She’s a question mark

As you’ll find when you look up the 5 W’s on Wikipedia, they’re defined as “questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving.” Well, some people would definitely consider my love life basic. Clearly I just roasted my own self and I’m OK with that, though, because I like laughing. I laughed a lot yesterday while I was driving behind a car that had a dog sticking it’s head out barking wildly at cars passing in the other direction. I also think yesterday was a good day for information gathering. It started when I opened up Spotify.

What…
I heard one of my favorite songs when it cycled up in my Spotify library. Every time I hear this cover of a Temptations hit, it sends my mind a’drifting, thinking to myself, “I can’t wait to put together a video with this song for the woman I marry.” Sure, it’s 90s reggae but it makes me think of a fun relationship I’ll have with my best friend.


Why…
I’m a hopeless romantic. My favorite movies are The Notebook, Elizabethtown, Hitch, and I’ll throw Serendipity in there too, as a great romantic comedy. So when I have the chance to make something personal for someone I love, of course I’m going to do it. That’s why!

Where…
An educated guess would say this story will unfold in Nashville, where I live. There are other possible backdrops to this love story; I have family in Florida so there could be a scenario where I cross paths with a beautifully-quirky woman there.

When…
Timing is everything and right now, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe she and I are already friends. Maybe she’ll be at the Post Office today when I go to drop off some mail. Either way, I’m looking forward to the day I can’t remember what my life was like before she entered it.

Who…
Now this is the question of the hour. I’ve had a handful of great relationships in my love life, but none that progressed to marriage and, it might be strange to hear this, I’m very thankful they didn’t. Had I married in my 20s or early 30s, the relationship would have gone one of two ways: a rough and rocky start that crippled us for a long time, or simply ending in divorce. Neither of which is something I wake up hoping for each morning.

So this mystery will go on unsolved for the time being. Heck, we only have information for 2 of the 5 W’s and that, my friends, is what I’d call… not even close! But when Spotify queues up Billboard’s #6 song from a reggae band of white guys in 1989, I can still anticipate the day when the question mark becomes an exclamation point!

-Out of the Wilderness

10 signs your church is trendy

Thought I’d post a lighthearted list of signs your church might fall on the side of super trendy, hipstery, and/or cool. Have a laugh, and feel free to add your additions in the comments below – Out of the Wilderness

10 Signs Your Church is Trendy

  • Forget hymns or anything by Hillsong. The worship team is teaching you songs by OneRepublic, Taylor Swift, or Coldplay.

 

  • The pastor calls passing the offering plate, “the original crowd-funding.”

 

  • People there are all pretty much the same age as you… that is, if you’re 25-35 yrs old.

 

  • You overhear someone call a hymnal, “vintage.”
Hymnal46
image via this website

 

  • Ignite. Encounter. Resurrection. The word ‘church’ isn’t actually in the name of the church.

 

  • The Gathering. Oasis. Red Door. Glide. The church sounds like an apartment complex or night club.

 

  • Before church, you stop by a coffeeshop… and it’s in the church.
coffee_LG
image via this website

 

  • At any particular point, you count 47 guitarists on stage.

 

  • You haven’t brought a Bible in years.

 

  • You leave a church service feeling great about yourself.

Thanks for checking out the list! If you have any to add, feel free to comment below 🙂

The 411 on “Singles You Up” video by Jordan Davis

Jordan Davis seems to be on the precipice of making it big. Industry critics and country music fans predict a very successful year for him in 2018. So why not kick off the new year with a great video to go along with one of his popular songs, right? Check out the video for “Singles You Up” then scroll down for a few details you might be curious about!


The Cast
Jordan stars alongside a woman playing his love interest. She is Austin-based model Abbey George. If you see her, give her a big ol’ ‘whoooooop,’ as she’s an alum, or if I’m being proper by A&M standards, a former student at Texas A&M University.

Howdy. Gig ’em. And other Aggie terminology.

7CD2F58D-B755-4B34-88B3-FCCA1F19CA6A
Abbey from JE Model Management‘s website.


The Locations
The video was shot in El Paso, Texas. Jordan and Abbey show up at Conchita’s Burritos, which, incidentally, is probably cooking up meals this very second for anyone who wants one at 6730 Alameda Avenue, El Paso, TX 79905. A 5-star Yelp rating means something, y’all, so swing by and grab a bite. There are other locations throughout the video, but this one has Mexican food, so I didn’t write about the others.

