*2*So*God*followed*me*into*the*desert

In 2009, while in Plettenberg Bay for a short tour, I had a few consecutive nights of significant things take place. The night we arrived, the guitarist and I provided the entertainment for a 50^th birthday party. Exclusive as it was it ended up being a party like any other with friends and family dancing and singing along to the pop tunes we were playing. Open bar, amazing free food, beautiful venue and well-dressed people mostly from Joburg- the kind of trendies that relocated to the classy coastal communities to run vineyards and polo farms where the husbands would travel back north for business two to three times a month. In this upper-class environment I never expected what happened next. One of the wives started talking to me and out of nowhere started saying how I was running away from God. She, boldly went on to relate the story of Jonah and the whale and how the bigger the purpose Jonah realised he had on earth-the further he ran in the opposite direction. She was speaking as if she knew me, and spoke about being lost in the desert - with nowhere to turn, no knowledge of the direction which to travel. This hadn’t happened before at a function that I had played. Strange but true

The next night we were performing at a local bar, and after a very tiring day I opted to sit the gig out. There was something just not right and I felt an intense dissatisfaction with the night, the music, the gig, the trip and so spent the rest of the time outside praying to relieve the internal frustration. The next day I received an email from my youth pastor Jason, who had known me for a while, and totally out of the blue simply said “I feel God is looking for you”. Strange but true

 After an uncomfortable journey back to the Mother City the following day and on arriving to perform at another show on our immediate return, I was approached by a woman who’s first words were “You remind me of a man that always wanted to be famous”. She went on to explain that her life-long friend had just passed away from a rare chronic illness and had received the sms notification of his death as she walked in to the restaurant. She then retold the story that as she looked up after reading the sms, she saw the band playing and my passion for performing on drums had made her think about her friend. Now this would normally be taken up as an “ah that’s so sweet” story but something in me was more than curious. Unsure what to say I asked more about the recently deceased, and it turned out that this had been the very same man that had been born into one of the biggest property companies of the country, as she was also into the property line, and was the very same man that had head-hunted me to give a brief set of drum lessons to one year prior. Strange but True

As to not complicate my timeline too much, I have just recently seen photo’s taken of this exact woman watching another one of our shows at the very same venue and setting as the initial spontaneous meeting took place on that arrival day back from The Coastal tour. I had discovered these photos after some intriguing conversation with someone I met at a festival. She casually mentioned she had photos of a pretty drumkit, which turned out to be my pretty drumkit. Strange but True

The very next day I was reminded vividly of a dream I had about 6 months prior to this crazy weekend of successive, significant occurrences. The dream of warning: I was sitting in the sea, bobbing like a buoy and experiencing mixed vision from above, then below, then above the surface of the water. It was completely silent but there was a real sense of sinister vibes. I had my eyes fixed on a particular part of the shore and under a magnifying glass saw a few figures on the shore-line. One of them was me chatting to a group of people and the other main figure was my band-mate who was standing directly behind me. He was holding a knife in his hand and a queer smirk on his face. This was a warning which I received months earlier in a dream and one which in the midst of the travelling and strange but true occurrences made even less sense to me. Then it happened. It was no wonder than when my band-mate eventually pushed me out of the job a month later the only reason he could muster up for my dismissal was that “You’ve outgrown the band, you’re too good for the band”. Tisk tisk to say the least and a string of bounced payments followed this move leaving me with debt, betrayal and some new material to write about. The dream of warning was Strange but True

The point of these set of events is to show you that although I was busy with my own dreams and plans that God had followed me to the place that I was in and spoke to me even there.  God followed me into the desert and continued to speak strange truths through my being.

You Know Why

Say I can’t even imagine Why Why I held my breath

What what is taking you so long, you need to act, act on what you feel

Something’s got me started and I won’t let up until you go tomorrow

They’ve been screwing us in every hour since we were reborn yesterday

Ooh this world is killing me and You Know Why

Say I can’t even imagine Why Why you’re not here with me

Safety in numbers is what I said, Why didn’t you take my advice

Something’s got me twisted and I don’t know what the wind will bring tomorrow

They’ve been having us for lunch and folks are struggling with their old school ways

Ooh these times are making a fool out of You Know Why

Don’t be short-sighted baby, it started with the bible and it ended with the mac

The prodigal son returns today, I will write a song and sell a million large

Ooh in time you’ll come crawling home and You Know Why

A successful businessman told me recently that he sees me having bad luck with things like big deals of business and performing contracts gone wrong. This was hard to swallow. As a retort, I’ve been used, abused and ‘screwed over’ a handful of times from ‘snakes in the industry’ without knowing what was to come. However, the evidence of certain dreams, senses and Strange but True circumstances have guarded me from further breakdown and retirement.  But what this businessman has failed to see is the big deal going on in my heart- the true lessons of life building themselves into a shield and fortress and palace and a sanctuary in my soul through the time of testing in the desert. I never knew that the desert would be so dark and barren but it is never without the wisdom of God.

Someone once told me that I should forsake all else and get understanding for it is the wellspring of life. Easier said than done, but it’s easier to drink from a spring that is flowing than from a ‘sprung’ (a spring that has flowed before but no longer). Thing is a Spirit flows through the earth and through our minds and this process of testing and tempting in the desert stands in scripture, history as well as in my experience as a source of inspiration and truth. Let me clarify: I ran from God only to find God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit on the way. I have to pay my fare back into the place God has destined for me but wow how he hunted me down. Offended by the name Jesus? Maybe a little disturbed or experiencing a slight niggle of apprehension at the mention of the most controversial topic of our time? Well what would you say if I proposed he wasn’t a mall kop, he was not a liar, nor a mere ‘moral man’? Those are the only possible explanations for such a thoroughly-documented public figure that more people have run from than just me. There is one last option: what if He was actually Strange but True and all the Da Vinci codes of the world were just creating revenue? Didn’t he have the same financial concerns about organised religion 2000 years ago? Jesus may be strange and the stories may be hard to believe, but His spirit is the same spirit which brings unity, love, peace, synchronicity, nobility, service, wisdom, purpose, hope, and truth to this earth.

I’ve decided, you choose...

In 2012, I believe in Jesus; in living previously as an old soul; that evolution, at a stretch, was Gods idea; and that there’s nothing more dangerous than humans. Strange but True