Resolved To...

Here they are...my first New Year's resolutions! You can leave yours in the comment section if you want...I will pray for you about them!!

1. Write 2 songs each month of 2005!
2. Read one book each month of 2005!
3. Make prayer a more regular part of morning devos!
4. Lead worship with guitar/vocals for 5 different events! (A little 3DU action anyone?)

You can add these to your prayer list if you would like! Hope that your New Year's Eve parties are filled with Friends, Fun, and Phase 10...I know mine will!!!! Hope and Peace!

Phil. 4:13)

Graduating Life

Who ever said that college was hard? He/she must have spent too much time studying and not enough time being in college! Of course, hindsite is 20/20! (full of cliches today!) Maybe I just miss the vacations and no-class-Mondays!! Maybe I miss the 40-acre campus packed full of my best friends!!

I have recently noticed how distant I have become from everything that I was so near just a year ago! How crazy moving on can be! Jesse and Julie, Monte and Amy, Paul, Ando, Nate and Anastasia, Scottie and Sara, Ryan, Strode, Lang Hall, Echo, Ricki, Amber, Cooper, Kyle and....3DU!!!

I think I am starting to understand how Abraham felt when God up and asked him to move to a totally different, foreign land to start a new people! All that he had ever known, enjoyed, and cared about were suddenly, millions of miles away (or maybe it just feels that far away!). Everyday, waking to new sounds, new faces, new experiences...new food! (Can I just say that bachelor cooking gets old real fast!!!) But even in a completely foreign experience, God grew Abraham into a nation! He led Abraham's every step to bring about a nation devoted to God and directed by God. Can God do that for me? Not a nation, but guiding my every step? everyday? even in Tennessee?

If you haven't noticed, sign everything with Phil. 4:13)...and yet...I find my self having to ask if I still believe it! Can God do everything that He wants through me? Can I do everything through Him? or do I need to do something on my own?

Maybe this is my graduation into Life! God is telling me...."Here ya' go. I have given you a life of your own...to do what you will with it. But I am still here...and will always be...no matter where you travel and plant yourself!" He has given me the free will to either live life how I choose...or give it back to Him and live it according to His PERFECT plan! How amazingly free!!
I can wake up every day with a hope and peace that no matter what happens today...God is still God and He is always by my side...no matter what. FREEDOM!!!

Hope and Peace ( and a merry CHRISTmas!!)
Phil. 4:13)

Music Heaven!!

This past Sunday I visited the Ryman Auditorium for one of the greatest concerts I have ever been able to experience. Let me just list some reasons why....Andrew Peterson, Gabe Scott, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Jill Parr, Pierce Pettis, Buddy Lee, Ben Shieves, oh yeah....and Phil Keagy!!!!!

It was the Andrew Peterson "Behold the Lamb of God" concert! If you haven't heard the cd, then you haven't truly celebrated the true Christmas story! The cd starts with a song about Abraham and chronologically moves through the Old Testament to the time of Christ. It is amazing. Andrew's writing skills are genious. The cd is on my top list bar none!!

But...back to the concert. Each guest artist came out one by one and played one or two songs of their own as an introduction. Of course, they were amazing. The best by far was Phil Keagy....the best guitarist of our time. Even Jimmy agrees with that! He did two guitar solos filled with loops, harmonics, pick-up vocals, and 10 crazy fingers!! Though the intros lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, I was stunned and amazed!

The rest of the concert was Andrew's cd straight through. Every guest artist played and/or sang in one or more of the songs. The Christmas story was told through its Hebraic background....Brilliant!! "Behold The Lamb Of God" is now one of my favorite Christmas albums of all time (just behind the Carpenters!!). There is just something that has to be said about TALENTED musicians. Today's music is too easily produced. There is no need for true talent...but on a night like this.........TALENT ROCKS Hope and Peace!

Phil. 4:13)

Frozen Stiff

Last night, Mark and I went to the Chiefs vs. Titans Monday Night Football game!! IT WAS FREEZING!!!!!!! We were way up in the top about 15 rows from the edge of the Colliseum. It snowed for half the game and was blisteringly winding! But.....the Chiefs prevailed.......Go Chiefs!! Hope and Peace.

Phil. 4:13)

Where have all the Christian rock bands gone?

