Making a Diamond

This is the story of a man who has incredibly impacted my life in so many ways.

Nick Blaylock: An aspiring young twenty-something, always trusting God for direction in his life. Nick has a "unique" sense of fashion with his v-necks, capris, and gray floral toms. If you saw this character walking down the street, he would most likely be smiling and singing a random song as loud as he could. Whether or not this is true today, I can only guess, because of the simple fact that almost a year ago, we both went our separate ways according to God's plan for our lives.

Let's start of the story with a little background. When I was thirteen years old, I joined the youth worship team at my church. Young and ambitious, I felt like I could take on the whole world of worship with one hand. Although I didn't understand anything about it until later.

A year later, the worship leader at the time moved on to a bigger call in his life and we received the gift of a new singer. *Nick Blaylock enters the scene*

Nick was the drummer for the main service on Sundays, but the pastoral team decided that he would be a great worship leader for the youth. And boy, did he lead worship. I remember the first day he walked into our small youth room. Sporting his deep blue v-neck, he jumped onto the stage and picked up my guitar. "Wow. I want to buy myself one of these!" he said. That made quite an interesting first impression on me. But little did I know that this stranger would dramatically change my life.

Whenever Nick would lead worship, you could feel his intense passion for God radiating off his spirit. There was so much excitement in his personality. That combined with his understanding of God's Word, he became the worship leader that we all admired. We had never seen such raw passion before. With time, his genuine love for worship was transferred into all of our hearts.

One Friday night in the middle of summer, Nick, myself, the drummer, and the bassist, all went to McDonald's at midnight. The bass player brought a gorilla mask and told me to run inside with it. I had a whole costume on. Along with the monkey mask, I had baggy jeans, boots that were five sizes too big for me, a black jacket, sunglasses, and a black beanie on top. The plan was, I walk inside and wait for the rest of the guys to go through the drive thru. Well, I went inside and long story short, the employees at the registers thought I was going to rob them. *awkward moment*

We had plenty of good times like that. But as we all know, with good times, there's gotta be some rough times too.

When you hang out with people so much, you tend to see their good days alongside their bad days. I won't ever forget the night that we completely bombed the song "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham. Nick ended up venting out his pent up frustration on me. Later, he apologized for not controlling his feelings. That taught me a quick lesson. Never wear your emotions on your sleeve; if you do, be transparent and ask for forgiveness.

Nick would always spend quality time with us talking about the purpose of worship. Anywhere from one-on-one to getting together with the whole team. He spent a lot of time investing into me personally. I appreciate this so much now, although I didn't quite understand it all then.

After only a short year of leading worship, Nick started his college education. But college = money. money = job. job = less free time. So Nick started handing me the reigns to leading worship. One service, he intentionally didn't show up and told me to lead worship. So I texted him five times asking him what I needed to do. He never replied, but instead, waited till the next week to tell me that, "Heat and pressure makes diamonds."

 

 Before we knew it, Nick was gone, and I was left with a worship team. At fourteen years old, I was leading worship single handed. Am I bragging? Absolutely not.

You can't expect a fourteen year old to understand the art of leading worship like someone who's twenty. It just won't work. I completely forgot almost everything that I was taught, and basically offended everyone on the worship team. Way to go, Zeb. Really smooth. We became stagnant, less potent, even lazy in our worship. It gradually took me up until now for God to give me understanding of what worship was all about. But something incredible happened recently that shook the foundations of what I was doing.

Nick Blaylock showed up at my door about a month ago and came into my room to talk with me. He told me some things that I had heard from him time and time before. But this time, he reminded me of the simple fact that I simply couldn't believe I forgot.

"Whatever you do, always remember two things. First, love God with everything you have. Second, love people more than yourself. If you do this, you can't go wrong."

In conclusion, you will have to remember this sooner or later. You might be in a place right now where you don't have to make a choice of focusing on God. But one way or another, you'll face a brick wall that can only come down with the right motives.

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”

-Frank A. Clark

[wit?]

I think it's about time to introduce you to my best friend, isn't it? Well, it's somewhat of a long story, but I'll try to keep it as entertaining as possible. For starters, her name is Kayleigh Hope Chrisman, and I met her at the same kids camp that I worked at this summer. She's tiny, sings like crazy, and plays the ukulele. That's right. The ukulele. Be jealous.

Let me tell you the slightly awkward story of how we met... First off, I worked in production. (this was the group of guys that ran the technical side of chapel services. e.g. lights, audio, visual, backstage props... etc.) And Kayleigh worked in the souvenir shop. (coworkers with Jasmine... read more here)

It was June 5th. Kayleigh was singing in the chapel service that night, and I was the spotlight operator. Kayleigh didn't know who I was and vice versa. So before rehearsals, when we were both trying to get through the front door of the auditorium, she stood in front of the door, stopping me in my tracks, and said "What are you doing?" I stood there like a deer in the headlights. What was I doing?? I should've asked her what she was doing! After all, it was my territory, right? Yet, all I could do was raise my eyebrows, let my jaw drop, and try to spit out some jumbled sentences. Again, this perfect stranger asked me in an impatient voice, "What do you need?" I was completely lost for words... (it probably didn't help that I had to pull an all-niter the previous night) So in response to my silence, she had the most annoyed "Why are you wasting my time?" look on her face, and then proceeded to read my name badge. She fit the puzzle pieces together and remarked, "Oh. You work with production." And then this strangely interesting figure walked through the door. Leaving me standing outside and in a daze.

