John Albert Thomas Solo Piano

There's Something In Here!

WOW! What a weekend! I guess I’ll end it with the beginning in mind.

Becky and I went to Franklin, TN where Dan Miller and his team hosted a two-day workshop chocked full of incredibly useful information about how to turn my ideas into thriving businesses.  I went mainly to find out how to build my music career, but little did I know that Becky and I were about to strike the motherload of self-discovery. From the moment we left Franklin till we arrived in Memphis, Becky and I talked and wrote non-stop about our business idea and plan. Let me explain.

For years I lived a melancholy existence cooped up behind a computer screen in the corporate world. Day after day I would dream up business ideas that would allow me to exit that existence and spread my entrepreneurial wings. I would shoot off a few emails to friends to get their feedback on my ideas to look for weaknesses. I would always end this exercise with a single thought or statement: “That’s a great idea. I don’t want to do it, but someone should!” Then I would settle back into corporate reality and grow more depressed. (Can I just say how patient my dear wife, Becky, has been with me all this time!)

What made it worse was that I love to compose piano music. I started composing at age 12 and received my college degree in music theory and composition. My piano works are manifestations of creativity in three or four minutes of sound. Over the years I released two solo piano albums, but they never took off. I always thought that God wanted me to be a professional solo piano composer. Last fall, during a church service, I surrendered my musical aspirations to Him completely.

Then in January, on a mission trip to Mexico, I told my pastor of my struggle to find God’s will for my life. He told me something very wise, “Sometimes, when we are seeking God’s will, He lets us struggle. It prepares us for the answer. Try to see your struggle as a positive thing.” Early the next morning, I turned in my journal to a blank page, set my pen down and pushed it across the table. I prayed, “Here, Father. You write it.” I finally let go of my expectations and stopped telling God what to do. I started to TRUST Him.

I came back and life changed. I realized that I couldn’t live a lie in the corporate world anymore. I started listening to Dan Miller’s podcasts and heard about the Roundtable. I knew that Becky and I needed to go to build our dream together. We were at a crossroads and we needed wise counsel from those who had moved from the corporate world into entrepreneurship successfully. I needed a plan to build my music business, or silver business, or nobody’s business.

Becky and I drove up to “The Sanctuary” as they affectionately call it and discovered that Dan and his wife Joanne had successfully built a place where home and business are woven together, secluded from the world, warm with hospitality and thoughtful ministry. No wonder they call it “The Sanctuary”. We had envisioned such a place for ourselves just a year ago. It was a beautiful setting, and we were greeted graciously by our generous hosts.

Two days of interaction worked relentlessly to chip away the dirt of self-doubt, inadequacy, and false assumptions. As I shed the shell of the man I was, I began to see that there’s something in here! All those years of struggle in corporate life finally made sense to me!

As fellow attendees expressed their struggle with how to take their business to the next level, my mind began to fill with business idea after business idea, like pieces of a puzzle coming together. Part of me didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to appear conceited, but if I had information that might really help then I needed to share it. That’s why we all went there, right?

The more I shared, the more I discovered that my ideas might be worth something. What if they could be used to double someone’s business? Or accelerate their economic model? I asked Chuck Bowen about the possibilities. I told him that I love coming up with business ideas, but I have so many of them I cannot build them all myself. He suggested that I could generate business ideas and then hand them off to others to make them happen. He suggested that I had a lot of creativity bottled up inside, and he’s absolutely right. By the end of the weekend, someone gave me a new nickname, “The Idea Guy.” That solidified in my mind what I need to do.

After a sad but satisfied ending to a great weekend, Becky and I went back to our hotel and brainstormed the concept of being an “idea guy”. How do I get there? What is my product? Who is my client? What makes me unique? All the things we learned over the weekend. We finally crashed.

Sunday morning we drove back to Memphis, TN. From the moment we left the hotel to the moment we drove up to our house we talked and wrote every idea down on paper, page after page of great ideas. I became my own Idea Guy. It flowed. It made sense. It’s doable. And best of all, my wife was right there by my side taking ownership. For the first time it was not MY thing. It was OUR thing. THAT’s the life I want. And so, over the coming days, we will digest and plan the entrepreneurial existence that we are wired to live.

Incalculable thanks to Dan, Joanne, Ashley, Kevin, Chuck, Kent, Deby and everyone who made the weekend a life-changing experience for me and my family. I hope to see them next year, or preferably sooner! Shoot…I’ll see them often on 48days.net.

