog friends....

Day 1- No Response form J. Mayer Blog Camp.... however, hilarious review of email from friends who have decided I was crazy for emailing him (or his blog, which is probably handled by his people... aside... I wonder if his people are called Johnny's Boys? Mayerheads?) But just in case, WELCOME, johnny'sboysmayerheads!

###

Scene-- Jon Mark's House. Hot Tub.
Characters--- Nick, Me, Jordan's Alter Ego--Bubba, Nate
Discussion--- Boys Sucking (thanks, S, I love having new things to bitch about) Girls (yay, Nick finally found a hot blond who eats AND is fairly sane) and why Jon Mark needs to stop the creepy.

Well, now you all have an overview of my last night. I am basically sipping my diet coke chatting (see--- ranting manically) about the latest stupid face boy that I managed to find. The boys nodding supportively (uh, or fearfully... whichever) When we uncover this little gem... the story of how Jon Mark brought a girl on vacation to visit Nick and Nick ruthlessly stole her from him and made out with her. All while Jordanbubba or bubbajordan muttered on and on about Cameros and T/A, A/T etc.

Or at least that is version A of the story.

So for your amusement... I present to you blog readers, (hello Europe, Morgan, email me from the Internet cafe when you read this) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE:

1. You have a free weekend and you are but a poor college student, so you decide to drive up to Chicago to hang with your friend Nick in his tiny hovel of a studio. On your way there you meet a cute girl do you
a. immediately invite said girl on weekend vacation...even though you have no idea if she is bat-ish crazy and you haven't really got the space for this chick. I mean what the hell, 8 hours in a car with a stranger... LOVE ALWAYS BLOOMS (move along to section 2)
b. Get the girls number, call her when you get home. (Obviously, you aren't very good at this, but you probably get mad chicks... so well played player... well played. Adventure Over)

2. You get to Chicago with girl and kid brother, you immediately
a. offer to sleep on the floor so that she can have the bed, and your little bro and friend share the couch. Thereby effectively making yourself available to share her bed if necessary, and completely blocking your buddy from getting anywhere near said cute girl. (HA... another trick question, well played. play on player! Adventure Over)
b. Hop into the cozy bed with your kid brother and hope for the best. (move along to section 3)

3. Upon realizing that the girl has a mild interest in your friend. Do you:
a. Immediately set off to prove your own worth by becoming the WORLD'S NICEST GUY. (move along, to section 4)
b. Back off, many fish in the proverbial sea, etc. Besides Chicago baby, why sit and mope when you can go eat! (truly, you are not the quickest of learners, but whatev baby, you got it in the end. Adventure Over)

4. The trip down awkward lane is ova! And the whole drive back, said girl says nothing to you. Not one peep. Not one turn left. Do you
a. Decide, now is as good time as any to blast the stereo.... chalk up the silence to girl gone crazy and resolve never to invite a girl on a mancation again. (adventure over... sure, you didn't escape with alot but at least we aren't gonna have to mock you 5 years from now)
b. Call, IM, send email, a written letter and a telegraph, trying to figure out WHAT'S WRONG? (uh... if you did that... you are JON MARK... and we need to have a serious talk about WHY girls are sometimes just weird and not worth it... love you kid)

BONUS.

Months and months later you find that your boy, kissed said girl while you were there and you never knew... do you
a. Laugh it off and put Tapatio in his cereal
b. Mock the girl. Tell everyone you weren't into her anyway, and deny plausibly how the calling, emailing and telegraph actually came from your neighbor/evil twin/resident assistant who was trying to DESTROY you.

Whatever jon mark chooses at this point will be hilarious. And that ladies and gents (johnny'sboysmayerheads) was my evening last night. Nick, watch your cereal.

Swim hugs for all!

A walk in Eagle rock!

So I start my blogs with this all the time, but its been a while internet...have you missed me?

