Hope you all had a great holiday week!

I apologize for the lateness of this week’s sermon but in a weird way, it also ties into what the sermon is all about. Unfortunately, I’ve been dealing with some very personal issues that have been extremely painful to deal with. Needless to say, what I’ve come to realize is that the ending of certain things is the beginning of new things.

So that’s what this sermon is about: beginnings and endings. I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be the ending of a lot of things people have been so used to in past years. The problem with endings is that they’re usually pretty damn painful. And that pain can cause us to do stupid things. Trying to get through the pain is how we grow but it really is the worst ways to do it. Not so much because there’s easier ways to get through it but rather because sometimes pain is the ONLY teacher we actually listen to.

The saying ‘as a door closes, a window opens’ is a nice phrase and to be honest, it’s fairly true. The only problem is that it’s NEVER that easy. It’s never easy to find that window that is open because it’s probably not even in the same room where the door actually closed. In fact, it might not even be in the same damn house! That’s why it’s painful. We hear or see the door closing behind us and all we can think about was what was on the other side of the door…the great job that laid us off, the girl/boyfriend who broke up with us, the death of a family member, etc. We think about all the amazing things that were behind the door before it closed. Now we’re all desperately searching for that window, especially when our need is dire.

I guess all I can say is this: the window IS out there. And for those of you who are having any kind of emotional/mental pain that goes along with the door closing, all I can say is that the window WILL open and you WILL find it. It’s nice to be able to give this advice to people, but it’s sometimes the hardest thing for us to hear and actually believe when we’re the ones undergoing the painful process.

But 2012 is a new year and we’re only the 3^nd week in. So there’s still plenty of time to find that window and make sure it’s open. For those of you going through this, my heart and positive vibes are with you. For me, I hope your support gets me through my painful period as well. If we don’t have metal and we don’t have each other, then what do we have?

Concert Stuff:

Unfortunately, I don’t have any show reviews or album reviews this week. It’s been kind of a slow week for shows.

That being said, we got lots of amazing metal going to radio in the upcoming weeks! The new year is starting to shape up pretty nicely too! Make sure you check it out!!