California Trip - did we do the right thing?
Hi all
I hope this finds you well. We are out on the road in California and have had a fairly eventful trip. As you can see from the previous post out flight out was pretty krazy. What was meant to be an uneventful 15 hour journey turned out to be a 48 hour ordeal involving police, ambulances and visiting more places that we would have liked. We finally arrived in Sacramento a few hours before we were due to play and when we got on stage we were pretty shattered. Plus, I had a pretty bad cold which made the job tough.
Although we had a good night with Youth Specialties, we were initially disappointed with the numbers who were able to make it out....there were only about 70 in the crowd.
The next day, after getting some tattoos, we were getting ready for our next trip only for me to be rushed to Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento in the middle of the night. I thought I was dying...but it turned out to be kidney stones!! (Which are apparently one of the most painful things you can get.) So I am sitting in hospital now, writing this blog, while the rest of the band are in San Jose leading worship at The Journey.
I think all these hassles/frustrations and pain have made me consider was this trip really worth it? We've put a lot of time, energy and money into being here and it has all been for what we would consider to be little gain. I've felt quite reflective about it and have been wondering if we made the wrong desicion to come here. The trip hasn't really gone as anticipated. I can remember agreeing to do this trip and at that time I didn't really have peace in my heart but I decided to push on ahead...it seemed like too good an opportunity to turn up. My family were not that keen for me to take it on but at the time I thought it was OK and a good idea. In my desire to get out and 'do something' I ignored myself, my family and possibly ignored Gods prompting.
We've chatted a lot as a band recently about how all our decisions need to come from a place of peace - a place where we all feel (and our families feel) that we are moving in Gods will and in his timing. I feel on this occassion, I was just a little too hungry and under pressure to create something that maybe wasn't in Gods timing. Maybe I was trying to rush Him and myself?
Certainly, things have not gone as we would have liked. It is not that we expected everything to be perfect....life isn't like that but I (and prob the band) have not had as much of a sense of ease and peace on this trip as we would normally have. I think there is a lesson here for us. I think we need to listen to ourselves and to God more, notice His timings and operate from a place of peace. I certainly need to do things that have my family's blessing...otherwise it doesn't work.
We are going to be out in Nashville and Toronto soon and we do have peace and blessing about those trips so it will be interesting to see how those turn out in comparison to how things have gone here!
Peace to you,
Johnny
I hope this finds you well. We are out on the road in California and have had a fairly eventful trip. As you can see from the previous post out flight out was pretty krazy. What was meant to be an uneventful 15 hour journey turned out to be a 48 hour ordeal involving police, ambulances and visiting more places that we would have liked. We finally arrived in Sacramento a few hours before we were due to play and when we got on stage we were pretty shattered. Plus, I had a pretty bad cold which made the job tough.
Although we had a good night with Youth Specialties, we were initially disappointed with the numbers who were able to make it out....there were only about 70 in the crowd.
The next day, after getting some tattoos, we were getting ready for our next trip only for me to be rushed to Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento in the middle of the night. I thought I was dying...but it turned out to be kidney stones!! (Which are apparently one of the most painful things you can get.) So I am sitting in hospital now, writing this blog, while the rest of the band are in San Jose leading worship at The Journey.
I think all these hassles/frustrations and pain have made me consider was this trip really worth it? We've put a lot of time, energy and money into being here and it has all been for what we would consider to be little gain. I've felt quite reflective about it and have been wondering if we made the wrong desicion to come here. The trip hasn't really gone as anticipated. I can remember agreeing to do this trip and at that time I didn't really have peace in my heart but I decided to push on ahead...it seemed like too good an opportunity to turn up. My family were not that keen for me to take it on but at the time I thought it was OK and a good idea. In my desire to get out and 'do something' I ignored myself, my family and possibly ignored Gods prompting.
We've chatted a lot as a band recently about how all our decisions need to come from a place of peace - a place where we all feel (and our families feel) that we are moving in Gods will and in his timing. I feel on this occassion, I was just a little too hungry and under pressure to create something that maybe wasn't in Gods timing. Maybe I was trying to rush Him and myself?
Certainly, things have not gone as we would have liked. It is not that we expected everything to be perfect....life isn't like that but I (and prob the band) have not had as much of a sense of ease and peace on this trip as we would normally have. I think there is a lesson here for us. I think we need to listen to ourselves and to God more, notice His timings and operate from a place of peace. I certainly need to do things that have my family's blessing...otherwise it doesn't work.
We are going to be out in Nashville and Toronto soon and we do have peace and blessing about those trips so it will be interesting to see how those turn out in comparison to how things have gone here!
Peace to you,
Johnny
posted by Johnny Parks at 6:14:00 p.m.
1 Comments:
Hey Guys - Johnny, sorry to hear about the stones, man thon must hurt. Hope your feeling loads better.
The wisdom in these situations is tricky one - hindsight is a wonderful thing after all! But you have to do whats right for you as a band I guess.
Speedy recovery and a big yeow to ye' all!
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