Tonight was probably one of the greatest nights I have had in a long time. My huddle (bible study) is reading this book called Blue like Jazz.. What a great book. I read it a while back so naturally i was like ..sweet I already read it.. so i can slack off and just skim over it. Skim over it turned into, reading it before and during huddle when we talked about it. Well one night we were talking about it, and we got to the section where Don Miller, the author of the book writes about how he and a buddy of his made a confessional booth and put it in the middle of their university's quad during the annual " october fest " type thing going on where there is lots of drinking and crazy partying going on. Well this was his approach to reaching out to the people on the campus…and how he went about it was, he sat in the confessional and when people came in, he confessed to the people for all of Christian history. He apologized and confessed for the crusades, and for all the wrongs Christians have done to the world. This in turn caused the people to ask him questions and in turn he got to be real with the people and put his faith out there in a practical way that was blessing others..

Well my huddle leader Aaron, asked the question to the group, “ would any of you guys have sat in the booth?” some answered yes and no..typical group discussion for a bible study. Then all of us got into this great discussion on how we now a days could do something like that.. the example that was used for that was going around and knocking on peoples doors asking them to pray. The conversation was good, and we had some great dialog but most of us just overlooked it later.

Well the next week, Aaron, he came to us with a new challenge. He had made a covenant with the other guy huddle leader about doing that very thing- going around the neighborhood and asking people if they want prayer. So this week huddle was cancelled for our special activity. Which was not mandatory and was highly optional, but our leaders had covenanted to do this with or with out us. We were all super scared of what was going to come. Something told me I don’t want to miss this. I find in my life, its when the risk is highest that He seems to do such an amazing work.. So naturally, I had to fight all the excuses not to go..

This meant for me, getting off work early, 5 pm..then coming home and putting all the other stuff of the day I was worried about to the side, and saying “ ok God…don’t know what your going to do here.. but I am willing and able…send me”


So scared out of my wits to do this, I partnered with Luke, and we set out. At first it was kind of weird, we were like “ well what do we say…” so we prayed. just gathered out thoughts.. and did it.. the first lady we talked to just flat out rejected us…the next guy we met had a giant gong in side his front door, and said he was not interested..

So we stepped back and analyzed the situation. what were we doing wrong…so we decided that instead of asking if we could pray for people, we would introduce ourselves tell where we were from, and then ask what we could pray for them about.. Surprisingly people started to respond. We met these two young guys working on their cars.. jarrod and chris, Jarrod actually was asked us to pray for his bills, and his parents.. but didn’t get specific.. so we walked and lifted them up…

The next guy we met as he was getting his mail, and he was more sincere, his name was David. His main request was for his “troubles” so we left it at that and walked on. A few more rejections followed. Then we saw Sean and Eli, so we stopped to talk to them. Apparently they had a different situation where they got chased away by some lady’s boyfriend…

So we continued on and went to this condo. A four door condo.. we knocked and the young guy about our age answers the door. “ hi I am Jon Mark and this is Luke, we are from Christian assembly down the street and are walking around asking people what we can pray for them about.. did you have anything we could pray for you about?”

This is was the best part of my week…he replied..” Actually I really could use some prayer, I go to Christian assembly too, but today I got some information that just set me over the top and I cried out to God for a sign or something.. and now here you guys are at my doorstep. Wow.. God is good.. Come on in”
So he goes on to tell us all about what’s going on in his life and lets us in on all the specifics. He opened right up!! So we got to pray with him right there and then, He even prayed as well after Luke and I were done, His prayer was so powerful!!! He made it clear that this was just what he needed. Before we came over, he had been writing about what he was dealing with on his computer, and we just showed up. It was clear…this was what this whole “experiment” was all about.. this was the whole reason for Luke and I being out there. This is what made it all worth it, to see the look and smile on this mans face, and know we were being used as vessels of God’s love in his life. What a great feeling.

It was so awesome to see how God can use two regular individuals who don’t have a clue how to go about “witnessing” and use us to bless someone and speak through us. Talk about a divine appointment. Man its been a long time since I have had one of those. But oh how I remember how awesome they are. God used Luke and I to speak to some in their life. And I think I made a new friend out of it all.

Man What can I Say God is good. Its funny how you can be going through something, and then all of a sudden God shows up and say’s “Hey..Stop worrying about this…but go and do that.. and let me use you to bless someone” IT was tough getting out of my comfort zone, but oh so necessary.

So that was my day. Figured I should write about it. Thanks A.L. for the reminder!!

