Underground

For those of you who haven't yet heard about "Underground", it's our young adult fellowship on Sunday nights in the community center at the Booth Gardens Apartments in uptown Charlotte. We hang out in a very relaxed setting and we usually do something constructive. You should come because it's where are the cool kids are hanging out on Sunday nights at 7PM!

Here are some photos during "Underground." If you'd like more information on gathering times and activities, email me at bandmastersimmons@gmail.com or just show up!

We've been known to have some intellectual conversations here and there, but we don't ourselves too seriously. Wow... look at the concentration.

My wife and I. I get that look from her a lot. It basically means "Daniel... you weirdo!" or "What are you talkin' about????".

There's Sandra on the right. She's one of our corps officers at Charlotte Temple. She's cool!
Erin (in the middle) seems to like her side profile the best (Erin's cool too).

Nice profile of my friend Tilden's head. I've entitled this photograph "Reflections." Come see it LIVE and in person!

These guys look like they're having fun, eh? Especially with that banana peel hanging out of the mouth. Nice!

Panthers? There's an NFL team in Charlotte?

I have never been so disappointed in a favorite sports team in my lifetime. If you didn't think that the Carolina Panthers were over rated, and if the terrible loss we took from the Redskins (who are like, what, last place int he NFL?) didn't convince you of that, then let today be your day to be a believer.

37- 3 loss to the Steelers. Way to go guys. You're almost as disappointing as the tax payer funded Charlotte Bobcats (that, by the way, nobody wanted to have here).

Looks like we'll be getting a good draft pick.

God: He's not just for Christians.

Today I learned....

• If you have a person, a friend whom you can trust with ANYTHING (even money) then that person has taught you what God is like. God has the power to show up in those around you. God's goal for ME is to show YOU what God is like and vice versa. Be imitators of God.

• Our images of God are deeply shaped by those around us.... for good and bad.
  So it's important for our ineractions with Christians and those who do NOT profess to be Christian to be marked in generosity and love.
  

• The way of Jesus cannot be lived alone.
  

Deep ocean of love...

Took these photos last weekend while at the beach. God's creation is breath-taking.

And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.

Renewed

Well, I got back from TMI last night at about 7:30 PM. Was supposed to be home at 4:30 PM, but the bus company that was supposed to pick us up from camp to take us to the airport was an hour and fourty minutes late. So, I missed my 11:30 am flight. I Had to pay extra and catch an afternoon flight. My day started off being very challenging, but it all worked itself out.

Territorial Music Institute was an awesome experience. Not only did I learn TONS of stuff in my classes with Dr. Ron Holz, but I came away from the camp renewed in spirit and with a different, but better outlook on a lot of things to do with my music ministry and just life.

During the day, I was the manager/librarian for Dr. Ron Holz's "Advanced Musical Leadership" class. In the afternoon, some of the other DMD's/staff and me would play in the TMI band (the top ensemble... the kids audition) to help them out, and then at night I was a cabin counselor for 16-17 year olds. This was something that I was slightly anxious about before camp, but it turned out to be great. All but one of the kids in my cabin was from our division and a few are from my region, so it was awesome getting to hang out with them and get to know them.

At the camp (in Oklahoma) these HUGE locusts come out at night and if you don't get your door shut in time when you enter the cabin, they follow you in because of the cabin's fluorescent lights. These locusts make the most annoying, loud noise and they fly around with no sense of direction. One of my campers said to me:

"Those locusts... yeah, they basically live for about two weeks. Sometimes you see their wings and skin left on logs out in the woods. Man, that's weird that something's put here on Earth to only live for two weeks."

I agreed and then I thought... I bet this is the way God looks at us. To a locust, 2 weeks may feel like 200 years. 1 year to a dog feels like 9 years. I bet God looks at lot of us, especially those of us that are "lost" and thinks- "you only have 2 weeks (God's time) on Earth and you're squandering it away. When are you going to get serious and live your short life for Me as I have told you?

The normal life expectancy for a male is 74 years old or so. I bet that 74 human years is equivalent to one breath of God.

We were put here for a purpose, but life is short. Consider the locust.

Paper Airplanes

I was reviewing a book today entitled "It's Not About Me" by Max Lucado and found an interesting passage that really stuck out to me. This is for those of you who picked on me and teased me last year about my "ants and sweet iced tea" analogy that I made during cell group one evening ("ahem... Sarah Jewett!):

"What you are to a paper airplane, God is to you. Take a sheet of paper and make one. Contrast yourself with your creation. Challenge it to a spelling contest. Who will win? Dare it to race you around the block. Who is faster? Invite the airplane to a game of one-on-one basketball. Will you not dominate the court?

