I’ve read this many times, maybe even a thousand by now. Only Heaven knows exactly.

Philippians 3:13-14: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

My heart’s translation of this scripture this morning was I don’t count myself as one who has arrived! Forgetting the past, I am looking and reaching forward to God through Jesus.

For the past few days I’ve had my history on my heart. I’ve thought on some things that I wished I had done differently. I think that everyone has things like this in their past. Jesus knows the depths of the soul and yet its shallowness too. He is not surprised.

I cannot change the past. I cannot go back. I could sit and dwell on it until the point of insanity was the address at which I lived. That would be terribly wasteful wouldn’t it? If I were to sit and dwell on the past, I would be wasting the present tense. So it would be a perpetual cycle.

Well today I am looking forward. I am leaving the past in the past. It’s done. It’s over. It’s time to move forward. My prayer for you today is that you will realize the same. The past is over. If you have wronged, get it right. Confess it. Move on. If you’ve been wronged, forgive it. Leave it back there in time.

God bless you richly in Jesus Christ.

Wayne

This morning I sat behind the wheel driving into the city (Nashville)  thinking, reflecting on the past, looking to the future. I was thinking about how we all have dreams. We all are working toward those dreams in some form, or fashion. Some will risk all to pursue the dream. Others will dream forever never realizing the vision their hearts hold. Some will achieve their dreams only to find them empty and deeply unsatisfying. Some will complain blaming this, or that, for not realizing their dream.

Reading the Psalms I came upon Psalm 62:5: My soul wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from Him (KJV).  When one is a dreamer, he thinks upon that dream and how to make it happen. He thinks of the day that the dream will be reality. Whether realistic, or unrealistic, expectations are somewhat set in the heart and mind of the dreamer.

Living in Nashville for more than 2 and half years now, I’ve seen a little of the game that goes on. Folks talk it up. Some play the “yes - man” role in relationships to those they deem as able to help them climb the musical career food chain. Others keep at it with a perseverance and stamina that even Olympic long distance runners don’t seem to display.  As time evaporates folks grow in to roles where unspoken expectations are set. People methodically plan out their steps in a survival game that is played out. They wait for the right person to discover their talent. They wait to be in the right place at the right time. They wait for that call to cinch the deal and merge onto the highway that leads to their dream.

At 41, I am learning to wait silently and solely on God. I wish that I had learned this so much earlier in life. I was too busy trying to do it all for myself. Yes, I called Christ my Savior, but only now in my life am I learning to let Jesus be my Lord.  How sad, but true.

I have felt the disappointment involved with expectations in human relationships. I have felt the disappointment of letting others down as well. Let us turn our expectations toward the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ, who is full of mercy and grace.

I pray that you are waiting only upon God and that your expectations are on Him. You won’t be disappointed. I didn’t say you won’t face challenges. Through the challenges you can gain an intimacy that is soul-filling!

Wayne

For several weeks now, I’ve been throwing around the idea of a new project complete with new songs and song writing. This weekend I penned the song that will be the title track of my next project. I am 90 percent sure that my next music project will be named  A Common Man.

I’ve been stirred not only about the lives of common men, like the Apostles Peter, James and John, but by the lives of people around me. 1 Corinthians 1:27, tells us…

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

In my experiences I’ve not seen many rich and powerful, super charismatic personalities turn many to Christ. I have seen men who were common, who simply obeyed God and took Him at His Holy Word. I want to be such a man, though I have not always been such a man. With the breath of life that I have I want to walk simply and obey Jesus. I want to hear Him one day say to me ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant…’ (Matthew 25:21).

Please keep checking back. I look forward to sharing more with you about this next project.

God Bless You.

