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I still find myself writing songs…
… It amazes me that after all these years God still uses the songwriting process to help me know Him, myself and the world around me better. More about that later… Recently, as I began to navigate some transitions in my own life, I found myself engaging with a number of friends that were also navigating some really difficult seasons and transitions. Very simply said, there were a lot of “big” things going on. As I tried to walk with and make sense of these “big” life events, I found myself being reminded of Paul's encouragement to the church in Rome “He works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). I know how easy it can be to trivialize that profound truth into a trite sentiment. The truth is that the goodness of God is much bigger, wider and deeper than my ability to even comprehend it. There are so many things we wrestle with in this life that we will never be able to justify or make logical sense of. Yet the the truth is that the goodness of God is even greater than the limitations of our ability to comprehend it. As I found myself sitting with the truth of that scripture, I realized my understanding of its truth was likely still much too narrow. While I could see the relevance of that Romans 8:28 promise in the BIG areas of life, the scripture says ALL things work together. That means even the day-to-day, tyranny-of-the-urgent, mind-numbing repetitive things work together for good. It means that the yet-another-round-of-laundry, the changing-dirty-diapers, the sitting-again-in-traffic, the paying-the-bills, the realizing-it’s-only-Tuesday-when-it-feels-like-it-should-be-Friday monotony of everyday life is also promised to work towards good. I know I can slip into the lie of thinking that the monotony of life is the enemy of and keeps me away from the great things I feel like God is doing or wants to do in my life. That is not true. Believing that lie just robs me from the opportunity to perhaps capture a glimpse of how God is present and working even through the everyday moments of life. Lately, I’ve found myself trying to be intentional in looking for God’s presence not just in the BIG events of life, but also the everyday mundane aspects of it. In all transparency, that shift in mindset and perspective is completely unnatural and I’m not all that good at it, but with intentionality I have been able to catch a couple of glimpses that would have otherwise completely escaped me. For those couple of moments I’m thankful. Back to the songwriting…over the years, I’ve often joked that God teaches me things in 4:4 time signature. As I’ve been wrestling with some of these Romans 8:28 truths recently, I found myself writing a new song called “Good”. My good friend and longtime musical partner in crime (as well as one of my favorite people on this planet), Mark Alan lent his time, talent and his studio to help bring this song to life. Feel free to check it out on the link above and I hope it may serve as an encouragement to look for God’s presence and work in all areas of life. Beyond that, I’ve been encouraged by my wife, kids and so many friends during this season of transition to lean into music and songwriting as I process and even wrestle with things God is teaching or has taught me over recent years. Again, Mark has been gifting me with his time, talent and studio to record some of these songs. It’s been amazing to pull in some of my other musical friends (some long-time friends and some new ones) to lend their incredible talent and musicianship to these songs as well. I’ll be releasing more songs over the coming months as well as sharing some of the reflections/experiences that led to the songs. If you’d like me to let you know as those songs get released please just click the link below to share your email address. Please feel free to pass this along to any others you think might be interested as well. And remember even though we may tend to trivialize the profound truth into a trite sentiment, “God (still) works ALL things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose”.
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