I had a realization while driving to work in Columbia one day last week. I have some of my best realizations and thoughts on that drive, even when listening to Van Halen or Bon Jovi and potentially ear-splitting volume. Hey, you never know when inspiration will strike!

But I had thoughts running amuck in my old noggin’ and one of them just seemed so simple. If it was a snake it’d have bit me! I was thinking about prayer and that age old question of why God answers some prayers and not others. I pray about a lot of things daily, but I admit I feel guilty about some of my prayers. Guilty because they seem so small and trivial and I should be praying about bigger things. Praying for others and not myself so much. Thinking about the bigger picture of life instead of just wanting my tires to last a few more months or something like that.

As I thought about all of this, I was focusing in one specific thing I prayed about a few months back. It was, on the surface, a very small thing. Just something that was driving me crazy and seemed silly to pray about, but I wasn’t sure what else to do at that point. I’d tried a lot of things on my own and even just trying for acceptance wasn’t working. (Any of this sound familiar?)

But this teeny, tiny, trivial thing I prayed about and asked God to deal with, He did. He dealt with it and it’s not an issue for me anymore.

Thinking about all of that reminded me that just because something seems small and insignificant it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pray about it. You definitely should!! If it means enough to you that it sticks in your brain and in your craw (what the heck is a craw anyway?? I know what a crow is…), then you should pray about it. And with those thoughts, it reminded me that if God listens and is willing to answer our prayers about the seemingly silliest thing, why on earth would we doubt that He is listening to our bigger prayers and why would be doubt that He is working on things and going to answer our prayers???

Yeah. Such a totally simple and elementary revelation, but it took a while for me to remember that. So now when I’m driving every day, that thought pops into my head (I start each day’s drive to Columbia with some prayer time) and I remind myself that God is working in my life (and yours!). We just don’t always realize it and for that big stuff, well, it might take Him a little while longer than we’d like.

Bon Jovi Charlotte concert recaplet

I should start this entry by saying I did not feel well on Thursday and that carried over into Thursday  night.  So while I wanted to be rocking out to my boys, singing and dancing and screaming my head off, it was a challenge to get into the groove. Unfortunately. I still enjoyed the concert a great deal - no shock there - but I wish I had felt good and been super-excited like I was 4 years ago during the Have a Nice Day tour.

That said, I was excited to have floor seats, but not so much once the show started.  There was an Amazon standing a bit in my way, so it was hard to see sometimes. I could watch the vid screens, but I was spoiled those times in 2006 when we were on the side of the stage and could really see EVERYTHING that was going on.  The plus, however, is that I basically could see David Bryan the entire time and as anyone who knows me knows, he's the one I've come to see.  I listen to Jon and ogle Dave.  That's my forte, actually.  ;o) I won't go after floor seats again and in the future will actually try to get side stage seats whenever possible. I just like them more.

 Not bad seats BEFORE everyone stands up...

Ooh! It's Dave!  And Jon and Richie.  And Bobby Bandiera.  But mostly it's Dave!

Overall it was a good show.  They always trot out Bad Name, Bad Medicine, Wanted, and Prayer. I think the audience would revolt if they didn't.  But having heard 'em live for many years, I'd be fine without them.  Prayer was the final song and the entire place went nuts.  The whole audience was finally engaged.

Engagement was a problem, in my opinion, for the audience that night.  It was like they wanted the hits and songs they knew, but if it was something they did not know - like the new record - then people all around me would sit down.  SIT DOWN.  AT A ROCK CONCERT. That's so, so wrong.

 I was able to take this shot because people were SITTING DOWN!  Looney tunes.

I realize I take it personally when the audience doesn't know the new songs and that's just a quirk of mine. If I'm paying the price for a ticket these days then I'm going to sing along.  We sat next to a mom who was my age with her teenage daughter (maybe 14?) and they had never been to a Jovi show before, so I know for the newbies in the audience it's important to get the hits like Bad Name, etc.  That mom was probably waiting for the past 20 years for that stuff.

 It's Dave on the big screen!!

It was still a bummer to see a lack of enthusiasm from the crowd during I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Captain Crash. I love those songs and even if I did not, they are GREAT live songs.  I had no interest in Captain Crash till I heard it live in 2002.  And ISWID is just made to be played live.  So I sang and danced and clapped and everyone around me was SITTING DOWN.  That sound you hear was a knife going into my heart.  *sigh*  But hey, I love it even if others did not!  I had not expected to hear either of those songs so...BONUS!

