05/18/2013 early morning thinking

Cue My King by JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise. If you haven’t got that After This album, what are you waiting for?


I got a question. Missed opportunities. What do you do when missed opportunities happen? Eminem said some years ago, you only get one shot do not miss your chance to blow cause opportunity only comes once in a lifetime…is that true? So when you miss that so called one shot, do you just give up on life at that point? Or do you move on and say ok, I messed that up. On to the next adventure, and I won’t make the same mistakes I made last time.

I’m not asking all this to sound depressed. I was watching this dude do his thing at a church and I played drums behind this dude for about 6 months while he was on the organ. As I was watching him sing on stage, I had to fight back tears thinking back on how I messed things up during my six months up there. So to not cry I had to stop watching the video and get to this blog. As y’all know this is where I let my thoughts out because I don’t talk to anybody. I have numbers I can call on my phone but I don’t call them out of fear of the reaction. I’ve painted myself as a black sheep. Notice I said I’ve painted myself as a black sheep. So with that pressure I’ve put on myself, I think nobody cares. Even when I know for a fact that is false. Anyway, so missed opportunities. What did I do after I messed up the Midwest trip? Not a thing. I didn’t do a thing. Nothing to move life forward. I took the low road. I beat myself up. Which lead to situations that I never thought in my life I would be in.

What am I saying? It’s your choice on how you handle missed opportunities in life. You can take the low road like I did, or you can keep you head up, realize you’re breathing, and work hard toward the next one. So Celebrate by Hezekiah Walker just came up on iTunes. A song that was sung where I wasted 6 months. I had to skip it. When you know your state of mind is not where it should be, you can’t give place to encourage it to get worse. You got to skip that track, change the channel, put the phone down, etc. What you feed will grow. You feed into the habit, it will grow into something worse. You feed into your faith, your faith will grow. My mom would say this often, “You eat fat greasy food, and you’ll be a fat greasy dude.” Watch who you hang around with. I know that for a fact. Here’s a story that I don’t think I’ve told yet. When I was in high school, I would hang around with a friend of mine that I’ve known since 3rd grade. And one year, he got saved. He and a couple of other friends in the same group I was hanging with got saved. So as they’re mindsets changed, my mind changed. My mannerisms changed. I know for a fact that who you hang with will influence your choices and your mindset. I don’t how I got on this subject, but I’m just saying be careful. My old pastor once said that everyone needs about 4 people around them. This going to the story in the Bible, where the lame man was outside and wanted to get in where Jesus was, so 4 other men got him to the roof of the building and dropped him through the ceiling.

So let me try to get back on topic. What do you do when you miss a chance? My opinion, again this is the opposite of what I did, but I say that you brush your shoulders off and move on. Don’t dwell on it. Keep smiling. Keep pushing. Learn from your mistakes and keep working hard. Don’t be afraid to work. Don’t be afraid. Even if you are afraid, push yourself out of that chair, couch, or bed and go on. A song I love says, “I’m going on in the name of the Lord/Reaching for my goal/my eternal life reward/God is a mighty fortress in the time of storm.” Got to take the good with the bad. I’ve heard it said with no dirt, there’s no growth.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

Facebook.com/bigdusty

Twitter.com/big_dusty

Jeremy Lin, Whitney Houston...what else you want?

So if you been checking with me the past few weeks, you noticed I got back in the grind so to speak. Back in the grind of podcasting. Something that I’ve been doing literally for years. When I began doing them, I called them voice blogs. If I remember right, it took me a couple of years to start calling them podcasts. Calling them what you will, I got back to doing them because it’s a good way to express myself. I can literally speak my mind, know what I mean? I’ve only been back doing them for two weeks now, and when I say I’ve been getting ideas after ideas? I mean I already got an idea of what I want to talk about for the next one, that is just in case a collab podcast doesn’t happen. Hint hint…

