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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
When he first started out he was called a skinny crooner. His frame filled out a little over the years, but his fame grew even more. They called him, "Old Blue Eyes." He became a legend in three separate fields of the entertainment industry. He was a master stage presence in live shows in venues such as Las Vegas and New York. His recordings have been consistent in their sales over the years and he became quite an accomplished actor in both musicals and regular films.
His name was Francis Sinatra, but his friends and the world knew him as Frank. Frank Sinatra's style as a singer was the epitome of a crooner. He seemed to use such little effort to sing that you would think his voice would last forever. And it pretty much did. However, what the voice doesn't know it can't sing. In his later years, those just before his death, reports were common of Old Blue Eyes forgetting the words to songs he had sung for years.
His voice still possessed that familiar mellow quality, but the memory was fading. When you're a singer on stage, once the memory goes so do the calls for shows. Frank Sinatra quit before his death because he just couldn't remember the songs anymore. He so desperately wanted to. He loved performing and loved the pleasure he afforded those who enjoyed his performances. But it was time to stop.
Our memory is funny. Some of us claim to have poor ones while others seem to remember everything. When our memory fails us we are frustrated. Yet, there are those things we'd like to forget. Most of those are the bad things that have happened to us. Many of them are the bad things we have done or said over the years that keep haunting us in our memories. God has promised a time to forget.
In His promise of a new covenant, God made a promise concerning sin. "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31:34 Through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, God has both forgiven and forgotten our sin. I guess you'd call it selective forgetfulness. Whatever you call it, thank God for it.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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