The big surprise for me was Jon and Richie doing Diamond Ring.  Even if I did not get my Only Lonely, I got some oldies and some great songs. Another bonus!  It was also nice to have Richie doing something other than I'll Be There for You, which he did on the HAND tour. 

Richie, however, was looking his age.  He just looked kinda rough.  And I was very glad he was not taking his shirt off.  I love my Richie, but I'm guessing all that time before rehab was not kind to him.  Of course, I think my beloved Dave looked fab. Did you expect anything else from me?  LOL  There just weren't enough big screen close ups for me to drool over.  Bummer!

I wasn't trying to get his abs on film. Honest.  Or...was I?

The rest of the set list was good, but there are always songs I wish were included. I was sorry that Love's the Only Rule was not included (it was usually the set ender during the tour) and they did not do the acoustic set that they did throughout the tour.  I had been looking forward to both of those.  I know they were mixing things up as they went along, but I'm selfish. 

April 23, Charlottte, NC, Time Warner Cable Arena

Happy Now
We Weren't Born to Follow
You Give Love a Bad Name
Whole Lot of Leavin'
Born to Be My Baby
Lost Highway
When We Were Beautiful
Superman Tonight
We Got It Goin' On
Bad Medicine w/ Bad Case of Loving You [Robert Palmer cover]
It's My Life
Lay Your Hands on Me [Richie Sambora on lead vocals]
(You Want To) Make a Memory
Diamond Ring
I'll Be There For You
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen from Mars
Work for the Working Man
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night

ENCORE:
Hallelujah [Leonard Cohen cover]
Runaway
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer

There are videos out there on You Tube if you want to check out performances, but I'm just going to link to Blame It On The Love, an unofficial Bon Jovi blog, where they are already posted because I'm too lazy to embed them here. LOL
  
It was a good set list, but in Shannonland, it would be different.  My ultimate set list would be as follows. In no particular order except by album:

She Don't Know Me (which they will NEVER do, so....)
In and Out of Love
Only Lonely
Silent Night
Never Say Goodbye
Born to be My Baby
Wild is the Wind
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
In These Arms (with David Bryan on lead vocals)
These Days
This Ain't a Love Song
Edge of a Broken Heart
Just Older
Mystery Train
Have a Nice Day
Complicated
Lost Highway
I Love This Town
Love's the Only Rule
When We Were Beautiful
We Weren't Born to Follow
I Get a Rush
Someday I'll be Saturday Night
Always

I'm sure I'd add more songs to this if I thought about it, but I don't wanna think about it right now.  And you can't make meeeeeeeeee!!!

I do wish I had another chance to see them on this tour, but Charlotte was the end of the arenas and now they are on a break until mid-May and then start the stadium leg of the tour.  I thought for some reason that the tour was going to keep going into 2011 and I guess it might, but usually they end things at Giants Stadium during the summer or early fall, so I'm not holing out hope. But if another leg of the tour turns up, you bet I'll find a way to be there!

This is as close as I come to making New Year's Resolutions

I hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve, for those so inclined to engage in all the festivities. I have never been a fan of this particular "holiday" except getting a day off work. It was never a big deal in my home growing up and I don't recall my parents ever going out to NYE parties. I don't have anything against it, per se, just never saw the point. People seem to think that is because my mother died on NYE 1999, but that is not the case. Just general ambivalence.

That said, I did go to a friend's house last night to hang out with some folks I seldom get to see and had a nice time. I skew towards the low key end of the spectrum for fun. I watched a friend’s little boy giggle and giggle and just be too darn cute. I ate some yummy food. Someone even sidled up to me and said I looked like I'd been losing weight and someone else said when they first met me (a few years ago) they were shocked to learn my age because they thought I looked about 10 years younger. Yeah, can't argue with any of that. *grin*

As for 2010, I am hoping it's better than 2009. 2009 was probably half good and half bad. Not a bad balance really since I had expected it be a crappy year being unemployed. So the job situation is a huge plus, I had so much fun at my 20th high school reunion that it should have been illegal, but that is balanced by the deaths of two friends within the same week. Oh yes, and I got a kickin’ new job that I simply love and am so blessed to have landed in. For a year that started out with only the promise of looming unemployment, it turned out better in many ways than I would have expected.

