Haggai 2:4,5

4 Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.

5 …And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

As I was reading the Bible yesterday, I happened to turn to Haggai 2. I don’t think I’ve EVER read Haggai before, not even on a dare. But whenever I have a quiet time, I always pray that God will direct me to whatever passage He wants me to read that day, and that I would have a clear understanding of how it applies to my life. (And I have to say, 9 out of 10 times, it applies… boy howdy…)

So what did this verse mean to me? Well, let me give you a short background of what’s going on in my life, first.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote down on my Sony Clie one of my goals. It was to learn how to pray with more vision, more boldness. I don’t think it was just something I pulled out of my head – I think God was actually prompting me in this direction. Either way, the goal was stated and written down, officially. I just had no idea what was in store for me.

A week later, as Kim and I are church searching, we visit one called “The Edge Church,” which we pass by when we go to a nearby park during the week. We were blown away. Not only was the place comfortably small and packed with people we could relate to (read: 30′s and 40s’ with chilluns), but the music was contemporary and the preaching was good, too. What cinched it, however, was the pastor (Israel Hogue) preaching about the new Ministry Campaign they were starting… He kept referring to the “vision” they should have for the future of the church, and how to pray accordingly.

Bam. God’s two by four was pleasantly smacking me. We had found our church home.

Over the course of a month, God continued to spur me on to a greater future, through conversations, prayer and a few books. The two that stand out the most are:

Book #1: Your Best Life Now – Joel Osteen

We did this book as a Bible study in church, and I was skeptical. The title threw me off, the guy on the cover had a huge grin on his face, I couldn’t help but be a bit put off. Yet what he says makes sense, and it has changed the way I pray and relate to God, profoundly. The first section, on the “favor of God” was powerful. After reading that and putting those things into practice, everything turned around. Instantly. (To be honest, I was gonna sell it on eBay, but I ended up highlighting too much later on in the book… now I’m glad to say it’s a keeper…)

Book # 2: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy

Although some might read the cover and think it’s a mystical book, it’s more about simple psychology and how our minds work. It’s primarily focused on what we tell yourselves, the silent scripts we replay in our heads that have the profound power to either propel us to do fantastic things, or to short-circuit our lives and potential…

I’ve always been a pretty positive person, but it became clear that there was room for improvement in my thought life. And now? I’m Mr. Positive, more than I’ve ever been. I’ve made a decision that I will not be dominated by fear, self-defeatist attitudes or the like anymore.

I will give this disclaimer, however: in one of this other books Mr. Murphy has a few points which I whole-heartedly disagree with (“Satan doesn’t exist,” etc.)… but for the most part, I sincerely believe that this stuff is on target.

So what is it that I’m being positioned for? What is it that God has done to change my life? Just this: I now have an incredible, inexplicable desire to take the numerous inventions I’ve written down over the year, evaluate them, and push them to market. I will soon be making income based solely on my mind, and the execution of the ideas within. (To be honest, that’s what we ALL do for income… everything around us starts with a thought…) And I, for one, am changing my thoughts for the better…

Which brings me to the third book I’m reading, and the relevance of the passage above.

Book # 3: The Maverick Mindset, by Doug Hall

This book is all about conquering your fears, pure and simple. It’s about mustering up the courage to pursue your dreams, to step out on the ledge and reach for that swinging bar ahead of you. To achieve the greatness you know you can achieve.

So, yeah, it’s safe to say I’m at a scary point in my life right now. I’m rising above my complacency, my mediocrity and self-satisfied comfortable life and chasing after my dreams until I tackle ‘em and harness them, once and for all. And the best part of it? I have no doubt God is wanting me to do this, and will BLESS ME for doing these things.

Here I am, on the brink of a new birth (literally), about to pee my pants, and God’s saying “Be strong, and [go to work. For I am with you,” “…my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”

Bam! Do Not Fear. That says it all. Do Not Fear. “Go to it!” He says! “Go, work your butt off! Do what you know you can do, for I have created you with the skills and talents to go do it! Do Not Fear!! Just go do it!! I’ll be there with you the whole time.”

Makes ya wanna cry, doesn’t it?

My life is changed forever. Forever. I am experiencing God’s grace and, yes, favor – on a daily basis. Things are happening so fast, I barely have time to share them with Kim when she gets home! Much less post them to my Profound Thoughts! But today was the day, apparently. Today it all came together, the verse and the time (and the online chat with Jeff Pickell, from which I lifted the book descriptions above).

