Sad

Yesterday Hannah and I said goodbye to my brother Steven. He, Emily, and their daughter Karis are in Brazil as of this morning and made it safe. I don't think I've ever had a time in my life where I didn't cry much but my heart just hurt as I said goodbye to someone. Although it's not goodbye forever, it's just hard to say goodbye when someone close isn't within a 1.5 hour flight or a drive. I remember as Hannah and I were getting on our plane just praying that God would just protect them and give them boldness more than anything to take His name to Brazil. I also remember thanking him for things like phones and Skype! Steven, Emily, and Karis, we love you more than words could ever say and are praying INCREDIBLY hard for you!

A Prayer for my friends...

God, you are so INCREDIBLY HUGE! SO HUGE in fact that you made everything that we can see and can't see. You are so HUGE that there are places that none of us humans will ever get to or see. You are so great that you made each of us alike in some ways but very VERY different in others. You made us different so that we might "sharpen each other" as Your Word says. For us "only children," you made friends for us that we have a close relationship with, and have done life with for so long that we feel like we have a brother. For that I am eternally grateful. So it's with a hopeful but yet sad heart that I lift up my friends and my brother Steven, Emily, and Karis. As they go to Brazil, to take You to a nation that needs You more than anything right now, I ask you to protect them but allow them more than enough opportunities to be bold to speak Your truth and take Your name to this nation. Give them more than enough compassion and grace to be vessels that embody You Jesus. This is all for You and all because of You. You are the only one who is worth of Praise. We love you Jesus!

Song Writing

There is nothing more motivating and frustrating to me than writing a song. Seriously, I drive myself crazy trying to come up with words and rhythms for a song. HOWEVER, when a song comes out that is so pure and has such an impact on people (after you play it for them and you hear that feedback) it motivates you to do more of that. Then there are those songs that come to you in about an hour...start to finish. This happened a few weeks ago with David and I as we wrote "When You Appear." We played it for the first time at church this past weekend and I never thought that I would ever be a part of something as great as this. I truly believe that so much is captured in a song. God speaks to us in so many different ways and it's just very humbling to be a conduit through which He does that. We've got a great week coming up tomorrow at Discover Point! David Collinsworth is leading and it's going to be amazing!

Time Off

Well, I am back! Hannah and I took some time off in October and it was very much needed. For worship leaders it is very easy to get burned out preparing, practicing, and leading. All of that is so great and I totally know and see that God uses it...some times though, one needs to have a break and a peace...just time to let the batteries sit and recharge. I can already tell that it made a HUGE difference. Practice on Sunday afternoon was AWESOME and I can't wait to sing out and play all for God's glory this upcoming Sunday! During my break, I had a chance to listen to a GREAT worship album. I HIGHLY recommend it! So without further bantering....Fee--Hope Rising! Totally worth the $12! Love you guys and see ya Sunday!

One Thing...

Ever since Discover Point has started I have come to one realization time and time again. It never fails! I always say something along the lines of "I'm never doing this again!" only to do it a few more times in a year! For some reason, this has become the "thorn in my flesh." This one very hard lesson that I am supposed to learn but only to not learn is...I REALLY STINK AT PLAYING POKER! Now that you have fallen out of your chair and picked yourself back up and sit back down I would like to say that I did not throw any money away....well, at least this last time! I know....I'm a sinner but I'm still saved by grace and have been forgiven. I'll put it to you this way, I have not bet money on myself for the past 3 years and before that I never did. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that Hannah and I had a blast with our "Play Group" last night playing poker and walking out debt free with everybody else! Love you guys!

Sunday

I had the incredible opportunity of doing something that I've not had the chance to do in a REALLY REALLY LONG TIME on Sunday. (Drum roll please...) I got to sit out in the audience. It was such a great time because I feel like I didn't have to worry about at what point the band was at in a song or be distracted by the things that potentially distract one that is a lead worshiper. Another thing that I noticed is that while we were practicing for this upcoming Sunday the songs seemed to be easier and then I really felt like we were all able to relax a little and worship while practicing. My prayer for this week is that we (as a band) all can relax and enjoy the songs as we prepare for this week. In case you are wondering.....here is the setlist:

Hands of the Healer---Eddie Kirkland
Remain---Starfield
From The Inside Out---Hillsong United
Beautiful The Blood---Steve Fee
Scenes---Charlie Hall

See you guys Sunday!

Frustrated

The only other thing in life that we are guaranteed other than death is frustration. We can all see this in babies all the way up until we reach the "golden ages." I think the one thing I get more frustrated about is being patient. I've seen that so much over the past 2 days. Our air conditioning unit is not functioning properly and the guy that is supposed to come fix it has done a HORRIBLE job about communicating when he will be here. I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to learn from this but all I could come up with was that I need to lose weight so I'm sweating it off! Other than that things are going pretty good! Have a great, cool day!