Too tired

Wow...so its been four months now...kinda breaking my own worst record. A lot has happened in the last four months, tours, thanks giving, dates, christmas parties, really good christmas parties (shout out to my hosts in Van nuys), christmas with the folks, meeting up with old friends, maybe saying goodbye to my dog, then Hawaii!!! = best vacation ever. To read more about that go to my myspace.

Now its a new year, a new time, and new number for me to tell people when they ask how old i am. Dates are good, friends can be better, growing up can be difficult, but through it all you learn and can enjoy the journey. A friend of mine from high school came out here for the heck of it. Its weird because she was my neighbor back in northboro, now shes my neighbor in glendale.

I went sailing with the blair man last weekend, i am going paintballing tommorow, and have had birthay parties for the last three weekends in a row. This weeks being the lovly Azina. OH and officialy karaoke mondays now. I even sang for the first time.

And finally,I can almost call myself a surfer now, I went three times in the past two weeks. And i can almost catch a wave. well too tired to write more. night

MIssion Accomplished!

Tonight I saw walk the Line.. what an excellant movie. The story of Johnny Cash. Very interesting to say the least. Kind of wish they focused more on his faith. But oh well, my friend Shannon Roddy worked on it. Look for him in the credits as S.D. Roddy. Man it feels good when you know a famous person. hahha or something like that.

So for all of you who read this, ((i think it might be three)) ... i know your all dying to know how my homework assignment turned out? Lets just say I passed with Flying colors!! Everything went well, even though I was nervous a little, since the last time I tried to grow some balls and ask a girl out it didn't work out so well. But this one did and its a great feeling! So i have a real, official, genuine date this weekend with a very special girl. NO this is Not a hang out people.. its a date. Two people going out together, there might be some dressing up, there might be some talking.. who knows..
But sadly, i don't think any of my comerades have completed their homework yet. I am pretty excited about it. who knows maybe shes even reading this now..heheh.. so thats all i am going to say about it..don't want to give too much away. It will be special I know.

In other news..oh wait there isn't any.. well i guess me updating this more than twice in one week could count.. Thanks to all my loyal readers...

Don't blink..Yes he is back

So yes I know this is a typical post for my self.. And yes you can believe it I am finally updating my blog.

This weekend was probably one of the best I have had in a long time. It was thanksgiving and I definitely have a lot to be thankful for. Won't go into detail, but will give you the brief synopsis of the weekend.

My sister came up to visit me from the OC ( no not my favorite show, but the place that actually exists) and we went shopping for our glorious thanksgiving day we would be spending at that lovely and talented Azina and Nicole's place. SO we get to their house have a most excellently home cooked meal, enjoyed the company of great friends and drank really good wine. Then it all started. I got the shopping bug. I took my sister out to pick out her wedding dress.. Oh wait.. I mean her present for Christmas. See my sister and I have this understanding that we both go shopping with each other and let each other pick out the gifts, buy them and then wrap up something really silly for Christmas. That way we all get what we want, have the experience of picking it out together, and get to wrap up something fun. Somehow or another I got coerced into buying more throw pillows for my already comfy couches.

next day I go to the movies to see pride and prejudice. Yea go on and say it.. Its a girly movie. So I brought room along and had a good time with friends. I honestly enjoyed the movie and go to finally understand why it was a classic. Then Sarah and Jodi and Chris and I went to starbucks where I found a new love of Soy. its really good.

After that we all went to pier one and after some Wine glass jenga decided jon mark needed to buy clothes for the Christmas parties and weddings coming up in his life. Shanelle happened to join us at this point and Lord knows she likes to take care of her boys.. so it was off to banana republic for me. We get there and Chris and her immediately go run and grab all these clothes for me to try on. Meanwhile josh Wilson and Luz show up. so now I have an audience for my clothes shopping. to make a long story short my fashion coordinators, or dart inc and rose enterprises, were ecstatic about my new look. I felt like I was the star of a reality TV show called Renovate Jon Mark. With much rejoicing and many of clothes that were tried on, I bought my very first pair of slacks/trousers/ or whatever you call it. They look great, and even fit well too. Mom Dad, Maria, I am almost a new man when it comes to looking good. So that felt nice.