Screen Shot 2018-01-18 at 7.56.04 PM

The car
It’s much like the one pictured here, so I believe it is, in fact, a 1968 Pontiac Firebird. [correction: as pointed out in the comments below, the bodyline on the car in the video is evidence this is a ’69, thanks for commenting!]

pontiac2
photo from musclecardrive.com

Any car enthusiasts out there can feel free to comment below for confirmation or correction.


A big thanks to Eric Ryan Anderson for providing a Firebird-trunk load of info, much of which was used to put this post together. Best of luck to Eric, Jordan, Abbey, Conchita’s Burritos, and everyone who’s involved with Jordan’s music and videos! For more from these creative people, check them out on their social sites by clicking below…

Jordan Twitter

Jordan Instagram

Jordan website

Abbey Instagram

Director Eric Ryan Anderson Twitter

Eric Instagram

Eric website

-Out of the Wilderness

Life and death, and “Skol, Vikings!”

Last week will go down as a landmark on my life’s timeline. For anyone who saw my recent post about having a gun pointed at me, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And for those that missed it, you can click this link to be caught up, or… to make a long story short, a fellow motorist driving aggressively pulled up next to me as we were moving down a Nashville road and used his gun to make his feelings known more clearly.

For a few days after that brazen encounter, I had a headache which is very out of the ordinary for me. My head hurt because the brazen encounter took time to truly sink in. This happened. I could’ve been hurt.

What was I thinking?

More questions than I have answers for continue scrolling through my mind; did he try to pull the trigger and it malfunctioned? What was he thinking in that moment? Was it a 9mm or a .22? Why was he so aggressive? I’ll never know how drastically my life would have changed if the gun had gone off and I was struck by the bullet, or something less painful like the bullet just hitting my car. As close as he was, we were maybe 15 feet from each other, the chances of him hitting his target were pretty high. What if I died that day? What if I was shot, but didn’t die? Who would I rely on for help? Who would care for my dogs?

The bottom line truth is this: even though he didn’t pull the trigger, my life has changed forever. I guess it would be presumptuous to say exactly how because only time will tell, and right now I don’t know all the ways my life will be different from this one random afternoon. I do know the way I drive will be different. God only knows what the future would’ve looked like had things turned out worse, so I’m taking this as a warning to think before I act, and a gigantic blessing that I have another chance to correct my course, if that makes sense. A do-over. A reset. A fail but with no major penalties.

So that was the first half of the week. Then I found out an acquantance of mine passed away very unexpectedly. He’s a friend and fellow filmmaker with a couple of my friends, and someone I worked with on a huge project from 2015 to 2017. The news hit my two friends hard. They were close to him, and though I didn’t know him as well as they did, my heart became heavy the instant I found out. I’m sad for his family, I’m sad for my friends. It doesn’t make sense when such a great person takes an early exit, and we who are left behind are the ones who lose because of it. It’s hard to come up with something positive in circumstances like this, because the best scenario is one where he isn’t gone, but something cool happened on Sunday that I’m believing is a silver lining, a little gift from above that is sweet in it’s own little way. This guy was the biggest Minnesota Vikings fan this side of Heaven, and yesterday the Vikings pulled off a win in the final seconds of their playoff game, and it was pretty unbelievable. I won’t give a play by play recap, but they won on a last second, 61-yard touchdown pass as the seconds ticked down to end the game. I heard on the radio that right before the play started, the Vikings had roughly a 6% chance of winning the game. It was only that high because they were down by 2 so a field goal would’ve won it. But with 10 seconds to go and no time outs, 60 yards away from the end zone, TVs were being shut off across the country. The game was over. But uh uh uh, not so fast! Hike, drop back, launch, a catch and a sprint to the end zone for the win! It was a highly improbable ending, but so, so sweet. The biggest Vikings fan on that side of Heaven was jumping up and down, I’m certain.

Now another week has already started and I’m very curious about how it’ll unfold. I wouldn’t mind a week where nothing happens, a week that is so forgettable that I already forgot it and it hasn’t even happened yet. But if it turns into a week where God teaches me something, not to mention where He might have in fact intervened to save my life and my way of life, I would count that as a win, too.

And another Minnesota win would be pretty nice, too. Skol, Vikings!

-Out of the Wilderness