For all of my church staff friends out there, when did you start preparing for Easter? Was it the day after the Christmas service was over? Was it after last week? Have you not started yet? I will say that I started planning for it before I actually realized that I was. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. I had a list of songs that I wanted to sing with this choir and I had them lined up as far as when we would sing them. As things continued to shape themselves out and God decided that I needed to do some other things, my Easter service came together in such a cool way. I didn’t know that I would need the rest so much this week and having that thing already planned out has been a blessing! Even as I type this all I want to do is fall asleep. But I still have a rehearsal in 2 hours to get ready for. I will share later our set list for that day. But I wanted to share that blessing with you all.

It’s been roughly 11 days or so since I’ve blogged. That normally is pretty unacceptable. However,  I had decided to take a break from a few things. I have had a lot of jumbled thoughts and jumbled schedules which leads to some pretty random thoughts. I have been on a pretty good roll of working through my thoughts about worship and life and how they work together and I didn’t want to mess that up with really crazy mess that wouldn’t have worked with on this blog. Maybe I should start another blog for my random thoughts of stupidity…actually, that’s sort of what I use Twitter for. But I digress…

I have so many things going on right now with Easter coming up next week (more on that later this week), the SpiritWing 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert, heading to Nashville in a couple weeks for this 1 day songwriting conference, taking a couple weeks off from the church to make some big decisions about life…all these things are causing me to not be on schedule therefore causing my brain to do some crazy things. I will, however, take a minute to share some really cool things that happened recently.

Saturday were ministry group callbacks at MoBap. It was so interesting to be on the other side of the callback situation. I totally remembered my callback situation and it came back to mind as group after group of kids came through. Some nervous, some seemed extra cool. But they were all hoping for a spot in a ministry group for 2010-2011. The directors had really been praying because things were looking kinda shaky after the two days of auditions. We had a lot of scenarios and had no idea if any of them would work. So we went into the callbacks with completely open minds and hearts. Needless to say, God showed up in a major way. What we came away with at the end of the afternoon were what I believe will be 4 of the best groups overall that we have seen in a really long time. I was so excited and pumped heading home that afternoon. Only God knows what’s going to happen with them next year, but from what we saw this weekend, He’s going to have much to work with.

There was other stuff, but I don’t want to write a book. I just want to write a blog to get myself back into writing blogs. I’m working on ideas for the next couple weeks. There will also be some music updates soon because, btw, I’m working on a CD. This whole thing isn’t easy. Keep praying. I’ll have a lot more to share soon…

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. ⁹Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace…

Hebrews 13:8-9a

This verse stood out in my mind this morning for some reason. I wasn’t reading it in my daily reading, I haven’t made it there yet. But this thought came to my head this morning. I was eating cereal with my girls this morning and looking at the latest copy of Church Production Magazine and was struck by a title for one of the articles in this month’s issue. “Will podcasting survive video streaming?” I immediately thought back a few years when Cds were starting to take over the world and the questions came up about this being the end of the cassette as we know it. Then it was DVDs and videos. Then it was Blu-Ray. This life is ever changing. I know that I’m just speaking from a technological standpoint, but these types of changes are happening all over the place in today’s world. There are many “diverse and strange teachings” out there that are leading people in all sorts of ways. We need to stand up as Christians and present the unchanging Gospel to this world. We should have a goal that includes engaging this world with the love of Jesus. Engaging the world with the love of a true relationship. That love never changes. Even if your church switches from podcasting to video streaming.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, that one day of the year wear people break out all the green in their closets and wear it proudly. Black people, White people, Mexicans, Jamaicans, Russians, everyone decides that they are Irish for either the beer or a kiss or just so they don’t get pinched. I, don’t have any green in my closet so I had to go a different route. Thanks to my friend Nicole who supplied with my green for the day. That was all that I had and it was my quick fix for the day.

The other day my girls were cleaning their room and, as most kids do, they decided that they didn’t want to clean anymore. So they trying to bargain with my wife to not clean their room and play instead. So they came up with this perfect idea, in their minds anyway… They would collect the materials and Daddy would come home and build them a robot that cleaned the room for them. They would just push the button and it would clean away. My asks them how would we build it and get everything needed to make it run. They said, “It’s really easy. It will run on one C battery!” They were so excited about this plan, not knowing that their dad has no building skills in his body. But that was a quick fix (in their mind) to the dirty room situation.