After our fun little shopping extravaganza, All were hungry and felt Red Robin would be the food of choice for the evening. We all sat down, and some how the topic of dating came up. The jest of the conversation revolved around the fact that boys at our church don't have enough balls to straight up ask a girl out on a date. We all gave our sides of the story, which was very insightful.. I just kinda sat there and watched the two conversation starters get into it. I agreed with a lot of points most had to say, and did learn a fair deal. So at the end, Shanelle, decides to give us some homework. . The deal was that all of the men at the table have to ask out a girl this week on a date. Not to hang out or whatnot,, a for real date. Looks like I got my homework cut out for me. Now its bed time. But I wish I could breakdance.

Copeland and Instant Live Together at Last

So today I took off for yet another fun Instant live tour.. This time is actually a band I really really enjoy. Copeland. We start the 11 show tour with them recording the show every night!!! That means 11 new copeland albums to be enjoyed by all who can get 1 of the 1000 copies! Tonight I am in New Mexico and am really tired, but its a good tired because i have been working to be tired. so yes .. be looking those coming out soon. Hey even come out to the show. ok time for sleepy.

Driving across country again

I am currently in new something town in the great state of PA. Somehow I don't know why i like this state, but i do for some reason. Besides the fact that they have really slow speed limits and lots of cows that well smell like cows. I kinda like it. I am sitting in my hotel room hanging out with Jeff, my new friend from instant live. We just drove from LA to here. ALong the way we got to see lots of fun things. we made a stop in New mexico and had some amazing new mexican food. If you get the chance make sure you try a sopapilla's.. they are amazing. Thanks to the Wondeful and amazing Skipper.. we found a little rinkiny dink hole in the wall place where Vikki gave us free sopapilla's. Think of it as fried bread that is hollow that you pour honey in and eat.

Then we were in St.l Louise last night and i got to see the infamous Dan Kelley who showed us a wonderful monday night on the town. it was nice.. then today we drove to Pa. we are meeting up with the Black crowes again in Phili for two shows. then i get to fly back. I kinda like touring, Its fun to just get out and see the country.

In other news, I am wanted in texas because i didn't pay a speeding ticket. well i did but the court didn't cash my check.. its a long lame stupid story that i wiill tell if you ask me, but all that to say i can't drive in texas. So if you havn't heard the new switchfoot .. go check it out.. its amazing. welle i am tired.. goodnight for now

gifts are good things

today was great. Got to help dave instal really cool lights in his kitchen. Then we grilled out and had fillet mingion (spelling?) and had grands cheddar biscuits, and amazing rasberry salad. Talk about having a party in your mouth you just don't want to stop... then we watched a really manly manly movie.. i think it was gladiator..yea and we watched twice..

oh and in other news... A super amazing, most awesomely, wonderful friend has decided to take up knitting and let me be her guinee pig (spelling.. man i just really picked hard words to spell tonight) And she has decided to give me a homeade scarf...she even let me pick the color today.. If any of you have friends who knit... keep them close to you...they will keep you warm.. because they can make sweaters and stuff.

coldplay overalls and life

Listening to colplay
Eating Cinnamon Life that came out of my fridge
Watching my roomate put on overalls so he doesn't dissapoint anyone tonight...


Oh good times!!!

The bible..told by legos

People.. this is hilarious... The Brick Testament

Chilling at home.. 51 hours to get there

Shannon Roddy gets the champion of the year award for driving with me 51 hours straight to Massachussets from LA with the company Sprinter van. It was probably the coolest accomplishment i have ever done besides skydiving. Luckily I get to fly back since the van is going out on tour. 51 more hours would most likly send me into lunicy.

So I just talked to my Grandfather from my dads side of the family. Unfortunatly he has alzheimers. It was so good talking to him. He has always been that grandfather who has lived super far away, so i havn't got to talk to him much. It was so sad because half way through the conversation he started calling me Jack (my dad) and how it was so nice to hear from me. I think i need to call him more often. I never really did get to connect with him and from what my dad tells me, he tells great stories.. For example he has this whitty sense of humor. Like when i told him i drove across country, he said " yea and i hear that takes a few gallons of gas" so then we started talking about gas prices, and he told me he used to buy gas for 19 cents a gallon, and then he was like "then they upped it to 20 cents.. and we all went crazy" haha .. what an amazing guy. Its too bad he isn't a believer.. so if your a praying person, please lift up my Grampa Deardorff.