I really don't make resolutions, but there are areas I'd like to improve in in my life, but that's a daily thing to deal with rather than something I think you should focus on on January 1st.

But for the sake of joining the resolution madness, I present Shannon’s Version of New Year’s Resolutions.

1) I will not do physical harm to people who cannot learn to spell the word “definitely” correctly. There is NO “A” in “definitely”!! Of that, I am DEFINITELY sure!!

2) I will not take up running. I tried it. I don’t like it. I refuse to do it. The exception to this rule is if I am being chased by a serial killer. In that instance, I think it would be prudent to revise this particular resolution.

3) I will not be growing my hair out in 2010. Tried it. Didn’t like it. Much like the aforementioned running.

4) In 2010 I will continue to wonder what my natural hair color is. I think it’s brown. Possibly dark brown. I’m reasonably confident there is some grey in there too, but we’ll never know for sure!

5) I will not be getting married in 2010. In conjunction with this, I will not be a) getting pregnant or b) having a baby.

6) I will eat too much on many occasions and regret it later.

7) I will never exercise as much as I think I should, but at least I’ll exercise.

8) I’ll miss the people I have loved and lost, but know that they are in a much better place, without sadness or pain and that will make me smile.

9) I will continue to think my butt is too big, my bank account too small, and my fabulousness frequently unappreciated.

10) I will continue to love Bon Jovi. I know. You’re shocked. Try to control yourselves.

I'm just hoping that this year is better than next - for more than just me.

Some rambling thoughts about my friend Andrea

I sent this off as an e-mail to some friends today and then decided to post it on my blog. It's kind of rambling and I like to focus more when I write, but that's the way of the blog I guess.

**************

First of all, never, EVER read sad things when you don't want to cry like a baby and then feel like a big dork.  And I usually feel like a dork at least 5 times a day, so that’s not new.

That said, I settled in to read the updates of friends of mine on their blogs about the memorial service this past weekend for my friend Andrea,, who passed away September 20th from breast cancer. I still tear up thinking about her and how hard she fought to live. But when I started reading details about the memorial service (and status updates on Facebook on Saturday night), I realized there was an Andrea out there that I had no idea about. NO IDEA.

Admittedly, we didn’t keep in touch on a very regular basis and the last time I saw her was in 2007 before I went to Australia. But I prayed for her a lot through this ordeal that some of you are all too familiar with from personal experience too. And I thought it was really cool that she was in DC working for the State Department and then the American Embassy in Iraq.

Little did I know…

The truth of the matter was, Andrea was a spy for the CIA. As my friend Karen said on her blog, “She wasn't just reading and editing documents like I thought she was doing all these years. She was on the field of Iraq, wearing burkas to meet informants to bring back info to our government, planning strategies to secure our soldiers through the counter terrorism division of the CIA. *blink blink* I'm sorry, whaaat?!”

That about sums up my thoughts.

My friend Andrea who I met a decade ago on an internet bulletin board devoted to romance author Judith McNaught. The one who loved to dance and loved her dog Belle. The one who loved her husband and family. The one who didn’t believe she could totally work that pink leather dress we made her try on in Vegas (but she totally could). Andrea was a spy.

The program from her memorial says the following: “Andrea was a Collections Management Officer (CMO) which is a position in the National Clandestine Service (NCS). She worked at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC). CMO's like Operations Officers, are engaged in the full cycle of intelligence collection operations.”

I’m in awe. Truly in awe. Possibly even speechless and y’all know how hard that is for me not to talk! LOL

When I started thinking about how Andrea followed her dream to work with the CIA and how she was risking her life to serve our country through public service, it made me feel rather small and petty and quite often childish. Most definitely selfish. I realize the members of our military do that every day, all the time. But this is somehow different. Much more personal I guess.

My life just seemed so, so small.

But then I realized that no life is small. You can make it small if you choose, but no life is small. Everything we do has purpose and meaning. We might not realize it at the time, but it does. It’s like my pastor said said on Sunday, everyone is put into your life for a reason. It’s not by chance - there is always a purpose.

