Red Clay Strays Says, 'Work Hard and Trust God'

I'm staying up late because it's Friday night, the only night I get to stay up late during the school year, and being a natural night owl, there is a lot of tension between what is natural for me and what I am supposed to be doing. I sing on Monday, too, so I've been working on music a little. What I don't get done tonight I have to do tomorrow, because Sunday is church and I still have to get up only an hour later than I do on work days. So, why should you care about any of this, right? Is there a lesson here for you? I don't see myself as having excelled in anything but I've done a lot of different things, and some of them were a bit of a challenge, like getting a doctorate. It was quite grueling at times. I don't even want to go into all the difficulties involved in that, and then, after two teaching gigs, to have to abandon that academic track, was a whole other painful journey. My brother mentioned at one time that it wasn't really a good fit for me anyway, being artistic and creative and a musician and an artist and all that, to try to be an academic, and he was probably right. I never thought of it that way, anyway, I just thought it would be cool to be a college professor, but I never got past being assistant professor. That was okay, I always told myself because someone told me only one tenth of people who start to get a Ph. D. actually finish, so I suppose that was a bit exceptional in its own way, I don't know. I have only tried to follow Jesus for 46 years. That's all I've really tried to do, and sometimes I feel like that old nursery rhyme, you know, the one about the crooked man: There was a crooked man And he walked a crooked mile He found a crooked sixpence Upon a crooked stile He bought a crooked cat Which caught a crooked mouse And they all lived together In a little crooked house That is what comes to mind when I think about what I've been doing for the past nearly 50 years, and it has been, and still is, a wild ride, let me tell you. I'm too old now to be young again, and everybody knows you have to start young if you want to "follow your dreams" as they are always telling elementary school children, when what they need is to learn how to apply themselves and work hard at the assignments set before them in life, to grow up to be responsible adults and also live fulfilling lives. Our society really doesn't focus on this kind of goals, they make it all pie in the sky and tell children they can "be whatever they want to be," but, no, that is a lie. It takes grit, it takes patience, it takes commitment, it takes focus, it takes discipline. You don't succeed at anything by being lazy or amusing yourself around the clock. I'm just saying, there is something on the inside that has to happen, and I know that from the world's perspective, I have failed at everything. I am a literacy tutor and co-teacher of kindergarten music at an elementary school, after all those degrees, and some people probably don’t think that constitutes success. Here's all I want to say. It doesn't matter what the world thinks, it only matters what God thinks. His ways are not our ways but knowing Him is the most important thing in life. I have fallen in love with a band called Red Clay Strays and the lead singer had an interview with Joe Rogan, where he said basically the same thing I'm saying, but he was saying it much better and he is succeeding in a very big way in the music business. He said, “Work hard and trust God.” "Work hard and trust God," is the best advice anyone could have, even if the road seems crooked. And now I'm going to go back to what I was doing before I get so cold and so tired I have to go get under the covers. P.S. I just discovered the “Read Aloud” function of Microsoft Word, by mistake. Freaked me out. You turn it on by hitting Ctrl +spacebar, and that’s how you turn it off too. Learn something new every day, that’s what I say. Have a good night.