The Start of Something Good

He was the start of something good...

"So far as there is joy in jazz, he personified it. He meant it and he felt it."*

These are the words of music critic Nat Hentoff after hearing of the death of jazz great, Lionel Hampton.

A product of the Jim Crow era, Lionel was a child immersed in the consequences of injustice and hate for the color of his skin. but he learned how to extract joy from obscure places. The nuns at his school taught him to play the drums. Forty-five minutes after finding a vibraharp in the corner, he introduced the instrument on a jazz recording with Louis Armstrong. His band's performance at the Apollo Theater brought the audience to such a joyful frenzy that their stomping cracked the floor in the balcony.

Lionel Hampton's exuberant expression of music and life made him a light in dark places.

As I read about this legend's life, it made sense for him to title an album, "This Could be the Start of Something Good." Starting something good was what he lived to do.

When the angel of the Lord told Samson's mother she would give birth, she and the children of Israel were in an obscure place. Being barren, it was a welcomed surprise for her and her husband, but more so for the Israelites living under the oppression of the Philistines.

You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” ~Judges 13:5, New International Version

Samson was the start of something good.

Are you ready to start something good?

Samson in Hebrew means, "sun". His birth was the beginning of better. It instilled hope in a hopeless people. They could see a brighter future because of the sun in Samson.

YOU could be the start of something good, too.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

You are the good in obscure places. Wherever God has you right now, be grateful and shine your light.

Samson was not a perfect man, and yet God still used