Letters in the Pocket - #1

Since I started this blog many people have been sending me feedback to what I've written. I'm very appreciative for the opinions because that means people are reading it. And yes, I do get negative responses. One person has told me she has boycotted my blog, and I have heard that another thinks that I didn't appreciate the church I went to as much as I should have. Oh well, it's always been four out of five dentists .... never all five.

But today is special. I received my first "letter." Kind of like letters to the editor. It's awesome. I gather it was written because this very intelligent letter writer knew I felt the same way so I could maybe shed some light on this topic. Here it is, my first received letter:

Dear Inside Randall's Pocket:

I've always spoken the truth, shared the truth, and dressed it up nicely. Why do people reject this. If "the truth shall set you free," why do people keep living in lies?

Last night I decided to go to the Fred Hammond concert. I went because the last concert I went to (Israel Houghton) was an amazing experience I was thinking this would be half decent.

It started off good with the praise team from Rhema Christian Ministries setting the atmosphere for the evening. Then there was some rambling as the stage was being prepared for Hezekiah Walker. He was strong but I didn't know many of the songs. I didn't have a problem with that as people were really into his set but his last tune dragged on far too long and forshadowed what was to come for the rest of the evening. This started with the World Vision presentation. It was a half hour of begging people to spend $40 a month to sponsor a child. Making people feel guilty into helping when they have paid for a concert leads to a lot of first month cancellations. That's not fair to anyone.

This was followed by some kind of award presentation. I thought this was a concert but I must have not read the fine print. There were four awards given out and I don't even know what they were for. After what was an eternity of wasted time between Hezekiah Walker's set and Fred Hammond's, the host got the crowd into a frenzy for Fred Hammond and was introducing him when a stagehand comes out and whispers to him that they're not ready yet. So to waste even more time they kept plugging World Vision until Fred Hammond was ready to come out. I was all ready to go home by the time he came out, at 10:25 pm.

He played mostly new material the majority of the people didn't know and when the "die hards" that stormed the front of the stage begged for some hits, he pulled out a chair, sat down, and turned this concert into "conversations with Fred." I did not come to hear what his mom taught him when he was young, I came for a concert, with songs. So after two life lessons, and a mailed in medley of hits, I couldn't take it anymore and left right in the middle of it thinking "what a waste of my time." That was four hours of my life I'm never getting back.

Randall, I will not stand for slackness, I will not excuse it or sugar coat it.

Signed,

Right Said Fred

Look for my response tomorrow.