God did me a huge favor putting Andrea in my life. I will never, ever forget her. And when I feel like I am not doing enough in the world, I’ll stop and remember that my life isn’t small. I have an impact. Not, perhaps, as big as some others have on the world, but I make a difference. Every day. To someone.

AND SO DO YOU!! We are not in each other’s lives by accident but by divine direction. The choice is yours to make on what you do with what you are given. Such a simple concept, but one that I think I need to repeat to myself over and over and hope it sticks.

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989!

I have not felt inspired to update this blog in a couple of weeks, but now that my 20th high school reunion has come and gone, I want to get my thoughts written down.

To say that I have overly excited about this reunion is a gross understatement. Ever since planning started over Thanksgiving weekend last year, I've been anticipating the reunion. That being the case, I was afraid that it might not live up to my expectations, but I'm happy to say that it did. The only complaint is that it was much too short. It's so hard to fit everything - and everyONE - into about 36 hours. Crazy.

By far the best part of the weekend was spending time with some of my very best friends. I love getting together, though we do it far too infrequently. Fortunately, we can pick up right where we left off which I love! We can move into and out of and back into each others' lives through the years and somehow manage it almost seemlessly. We're similar, yet different. Somehow it just works.

I often feel just one step outside the circle though because we really did have different high school experiences. Oh sure, we had the same classes sometimes, same friends, teachers. We were growing up in the same location. But my parents were pretty protective and if I did not have a destination and an estimated time of arrival back home, I wasn't going to get out of the house. Plus, they hated the idea of me riding in the car with teenagers driving, so I never really went out. So a lot of things went on in high school that I wasn't a part of. That's not a complaint at all - just a simple statement of fact. And the only other thing I'm going to say on that subject is I'm glad some of y'all made it out of high school alive. LOL

In addition to spending time with the usual suspects, I had a chance to speak to some other folks outside that circle from the Class of 89 which is something I had hoped for. In a class of about 600 students and a school of nearly 2000, it's impossible to know everyone. But for me, part of the purpose of a 20 year reunion is to throw off the old high school cliquishness and stereotypes and talk to folks. You don't have to act like best friends with people that might not have given you - or you given them - the time of day in the past, but as adults, it's nice to be able to realize that that was then and this is now. So for me it was nice to have a chat here and there with folks that I remember, but didn't know that well. Through the magic of Facebook, we are into and out of each others' lives anyway, so it would be silly not to speak.

Facebook gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but I heard more than once someone say that if it hadn't been for reconnecting with people on FB they would not have come to the reunion. At least FB is sometimes using its power for good and not evil. LOL

It was also interesting to me to be told a couple of times by folks that they wish they had known me better in high school. It was a nice compliment and to took it in the spirit it was intended as I know it was sincerely meant. But I know it was also based on their knowledge of who I am now and that is not necessarily who I was then. There are no guarantees they would have liked me then! Of course, I think I'm very different now than I was then, but I'd have to leave the truth of that up to those who have known me this whole time to decide just how different I might be. I'm louder that's for damned sure!

In the end, I think everyone who attended had a good time. I hope they did anyway. Twenty years ago it was easy to get wrapped up in who were the "cool" kids and who was popular or unpopular (which was totally subjective then AND now), but for me that's all in the past. Sorry popular kids! We've all pulled you down a few rungs as we've climbed up the ladder and we're all on even turf now. :o) But I mean that in the nicest way possible, because I think 20 years down the road that's where we SHOULD be. All on the same level. And really, that's where we were 20 years ago, we just didn't realize it.

The Week of SUCK!

Well my friends, it was certainly a Week of SUCK last week. Two friends gone. Two friends dying much too young. Two families mourning the loss of loved ones. Many more sharing in that mourning. Totally a WEEK OF SUCK!

On Tuesday I found out that my high school friend Mike had passed away the previous Saturday. He was hit by a car while stopped in the road, at night, trying to help an injured cat. I had communicated a little with Mike about a year or so ago on MySpace, but prior to that not for about 20 years. Many in our circle of friends have wondered over the years what had become of Mike and I am glad that before his death at least some of us had found that answer.