Like i said before I am In Mass now with my folks taking a little time off while doing a lot of work as well. I also got to record my brothers band when i wasn't working. We are doing a new EP with three of their newest songs. We got most of the tracking done but still need to record some screaming and some trombones. Its been a fun process but a tiring one. It has been nice to get away for a little bit.

Did everyone hear about the hurricane taking over new orleans? Its pretty intense, they are asking new orleans residents to evacuate as the city could be under water in the next day or so .

So today topic for the comments board.... What is worse ? A hurricane, tornado, earthquake or flood?

off to cali at the drop of a hat

So after my shameless post last time I have seemed to spark an outrageous amounts of conversations in my comments section. Good times and I am proud of all of you for taking the lead on that one. Even though I think I have an audience of three...(based on previous said comments). Nicole has to get props too for coming up with the idea of creating conversations in the comments section instead of my "Invisible ink" section. So maybe I will start doing small posts that bring up controversial things and then just have conversations with people in the comments. Hopefully this will solve the invisible ink problem.

So anyway here it is.. The next post. Not as shamefull unfortunately.

After returning from San Francisco, San Diego and all the cities in between, I am off to see the rest of the country. Tomorrow actually. I start my drive to Boston to meet up with the Hall and Oates camp at the Boston pavilion. Its a really sweet venue out on the water in Boston. And the best part is I get to see my family for the first time this year!!!

So tonight's controversial topic. What is up with ants in California...I mean seriously, I keep my kitchen spotless for like a week, and they just find a way of coming back.. They even come and join me at my computer sometimes. Today I guess they went back to their holes.. but seriously..ants.. there is plenty of food or water outside...go find some.


Let the comments begin!

Hazaa!!!!

leave comments

hi... no one reads this...if you do you would leave comments..

San Diego

Well the last few days have been fun.. I have driven from San Francisco stopped in LA and with the help of Shannon, we realoaded a van full of gear for this NARM convention. NARM stands for National Association of Retail Merchandising. Now i am in San Diego Its been a lot of fun. And the best part is my hotel has the most amazing view see below. I really wish I had brought my surf board. But for some reason i Just want to go sailing now. Anyone up for it? oh and I will be down here for the entire weekend if anyone feels the need for a road trip. Our afternoons are pretty open.

Finally!!!!

Well its been a little while since i have posted... guess i have been busy. So the last two nights i went to bed at 6 am... talk about messing up your bodily time clock. Work has been stressful, tiring, but very rewarding. We spent the evenings or shall i say mornings working on our sprinter van. Which still has some minor glitches to be worked out.. But the good news is I got to mix my first Black Crowes Instant Live show!!! Yes my very first real gig! And I am really happy with it. And the best thing is that I get to do it tommorow night too. I truley am blessed. Last year about this time, this is definatly where I wanted to be in the coming year, and it has become a reality. But now.. i am tired... so leave me love i am going to bed.

Somewhere between the darkness and the light...

Today was a lazy day, got to chill with the boys and even ate some pizza. Then talked about video games. Wow its interesting how sometimes you find out something that totally makes you like someone even more than before.. and yes.. i have a tendancy to be a mess.. thanks for those who bear with me.. picnic tommorow.. gonna be good.

"Overwhelmed by the tide
of wanting nothing more..tonight
Than to take this time and make it all mine
It's coming around again"

new ipod

go here.. it will make you laugh...

New Ipod

but not as much as wedding crashers... girls be forewarned..its definatly a guy movie...

ok so the grossest thing just happened... this morning as i was shaving i saw a tail move across my floor.. didn't think anything of it... well tonight as i type to you.. there is literally a rat behind my stereo equipment.. just sitting there... scared out of his mind... should i make him my pet? or what maybe i will post a picture of it.. no wait.. thast just gross... but why couldn't this happend when someone else is here.. its really hard to get a rat out of your house by yourself....ok ... i am out...

"MAAAAA>>> The Meatloaf!!!!!!"