After I watched her disappear down the hallway through the glass window, I opened the door and murmured to myself "Okay?" and got my groove on for work.

During the long rehearsal, I wasn't doing much. So while Kayleigh (still a complete stranger) was singing on the stage, I sat in the top row of the auditorium and dozed off, on the account of not getting any sleep... Well, she saw me, and after I woke up, she walked right up to me and said. "Hey! Can I sit here?" I looked up from my boredom, a bit confused from her change of heart, and made room for her to sit down and said "Sure." Well, she started chatting with me, informed me that her name was Kayleigh, and then brought up an interesting subject.

There was music playing in the background and Kayleigh told me, "My dad wrote this song." I thought that was cool, but didn't think much of it until the next song came on and she said "My dad wrote this song too." ...Okay, this was a topic that I just couldn't leave alone. "Who's your dad?" I asked. Kayleigh looked at me and nonchalantly uttered the words that messed me up. "Andy Chrisman." (fyi, that's a link. click on it because I don't have time to talk about him.)

Yes. This is authentic.

Adrenaline surged through my veins. Andy Chrisman?!? No way!... Seriously? Andy Chrisman is my role model! She's gotta be joking. But she totally wasn't! After realizing the inevitable fact that I was sitting next to my idol's daughter, I literally jumped out of my chair. She laughed and said "What??" Like she didn't know why I freaked out... Right... Sure. Kayleigh gestured her hand, inviting me to sit back down, and proceeded to draw in my notebook, and I took her hand and drew "WIT" on it. These three insignificant letters might seem pointless, but they mean the world to me. They stand for Whatever It Takes. 

Up until this day, I still have the same three letters drawn on my hand as a reminder. To remind me that I would do whatever it takes for this girl. I didn't really expound on why this girl is worth it in this blog, another story for another day, but I do know one thing. If you really want something, do Whatever It Takes.

btw... Happy Birthday, Kay!

The Shoe Goblins

This, my dear friends, is the tale of two goblins... In a desperate attempt to entertain themselves.

I think it's worth mentioning that I worked at a kid's camp this summer in Oklahoma, and that this particular day in history happened to be my day off. Now, first off, I should introduce you to my partner in crime. My bro from another mo.... Rylan Schmidt. 

Rylan is on the left... Not to be confused with the other dummy in the middle...

This tall, tan, 15yr old man is my best buddy. He's quite a character and loves to do adventurous things. Funny story, Rylan is extremely athletic and is trying to convince me into doing P90X with him... (probably not gonna happen) So, now with that bucket of knowledge under our belts, on with the story!

Twas was the night before Christmas, err... I mean... my day off. Goodness! Let's start over please. [cue the rewinding sound] ...Twas the night before my day off, and in a secluded area of camp, Rylan and I were starting to plan things we could do the next day. I can only imagine the mischievous grins that came over both of our faces when we started talking about pulling a prank... Not familiar with the term "prank" are you?  Don't worry. I'll explain it to you. When I say prank, it means that someone is going to do something to a certain person that will either A: Make them laugh hysterically. B: Frustrate them to no end. C: Force them to hate you. or D: All of the above.

Say "Hullo Jazz!"

Now, the prank we decided on was intended towards a girl named Jasmine. She worked in the souvenir shop during the summer and we both decided that it was about time that she got pranked. Therefore, Rylan and I talked to her coworkers and asked them if, while Jasmine was sleeping, they would steal one shoe out of every pair shoes that she owned and give them to us. It was a pretty epic plan, and they agreed to it. What was pretty mean about it was that Jasmine would have to go to work with mismatching shoes... *insert evil laugh*

So on the morning of my day off, we acquired a nice position to view the done deed, and waited for what seemed like an eternity outside of their dorm. We waited so long that if we could grow beards, it would be time for us to shave them. But  finally, they group of girls (minus Jasmine) walked outside of their dorm with happy smiles on their faces, yet, nothing in their hands. Rylan and I exploded from across the street, shouting such things as "WHERE ARE THE SHOES??"  "WHAT'S THIS BUSINESS?? and "WE WOKE UP EARLY FOR THIS!" We were quickly informed that  1: They woke up late.  2: They wanted to be on time for work.  3: Jasmine was still sleeping.  and 4: It was Jasmine's day off...

Baffled by what we had just witnessed, five minutes later, we were still standing there in silence. Silence only to be broken by the sound of Rylan's embarrassed voice asking me "What are we gonna do now?" Good question. What could we do? I'm not gonna lie. I had half a mind to just give up right then and go watch Phineas and Ferb do some cool things on tv. I was incredibly disappointed, bummed out, even frustrated. But instead of shrugging our shoulders and wallowing in self pity, we put our heads together and came up with a better prank. We thought to ourselves, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we turned the tables around and had Jasmine steal half of her coworkers shoes??"

As a result, we convinced some unnamed female housekeepers to go inside, with Jasmine's consent, and steal every right shoe inside their dorm! It took a long time, but when those housekeepers came outside with trash bags full of shoes, Rylan and I couldn't have been more excited if it had been Santa Claus himself with bags of $20 bills! Then we proceeded to sort the dollar bills... I mean shoes. And counted a number around 75ish... (girls own alot of shoes!)  After that, we hid those shoes all over the campgrounds and left clues of where to find them with handwritten notes that were identically signed ...

"-THE SHOE GOBLINS"

Sometimes, whenever things don't go according to plan, you just gotta roll with the punches and improvise. Most importantly, keep your chin up!