Mike was a sweetheart of a guy. He drove me to school every day of my junior, his senior, year of high school and we had all kinds of conversations. He was probably the first one who knew all about my crush on...well, if you went to high school with me then you'd know just who that was, so I don't have to elaborate. :o) Since his death someone said they had been trying to get him to come back east with them to see folks during my class reunion. Mike will definitely be with us in spirit.

Then Thursday the news came down that my friend Andrea was fading fast. I don't even know what to say about all of that. I think I said a lot of it pretty well in my previous 2 posts here on this blog. My heart is sick for her family and everyone who knew and loved her. Her death is such a great loss.

I freely admit a lot of the friends in our circle were much closer to Andrea than I was. I'm not big on making phone calls and I can be really lousy with returning e-mails. I don't get on instant messenger anymore. I tend to lose touch with people unless I can keep track of them somewhere like Facebook. But I still grieve strongly for her loss. I tear up just thinking about her. And that is a testimony to my friend - how she could touch SO MANY lives and it doesn't matter whether you were her best friend or hadn't talked to her in years, she still touched you.

But while I am sad for myself and her family and friends, I'm happy for Andrea. Happy that she's out of pain. Happy that she doesn't have to fight the cancer anymore. Happy that she's left behind a great legacy through everything she accomplished in a life that was all too short. It's certainly worth celebrating. We will all die one day, but I dare say that we probably all won't be as well thought of as Andrea.

And so with last week being so sucky, I'm looking forward to this new week with happier times and events. If I was excited about my 20th high school reunion before, then I am ecstatic now that it is merely 10 days away. So many faces I want to see, friends I want to hug. So long Week of Suck. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

RIP Andrea Taormina Pool

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
(Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

Mary Frye (1932)

My friend Andrea

I originally shared this with my church group back on February 23, 2009, but after getting news last night that the end is truly near, I wanted to post this here on my blog. I ask for prayers for Andrea and her family.

***************

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

My friend Andrea is going to die.

She’s been fighting breast cancer for over a year now and on Friday she got the following news from her doctor: “It's stage 4, there is no cure, only managing the disease. I have multiple extensive lesions in my liver. The liver can accommodate tumors and still function, but they ran a blood test just to make sure. As for my bones, it is in the spine, shoulders, sternum, ribs and femur.”

And so, my friend Andrea is going to die.

We’re ALL going to die one day, I know that. From the minute we are born, we are all dying. Just at different rates. If you think about death that way, it makes it a tad less scary. To me, anyway.

But still…my friend Andrea is going to die. Much too young. Much too soon.

I met her through our mutual love of romance novels (don’t judge!) when we both found our way a decade ago to an internet bulletin board dedicated to my then-favorite author Judith McNaught. Through this wonderful group of women, spread throughout the country and the world, I have made some true friends. Good women. Smart women. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, stay-at-home moms. Slightly nutty women, but then again, they are my friends, right?

I stayed in Drea’s home when I interviewed for a job at Texas A&M 7 years ago. When I lived in Dubai, we’d chat almost every day on instant messenger as I was wrapping up my day and eating dinner and she was just kick starting her day back in College Station. She’s funny and beautiful and gutsy and a fighter.

And she’s going to die.

I’ve cried A LOT the past few days. I’m crying as I type this. It’s not fair. Nothing like this is ever fair to anyone. I pray for Andrea every time I think of her, which is at least once an hour. I figure God’s going to get so sick of hearing the name Andrea that He’s going to give us the miracle we desperately need to save her life.

That’s what I pray for, but I’m also a realist. I know how bad it is. I know the statistics. I know my friend Andrea is going to die. I just don’t know when.

I tell you all that so that you’ll remember to appreciate the people in your life. So that you’ll remember to appreciate YOUR life. Love your family. Love your friends. Look for friends all over the place. It’s amazing sometimes how the people you’d never imagine being friends with can become the best friends in the entire world.

Call them. Write them. Send them a flippin’ e-mail. I don’t care what you do, but keep in touch. If they mean something to you, make sure they know it.

And lastly, take care of yourself ‘cause God don’t make no junk. I won’t tell you not to eat that piece of cake or that cheeseburger because that would be quite hypocritical of me. Andrea is a devotee of Weight Watchers and in great shape. She runs. She takes dance classes. Cancer doesn’t pick and choose us based on what we had for breakfast.

