It all started when I came home from being out of town for a few days, I had no internet service, our cable modem was kaput! Fortunately for me, one of our neighbors had not protected their wireless so I was able to swipe it with ease (Don’t worry, they said I could). But it was so slow! I did a speed test, and it creeped along like a snail in a puddle of molasses! Was it ever frustrating trying to upload music files. It took me 2 minutes to upload a 3 meg file. Oooh, I bristled with irritation. Then, I remembered the olden days of 28.8 AO-Hell dialup. The days when I first started my musician service back in 1997. Back when I had to upload every single song from our members. Back when I had 500 members and everyone needed me to get their music online. Back when I would hit the send button and go out to get a Big Mac, come back and it was half-way completed!

Then, it hit me.. My thought process switched from frustration that I couldn’t upload as fast as I wanted, to elation that I was getting something for nothing and it wasn’t as slow as it could have been. For all intent and purpose, my ungrateful behind should have been offline! Now that is slow! Oh, I hate it when the Lord smacks me around. I was tried, convicted and hung. My irritation turned to gratefulness. My complaining turned to praise. My mind was renewed, my outlook changed and all the sudden, the clouds parted and a rainbow appeared!

OK, that’s almost nauseating, but you get my drift. And to roll that into a music mission, I sometimes see musicians get frustrated because things are not progressing as fast as they wish. And I totally understand that frustration, believe me. I have 2 thorns, one on each side. Pride is on the left, and impatience is on the right. But you know what changes a poor outlook to a good one? Gratefulness. One simple word. Being grateful for everything, even when your cable modem doesn’t work and you feel stuck.

Remember in the Word when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery? They were just delivered from years of bondage, torture, oppression, death.. talk about a bad time! Moses was leading them out and a few weeks into the road trip, they started whining about the lack of provision. It didn’t take long for them to forget where they came from, and they lost sight of where they were headed, the promised land. Instead, they groaned, complained, whined and blamed the big guy for letting them down. Uh oh, I have learned firsthand, you never, ever, ever tell the Lord you want things on your terms. Of course, we all know what happened, they roamed the desert for 40 years, and that trip should have taken 4 days. I bet they became quite dizzy running around in circles.

The point is this, get over it. Get over things not happening as fast as you want. What are you in such a hurry for? Time is interesting, it goes fast and slow at the same time. How does that happen? Days go by fast and years go by slow for me. How about you? Above all else, try to be content with where God has you this day. Artists tend to live in the future. They see their lives like a movie because they are not experiencing it as it happens. Their minds are 3-6 months out, thinking about the next song they write might be the hit, or a gig they have coming up. Live in the now, and be grateful for everything, even the tough times. The refiners fire is not something to be loathed, it is something to be cherished, heat and pressure brings purification.

To wrap this up, I took a little trip of my own today to the cable TV shop to exchange my modem. I left at 4:00PM and gave myself 1/2 hour to get there since it was 15 miles down the road. The shop closed at 5:00 PM. About 1/2 way, traffic ground to a halt. Bad wreck on I-65 closed all lanes and traffic was diverted onto the road I was on. Oh great.. my blood began to boil, words flew from my lips that would make a sailor blush. I was on a mission and I wanted to get to that shop before they closed. Fortunately, after blowing by cars on the shoulder and causing 4 wrecks (just kidding).. I made it to the shop, exchanged my modem and flew back home at 90MPH. (just kidding).

I hooked up the new modem, called the cable company to register the new MAC address and while on the phone, I asked the tech if there were any upgrades to the speed of the new modem. Yes sir.. you have 5Megs, but we can upgrade you to 10 meg download and about 1 meg upload. Hook me up dude! Ah yes… sweet victory!

Keith Mohr
Discover the New Music INDIE-STRY
don’t allow pride to be your motivator..

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CIA Summit 2009 Recap

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• 2009 MOMENTUM AWARDS ANNOUNCED AT 6TH ANNUAL CIA SUMMIT
• Performance Videos From CIA Summit 2009
• 2009 Summit Comments
• 2009 MOMENTUM AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED
• The Future of CCM
• So, You Wanna Be The Next Chris Tomlin
• Wisdom from an ex-CCM industry artist
• IT’S TIME TO BREAK OUT!
• It’s Independents Day!
• The Call of God Video Teaching
• The Need For Speed
• Embrace Your Independence
• All Or Nothing
• The Creative Indie