Journey to the Well

On a February evening in 1999,  over 1200 students gathered in a 1950′s auditorium, with sketchy air-conditioning to sing, pray, clap, listen, share -   worship!       Starting in 1994, Grace Bible study became a fixture for many students (and myself) every Thursday night (and changed to Tuesdays on 9/11/01).     When it was launched, I’m not sure that any of us would understand, or comprehend the impact that it would have on our lives….and the lives of  so many students.

Worship was always one of the key ingredients along with great teaching over the years from Steve Hardin, Matt Chandler and Luke Norsworthy.     I have so many amazing memories over the years of our worship time -  of students transparently worshiping before their creator.

In early ’99 we decided to attempt to capture the sweet experiences that we were having week after week at Grace.   So we hired an engineer to bring his ‘good mics’ and we practiced really hard for the service.     Looking back we were crazy.    We pressed record and then just captured the night -    not on digital,  but on good ‘ol 24 track analog!

Years later – I now know there are easier and more ‘professional’ ways to record a worship night.   But we were young, dumb, and dreamy back then – and all we wanted to do was to try to get a picture of the sweet experience that we all were having at Grace.

So later in 1999,  Journey to the Well was released.   When I  listen to it now,  I hear countless imperfections -    how we tried to record a record without a click track for all the musicians to  play together -  what were we thinking?     I hear all the wrong notes I sang.     I hear the little attempts we made to improve the mistakes that happened.     Inspite of all of that, more importnatly  I  hear 1200+ students singing their hearts out.   I hear the presence of our Lord in their midst.   I hear and remember the sweetness of that moment -  and many other moments like it.

Strangely,  of all the records that I did,   I’ve never had as many requests for an album like I have over the years for this one.    It was one of most successful projects we released-  and I think its because we all felt the presence of the Lord that night.

My pride has kept me from releasing this project on iTunes for years (and the fact that I didn’t have any CDs left and  I don’t know where the Masters are).   But over Christmas while cleaning out the attic, I found one in an old box.     This project is far from perfect.     Over the years, I’ve been jaded by the ability to digitally improve our recordings and began to feel it a requirement.  But there is something very pure and innocent about recording a moment in time -   and enjoying it.

So for all of us who lost, misplaced, or threw away our Journey CD -  here it is again:   Journey to the Well

12 Years later – I continue to be thankful for all the wonderful people involved in that night -  many who have gone on to serve on amazing platforms -   Steve Hardin, Matt Chandler, Jeremy Kirles, Caleb Lain, Becky Middleton, Julie Nance Benson, Crista Schwalk Bailey, Billy Bob White, Joseph Bailey, Terrance Jennings, Mike Milford, Wes Martin, Matt Wilks, Luke Ayres, Matt McCoy, Rob Albert, and Michael Henry Martin -  Thank you for serving!!

So for all of us who remember the sweet moments in that strange looking building in Abilene -   Journey to the Well will be a reminder of the greatness of our God – and the incredible privilege it was for us all to be involved in His work.     Maybe one day a great reunion will happen that will include us all back at University Baptist Church -    but if not in Abilene,    Heaven will certainly have better air conditioning.

What’s Your Stew?

Last week I was fortunate to get to attend Catalyst, a great leadership conference held in Atlanta. I went with some of the other staff from Centricity and was treated to some challenging insights from church leaders, business leaders/authors, and social justice innovators. The opening session featured   (as it had the two previous times I attended)  the teaching of Andy Stanley.

I always love Andy’s teaching – but he shared some insight from a familiar passage of scripture that I had never seen. I’ll try to share my takeaways – but I highly recommend you look for the message online in a few weeks – you won’t be sorry!

Andy shared that each of us have an appetite and the only word in our appetite’s vocabulary is “more”.   3 key truths:
1. God created our appetite and sin distorted it.
2. Appetites are never fully and finally satisfied
3. Our appetites always whisper now and never later.

How we respond to our appetites may affect our life and our calling.

In Genesis 25:29-33, we see a story of two brothers – the older, Esau, coming into his house and asking his younger brother Jacob for some stew.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. ^[a] )

³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³ But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Because of his appetite (he was famished) Esau sells his birthright, his future,  his inheritance…..it all to his brother for a bowl of stew.     In one simple action, because of a momentary hunger Esau’s world was changed.

There was no one in that moment to help re-frame Esau’s appetite -   to put in perspective how detrimental that decision would be.    How silly it was to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew.   Had someone been there to remind him that generations would speak of the God of Abraham, Issac, and Esau;     that the lineage of Christ described in Matthew would be  Abraham, Issac and Essau.

But no one was there to reframe that appetite,  and he changed his history over a bowl of stew.   And that has made all the difference.     For as we now know,  the scripture reads that generations speak of the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

10 Years from now what do I want my life to look like?     What do you want your life to look like?   The appetites that come our way  -  the bowls of stew -  all have the power to impact our future and change our story.