Why are we always looking for a quick fix? I don’t remember teaching my children to look for a quick fix to cleaning their room. They came up with that themselves. It seems so easy for us to just create something that will fix a problem or situation quickly so we can get back to doing what we want to do. I am SOOOO glad that Jesus didn’t go for the quick fix. He had a job to do and he could have called down angels and taken care of His situation, but he didn’t do that because He had a job to do. Take some time and thank Jesus for not settling for the quick fix. Do NOT waste any time waiting for me to create a room cleaning robot. That’s not happening. Now go clean your room!

Don’t you just LOVE when you get a moment when there’s just nothing going on and you get some time for just you? That time we take everyday when we spend 3 or 4 hours in the evening to just sit in the presence of the Lord and reflect on the beauties of life and pour through His word? That time when life just slows down each day and you can sit on the porch and read your favorite book and watch the fireflies? You don’t have time like that everyday? Me either…

Most of us are just planning for a 10 minute break from the insanity that is life. Most of us (I know my wife does) goes to the bathroom and just sits there. We all are looking for that little time that we can get to ourselves so we can stop thinking or answering phones are reading emails or stopping fights between the kids or the endless Dora episodes. Guess who else is looking for that time? God is. He wants some time to talk to you. He wants some time so you can talk to Him. He wants it. You NEED it. So take it. It’s that simple today.

I’ve had a couple weird blog days this past week. There was also the fact that my posts were posting later than I actually posted them. Weird times…anyway I hope that we’ll get back on track this week. I’m starting the week off with a doozy! Yesterday, I was reading my Bible (it was Sunday) and ran across this gem of a chapter in the Psalms. For those of you that don’t know, I have been dealing with quite a lot lately in life. I feel as if I’m in a constant state of transition, not knowing what the next step is going to be. I have been praying that God would show me what I’m supposed to be doing. I feel like I should know something because we have been walking this same road for so long. I’ve almost felt entitled. “Why won’t God just answer me? He knows this situation and He knows what we need. SERIOUSLY!” That was a statement of mine from an actual conversation. All that to say that I’ve been quite frustrated with life as of late.  There are some things that I want to do, and some things that I don’t want to do. There are some things that I’m hoping God will work through and my brain has been through a million scenarios.

In getting ready for the SpiritWing 25th Anniversary Reunion (more on that later), I was listening to the song Psalm 40 by Newsong. This was one of the songs that I led during the year I was in SpiritWing and we are singing it again. That song and passage came to my mind yesterday morning before service because I was a little discouraged about things. The chapter starts out talking about how David waited patiently for the Lord to do what He was going to do. That immediately struck home. But I think took a glance at a passage I had marked from chapter 39. It simply floored me.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro…

Psalm 39:5-6a

The thought that I’m just a breath, a phantom completely blew me away. I’ve been sitting here wondering what God is waiting on and then I saw that He doesn’t have to tell me anything and that in a blink I could be gone. That was a quick pick me up before service started. This world is NOT about me or you. It’s about God working in and through us. I got completely and utterly blasted by this passage. I immediately started writing a song based on this passage. It’s coming soon and I will do my best to bring the fire that the words speak. However, (you should read this chapter, btw), the rest of this chapter is beautiful. I can’t wait to weave this thing into a song. I’m excited about it!!!

Did you need to know this week that you’re a phantom man? I know I did…

Sunday morning is going to look like this. I don’t have anything spectacular to say about it. Should be fun though.

Immortal, Invisible

Indescribable

You Are The One

Jesus Paid It All

I believe that Sunday night’s Engage service is going to look something like this…

Majesty (Here I Am)

Pour Out My Heart

You Are So Good to Me

How Great is Our God

I decided to take it back a few years with the evening set. I’m pretty sure that the people there will have never heard these songs before I they are a couple of my favorites.

