musings on worship and christian living

If you have been to my Myspace lately you’ve likely heard some new music I’ve been working on.  The first song I posted last week was off what I hope will become my next worship project, Hope To Deliver.  I also posted 2 acoustic tracks (My Lament and Lighting Up Heaven) that are the start of a project that I’ve been dreaming about for quite a while now with a working title of “Songs for Someone”.

The basic premise of the album is an acoustic project of songs I’ve written for people in the last few years.  Each one has it’s own story that will be attached with the songs to explain their significance.

To start it off I’ll give a quick explanation of the two songs I have up now.

Lighting Up Heaven was written in response to the tragic death of an amazing young woman, Samantha Middlebrooks.  She was the wife of one of my best friends, the daughter of my mentor, and close friend to me.  Her father once said that “Samantha shines brighter than anyone I know”, and that was the absolute truth.  Her joy in life and unfaltering faith in Jesus was and is an encouragement to all who knew her, believer or not.  She is deeply missed.  You can read a blog post about the tragedy here if you haven’t yet.

My Lament is a song for me, written from the lowest place I have ever been, an outpouring of compiled tragedy and life frustration.  I was sitting in my apartment and looking back over my life for the previous few years which included: the death one of my students mother, the death of Samantha, the loss of close friends who had moved away, the discovery of leukemia in my 4 year old niece, being 30 and still single, being unemployed and seemingly unable to get a job and being helpless and in need of outside support just to be able to eat.  It was not where I wanted to be, but even in that moment I understood the only thing I could control was my response.  So penned My Lament to share my heart and encourage myself and others to keep moving forward.

I hope to continue to work on this project this year.  I’ve got many more songs and many more stories of lives that have touched me and moved me to write.  I hope you enjoy the songs and they ultimately bring healing and encouragement in your life.