"Isn't It Tornado?"

A few years ago I had received a CD from a girlfriend I had at the time. The CD was of Jason Upton..." I have never heard of him, so he must not be that good..." I thought , as she handed it to me and attempted to tell me how much she thought I would like it. So I listened and , ya for the most part I like it but...never gave it any more thought than that. I held on the CD just cause it felt like a gift for some reason at the time...so when time came for me to filter threw all my old music and just either throw away the junk...I would keep putting this CD aside for some reason.

I even remember thinking a couple times " why does getting rid of this CD keep feeling like a bad idea?" Honestly, I never listen to it anymore and I most likely never will, lol.

One night I was sitting alone in my apartment...it had been a while since me and that girl had dated and out of nowhere it just hit me, like "hey Jordan you still have that Jason Upton CD" and I remember feeling like it was a good idea to listen to him at the time. At the time I was feeling kinda just BLAH spiritually down in the dumps, I guess you could say.

So, more or less I kinda thought if I tossed it in, I would just get maybe some encouragement of some sort and lift my spirits or something. Never did it cross my mind, what was in store for me after that. Like I said, I was kinda struggling with a lot in my life...and I was just feeling kinda numb spiritually. So I listen to his album. I began to listen to it while I was struggling before I would sleep...so I could get to sleep, really.

So, after a while , it felt like I was coming out of my "spiritual slump" caused by my lack of faith- come to find out. But I started to searching for Jesus a little more and began to work on my lack of faith. I started to feel a little "hungry" for it ...ya know? I started really wanting to see a "sign" or a miracle or something along those lines. At the time I was hearing a lot of stories of others lives and all the amazing things that God had done for them and all these cool "majorly obvious" things were happening in their lives and I would look at my life and I was like "why is it so hard to find these things in my life if they are that obvious?"

This was then weighing on my heart for a while and began to almost bother me but I was still very curious or hungry for a little something from God. I really was feeling like I was in desperate need of an answer some how, to just " the where are you God?" question. So here's how it went down...

The CD came into my life from some one else , 2 years prior to this story. After the 2 years I was struggling and needing help. The CD goes in for a bit, I feel better....more problems come up and I'm desperate for another need that runs deep with in me. So then this song one song on there stood out to me so much and I loved it for simply what it was .. a song... or was it? After playing this song out... Ithen stumble onto this video of Jason talking about this song. I forgot to tell you that this copy that I have is a LIVE recording.

After listening to this song I kept getting the same mental picture popping up in my mind...and I never could understand why... but I got the same picture again one night listening to it...and following that was the strongest feeling of "you are going to draw this"...so I did. This picture is the mental picture I received multiple times from this song. What is the song?.... you ask. Well on my computer it titled it "Dying Star" but if you look it up on you tube, I think I have found another song by that same title from him as well so ... you might have to fish for it. Here's the video of his explanation of the live recorded version and what all happened that night.

WATCH THIS it is AMAZING!!...and totally what I needed.


Turns out, God knew my heart and let me LISTEN to a miracle as its happening, and in the most crazy ways lol. While all of that is goin on... He is doing a miracle all in the process of getting me to hear this miracle that he did along time ago....and totally in a way that is me... through art and music.

Everyone wants to see or witness a miracle i believe in their lifetime. I'm included in that. I wanted so badly to see Him or hear Him, just anything ... ya know? Little did I know I had been hearing a miracle happen over and over and over again...until I really LISTENED to it...I would have never heard this AMAZING thing happen.

So listen to the live version of that song, watch that video I linked and look at my picture...and read my story and tell me Jesus is not Lord....

" Creation "

This is another mural I have painted in my apartment on the opposite wall as "The Mural in My Mind". I call this "Creation".

I'll start by explaining "the green stuff". The green swirls flowing out everywhere is the breath of life. I chose green because when I think about the word "life" or think about any living thing at all that color comes to my mind...with the words "fertility"and "growth" attached to it. The swirls are to show a process is being done here. The man is drawn in a sketchy manner to show that HE as a man is being made into something physical. As of now you can still see through him. His face and hands are not complete yet because the process is not over .

The man is drawn in this smokey manner to represent his "spirit man"/soul. He is reared back in this overwhelming pose as if something is just over taking him. I'd imagine if we could be alive somehow when we were being created it would be something like that as well.

"...from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." I'm pretty obsessed with the idea of man's creation. I think about it a lot. For some reason ,something about the human body just really interests me. God knew what he was doing when he was constructing this creation that has skin and an armor type feel to the layout of his muscle anatomy. As if God knew 'man' was going to be a warrior of some sort, he gave him a breastplate to protect his heart and lungs, two of the most vital parts of His creation.

He also covered up one of the most sensitive parts with a coat of abdominal muscles. Covered the arms with the most practical set of muscles that allow you to function but still protect yourself in a way. I could go on and on about this but for times sake, I'll keep it short.. but the idea that we were next in line in the thoughts in God's head right after the earth was made.

Scripture said the land was covered in dirt or dust because God had not yet sent rain , he also didn't have anyone to work the earth for when it did rain...so he made man from the dirt. I love the fact that we were not accident and were designed for a purpose. I sit sometimes and think about how I create my own art for certain purposes and what not ...and I think about humans.. how we are all unique in one way or the other and have are own purposes of why we were made. That makes me want to find out so badly what I was originally supposed to do...instead of all the dumb things I choose to do in the process.

I will leave you with this, referring to the painting : when you feel incomplete or empty with no identity, or "no hands" and feeling incapable of doing anything....when you get to that point in life, I encourage you to rear back and let the breath of life overwhelm you and FLOW through you to let it finish 'Its' original purpose...to give us LIFE... and give it abundantly.