When I was in high school, the Henry Blackaby study ‘Experiencing God’ was HUGE! Everyone was doing this study including our church. Not only that, there was the student version that our youth group was doing. Everyone was wanting to experience God and evidently Blackaby had a monopoly on that market! However, one of the things that I will never forget about that study was the first of 7 realities that said “God is always at work around you.” The other realities are powerful as well, but this one really sets the tone. The fact that God is always working says to me that He has a plan and He’s always doing things to work that plan out. All of the circumstances that happen in our lives, all the people we come in contact with fall under God’s work. So why do we spend so much time fighting what He does? Or why do I spend so much time fighting what He does? Am I that stupid?

The line used in the title is from a song of mine that talks about how it feels to be close to God when He is doing his work. When I wrote this, it hit me how hard it is to settle into what God is doing. Most of the time we don’t understand because He doesn’t work the way we think He should. That makes it hard to settle in. However, His ways are above our ways (I think that’s a scripture or something…) and He knows the end.

My prayer is that I can learn to sit back in the arms of Christ and let Him work. My prayer is that you can sit back in his arms and let Him work in your life as well.

Whenever I hear the word fabric, I automatically think about that cotton commercial with Aaron Neville singing the song. That thought has absolutely NOTHING to do with this post, I just wanted to share that with you all…

Writing is one of my most favorite things to do, but you would never know it sometimes based on how little I actually do it. That is my fault and my fault only. I have blamed it on many things, but at the end of the day it’s me who needs to take advantage of my time and do it. With that being said, I did that this morning and spent the first couple hours of my day with my friend, Debbie Drissell. I love spending time with her talking about writing processes and coming up with ideas for songs. I think if we spend more time together we may actually finish a song. Today, we came together and sat in what used to be a Target parking lot (my Kirkwoodians know what I’m talking about), and now it is affectionately known as Kaldi’s Coffee. We were going through ideas and songs that we have started (she’s working on a cool one right now) and slowly waking up with caffeinated assistance (we aren’t morning people). It hit me that if anyone could help me fix a huge writing error, it would be her. So, I asked her to help me fix one line of a song. I’m mostly fixing this song because of Jim, and I’d love him to see this new line and give me the big thumbs up. If you want to know, it’s the first line of the song I wrote about in this post that I needed to change. I let her read it and she thought the same thing that Jim thought, and I don’t know if that’s scary or if that was just a bad line. Either way, it has been fixed and I will probably be able to use this song in public now.

I am so glad to have people that are ‘woven into the fabric’ of my life (by the way, that’s how the line starts). I’m glad that I have people like Debbie in my life that I can call on a whim and meet at a coffee shop and talk about music. We both love to write and we both love to get together and talk about writing. I’m thankful for the friends that God has given me. I’m eternally thankful for Debbie saving my song from the depths of raunchiness. LOL Deb, that line helps me so much that I’m thinking of putting your name at the top of it as well. You’re a wonderful woman!

Today was just one of those days. From a production standpoint, it was horrible. I didn’t do ANY of the things I actually set out to do. That is proven by the simple fact that I’m writing today’s blog at 9:30. I wanted to write when I woke up this morning and that didn’t happen. So why was this day so great overall? Well, for those of you in St. Louis, you know that it was simply gorgeous outside. I ended up spending the day with my 3 girls. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the park on a blanket. Then we came home and pulled out the grill for the first time this year. Welcome back, grill. Anyway, it turned out to be a great day.

The thing that struck me as odd and wonderful was that when I was so focused on trying to do what I wanted to do, I ended up doing things that caused me to pay more attention to God and His details in my life. I noticed that my daughters are growing up so fast and even though I’m with them pretty frequently I’m still missing stuff. I noticed that my wife is an extremely gorgeous pregnant woman. This was evident with our first two girls, but it’s been almost 6 years. I noticed that I can focus on things when my brain isn’t so scattered. I noticed that my wife has been working terribly hard to get our house ready for this new baby and it’s coming along quite nicely. I noticed that it’s next to impossible to keep your car clean when your driveway is under a power line. Overall, I noticed that God is truly wonderful and this life is truly a gift. He doesn’t have to give us anything that He gives us on this earth, but He does anyway. That, my friends, is wonderful to me. I didn’t deserve the beautiful day with my family that I had because I spent most of the morning try to get out of it. But I was given the chance anyway. I’m glad I took it.