And well you should. The thing has no brainwaves, no pulse. It exists only because you formed it and flies only when someone throws it. Multiply the contrasts between you and the paper airplane by infinity, and you will begin to catch a glimpse of the disparity between God and us. "


Wow. We are so far out of the realm of God's intelligence that it is just absolutely UNIMAGINABLE. Ever wondered how many more solar systems there are?? I mean, isn't sort of cocky to think that we're the only one, that this is all God could have created? Even with our most advanced super astronomical and meteorological equipment that we've been developing for hundreds and thousands of years, we cannot even begin to tap into discovering His total creation. Our intelligence is completely infinitesimal compared to His.

And the next time I want to question something God has done (especially if it's something that affects me negatively), instead of saying "Man, how could God do that?" I want to say what the Jews would say- "Man, that is incredible. God works in amazing ways."

It's called being in awe. He is awesome.

So Thankful

8 more days until I fly to Oklahoma to work at and attend Territorial Music Institute. Will be my first year at TMI... I'm pretty excited about this. I get to work with very knowledgeable people all week and learn, learn, learn! Some of you will laugh at me and tell me I'm a geek, but that's cool. CAUSE' I AM.

I made contact with the folks at Winthrop University this past week. I have a trumpet lesson with their professor next week and a meeting with the chair of the music department about resuming my studies in music education there.

You know, it absolutely amazes me the way God moves us; he moves us like little chess pieces. I was thinking the other night about how close I was to finishing my music education degree 3 years ago before I quit school. I mean, I was three semesters away I suppose and had a good transcript. I guess I would be more upset if I had failed. What was my deal?

Anyway, it was making me ill, just the thought of it. I really kick myself over this a lot. But then Christina has such positive perspective on it. She says "Daniel... think about it, though. If you had not quit, we may not have gotten married, you wouldn't have moved away from the so-called 'friends' that were negatively influencing you, and you may not have discovered The Salvation Army. Look at where you are. No- you don't have a degree yet, but because you worked your tail off, you still got the music director job at The Salvation Army, and now you have tuition reimbursement benefits that will help you go back to school for less money."

Well. I guess when you put it that way, it's not so bad, eh?

Gosh, looking back on it now, it's so easy to see how the Lord was moving me one move at the time so that I would eventually come to know him better and live a life of doing his work through music and service (I have so much to learn about that whole service thing, though). Thanks to him I am now in a musical career in The Salvation Army. Now.. it's time to finish that degree. I'm shooting to be back in by January. Wish me luck.

Dear God- I love you today and always. I thank you for your gifts and for your omnipotence. I thank you for giving me the strength to persevere when times were tough. I thank you for my wife. It's not my strength that got me to this point, it's Yours.

Lord- You are awesome.

Lord, make my music speak

The soul in the music can be really manifested in playing a simple tune as in giving the most complicated piece. I want you to give your attention not only to playing the highly developed journals, but the same care, the same nicety of touch and style bestowed upon the most simple and commonplace words that the average man such as I am can understand.Make your music speak; make it say something to the crowd; play your very hearts into the people's hearts.

-Bramwell Booth

Catherine's Conclusion

Lord, I pray that you will give me the wisdom to teach my bandsmen and songsters the true meaning of what we do as Christian musicians. For those musicians who may not yet fully understand the spiritual meaning behind the music we play or sing, Lord, give me the ability to convey this meaning to them so that they in turn can use that knowledge and their talent to give that message to those who need it. I pray that you will constantly remind me that we are not performers, we are givers of the good news. Yes, we are "minsters of note."

Catherine Booth said it best:

...I have always regarded music as all belonging to God. Perhaps some of you have heard me say in public that there will not be a note of music in hell, it will be all in heaven, and God ought to have it all there, and God ought to have it all here...The church has strangely lost sight of the value of music as a religious agency. I think God has used the Army to resuscitate and awaken [it] and while the bandsmen of the Salvation Army realize it to be as much their service to blow an instrument as it is to sing or pray...and while they do it in the same spirit, I am persuaded it will become an ever-increasing power amongst us. But the moment you, or any other bandsman, begin to glory in the excellence of the music alone, apart from the spiritual results, you will begin at that moment to lose your power...You see, when you separate the divine from the human, it ceases to have any power over souls. Don't forget that.

-Catherine Booth