Mark Bishop
Singing News Article
December 2006
Can you believe that we are quickly
approaching the end of another year? If you are like me, then you
are asking yourself "Where has the time gone?" I had been told
that, as you get older, time moves more quickly. I don't know if
Einstein had an equation for it but, I'm starting to believe that
it is true.
I am looking forward to the holidays though. It has been a very
busy year for everyone here at Mark Bishop Music Ministries and we
are looking forward to a little down time. Last year, with the
release of the new Christmas album, I was busy traveling and
singing right up till Christmas. This year I will still be doing
some of the Christmas concerts but not as many. I am looking
forward to sitting around the kitchen table with some friends and
a cup of hot chocolate. I am looking forward to working a big
jig-saw puzzle with the girls on a cold and blustery day.
I know that most folks don't enjoy the colder weather but oddly
enough, I have come to look forward to it because of the
"family-time" that it has come to signify for me. Everyone knows
that I am a homebody who happens to travel all across the country
every week to share the gospel. I definitely do not have the
gypsy-spirit of some. If all of life were a western movie, I'd be
the guy out in the fields with the mule, not the stranger who just
rode into town.
I'm looking forward to the home-cooked meals too.
About this time every year, Carolyn bakes a jam cake for us. Ok...
it's mostly for me, but I don't mind sharing. I don't know why we
don't have jam cake any other time of the year. I really do enjoy
it a lot. I guess though that it would stop being special if it
were to show up any other time than the holidays.
Being a Southern Gospel Singer, I have to be careful what I tell
folks I enjoy or I'll end up with a jam cake at every concert. I
really, really appreciate the thoughtfulness but the Commonwealth
of Kentucky only allows so many jam cakes to pass over the state
line in a given year, and I wouldn't want to have to call dad to
bail me out of jail for jam cake smuggling. I wonder if Darryl
Stewart, that Florida Boy pianist icon, has ever regretted
mentioning his fondness for red socks? I'm sure that he has not
had to buy any red socks for years. Folks who appreciate what you
do, often like to express their appreciation and sometimes they
have nothing to go on other than what they might have heard you
mention. Like red socks or jam cakes.
I'm surprised that some enterprising Gospel Music singer hasn't
mentioned somewhere that he or she has a fondness for twenty
dollar bills or for gift certificates from Cracker Barrel.
Although I must tell you, about all of the fellow artists that I
know really just appreciate when you greet them and tell them that
you enjoyed their music ministry.
I guess that as we approach the "gift-giving season", it is
appropriate that I've been talking about gifts. Giving gifts is in
our nature. In Matthew, Chapter 2 and verse 11 we read that the
three wise men went and "when they saw the young child with Mary
his mother, and fell down and worshipped him: and when they had
opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh."
Usually, when I sit down to prepare this article, I follow the
same instincts that I use when I write a song. I hardly ever know
ahead of time what I might write about. But I have always wanted
my little part of the Singing News Magazine to be kind of folksy
and conversational. Many, many folks tell me that they enjoy that
approach and I have to be honest, I don't think I would be able to
write it another way. Not and enjoy it anyway. So thank the folks
at the Singing News for letting me be, well... me on this page.
Perhaps you could send them a jam cake in appreciation.
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