The other day, I received a comment that said: “Thanks for being so honest and real in your posts.”
I really appreciated that. I hate “fake” just like everyone else. From Auto-Tuned studio creations called “Artists” to Kiwanis Club gatherings masquerading as “Churches”.
My facebook account has more friends than the population of the town I live in. Not too far from catching up to adding the two nearest towns as well. I have requested 57 people, the rest are incoming. Why? ‘Cause I was in a band that had some success and through that, am able to be a part of lives of people I don’t know.
I think I’ve only watched it once, but I like the idea of that show Mythbusters. The one where they take a commonly passed around theory and put it to the test. Sites like Snopes.com come in handy too on occasion to reveal the truth behind those circulated emails that tend to go around every election cycle.
Fact vs Myth.
For my “fans” (I’ve never liked that word by the way):
Myth: I was in a successful Christian band, therefore I must be “super-d-duper” faithful as a Christian!
Truth: I accepted Christ at 17. I struggle all the time with faith. Believing without seeing is often a challenge to me as my default mode is ‘skeptic’. I have had plenty of seasons in my life where if not for Grace..My life didn’t reflect Christ at all…There may be seasons of that again..But I’m confident as a child of God..that I belong to Him and He’ll get me back on track. This past Saturday when I had read that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot. I did pray for her. But I have to admit upon first learning about it..the first words out of my mouth were “What the F**k is wrong with people?” Not the best verbage, but completely heartfelt.
Myth: I saw you on MTV and you were on Magazine covers. You must be rich!
Fact: Ha Ha! I wish. Guardian was fortunate to have a good season. We signed a deal once that basically gave us $150,000.00 with our signatures. 5 years later, I moved to Indiana and was pretty much broke. In fact, I was basically struggling to survive every month for about 5 years. Those were hard years. Trying to break a band at the time (London Calling) and trying to pay a basic electric bill was a struggle. Around 2005, I was fortunate enough to have friends in the music business who heard that I was thinking about driving a truck for a living. They called and said, “No way, you have too much music industry knowledge to not use it”. Then they offered me a job at their label. Since then, I have formed jamierowe | Spark Media which has saved my butt. Statistically, for my area of the country, I make an above average living…but that doesn’t mean I have great money management skills. Last month, I didn’t get paid at all. If it wasn’t for a $1,500.00 loan, I would’ve crashed and burned.
Myth: You spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter!
Truth: :-) Yes, it’s true. BUT, not a lot of actual time visiting those sites. I use Hootsuite to syndicate content. I even have the plug-in on my browser and the app on my iPhone. It’s rather easy to write one thought in 30 seconds and click “send” and have it appear all over the net. I check comments with email notifications. Due to my job, I MUST spend a lot of time online. But personally, I surf to educate myself..design sites, code sites, news sites, etc.. With Hootsuite, I can catch up with what my friends are doing and blast my thoughts in less than 3 minutes.
I could go on and on…but you get the picture.
We are all struggling to get through this crazy thing called life. But with Christ, we have the promise of life.
Signing off with my current favorite saying:
LOVE WINS!
jamie