I’ll summarize the New Mindset with these parting and powerful words:

My desire to succeed now exceeds my desire for safety and comfort. And it is with this desire, this all-consuming passion, that I will transform my life from this point forward.

Thank You Lord.

Kevin

Now, this is just disturbing… here I am, perusing the site of a respectable friend, and what kind of picture do I find on his site? A NUDIE picture!!!! Geez, Jeffrey!! We can count the freckles from our desktop, man!! (Nice doo, though…)

Seriously, though, I’m jealous…. I’ll have to see if I can’t copy you and get a webcam up and going… just so I can start stripping for the world… (Yep, same ol’ Kevin, looking for any excuse to moon people…)

Just another experiment with the Podcast. Also includes a short update on my lovely wife and kid, as well as a prediction for the future of this Podcast, etc… Keep listening, you’ll wet your pants yet… (Indeed, that’s my whole goal, to get people to pee themselves across the nation…)

I know, I know, again with the “pee-themed” blog, but I can’t help it… Pee is such a fun word… come one, just say it outloud once… “Pee.”
Now, doesn’t that feel better?

Kevin

Okay, so maybe calling this a Podcast is a bit of stretch, but it IS my first audio entry! In the next few weeks I’ll be learning how to master this thing, whether through Blogger or Audioblog or whatnot… in due time it will be streamlined, my friends, and when that happens, you’ll be getting daily updates (in my pie-in-the-sky theory…). Plus, whenever people come to the house I’ll include them as guest of the show. Oh yes… prepare to be entertained, you unsuspecting dolts… I mean, friends…

Kevin

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Last Days are upon us. What other explanation
could there be for such insane insanity? Is this not a throwback to
Egyptian times, with the inverted and perverted worship of canines
instead of felines? Does anyone else think this is crazy? Holy bazooka,
Fido…

The Hook: Super, scary creatures hunting and being hunted in the dark. (Aliens wannabe, part seventeen…)

The Score: D

The Thoughts:

Man, I wanted to like this movie, I really did. The previews didn’t look that bad, and I was happy to see Christian Slater get top billing in a movie again (what was his last one? “Hard Rain”? That was a long, long time ago…) Unfortunately, this is NOT the comeback vehice he should’ve hopped onto.

The special effects were great, top notch, for the most part. But FX don’t make the movie, as Anacondas and Resident Evil 2 can attest to. When you have bad dialogue, sad acting (a pretty but vapid Tara Reid) and illogical action sequences, you have one sticky mess on your hands.

On one hand, I applaud myself for seeing a movie on my own volition WITHOUT consulting the reviews at RottenTomatoes.com. On the other, I could’ve saved that $8.50 to put toward something more worthy (Assault on Precinct 13, perhaps…)

You live, you learn, and by all means, avoid “the Dark..”

This is, without question, the most disturbing fortune I’ve EVER

found inside a cookie…

Like the majority of my CD discoveries, I found this one at CDBaby.com. (If you haven’t visited CDBaby yet, you should. Independent music has never been so readily available or plentiful. And GOOD!! It still amazes me what get promoted and radio play on today’s pop stations…) Enough with the plug – go visit and you’ll see what I’m talking about…

So, I stumbled across Williamson, and was quite pleased by the description and sound samples. Instrumental guitar pop with numerous loops and noodlings… (my words, not his). I had to give it a try.

THEN, I ran across his album at eMusic.com, where I was subscribing to a trial membership (40 mp3 downloads a month, only $9.99. That’s about 25 cents a song, compared to iTunes 99 cents…) So I downloaded the album in one fell swoop. Just like a hawk on a hamster… SWOOOP!!!!! It Was Mine.

Needless to say, I like it. A lot. While some of the songs sound a like, and occasionally the layered loops are a bit on the overkill side of things, for the most part he’s collected an enjoyable set of background songs. Songs that are fun and enjoyable, but don’t require your full attention to love ‘em.

He’ll be having another album out in 2005, as I understand it, and I’m eagerly looking forward to it. While I hope he backs off a bit on the overkill factor, I’m not going to nitpick. I’d rather take a clone of “Some Things…” than none at all.

Intrigued? Curious? Go visit his site for some sounds and form your own opinions, hey?

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/williamson