Jonese's Blog

I've mentioned in a few post how much I love music and how I used to be a poet. This love of music and my feeble attempts at poetry actually got started in my early church days. There was a guy in my youth group, Chris, who was older and a very talented musician. He was a rocker who was really good at the guitar, song writing and even producing music. It was Chris who inspired me to first pick up a guitar and later to learn the bass guitar.

Chris along with a few other church members actually started up a praise worship band in our little church. This was a big deal because up to this point we were like every other church. We had a piano, an organ and sung hymns out of our hymnals. But on occasion they got to play during the service and even did a few concerts during special events. They weren't a great band but at the time I didn't know the difference. To me it was just so cool to see my kind of music, rock and alternative, being performed at church AND have a christian spin on it.

Now this was back in the day before the internet (yea I'm dating myself here aren't I), so I could not rush home to itunes and start exploring new music etc. So I leaned heavily on Chris to be my influencer and he did. He introduced me to lots of groups, both christian and non christian. He took me to my first concert, Joe Satriani - Surfing with an Alien Tour, and like I mentioned before got me interested in playing the guitar.

Chris was also an awesome Christian and probably one of my earliest influences. He always wore a silver cross around his neck, carried a Bible and wasn't afraid to quote the Bible or even ask tough questions of our youth leaders. The youth as a whole looked up to him and valued the input and time he put in to the meetings and the band. Personally if it wasn't for Chris I would have never started writing songs, which later turned into poetry and finally into full on stories and blog posts.

So keep your eyes open people you never know when a simple question, or a simple act of kindness will change someone's world. It might not be evident right away but give it time and it could grow into something amazing. For me it was that one question which launched me into a wonderful world of writing.

Thanks Chris, and yea I still play the guitar and I'm still horrible at it :).