I’m a huge jazz fan and enjoy attempting to play and sing it.  Making music is also very therapeutic for me.  Three years ago, while living in Athens, GA, some friends and I formed a band and have played together in the Athens area since then.  The past couple of months brought us several gigs, which allowed us to get together and rehearse and play more than usual.  The guys I play with – Art Grider: tenor saxophone/EWI, Tracy Reynolds: keyboard and Justin Reynolds: guitar – are fantastic musicians and great friends.  Our personalities and careers are as diverse as the music we play – everything from jazz standards to Stevie Wonder.  But, when we get together to play, it just works.  I count it a privilege to play with them and to call them friends.  For us, the past two months have been filled with late night dinners, many, many laughs, and some fabulous music.  I thought I’d share a few photos I took from our recent gigs/rehearsals…

I read this yesterday and came back to it again today.  I’m reminded daily of God’s goodness, His grace, His love, His faithfulness and so much more.  I often don’t live up to all of it, but that’s the great thing about God’s grace.  I’ve been going through a lot in life lately and for the past year in particular, and many times I’ve wondered if God was anywhere around.  I’m sure you’ve been there before.  

Well, Psalm 71 just sort of hit me where I am in my life at the moment.  I know God is always there and that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that is all we really need to know.  I’m trying to learn to just give thanks to God no matter what.  I’m trying to learn to just sit with Him and allow Him to speak to me in any way He chooses and through anything He chooses.  I’m finding that happens in some really simple ways and it’s great.

So, perhaps you’re going through a tough time too.  Perhaps you’ve wondered if God was anywhere around. Well, trust me…He is.  And He cares.

Psalm 71:1-7; 17-24 (The Message)

1-3 “I run for dear life to God, I’ll never live to regret it.  Do what you do so well: get me out of this mess and up on my feet.  Put your ear to the ground and listen, give me space for salvation.  Be a guest room where I can retreat; you said your door was always open!  You’re my salvation – my vast, granite fortress.”

4-7 “My God, free me from the grip of Wicked, from the clutch of Bad and Bully.  You keep me going when times are tough – my bedrock, God, since my childhood.  I’ve hung on you from the day of my birth, the day you took me from the cradle; I’ll never run out of praise.  Many gasp in alarm when they see me, but you take me in stride.”

17-24 “You got me when I was an unformed youth, God, and taught me everything I know.  Now, I’m telling the world your wonders; I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.  God, don’t walk off and leave me until I get out the news of your strong right arm to this world, news of your power to the world yet to come, Your famous and righteous ways, O God.  God, you’ve done it all!  Who is quite like you?  You, who made me stare trouble in the face, Turn me around; Now let me look life in the face.  I’ve been to the bottom; bring me up, streaming with honors; turn to me, be tender to me, and I’ll take up the lute and thank you to the tune of your faithfulness, God.  I’ll make music for you on a harp, Holy One of Israel.  When I open up in song to you, I let out lungsful of praise, my rescued life a song…”

I’m in the air somewhere between Atlanta and Chicago.  As many times as I’ve flown (one of my favorite things to do) I’m always astounded by flying through the clouds. It is simply amazing to me. Each time, I’m like a little kid peering through the window with a look of awe on my face. It reminds me of God’s awesome power to create something like that. Then, as the plane climbs higher above the clouds, I notice how the cars, trucks, houses and buildings get smaller and smaller until they all look like little toys. I’m then reminded how teeny, teeny tiny I am in God’s infinitely awesome creation. And, I realize how truly blessed I am that He desires my fellowship…that He created me in His image and for His purpose…and no matter how tough life gets, I know He is in control and He cares about me. Even when I don’t understand. Even when I don’t know what to do. He knows. He’s orchestrating it all. Just like He put those clouds right outside my window. Exactly where He wanted them.

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my parents.  We visited family in Dublin, GA, then travelled to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC for a couple of days.  I’ve always wanted to visit the Biltmore and finally got to last week.  It is an amazing estate of 125,000 acres of forests, farmland, gardens and the captivating four story stone French Renaissance style chateaux home.  The 250-room house consisted of 33 family and guest bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, an exercise room and indoor swimming pool.  It included a priceless collection of art, first edition books and all the latest amenities including elevators and refrigerators.  Remember, this was finished in 1895!  All of it the vision of George Washington Vanderbilt III, 33-year-old bachelor and part of one of America’s most well-known families. The estate was planned and developed by Mr. Vanderbilt along with architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Hunt was the architect behind the main facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty among other great structures.  Olmsted was known as the founding father of American landscape architecture and designed New York’s Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds and many other famous American landscapes.

Biltmore was officially opened on Christmas Eve in 1895 after six years of construction by hundreds of laborers and would rival many of Europe’s great mansions.  It’s impossible to even scratch the surface of all that Biltmore is here.  All I can say is it is an amazingly beautiful place and I’m so glad I was able to visit.  I’ll be going back!

I recently had the opportunity to do something I really love, which is playing jazz.  Some friends here in Athens, Tracy Reynolds (keyboard), Justin Reynolds (guitar), and Art Grider (tenor sax) and I (drums) have played several gigs together over the last year and we were invited to play a wedding reception last Saturday.  As always, it was a blast.  We played mostly standards and threw in a few fun ones such as, Affirmation, Isn’t She Lovely?, and Chameleon.  Can’t wait to do it again!

