if you want a particular photo from the slideshow, leave me a comment and i’ll try to accommodate your request.

happy wednesday, everybody. (it seems that there are only five of you, and four out of five of you stay updated through a feed reader…see here if you wonder what in the world i’m talking about…) a new feature of wednesday worship posts will be the previous sunday’s set list. on sunday, may 18 we sang the following songs:

everyday – as recorded by lincoln brewster
holy is the lord – as recorded by chris tomlin
i surrender all – as recorded by brian littrell (yeah he’s the ex-backstreet boy)

(**side note, every one of these songs was guitar-driven. that’s how i roll.)

please enjoy this week’s musical worship offering: let me sing, by todd fields of north point community church. this song wasn’t really my fav when i first heard it at catalyst convention last year, but it has grown on me. we’re gonna teach it to the church this sunday. if you’re a blog reader AND you go to my church, then you have the distinct privilege of being ahead of the pack and in the know… here you go.

i’ll work a few quick hits on the last several days into this wednesday worship post. it has been a crazy week.

1. gretchen and i drove to atl, packed, cleaned, connected with friends, signed over power of attorney to sell our townhome, drove back to marion, rented a storage facility, and returned to work/life in a matter of 54 hours. w00t. i’m totally beat. i may not fully recover for a few days.

2. everyone in my band will get to meet “tired adam” at practice tonight. “tired adam” is generally less friendly, less tolerant of dumb jokes, less willing to be flexible…just an all-around stand-up guy. anybody would be both honored and lucky to get to meet him…hopefully he doesn’t scare off any of the talent 2-nite.

3. a guy i know wrote a post on his blog that not only strongly contradicts many things i have learned about ministering to un-churched, post-modern, de-churched, normal people…but does so in a very pointed and critical way. also, it’s worth noting that he disabled comments on just that post. i haven’t really figured out whether it makes me mad or just sad…more mad i think. i’m still considering whether or not to post a response. i probably won’t, mostly because he seems to have drawn the “battle lines” in a very aggressive place, and i don’t think it will edify anybody to get in a spitting match. if you’re a person who prays, you could pray for me on this one. preciate cha.

4. my tired body didn’t handle a lunch of hunan beef very well this afternoon. i’ve had an upset stomach pretty much the rest of the day.

5. on the other hand, i really enjoyed the company i shared [staff] lunch with. probably a fair enough trade-off. they’re not the slickest-suavest staff around, but they’re fun to work with.

6. don’t know if i mentioned how tired i am. so, yeah, i’m pretty tired.

7. last friday evening we finally got over to mount vernon to see some of my college friends. i love those dudes, and it was good to reconnect finally. (we’ve been in ohio for over a month, and it was the first chance i’d had to see them.)

8. the sale and closing of our house seems to be moving along and approaching rapidly. …but it still can’t come soon enough. we love that house and the neighborhood and the city and all that, but that mortgage has been such an albatross around our necks… when i hear for sure that the sale has closed and we no longer own it, i might plant a big, wet kiss on the first person i see…hopefully gretchen will be close by, because i don’t want a lawsuit on my hands for frenching a complete stranger…

9. stopped by the fusion church office yesterday on the way out of town. those guys (and gals) are rock stars. i loved my time working there, and i remember it fondly. i don’t claim to know or understand god’s plan, but i do feel like i have some insight into the past few months’ events. i feel very strongly that we are where we’re supposed to be here in marion. and if tony hadn’t had to lay me off, then i probably would never have left, even though i was working outside outside of my gift set and passion. so there you go. as gretchen said yesterday, “god is not an idiot.” wise words from the woman god gave me.

10. i miss my daughter. she’s staying with her grandparents until friday, and that might just be a couple days too long for my taste. i’ll admit, though, that the past three days would’ve been a hundred times harder with her. but i still miss her.

have a great day.

this is a special gift to my peeps. they played this song at buckhead church on easter, and it was an unbelievable experience. the guy who wrote it is called john mark mcmillan. he’s got a raw beauty in his music that is really warm, and he’s a rockstar of a lyricist. i seriously get this song stuck in my head for weeks on end. so, you’re welcome.

love it or not?

not that i don’t like the song…i actually do like that song quite a bit…it’s just that (again, being brutally honest…and i may make a couple of enemies here) whenever i hear darlene zschech singing over a totally 90’s drum beat with rhythmic piano, hyper-speed open-string guitar strumming, step-clapclap-step-clap…well, i just don’t usually react well. i feel like all the songs from that era sound identical, and dated, and whatnot. sorry to the lady in my church whom i know loves darlene’s greatest hits. i know i go over the top. i know she’s written a lot of good songs. i know she’s great.

anyway, i looked it up, and reuben morgan wrote that song. and in 2005 he released his own recording of it…and it’s a lot more to my liking. you know, modern eighth-note based drum beat, slightly overdriven guitar with a slight delay, driving bass, minimal piano… (you know, sounds just like a lot of other stuff out there…i’m such a hypocrite…) well, give it a listen. see what you think. i’ll even include both versions for easy comparison.

darlene

reuben

well, what’s the verdict? which one do you like better?

what song has been stuck in your head?

what do you think?

i’ve had other friends experience similar situations with loved ones, and it doesn’t get any easier each time. i’m always left wondering the same questions like “why in the world would this happen to them of all people?” and “how can they live through this kind of pain and still have faith in god?” and i don’t know the answer. it’s not an easy, 3-step process. it’s not something that can be explained with an exegetical formula. it’s just something that sucks and is confusing and that we might never understand.

philosophically speaking, maybe the presence of darkness helps accentuate and compliment the light, and vice versa. that statement doesn’t deal with why bad things happen to good people, but at least it gives some sort of purpose to the darkness or bad that occurs around us. i tend to think that bad things just happen sometimes, whether in the midst of good or bad. but the presence of light makes the bad that happens seem that much worse, because the contrast is greater. the shadow exists in and of itself, but the fact that you can see it proves that there is light…’cause you can’t see a shadow in the dark.

what does your shadow experience tell you?

today is earth day. refill that water bottle instead of throwing it out and opening a new one. turn off that light as you exit the room. shut off that water while you brush your teeth. turn down that thermostat a couple degrees.

earth day is a day when people all over the planet take some time to celebrate the earth we live on…and consider how we can improve the environment. the first earth day was in 1970, and about 20 million people participated. this year, about 500 million people in 175 countries will participate. one of those people will undoubtedly be jack johnson…

enjoy!

1. constantly compare yourself to other artists.

2. talk to your family about what you do and expect them to cheer you on.

3. base the success of your entire career on one project.

4. stick to what you know.

5. undervalue your expertise.

6. let money dictate what you do.

7. bow to societal pressures.

8. only do work that your family would love.

9. do whatever the client/customer/gallery owner/patron/investor asks.

10. set unachievable/overwhelming goals. to be accomplished by tomorrow.

number five is the one that really struck me. i have trouble with that. which one applies to you?