From Angst

Angst.  It’s the word that Becky used last night to describe my state of being over the past few years.  She said it made me emotionally absent.  I had to agree.

Before I trekked to Baborigame in southwestern Mexico last week, which I will describe in later posts, I struggled night and day with angst.  The underlying cause for this was once again discontentment.  This discontentment was both divine and demonic.  (Before thinking such a statement is sacrilegious, please read Job.)  Let me explain.

For years I would go to work and sit behind a computer screen, clocking hours, counting on the next paycheck to cover our monthly expenses.  This is a good reason to go to work, but not a perfectly good reason.  For years I have had little-to-no desire to be doing what I’m doing.  I’m good at what I do, but it’s not my passion.  My passion is music and ministry.  So I lived day in and day out with a spirit of discontentment, frustrated that I wasn’t doing what I felt God created me to do.

Every month or two I would quite naturally go through brainstorming sessions whenever a “cool idea” of making money popped into my head.  It was usually something creative that would fascilitate the transition from the computer world to a life of residual income where I could be free to focus on music and ministry.  I’d bounce the ideas off of my very patient friends, who would critique the ideas.  Were they John’s ideas, or were they God’s ideas?  I could never tell.  Every idea would come and go, and the next day I’d go back to my computer work to cover my monthly expenses.  And the angst would grow each time I went through this process.

Then came Mexico.  I worked with my pastor, John Horne, on a job site and I told him of my struggles with wanting to be in music and ministry.  And he told me something that I’ll never forget.  He said that sometimes, when we are seeking God’s will, He lets us struggle.  It prepares us for the answer.  Try to see your struggle as a positive thing.

I told him how I had idea after idea and I just couldn’t do them all.  He went on to say that God could funnel those ideas such that any or every one of them contributes to the answer.

That’s when the paradigm shift began.  The rest of the day and again at 4:30 a.m. the next morning.  At 4:30, I woke up and I felt that God wanted me to go outside.  I argued a little because it was below freezing.  I did it anyway and I looked up.  The moon shone brightly and millions of stars were shining.  He reminded me of His promise to Abraham, that his descendents by faith would be as numerous as the stars.   God showed me the source of my angst.

I went back inside and warmed myself by the pot-belly stove.  I cried and prayed.  At 6:30 a.m. I said, “Father, I’m tired of trying to figure out your will.”  I turned my notebook over to a blank page and laid my pen on it.  I shoved it across the table and said, “Father, you write it.”  I went up and tried to go back to sleep.

So what was my source of angst?  Simply this, I didn’t trust God. I didn’t trust Him to show me His will in His time and His way…at the best time and in the best way.  I didn’t trust Him enough to wait patiently and peacefully, with contentment.

So I came back to Memphis a changed man.  Everywhere I am is His mission field.  My job, my neighborhood, my church and my home.  It is enough to simply “trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

Last night, Becky used the word angst to describe what I was like before the trip.  But now the “old John” is back.  Instead of angst, she said, I now seem to have a peaceful and hopeful expectation.  I had to agree.

In His time and in His way He will reveal all things.

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.”  (Proverbs 16:9, NLT)

Why Not Work?

Quotes from The Autobiography of George Muller, 1805-1860?

I visited a brother who worked fourteen to sixteen hours a day at his trade.  His body ached, his soul was lean, and he had no joy in God.  I pointed out to him that he should work less in order that his health might not suffer.  He could gather strength for his inner man by reading the Word of God, by meditation on it, and by prayer.

He replied, ‘But if I work less, I do not earn enough for the support of my family.  Even now, while I work so much, I have scarcely enough.’

He had no trust in God and no real belief in the truth of that word, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added  unto you’ (Matthew 6:33).

I explained to him, ‘My dear brother, it is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord.  He has fed you and your family when you could not work at all because of illness.  He would surely provide for you and yours, if for the sake of obtaining food for your inner man, you worked fewer hours a day to give you proper time for rest.  You begin to work after only a few hurried moments for prayer.  You leave your work in the evening and intend to read a little of the Word of God, but by then you are too worn out in body and mind to enjoy it.  You often fall asleep while reading the Scriptures or while on your knees in prayer.’

The brother admitted this was true.  He agreed that my advice was good, but I read in his countenance, even if he did not actually say so, ‘How could I make ends meet if I were to carry out your advice?’  I longed to have something to give the brother as a visible proof that our God and Father is the same faithful God that He ever was.  He is willing as ever to prove Himself the living God to all who put their trust in Him.