Jim Goings

I was recently browsing my best friend Chris’ music collection and stumbled on his Don Francisco collection.  Don is an amazing Christian folk singer that we’ve listened to since we were kids (well teenagers).   My CDs have long since been scratched or lost and it was a great joy to listen to Don again.  It got me thinking about high school and I suddenly remembered that I have a picture of Chris wearing a t-shirt from one of Don’s albums.

I scanned it and sent a copy to Don via email for kicks – he was, after all, the first Christian concert I attended and remains one of my favorite Christian artists.

Hi Don,

I’m sure you won’t remember me, but my friend Chris and I saw you at a concert in Long Beach, CA in the early 90′s at a small church.  I can’t recall the year exactly, but we were probably 15 or 16 years old when we saw you.  I had never heard your songs before the concert, but I was so moved by your music that we spent all the money we had to buy 2 CDs and two T-shirts.

We sat right next to a woman who claimed to be your sister.  After the concert, she invited us “back stage” to meet you.  You were kind enough to autograph our T-Shirts and CD’s.  We wore those shirts at school (which raised some eyebrows).  I attached a picture of me and my friend Chris from our yearbook where you can see Chris wearing your T-shirt.

Anyhow, I stumbled across my yearbook recently and I thought you might get a kick out of the picture.  Chris and I have grown up and have families now, but we still listen to your music.  I’ve met several “celebrities” in my life, but none quite compared to the humble Christian singer I met when I was a teenager.  You are a true celebrity to me (and Chris I’m sure).

Thanks Don.  Your music has inspired us both in ways we cannot express.

God Bless,

Jim

Three days later, Don sent a reply:

Jim,
Thank you very much.  That photo is just wonderful!  Wow, we’ve been around awhile.
What a great God we have.
In Him,
Don

In case you’re interested in Don’s awesome Christian folk music, please check out his web site.  You can download pretty much his entire library as MP3′s on an honor system, but you can also buy CD’s if you prefer.

We went to Salem yesterday for Easter service as we do every year. This particular sermon was excellent… not just the usual fair of Gospel topics. The focus was on Paul’s letters and how the early Christian churches were rife with sin and often a lack of respect for the resurrection of Christ. Good stuff. Pastor Scott always manages to keep me interested.

The music was, OH MY GOODNESS, amazing! The music director wrote a song and the choir sang it. It was a sad classical choir piece, almost a madrigal with multiple parts. The real kicker was the benediction at the end of the service. Normally, it’s spoken by Pastor Scott, but this time it was sung in an amazing arrangement of acappella vocals. It made me and Beck misty it was so good.

I updated the BIOS on my computer (version F6 to version F13) and it corrected the problem where the system would boot from the wrong hard disk. That, however, caused my currently installed OS to longer boot. Long story short, I had to rebuild from scratch. The good news is that everything works wonderfully now and there’s nothing like a fresh start on a PC.

God works in similar ways I think. The Good Lord has just reinstalled my OS so-to-speak. He’s installed a new driver (divine inspiration?!) within me that made me realize that the my old configuration (lifestyle) is no longer compatible with the new configuration (God’s plan). Naturally God always provides, so he installed a new operating system that will be the fresh start of me. Jim version 4.6 perhaps.

OK, so that analogy was clearly written by Captain Lame, but you get the idea.

God was practically shouting at me, nay, screaming at me over the past two weeks. Let me recall the ways:

1) Last week, my children had their first experience with spite and malicious behavior. They apparently told the neighbors kids that they loved them. The neighbors kids responded with jeers and thrown dirt. My eldest daughter was devastated as she had never experience such blatent rejection before. She told me with sincere tears in her eyes that she wished we could move back to our old house to she could be with her friend Marie (previous neighbor). I realized that if I didn’t provide an outlet for my poor child to make good friends, I was going to be one failure as a father. I decided to finally find a local church and go to it. Needless to say, it was a rousing success and my kids had a great time and were very excited about the new friends they made.

2) Jonathan, my Intern made me realize that my life was way off track. He’s a 17 year old man who is a more mature Christian than I am. His daily life does more for God’s Glory than my past year has. Although he’s worked for me for several months, this all hit me yesterday like a ton of bricks and needless to say, I was quite depressed and disappointed at my failure. Here I am, filled to the brim with God’s gifts, and I don’t even honor Him once a week. I’ve been a Christian for almost as long as he’s been alive and yet he could school me on the ways of the Lord all day long.

3) The Great Provider has poured His bounty out upon my family over the past few years. We want not for the necessities of life and have much blessings beyond that. Our new home is just the latest in many gifts we’ve received from God.

4) The Holy Spirit has never stopped speaking to me, but I got really good at not listening to Him. My heart was not receptive to the Word and when he finally broke down some major walls, His righteous Glory filled me like flood waters.

Romans 8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

I’m ready for life and peace.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love the music, the lights, and of course the gifts. What I have noticed that is lacking from Christmas this year is Jesus. Here we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior and it’s next to impossible to find reference to Him anywhere. We bought our Christmas lights at Fred Meyer and they didn’t have a single item related to Him. No wrapping paper, no ornaments, no lights, no snowglobes, no pictures, no trinkets, no nothing. If you want Santa, Elves, or Frosty, you’re covered. It really is a huge disappointment to find that there isn’t room for our Creator in capital America.

I did get most of the lights up on the house. I still have some lights to put up on the second floor roof and one set on the front fence. We even bought a small tree for the front yard although the lights were poorly placed on it. I guess I’ll fix that this weekend. The tree inside the house though is awesome and I think it’s my favorite tree so far. We hung all 8 stockings above the fireplace and put the bazillion presents under the tree already. We still have several gifts to wrap, but we’re almost done with the shopping.