What’s your bowl of stew?     And who do you have in your life to help you re-frame your appetite?

It’s TOO Quiet!

A strange thing happened this week!    My house was hauntingly quiet.     With three kids, including two fighting brothers, and a one year old toddler,  our house is never quiet!     But my wife left to visit her sister in Indiana, leaving me the house and its silence.

I’ll confess on many a day that I’ve longed for the quiet –   I’ve said many times how much I wanted to be able to hear myself think.    But when the quiet finally arrived,  it made me realize how much I love the noise of my family.     Its strange to think that 10 years ago, every night was this quiet in my life –  living a single life in my own house, with my own stuff, all in its perfect place – and all the quiet I wanted.     Never realizing that there is something so sweet about small voices fighting over the X-box,  or a little girl screaming in glee over her baby,  or the smell of a home-cooked meal (I don’t cook!).

I’ve tried to fill my week with noise of work, or business meals, and even a jog or two,  but it hasn’t compared to the sweet sounds that are coming home tomorrow.     So I will anxiously be waiting by the window to see that car pull up with all the insanity that it will bring –   and the toys on the floor, dishes in the sink,  sleepless nights,  and indescribable joy.

I’m even more grateful that the LORD opened my eyes to the beauty of walking through life with an incredible woman –  who is more beautiful today than when I met her –  and who has made my life truly happy!       One of the artists on our label recently wrote a song called “Dancing in the Minefields” –   and as I’ve watched this video over and over –  its reminded me (especially this week) how lucky I am to be dancing with my wife!

Here is the video –   it is amazing!!

If you’re looking for me Friday night…….I’ll be by the window!

Discovery!

There is something so sweet about discovering new things!    I see it all the time in my little girl Elliston who turned 1 last month.      Her world is opening before her very eyes…..including what her feet taste like as she has learned that she can suck on her toes.      A trait I hope she abandons before she becomes an adult.

Anna & Elliston, Mothers Day 2010

I was reminded of my own discovery as I was running this weekend.     I love Crockett Park in Brentwood and remembered the first time Anna and I found this park right after we moved here.   There was something so exciting about those first few weeks after we moved here –    new running trails,  new restaurants, new views of the beauty of Tennessee.

And then the deeper reminder.

There is something so sweet about discovering new truths about the LORD.     When I was traveling full time it was fairly easy to discover new truths –  I spent the bulk of my weeks hearing messages from various communicators of the Gospel –   and I usually walked away with some nugget.        And now the reality sets in that my schedule and occupation don’t ‘give’ me those truths –  I must go and find them .

And so my work begins……

You’re a Handsome Man

Everyone loves a compliment! Especially when It involves our appearance…..and when we don’t hear them as often as you’d like.

This weekend as I was visiting my 95 year old grandmother in the nursing facility she now calls home I was cornered by an elderly women in a wheel chair. Now I realize that sounds odd, but she genuinely cornered me.

This lady dressed in a pink nightgown smock with wide eyes like she was on something grabbed my hand and held it tight….and said,” I’ve got a word for you”.

Now I’ve had people in my past who have stopped to give me a word….most of them spiritual in nature. And a couple of times it was actually encouraging. So I was waiting anxiously for what this elderly lady in her nightgown in a nursing home was going to share….I thought it potentially life-changing.

So I leaned in to hear this word…..and she said “you’re a handsome man”. Not what I was expecting. And then the killer line….”you wanna come back to my room with me”?

Huh?

Stunned I tried to get her to release my hand so I could make a quick exit. But she held tight. And said “come on handsome man”.

Now completely freaked out and ready to make my getaway, I said thank you

She said “for what?”

Me: “for what you said”

She: “what did I say”.

Me: “you know…. That I was a handsome man”

She: “you are a handsome man……you wanna come back to my room”

And so I pried away my hand and made a quick exit….unsure if i should be flattered or scared.

Regardless….it’s nice for her to think so! Just wish she could remember

The last Breakfast

Had breakfast this morning with my friend Jason Orme who is leaving in two days for a two year stint in Hong KOng. Weve met for breakfast almost every week this summer and its been a rich blessing!

Jason challenged me this morning as he was talking with something he said.

As a parent it is so easy to want to give my kids a great life. To have them know that they are the focus of my world. But as they grow, it’s easy or them to have a view they they are the center of the world….because I’ve communicated that to them with my actions.

What would be the result if my actions showed them that God was the center of our family’s world…..that our decisions were about Him and not them. Could this Give my kids a greater world view.

I don’t know exactly what that looks like yet…but I know I want my kids to know there is a world out there in need. And I want them to want to sacrifice their wants for the needs of others

Of course….i guess I have to model that for them first! Thanks Jason for the reminder…..may the Lord use you to make his name known to the people of Hong Kong.

