April is the month

Hi everyone,

So we're going into the studio this month! We've had so much support from friends and family, and the time is fast approaching to actually start doing what we've been planning. We'll keep everyone updated on how it's coming via twitter.

Peace,
Justin

PS Sorry for not having more regular updates! I need to work on doing this much more often.

Sunday

I'm wondering what the new album is about.

The need for hope in my life has been occurring more in my thoughts over the Christmas break. There comes a point when a person who keeps falling over the same issues has to decide to get up off the floor and live towards some unanswered question or longing as if the way they feel wasn't telling the whole truth about the future. Something in our spirits called hope helps us to imagine the way life could be, while experiencing life the way it is, and we remember that the sun is circling beneath our feet while we wait through the night. God's presence is described in Revelation as being like a sun that lights up the New Jerusalem with God's glow. If God is like the sun, then God must be moving swiftly beneath our feet while our nights pass.

Madeleine L'Engle writes through the eyes of one of her characters, Uncle Douglas, in The Moon By Night:

"So in my heathen way, Vicky, when I wasn't much older than you, I decided that God, a kind and loving God, could never be proved. In fact there are, as you've been seeing a lot lately, a lot of arguments against him. But there isn't any point to life without him. Without him we're just a skin disease on the face of the earth, and I feel too strongly about the human spirit to be able to settle for that. So what I did for a long time was to live life as though I believed in God. And eventually I found out that the as though had turned into a reality."

It's the living as though that is the choice I keep running into. I think the new album has got to be a part of my choosing to live as though the night cannot last forever.

Sunday

I've been getting excited about recording again. Last night I recorded some of the new songs on my laptop and began to imagine how they would be arranged on the new album, and it seemed to give me a new energy to keep writing and have more confidence in what I've already been working on. It's been hard for me in the past to really treasure the music I write. I have a bad habit of beating myself and my songs up, and I usually don't even know I'm doing it until I wake up to the feelings of insecurity and fear that grow in that kind of negative environment. So to have some space to feel good about the new songs was really great, especially when I remember how hard that used to be.

I still have alot of writing to do, but I keep learning to trust that the songs are there, and I'm just trying my best to give them voice and shape and let them speak (and sing) for themselves. Last night, I stripped the lyrics off of a progression and melody I wrote last winter and started rewriting the words, and I feel good about where the song is going now. It wasn't connecting with me before, even though the previous lyrics were good in my opinion. If you're reading this, please feel invited to pray to Jesus for me. Just ask Him to humble me and comfort me on this journey. Committing to songwriting and performing scares me as much as it leads me to wonder.

I've been kind of nervous about blogging, but it's not that bad once you do it.