Music

Too Good (Live)

2018-01-23T04:03:01+00:00By Joel|In The Margin, Morning and Night, Music|

This song, as part of my Morning and Night songs, and it's a fun one. I wrote it on my cigar box guitar that was made for me. As I wrote it, I just kind of heard a bluesy, almost primitive, slide driven melody. So, I wrote this song, and when it came time to perform it, I was thinking "I have no idea how to arrange accompaniment for this song," but the guys in the band did an awesome job at bringing out textures for this song. Lyrically, this song is based around one of my favorite Buechner books, and excerpts. In his book Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale. He [...]

39 and the journey

2018-01-16T06:48:42+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, Memoirs, memories, Music, trust|

Today I turn 39. One soul-training exercise that I do: create space to remember God's faithfulness. Part of that process is letting go of the frailty fixations of my false self (i.e. regret), and I believe part of that process is inviting Holy Spirit to give me proper perspective on what really matters in life. As I approached my birthday this year, I couldn't help but remember a song that I wrote back in 1999, called 39 (a letter home). Anyone who knows me knows that a conceptual theme for me is the fleetingness of life, and in light of that this place is not our final destination...it's not our home in that sense. We are [...]

Holy Obsession: thankful for every step

2018-01-16T06:29:35+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, Create, Music|

"To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities, and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness." Brennan Manning Back in September, I wanted to teach one of the songs that I've written (for corporate worship) to the congregation where I lead. I've recorded this song a few times, and still wanted to give it a bit of a fresh touch, so we did a recording session with cameras rolling. The song is Holy Obsession, and as I dusted off the song, the Lord brought many things back to [...]

The renewal of listening

2020-04-20T00:51:39+00:00By Joel|Create, Morning and Night, Music, Nomad Chronicles, prayer|

There are moments where everything changes, because you can hear so clearly. I remember in my exuberant teen piety, I would pray time and time again, "Lord, I give you everything I am. I am fully Yours." I would burn my 'secular' music in bonfires, and anything else that I felt separated me from God. I went on a mission trip to South America where I came face to face with real poverty, and it turned my world upside-down. I returned to the states with a flipped worldview: I couldn't go back to the way things were. A couple of months later I was helping to lead a youth lock-in at my church, and with little [...]