Seriously….Its All Yours

Easter!

I have fond memories of growing up and hunting Easter eggs…..and then eating all the candy in them until I was sick!    Isn’t that why we hunt down those eggs -  to get the candy.

With an 11 year old and a 3 year old, the Easter egg hunt is a bit of a challenge.     Jake, the older, knows exactly what’s in all of those eggs and it takes a restraining order to keep him from discovering all the eggs in less than 3 seconds.    Parker, the younger,  loved finding the first 4 or 5 eggs but he quickly was distracted from his egg search by the Hershey’s kisses in one of the eggs. 

I kept trying to tell him that there was more.     And better candy!    Hershey’s kisses are fine and all….but the Easter bunny had brought Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs -   (somehow I mysteriously knew this) -    and they were waiting to be found…… and yet Parker was just satisfied with his few eggs that had ‘kisses’ in them.  Ugh!   

And then…….after I had enjoyed the Peanut Butter Eggs (if Parker wasn’t going to enjoy them - I wasn’t letting them go to waste)….then it hit me!     

How many times have I been satisfied with the very minimal that I feasted on….when the LORD is screaming at me -    ‘there is so much more’.      And  yet, i’m so easily satisfied when the LORD has provided me so much more…..all I have to do is open my eyes and see!

So I’ll be patient with my Parker……for I know the LORD has been so patient with me……..and I’ll be more mindful that there is more for me……if I’ll make the effort to search for it…..

That’s My Song…

When Parker was born  3 years ago – some ‘cool’ friend gave us a lullaby CD for babies -  but it was all the Beattles Hits.    In an attempt to raise my son to like classic rock – i thought i would start him early!!    at birth!      Our original plan was to alternate CDs – and to let him listen to all kinds of music -  but apathy or lack of sleep or whatever eventually led to him hearing the same Beattles CD every night -  for the greater part of the first two years of his life every time he went to sleep!    And because he was a great sleeper -  he was typcially asleep after Track 1.

A move to Nashville,  and into a big boy bed at 2 and our routine of playing ‘music’ at bedtime just faded away -   i’m not sure when it faded – but it did – and he hasn’t gone to sleep with the Beattles in a long, long time!!

Last night he found some of his CDs and wanted to play them -   we’re getting ready for his baby sister to come into the world – and in setting up her room he found several CDs he wanted to play in the CD player.

The first was a worship CD -  which he responded to with ‘lets dance Dad’…..and so we did -  I don’t like to brag -  but i’m a pretty good dancer -   at least that’s what Parker told me……”you good dancer daddy’!     The second CD we played was the Baby Beattles CD (not knowing what it was)  – and when the first notes began to play ….he gasped ‘ That’s my song!!”

Just so you know….Track 1 of the CD is the song Blackbird –   played with strings and digital piano…..very soothing -  all that is missing is Paul McCartney!

The most amazing thing to me is that Parker recognized a song that had been planted in his ears when he was just a baby and he hasn’t heard in over a year  -    and to know that he also heard all of the prayers that were spoken over him…..the songs i sang over him -   and the times i said to him over and over again…..’i love you’!        I guess it is good to keep remembering  that his ears are always listening…..

An Early Rocker

With room comes Responsibility

I’m sitting on a plane in an exit row and they’ve just asked me if i’m willing to open the door in case of an emergency.

What happened to the glory days of yore when we just sat in the exit row but didn’t have to worry about a disaster. I miss those days! We enjoyed our extra 2 inches of leg room with no thought of landing in the Hudson.

And the pilot has just come on to tell us that the flight attendants will stay seated the entire flight because of turbulence. Can that cause a crash?

Guess I’m lucky to be close to the door…..who cares about the leg room when your in the Hudson.

Fasten your seat belts…..it’s gonna be a bumpy ride….and I’ve got extra leg room for my crash position.

What’s One Hour?

I’m just a bit frustrated today -    i hate losing that hour -   not sure what it is -   but when Daylight Savings time hits every year -   i feel like  a truck has hit me…….seriously, can one hour do that to me?

DST is one of those things where i hate the experience, but relish the outcome -    i hate losing that hour and feeling like a train has hit me (i know it was a truck earlier…..but as the moments go on the vehicle that hit me gets bigger and bigger -   by tonight it will be a plane)

Other things that fit in the category of hate the experience, relish the outcome -  laundry,   cooking,   weight-lifting (no comments from those who have seen me lately and notice that i haven’t had much experience of late)   driving to Texas,  mowing the grass, recording, and childbirth (ok……i’ve never really had the experience -  but i hear its a beating…….but the outcome is pretty amazing!)

All in all -    when the sun sets tonight -  i’ll be happy for DST -   but right now as that tanker is barreling toward my body -  i’m kinda wanting my hour back…..