Wayne

I am writing this entry within Firefox 3, just released today. It would appear that release 3 runs faster on my MacBook Pro with 10.4.11 (Tiger). The interface is redone and is simply beautiful. Aw shucks, quit reading this blog and get on with your download of Firefox 3.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

If you want to see what’s new in version 3…

I’ve done development on various platforms now for about 19 plus years. Recently I found a need to write an application for personal use on my Mac. I am running OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on a MacBook Pro and on a Mac Mini at home. While I have PHP / MySQL on my Mac provided via MAMP, I wanted to write a native app for my pet project.  I started looking into what was available database-wise.

To my surprise underneath the hood was a powerful little database — SQLite. If you have a Mac running Tiger you have SQLite3 there at your disposal. You can access it via the terminal command line by typing ’sqlite3′ and hitting the return key. You’ll need to know something about databases and SQL. To view help via the command line type ‘.help’. Be sure to view the SQLite web site.

Now if you use the Mozilla FireFox web browser you can find a great add-in that provides you a concise GUI interface to use with SQLite. The add-in is SQLite Manager and can be found at http://code.google.com/p/sqlite-manager/. Check it out!!!

Last weekend my wife came upstairs where I was song writing. I was already working on some slow tunes. She gave me some news that made me want to just write sad songs.

My wife’s Dad had called that evening. He lives in rural North Louisiana and has a beef farm. My wife has other family in the same parish who have been dairy farmers for 50+ years. Today they sold off their cattle. They closed the dairy farm. With the price of diesel fuel, and the low profits from milk sales it just wasn’t enough!

My heart broke when my wife told me this. I actually cried. I know this family. They are wonderful, hard working folks with a zest for life. I loved spending time on their farm.

We are in such a time that there is no answer to be had from the hands of a Republican, or a Democrat. I have little, to no faith, in them. I don’t see any of the candidates as a person with a viable common sense approach. Almost everyone that I talk with sees this election as simply a choice of the lessor of evils. How sad?!!!

The best change we can bring upon our world is to love another. You know Jesus didn’t impact the world through television, major recording contracts, or the internet. He chose 12 men. He spent His life loving them, teaching them, spending His time with them. I think we need to get back to that kind of living where we quit chasing impossible dreams, and start dreaming of change right where we are. Let’s get involved. It doesn’t take a million dollar budget. It takes simply one heart…

Some of you have called and emailed me wondering how I am doing because you’ve heard little from me lately. I’ve been busy with project deadlines, repairing riding lawnmowers, and getting older! (I recently celebrated my 41st birthday with my family. We attended a Nashville Sounds baseball game. The Sounds played the New Orleans’ Zephyrs.)

Speaking of getting older. This week I was starting to think that I was just not in shape. My stamina seemed to be diminishing. I had headaches and honestly I was just a little more grumpy than normal. Well we found out that I have Mono.

Somehow I am to try to relax and not push too hard for the next eight weeks or so. I am not sure how one is to be sedentary for most of the summer. At 41, I am starting to feel my age, or is it the mono!

So just to let you know… I am alive!

Yesterday after supper, and after helping to clean the kitchen, I went outside with my Nikon D70, to shoot some pics of my son doing tricks with his Razor scooter. Well today during my lunch break I generated a few graphic ideas using his cut out. Here’s one of my favorites…

I enjoyed spending the time with him and seeing him enjoy himself. Some days it seems we don’t slow down enough to enjoy the ones around us. So quit reading this blog and go enjoy some time with your kids, or your spouse, or both!

Yesterday I did my monthly deed of creating birthday cards for coworkers. I usually create the card and everyone in the group signs them. It’s been something that I done for about the past year.

Well several of my co-workers are cyclist. This month’s birthday boy is a tri-cyclist. He loves his trike. I drew the following two images for his card. Though I was in a bit of a hurry, I think they came out pretty well.

One of the guys with a new cycle told me he gets 60 MPG. Right now that’s enough to make everyone want a cycle.

Okay, forgive me for that silly subject. I couldn’t help myself.

My son needed some help with his 4-H poster due tomorrow. The theme, ‘Vote Dairy’, must be a play on the fact that we are in an election year. Well here’s our take on it. This is a little collage of the elements I drew for his poster.