So how y’all been doing since the last blog? It’s been quite a while, and I apologize for that. That’s all on me. I got to get back on the grind on these things like I got back in the grind with my podcasts. Not only the blogs, but I’ve been slipping with my YouTube Channel as well. It would be easy for me to stop making YouTube videos because my views are not up to par, but the key word there is easy. I plan on making them better…well at least better looking anyway. I can’t promise on the material, but the look of the videos should get better in the coming months. Gonna let your mind whirl with that one…

The big story going around is Whitney Houston, and her death. When I first heard the news, my sister and I were eating at O’Charley’s, and a waiter was walking around saying, “Whitney Houston is dead.” Sure enough, when we got home and I turned it to CNN, there it was. Whitney Houston dead at 48. Whitney ruled the airways for decades. She was a big part of the generation before me, and she was a part of mine. Whitney had her struggles and demons, there’s no need to go in to that, because most likely you know about it. If by chance you don’t, it’s called bing and google. Look it up. What I will say about the situation is for the media to please let the family have peace. For once can they turn the TV on and not be reminded of what happened to Whitney? Some say give them a week, why not give them a couple of months? Let the family breathe. About the funeral though, what y’all think of Reverend Tyler Perry? Tyler had the organ going and everything. I don’t agree with the cussing he does at times, but when the guy speaks about faith, he speaks truth.

Another big story going around is Jeremy Lin. Lost big time to my  team, the Miami Heat on the evening I’m typing this, but I’m still a fan of the story. It is the American story. The man was on the verge of quitting. Literally sitting at the end of the bench getting over looked. Then all of the sudden he got his one shot. Now a couple of weeks later, the dude is a superstar. Eminem had a song some years back that said, “You only get one shot, do not miss your change to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” Jeremy took his shot, and get him off his brother’s couch. It’s a message to all of us. Some of us are one opportunity away, but do we take advantage of the opportunities that come our way? We got to own it. If you got a dream don’t give up. That’s for me as much as I’m typing it for y’all. I’m still chasing my dreams. I don’t do a very good job at it at times. I have no problems admitting that, but maybe me typing this to y’all will motivate me to do better for myself, you know? Anyway, I like the Jeremy Lin story. It’s not only good for the Knicks, it’s good for the NBA as a whole. It gives the NBA more viewers. It gives the NBA more publicity. It doesn’t hurt that Lin is a man of faith and that he’s humble. Man of faith and humble.

The Lin story also teaches that if you’re obedient to God and humble, God will take you places not only that you dream of, but past your dreams. That’s what I’m learning myself more and more, and that is to stay obedient and humble. When I get pats on the back, I don’t get the big head about it. One, I got a big enough head already. Two, I have a past that people can bring up that can embarrass me and bring me back down off a cloud. Why not stay real either way? Whether I get pats on the back or not, just stay real. Jay Z and Beyonce are examples of what not to do. Not allowing people to see their new born babies because you had to close off an entire wing of a hospital to bring your baby in this world. Come on! You’re not the only new parents in the world! Giving your baby a tumblr, featuring the baby in the song, giving the baby millions of dollars worth of toys…are you serious right now? I don’t know why I’m on the Jay Z and Beyonce trip, but it just urked me to the fact that parents couldn’t see their babies because these two rich tools had to block off a wing for theirs. If you’re a fan of these two, I make no apologies for what I said. These two were wrong, and anybody with heart knows that. Don’t give me that they’re new parents and they were excited and all that garbage. The fact was, they were rich with money, and they could do whatever they wanted.

Sorry, I got side tracked for a second there. Bringing it back. The bottom line I was getting to is that being obedient and staying humble is what I’m doing, or what I’m doing my best to do on this ride to where God is taking me.

That’s the blog. Again sorry for the wait, I hope this makes up for it. Get at me on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to follow my podcast, here’s the page for that: http://bigdusty.podomatic.com . I’ve been slacking on my YouTube, but I plan on shooting the new video soon. Be sure to leave your comments for this blog here on the site, Twitter, or Facebook. Feel free to share this around with folks. Feel free to follow this blog. I hope to be back sooner rather than later.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson aka Big Dusty