“We are all pretty much what we are going to be early in our lives. Our personalities and characteristics are established, usually by the time we are five or six years old, but the lids are on. We are like boiling pots on a stove, and when we are small, the adults keep the lids on. As children, we cannot express ourselves the way we would like to, but as we grow older, the lids pop off, and the characteristics come out…”

-Charles “Sparky” Schulz

I think, sometimes, that we are like mismatched socks.
Comfortable, yet incongruent.
Dissimilar, yet still a pair.

The people who wear mismatched socks always seem to have
More personality.
More confidence.

It’s like they’re more comfortable in their own skin.
Which must be why
They don’t care about their socks.

I have decided that fall and autumn are not synonymous.

The fall is the few weeks in which snot drips from my nose and my eyes want to fall out of my head.
Autumn is the beautiful time when the air is crisp and cool, but not yet cold or frozen.

Autumn is everything good.

Autumn is the spirit — redeemed by Christ.
Fall is the flesh — broken by sin.

Autumn is something beautiful.

I do not go on the path below,
beneath, beside, or behind me.

Instead, I tread on the path ahead
So whatever I seek may find me.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

(Romans 12:9-12)

Anyone who knows Carole-Marie and I knows that we’re at least a little different. You know, she’s a sporty cowgirl who listens to country music and I’m an artsy poet who plays guitar. With any relationship it’s inevitable that people are going to be different (it’d be pretty boring if everyone were the same). Carole-Marie and I had a conversation last week where we talked about our differences. We talked about how the cowgirl in her and the artist in me feel sort of neglected in our relationship. So we decided to spend the rest of the summer getting to know the “different” sides of each other. The parts of each other that we don’t know as well because we don’t relate as well. This is a song I wrote reflecting on the conversation we had.

Click here to download song.

You And Me

You ride horses
And I write songs.
You like to dance,
I’d rather sing along.

But, you and I
Stand side by side
As we explore
This thing called life.

—

You’re so outgoing
While I sit back and watch.
You like to play those crazy games,
I’d rather sit and talk.

But, you and I
Are hand in hand
As we stretch ourselves out
And explore new and different lands.

—

And I know we’re different people,
And I know we’re still so young,
And I know that there’s so many things
That we haven’t done.

But, no matter how much it may seem
That we are far apart,
We’re here together
And we’re holding one another’s hearts.

—

You love Jesus
And so do I.
We’ll worship together
As we sing by and by.

We’ve had some amazing times
These 14 months or so.
And I know that we’re going to have
So many more.

—

I’m ready to change.
I’m ready to grow.
I’m ready to hold you tight
And never let go.

I’m ready to learn.
I’m ready to see.
I wanna know you so much more.
I’m ready to be

—

Not so different people
Who have grown, grown, grown, grown,
Who have done so much together
That we’ve come to know

That no matter how much it may seem
That we are far apart,
We’re here together
And we’re holding one another’s hearts.

I’ve been realizing a lot of things about my personality lately. One thing is that all my life I’ve pretty much been like a kid who wouldn’t eat his greens. There’s a couple reasons why a kid won’t eat his greens. One would be that maybe his parents never made him eat them, or never even ate any themselves. Another reason would be that perhaps the kid was just stubborn and refused to try new foods or any foods that fit into a particular category (e.g. greens). My problem comes from a little bit of both of these.

I’ve never been a sporty kid. I’ve always fallen more into the “artsy” category. But I don’t know whether that was because I actually disliked the sporty things or because I just wanted to be in the “artsy” category. Like a kid who will only eat hamburgers and french fries and no greens, I refused to take part in the sporty stuff. Then there was always the random kid who ate his burger with lettuce that always frustrated me. You know, the guy who played football, played baseball, and played the guitar. This sort of thing frustrated me because I had been living in the idea that the two were mutually exclusive. A person couldn’t do both and I had simply chosen the one that I preferred. But, this idea, it turns out, is completely ridiculous. This is one of those things in life that simply isn’t an either/or decision, but rather a both/and kind of thing.

Another scene I’ve never fit into is the whole cowboy, country, go get ‘em kind of scene. This is ridiculous because I’ve lived in Texas all my life. I blame my parents for this one. I have Carole-Marie to thank for bringing me into the light though. She gave me some country music recently and it’s kind of like the first time I ever tried sweet tea. Until this past year I had never experienced it and then I took a sip of this absolutely wondrous drink and can hardly stop drinking it.

So, now I’m here poking my fork at the greens on my plate. I’ve been jogging every morning for the past week and jammin’ to country music when I drive around town. I don’t know if you’ve ever refused to eat your greens, but you really shouldn’t. You should try them. Come on, try them at least once or twice. Maybe you actually don’t like them, but you won’t be mature until you’ve at least tried them.

Hi everyone. My blog has been somewhat lonely lately. Mostly because I’ve been neglecting it.

Here’s the deal: My summer has started to become boring. But, you can help. I need some stuff to do in all my spare time. So, I was thinking maybe it would be fun to record some music. I haven’t been writing tons of music lately, so why not cover stuff? Do you see where this is going yet?

I want you to leave a comment on this blog post of a song that you would like for me to cover. Any song at all. Leave the name of the song and the artist. If it’s an obscure song then it’d be nice for you to send a recording of it to me (drewdixonmusic@gmail.com).

Got it? Ready. Set. Go!

A thick and dreadful darkness came over me when I shook hands with Satan.

He had a firm grip and his hand was warm. For a moment I looked into his eyes and nodded my head. It was then that my heart began to pound and my breathing became shallow. I let go and began to fall backwards, but his grip remained firm. Just before loosing consciousness I felt my hand jerked from his grip.

When I awoke, I looked down at my hand. I remembered the warmth of Satan’s hand, but what I didn’t realize was the burning, devouring fire in his grip. What my eyes beheld as I saw my hand was hardly a hand at all, but rather a blistering piece of burning flesh.

I turned my head and saw a man. He looked very plain with simple brown hair, and dull brown eyes. He asked me if I was alright and I told him that I wasn’t sure. The truth is, I was terrified, but I didn’t want to admit it. His boring eyes looked concerned. He must have seen something in my face because he said, “Don’t be afraid. It’ll be alright.”

I asked this man who he was, but he didn’t answer. Instead he asked me a question, “Do you want to be healed?”

In that moment I thought that, perhaps, I had met this man before, though I knew not where. He reached out his hand to help me up, but I knew that I could not grip him with the appendage at my wrist. So I gave him my other hand, but he withdrew and said, “Do not be afraid. Do you want to be healed?” I hesitated for a moment. He extended his hand toward me again.

I lifted my arm and as I began to reach I no longer saw burning flesh, but instead a hand, my skin without blemish. I put my hand in his and he lifted me up. As I rose from the ground he was no longer a plain looking man. His face shone with radiance. It was this glowing face that I recognized, for it was those shining hands that had rescued me from Satan.

I stood by His side and He embraced me. His beautiful, caring eyes looked straight into mine and he spoke these words to me:

“I love you. Your faith has made you well. Let us walk together, so that you may sin no more.”

Since my last blog entry, apparently the trend of recording music has caught on. Tons of my favorite artists are in the studio recording new albums right now. I’m so excited. I think you should be excited too.

David Crowder*Band
David Ramirez
Jenny and Tyler
Mat Kearney
Phil Wickham
Shawn McDonald
Switchfoot

These are among some of the artists with albums coming out in ‘09. I’m so excited for all the wonderful new music that is to come. Check out those artists give them a listen They’re all really good.