Different people come into and out of our lives at different times for different reasons. Please, please appreciate the people in your life. They will be gone all too soon.

What the...???

I was proud of myself this morning. I as up and going and heading to the post office to mail a package and FINALLY get some of the $.44 cent stamps and then off to a meeting for my 20th high school reunion. As I exited the house around 10:30am, heading to the garage, I turned and saw a man emerging from the bushes at the back of the yard. Excuse me? Did I miss my yard becoming a thoroughfare or something?

I hustle to the car in the garage and lock up everything in the car except my phone, then head into the yard to find the man. Yeah, I know. Maybe not the smartest idea, but he appeared unarmed and I wasn't going to get too close. I walk out and see him coming out of another part of the bushes. The conversation goes like this:

Me: Excuse me, what are you doing in my yard?

Man: *holding his hands up in the air* I lost my driver's license and I'm just trying to get away. I don't mean any harm.

Me: Ok, then please leave my yard. (I'm nothing if not polite.)

Man: Ok.

I start walking around the front of my garage assuming he is going to walk down the other side, beside the neighbor's fence. What he does, however is hop the fence and go into the neighbor's yard.

By this time I'm already locked back in the house and calling the police. They say they will send someone out. We've had a lot of robberies in the neighborhood in the past 4 or 5 months, so no way was I not calling the cops about this.

The cops arrived within maybe 3 to 5 minutes, which is awesome. I love that. I talk to the officer and show him where the guy was, he goes to the fence and finds footprints and broken branches indicating that the guy jumped into the neighbor's yard and then he tracks him across that yard and into the next one.

I told the cops that the other house has been vacant for about 5 or 6 months and in the end, there were 4 of them checking out that entire house to be sure he hadn't broken in and was camping out there.

So my Saturday morning consisted of finding some fool in the bushes of my backyard and me calling the cops. There were no less than 6 police cruisers on my street. One of the neighbors across the street came home and went to the cops to see what was going on. I'm glad they didn't find any trace of the man and it's good that they responded so quickly, but I'm going to be a little creeped out for a few days about this. To say the least. I mean, if some dude is running around in my bushes in BROAD DAYLIGHT, who the hell knows what might be going on at night.

The moral of the story is, however, that if you mess with me, I will call the cops on your stupid ass in a heartbeat.

God talks to Dr. Johnny Fever and to me too!

I love watching classic TV shows from my childhood and seeing them through the eyes of an adult. Sometimes they are funnier. Sometimes they are dumber. And sometimes they throw out a zinger.

One fave of mine is WKRP in Cincinnati which runs every Sunday. I’ve always thought if I were a DJ, I’d want to be like Dr. Johnny Fever. But I could never be as cool as Johnny. And radio isn’t big like it was in the 70s, so I’m out of luck all the way around. But watching the other night I heard God talking to me and so did Johnny.

The episode is called, appropriately, God Talks to Johnny and in it, Dr. Fever thinks he’s heard a voice talking to him in his apartment and he believes it’s God. He asks everyone at the radio station if they believe in God and do they think God talks to people. He can’t believe that God might talk to him. Of all people.

In the end, he calls the station owner, Mr. Carlson, and has him meet him around 3am at the local hospital’s psych ward and is ready to check himself in. He’s waited the entire time to talk to this man, who is the one person on the show that he knows is a religious man. One who attends church regularly and even teaches Sunday School.

Mr. Carlson wants to know what God said to Johnny and he tells him that God told him that he loves him and wants him to do great things. Finally frustrated, Mr. Carlson tells Johnny that even if it’s not God talking to him, how could it be bad when someone tells you that they love you? Johnny still hems and haws over believing it’s God and questions how can he know that God is talking to him? How can he know it’s really God? Mr. Carlson finally replies, “Listen buster, if God has something he wanted to say, you'd hear it!”

Well, I think he got it right folks. I really think he did..

Personally, I spend a lot of time praying to God for answers. I have so many questions and so few answers. I always pray for big, bright, flashing neon signs so that if God is speaking to me, I’ll know that it’s really Him doing the talking. But I frequently lose sight of the fact that if God has something to say to me, then I’d hear it. I’d know it was God talking to me without having to wonder and question and ponder.

I am really hoping God has something He wants to say to me. And I hope I’ve cleared my head enough to hear it.