The 95th Tour de France got underway this past Saturday and I’m excited about watching it.  However, I’m not sure if watching it inspires me to ride or makes me not want to.  The reason is, those guys are machines.  Performance enhancing drugs or not, it takes a lot of training to get to the point they are.  (The sport has really cracked down on doping.  It’s a new day for cycling.) 

After wanting to for a long time, I finally got a bike this spring and have been riding fairly consistently ever since.  But, being a novice, the farthest I’d gone until a couple of weeks ago was around 12 miles.  I know, I know…that’s just barely a warm-up for all of you serious riders out there.  I’m working on it!

Well, a couple of weeks ago a buddy that I went to college with, Eric Duncan, called me up and asked me to go riding with him.  We loaded up the bikes, left his house in Kennesaw, GA and drove to the Silver Comet Trail in Smyrna. The Silver Comet Trail is a series of old railway lines converted to pedestrian traffic that goes all the way to the Georgia/Alabama state line.  It will eventually go all the way to Anniston, AL.  Very cool and very safe for cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, etc.

We put in a little over 30 miles that day.  Friends, after only putting around the house for 10 miles or so 4-5 times a week, I had no idea I could go that far.  Well, I did.  When I rolled back up to Eric’s truck I felt like I was riding into Paris at the end of the Tour de France!

So, get out there and go for it and thanks to Eric for the challenge!

I love ‘em.  Just wanted you all to know.  A friend pointed out to me today that I “NEVER” blog.  My response was, “I haven’t really done a lot to write about lately.”  Their response was, “You could at least write about all those cookies you eat!”  (Based on a recent conversation.)  So, here it is.  I absolutely love cookies and milk.  Particularly Oreos.  I love to dunk them in ice cold milk.  Whole milk. And, you have to hold the cookie in the milk for just the right amount of time in order to get optimum milk saturation, but not too much. Lately I’ve been on a Chips Ahoy binge.  I follow the same milk dunking procedure with these.

Well, I’m back at home after an awesome trip.  I stopped by and spent some time with my parents in TN on the way to and from Indianapolis.  While in Indy I was able to visit some friends I haven’t seen in a while.  It was great to catch up.  As I said in an earlier post, true friendship is priceless and I’m grateful for the friends in my life.

This was my 3rd Indy 500 in 4 years and I’m hoping to make it a yearly tradition.  The weather was perfect, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) was packed, and the race was full of excitement and surprises, as always.

There’s a reason why the “500″ is “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and “the largest single-day sporting event in the world (270,000 in attendance annually). Well, there are many reasons, actually.  The “500″ is indeed a race unto itself.  There is no other race in the world like it.  As I said in my other post about the race, it truly is racing’s crown jewel.  If you win the Indy 500, you’ve made it in racing.  There is a hundred years worth of tradition at the IMS, including the drinking of milk by the race winner.  The Indy 500 is a month-long affair involving time trials, qualifying, carb day, the Indy 500 parade, among other events.

As I mentioned in my other post about the 500, even if you don’t like racing, there’s just something about being there.  It gets into your blood.  Hearing Jim Nabors sing “Back Home Again In Indiana,” watching F-16s and F-18s fly right over your head right on cue at the end of “The Star Spangled Banner,” and hearing Mari Hulman George shout, “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!” is just the beginning of the excitement.  The real excitement comes when after 2 warm-up laps, the field gets the green flag and all 33 cars come roaring down the track at full speed.  Wow!

To say the least, I’m glad I was able to go again this year and I look forward to many more.

I lived in Indianapolis for almost 3 years serving as a worship leader there and I quickly became a Colts fan and an Indy Racing League fan.  While living there I had the opportunity to attend the Indy 500 twice.  The 500 is the single largest attended sporting event in the world and is racing’s crown jewel.  Even if you’re not a racing fan, actually being there at the speedway just does something to you.  There’s basically a century of history there and tons of pride in the city.  I love it.  

Thanks to some great friends in Indy, I’ll be seated in turn 4 this Sunday watching the field of 33 Honda V8-powered Indycars come roaring down the track yet again.  I can’t wait!  I also look forward to catching up with some friends I haven’t seen in a while.  It’s gonna be a great weekend!

I recently had the chance to visit my good friends from college Dr. Eric and Julie Duncan and their sons Paul and Will.  Eric and I have been friends for 15 or 16 years now, going all the way back to our trip to Russia with the Lee Singers in May of ‘92.  Eric introduced me to some great music in college, including Bela Fleck and The Flecktones.  Eric is himself a talented guitarist and bassist and the other day he introduced me to Andy McKee.  Andy is an acoustic guitar marvel in the vein of Michael Hedges.  He is unbelievable.  The musicality of all he does with an acoustic guitar is unreal.  I won’t even get into the harp guitar.  His song “Drifting” has had well over 13 million views on You Tube.  If you are already aware of him, I don’t need to say anymore.  If you haven’t – assuming you do like good music – then run, don’t walk and simply You Tube Andy McKee  and thank me later.