Preface to this story:  My name is Ian Bauer. I write for Refocus Magazine. In April of 2009 I was called back to audition for Season 4 of NBC’s America’s Got Talent.  This was my blog entry from that time.

It’s exactly 15 minutes past midnight. Which means for my friends in Chicago, it’s 2:15am and my friends in Massachusetts it’s 3:15am. I cannot sleep. I’m not nervous, not excited and unfortunately not tired. To my right is an amazing view of downtown Los Angeles. Blurry orange lights that go on for miles. Every so often a plane can be seen thundering it’s way to the runways of L.A.X, where, according to Google maps, I am 6 minutes away from. Also, there’s palm trees. The weather was misty and cool when we got here. I trekked my way down the road my hotel is on to find fast food restaurants, strip clubs, LAPD roaming about and oh yeah, did I mention palm trees?

A few hours earlier . . .

Having just boarded, I sat in between a well dressed man reading Forbes magazine and a woman who while I’m sure is awesome with chopsticks is not so much with English. I turned to my left and asked “Do you do business in LA?” He works for a toy manufacturing company. I told him I’m originally from Massachusetts but have been living in Chicago for about two months. Turns out that Chicago was only his connecting flight and he was actually coming from Chicopee, Massachusetts. Only a short 40 minutes from where I live. Small world, huh? He told me a brief history of downtown LA in detail and used sentences such as “Due to the economic turbulence we’ve been experiencing…” You lost me at “due.”

Prior, during and after our flight I kept running into a group of about 7 or 8 girls that are also auditioning for the show. Each come from all over Illinois and are apparently state ranked numbah one in the art of dance.

On the plane ride (which felt like a million hours (actually four) (technically two due to the time difference)) I had time to think and pray. I find that God speaks to me most in the silent pockets of my prayer time.

This whole situation of being selected to audition for a national television show in LA has caused much attention and joy from friends. I am so touched that they share in the excitement. That is good friendship. Such exhilaration has caused a lot of “Dont forget me when you’re famous!” Let me say; I’m not banking on becoming famous this week. I feel very lucky to be in this situation.

Because of that, my main prayer recently is that God would keep me humble. What a funny thing to pray because, He doesn’t just change my attitude. He puts me in uneasy situations and opportunities to humble myself before Him and others. That’s a tough thing.

Also a quick thing about God answering another prayer of mine. I was planning on coming home this weekend. Before getting the callback from NBC I was trying to figure out how I would make it. A plane ticket was too expensive and a train ride was 20 painstaking hours I’d rather not deal with. Well, “due to the economic turbulence we’ve been experiencing” I bought a train ticket. The earliest I could get was Friday night which means I would arrive home worn out and tired Saturday evening. I was sooo not looking forward to it. Little did I know, the next day I would be getting an email from NBC’s travel coordinator that basically said “Here you go Ian, here’s a plane ticket home this Thursday. It’s on us.” Like Jesus would say; totally a God thing.

There you have it: that’s been my evening. Tomorrow we are to be camera ready and waiting in the lobby at 2:15pm. For my friends in Chicago, that’s 4:15pm, and for my friends in Massachusetts, that’s 5:15pm. To myself, that’s an eternity.