Baldemar Garza Huerta, better know as Freddy Fender was born in San Benito, Texas in 1938. He took the name, ‘Fender’, from the Fender guitar. And, he just thought Freddy sounded good and would, in his opinion, sell better with the ‘gringos’. Evidently he was right. He first recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” in 1959 and it was a hit. But soon after, he was derailed when he and a band member were convicted of marijuana possession and ended up spending a stint in the Angola Prison in Louisiana. By the end of the 60’s, Fender was back in Texas working as a mechanic, and attending a local junior college, while playing music only on the weekends. In 1974 he recorded “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and it reached #1 on the Billboard Country and Pop charts. His next three releases all reached #1 and the re-release of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” became his first million selling single. He also won three Grammys in his career. Fender died of lung cancer in 2006. I can’t say I was a huge fan of Freddy Fender but he definitely made his mark. *(I came face to face with him at the Houston airport one time!)
As you know by now I’m a big music lover….and I’m always looking for a good blog title. That’s how I landed on “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”. There’s a very important verse in Proverbs that goes like this, “Without a vision the people perish.” I’ve thought about that verse a lot over the years and I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. First, if you’re a regular reader of mine you know I often refer to our ‘destiny’. I believe the subject of destiny is one of the most important things we could talk about. I’m not talking about ‘destination’ so much since, if you’ve made the decision to receive Jesus, your destination is sealed. But destiny includes the events that we encounter on the way to our destination. And, what’s a lot more important than those events, are the people we encounter along the way. It also involves the ‘call’ of God on our lives….which we all have. He has a plan, a meticulous and detailed one, for each of us. And I think that Proverbs verse speaks directly to that point.
“Without a vision, the people perish”. I surely don’t think that it means that if we don’t have ‘vision’ for our lives we die. I mean, we are gonna die whether we have that vision for our lives or not. But, if you think about it, “to perish” could easily involve wasting our lives in pursuit of things that might not matter at all in the long run. I’m afraid there are many who might fall into that category. It seems like a pretty big thing to me…..to miss what we’re on the planet for in the first place!
I don’t want my life to be a string of wasted days and wasted nights! ……and I know you don’t want that either. Here’s the fix: Run to Him! And, I wouldn’t mess around too long thinking about it. Ask Him about the plan for your life. He’s very free with that kind of information. His plan for you is bigger and better than you can comprehend. It’s never too late to jump in!
Let’s let our lives count for something!
No more wasted days and wasted nights!
Check these out:
It’s Not Too Late to Make a ‘Mark’ With Your Life!
