Humbleness and Bradleyism

Well, yesterday was church at Church of the Savior (COS) with Jeff and Kristen and my friend Kirsten made a surprise visit. I was THOROUGHLY thrilled. I LOVED it. The preacher is so great and the service is fantastic. It is chopped full of worship music. The interesting thing is I learned 2 major values/lessons in church that had NOTHING to do with the sermon (which was very good btw). Like I said, the service is full of music. Well, for the last 19 years I have simply looked at the words and sang what was on the slide. Yesterday I READ the words on the slide probably for the first time. Let me tell you, they were AMAZING! For example, here is an excerpt from a song named How Deep the Father's Love For Us (yeah, I agree that it's a very long title too):

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

Well, I don't know about you, but it felt like I got whacked across the face by Muhammad Ali in his prime. I never really realized how much it meant to READ the words on the slide instead of just looking at them. I know that you are supposed to sing to God in joyful sound, so I always made sure I was in key. But...now I know what that REALLY means. It means "read the heartfelt words on the slide, understand, sing to God, thank him, and be humbled (hopefully you can keep in tune while doing all of this)." How about you, what do you do? Do you just look at the words on the slide and sound like an Angel but not really feel anything? Or do you dig in, READ and FEEL the words on the screen and shout like a cat that just got run over by a tractor trailer but sincerely sing to God? Let me tell you what I THINK: I'm going to go WAY over 9 lives. Now of course, it IS possible to sound like an Angel AND feel it, but I really wanted you to get the point across (p.s. please stand next to ME in church if you are type of person?).

Humbleness...good 'ole humbleness. Doesn't God show you humbleness at the most remarkable times? So, I was being a typical teenager during the Pastor's sermon, and I was drawing on the bulletin. My friend Kirsten was there and I felt like showing off. I got fairly good at drawing eyes recently. So I drew an eye on her bulletin just to boast and be good. I'm a guy, I do those things sometimes. Well...I forgot she was an art major. Yeah, I know! Not only did I realize truly how BAD I draw eyes, but how GOOD she is at drawing EVERYTHING. She took my eye, made it better and drew this utterly remarkable face! Well...I'm a guy, since when do we EVER get stuff right the first time? I did the same thing (at the same time) to Jeff's girlfriend Kristen's bulletin. I drew a pair of happy eyes and a tongue sticking out. Well guess what? She's an art major TOO! Yeah, she took it an made my face an almost perfect Spongebob. So...I took this situation in 2 ways. 1)God was telling me to STOP NOW and pay attention in church. 2)Just because you think you're the best, doesn't really mean you are. Oh humbleness...you are funny sometimes.

Ok lastly, I need to talk about TODAY! That would be helpful wouldn't it? This morning at 9am I went and visited Tess Bradley. She is the leader of LGP but also knows EVERYTHING about just about EVERYTHING here at school. I went to talk to her about primarily a major. Well let me tell you...I was right about her knowing EVERYTHING. She gave me 8 packets of information, a book, an instruction guide, and a paper. Um...wow. haha. I said to her "I want to be a history teacher, a psychologist or own my own shoe store." Well, we both kind of weeded out that I don't want to do the first two. Both her AND I beamed when talking about me having a shoe store. So...we're going to go in that direction. Now, she gave me some good advice. She told me to ask my friends this question "where can YOU see ME in 5 years?" Sometimes friends know us better than ourselves. I am highly optimistic and think I can go anywhere in life. Also, ask my parents on this one, I am VERY bad at making hard decisions. I spend 20 minutes in a store trying to decide which shirt to get. But anyway, by asking your friends, they don't have to be optimistic or ambitious; they will be realistic. So here is the question(s): Where do you see me in 5 years? In 10 years? In the future in general? What job do YOU think is best for me?

Well, I have an exam tomorrow. Good night everyone. Keep on thinking, keep on living, and keep on worshiping our amazing God. He deserves it.

Michael Leather