Since last you heard....we at Bridge Street met with a band called Dizmas. They are a hardcore, punk, screamo band that we book shows for. I believe that they break the mold for most new punk hardcore bands in Christian music. Most bands are seeking the mainstream attention and trying to cover their Christianity by just entertaining and not ministering. This band is amazing. Their harmonies are tight even for a rock band. But even more than their music....their incredible love and passion for God's will and fame was stunning!! We sat down in a conference room and discussed upcoming tour plans, and I was speechless at their willingness to give God all the credit no matter what. They asked us to pray with them at the end of the meeting!!! Their hearts for God were right out on their sleeves....no hiding or shoving it deep into their lyrics. They are a CHRISTIAN band that just happens to rock out!! We need more bands willing to follow God's will and fame instead of their own. Dizmas....go check them out!! Hope and Peace!!

Phil. 4:13)

Profound?!

Empty me that I may be full!
Carry me so that I may run!
Sold out so that I may be free!
Hush me so that I may live aloud!
Forever stained and yet seen as snowy white!!!

Phil. 4:13)

Cars....The Root of ALL Frustration

For the last month I have been studying the woes of a decaying car. I was thrust into this class by some stranger who decided that my cd player should be his instead. Selfish?.....YES! I know what Jesse means now by saying "this society teaches us not to say "no" to any desire". It is 100% selfishness and violation! But since then the class has taught me about the insurance run-around; shotty, lazy window repair; 2 hour waits for 30 minutes of work, and the realization that I have spent a month trying to fix everything that has happened to my car and I have accomplished maybe 25% of the work! What ever happened to honest, customer-friendly service. When I take my car in to have the window repaired, I expect that I will have a brand new WORKING window and that the repair man will clean up where he has been. Maybe it is just because I am from the midwest where a hard-days-work may mean spending all day on one problem so that that problem is fixed and completely taken care of. It has somehow all become about profit and getting a job "done", whether it is done right or honestly...that is another story!

Step....that was me getting off my newly created soap box!

But through all this frustration....God showed me how peaceful and rewarding a simple act of kindness can be. While on my way home from the dealership (where I spent 6 hours waiting for them to finally do...nothing) I stopped by to pump some gas. While pumping I realized that the lady next to me was trying to add transmition fluid into her car. She was a well dressed lady who looked as though she had just picked her daughter up from school and was now on her way home. Watching the struggle of holding the funnel, opening the bottle, and then attempting to add the fluid...I couldn't just stand by and watch. So I offered to hold the funnel while she poured. To my amazement my sickening frustration was gone. God's peace had come just as I was asking for!! Just as Jesus had calmed the storm from the disciple-filled boat....He calmed the frustration storm within me by simple allowing His love to protrude from me!! Service...true, honest, love-guided service is what we lack!!

They will know who's we are by our LOVE!!!

Philippians 4:13

This Different...Changing Life

Nothing new...nothing exciting. I am still in the search for musical opportunities. Recently I have performed with the Sojourn praise band, Lakeshore Christian Church praise band and Kimber Manning. Possibilities with Kimber Manning and a band called Slow To Speak are opening slowly...but surely?! I am also beginning guitar lessons with an amazing guitarist...Josh Wilson! So that has become a new struggle...disciplining myself to practice -- something that I am horrible at!!!

Thanksgiving was great...though very different! I am used to a slow family Thanksgiving in Missouri. My family and I would travel to Camdenton, MO to have a short vacation at the Lake of the Ozarks with more family. We would eat...watch football...eat...play games...eat...watch movies...eat...eat...and then shop! It was great...slow...relaxing...and SWEET! But this year I was in Nashville for T-giving. I drove to Ashland City for t-giving dinner with my great-Aunt Marie and Mary and family. After eating and letting it settle, I traveled back to the home and drifted in and out of sleep while watching the ridiculously poor football games. Indy vs. Detroit was a blowout....Chicago vs. Dallas was the worst showing of football talent yet this year! So after a relaxing afternoon...I traveled with a friend to his family's t-giving supper (yes I said "supper") for the evening. It was great fun, food, and a challenging game of cup-ball!!

I went to bed dreaming of the lines of customers at work the next day...tossing and turning! But God has provided all that I need and is constantly opening and shoving me through the right doors in my journey! Hope and Peace!!

C-but
(Phil. 4:13)