11:50pm

One of my goals for 2011 is to write more music—worship music, music for my band, music for me. As far as worship music goes, I put a very specific measurement on myself to make sure that I keep on top of things: I must write and have ready to present to our worship team at least 1 song per month.

January was pretty easy. I wrote “Who We Are” (which I will post on here once we get a good recording) in basically 2 or 3 days. It was one of those songs that just came quickly and wouldn’t leave my head until it was completed. Gotta love those kind :) And it seemed like February was gonna be easy, too, because I had already gotten a good start on a song that had lots of potential. In fact, I had started working on this song before composing “Who We Are”. But as the month wore on, no real progress was made on it. Every time I sat down to write, I would just replay what I already had done…then just sit there, stuck. Even when I sat down very deliberately a week ago to hammer something out (which is what this post was about), nothing substantial ever came.

So February 28^th rolls around and the song still isn’t done. I’m still lacking an entire bridge, and at least half of the 2^nd verse. Plus, I still haven’t determined the exact structure of the song…. Does it need a bridge? If so, should there be the 3^rd verse? Where should the buildups be? 8 or 16 measures for the guitar solo? Should there even be a guitar solo? Ha. You music people know what I’m talking about.

Anyways, since I’m determined to meet my goal of finishing one song per month, I made sure to schedule lots of time on the 28^th dedicated to completing “Your Name is Love”. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t get started until around 5 in the evening...not good. Then when I finally do get started, it’s not exactly with a bang; just more of the same—replaying things I had already done, and not coming up with anything I want to keep. But then I start to get pieces here and there that I begin to weave together: the chord structure for the bridge (and a melody to go with it!), the topic of the material that will become the 2^nd verse, and snippets of the lyrics for the bridge and 2^nd verse. Looks like it just might happen!

…11pm, and I’m still not done. I’ve stopped to eat, and just take a break. I’m hoping that clearing my mind for a little while will help me when I attack it again. But when I sit back down nothing new comes immediately. I consider calling it a night because I had truthfully made some real progress—2 or 3 lyrical ideas that I was pretty sure could become half of the 2^nd verse, and I had definitely finished the first half of the bridge lyrics. Plus, I didn’t want to “force” myself to write something if it just wasn’t right, ya know?

But instead of giving into the urge to do the easy thing and quit for the night, I told myself at the very least I would sit there until midnight and see if anything would come. I prayed for more words to come. And they did. Out of the muck in my mind, actual phrases that I could use in the song started to form and piece together. The first half of the 2^nd verse rolled out and fit together with another lyrical idea I had written out earlier. Then, it hit me to let the 2^nd half of the bridge wrap back around to lyrics from the 1^st verse. Far beyond just “filling the gap” in the song, wrapping it back to those specific words was a perfect fit and made for a great transition to then go straight back into the chorus; thus, solving the structural question as well. BAM! Song complete!

All of this got done around 11:50pm. So I did, indeed, get my song done by my self-imposed deadline.

* * * * *

I believe the Lord helped me honor my commitment to Him and myself because I chose to stick it out. I really do think that since I consciously chose to at least put forth the effort in trying to meet the demands I put on myself (which, in fact, were designed to make sure I was nourishing that aspect of my life, gifting, and calling), God came in at the last second and helped me make it to the finish line.

Making promises to God, yourself, and others is a big deal. Following through with your commitment is a big deal. I want you to know that God does care about what you care about—after all, He put a lot of those things in you. I also want you to know that you’ve got to make a decision to go after what you care about; it won’t always fall into your lap without any effort. But I have first-hand experience that says when you make a choice to push through the hard stuff and ask God to help you with what you’ve made a commitment to (when what you’re doing is inside of His will, of course), He is faithful to show up and help you out.

He will do the same thing for you that He’s done for me. God is no respecter of persons, and He loves us all. Go do YOUR thing. In Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen.

Be More Faithful

Don’t you hate it when people tell you they will do something and then don’t follow through? Or they commit to doing something, but then they back out? Or how about when they say they’ll be there at 7pm, only to show up around 8 or 9…how mad does that make you?

I know that kind of stuff kills me. When people continually break promises, back out, and show up late it makes it very, very hard for me to place any kind of confidence in them. Not only that, but it also makes me wonder if they value my time at all. I’ve heard it said before by people much wiser than me that if someone is habitually late then they consider their own time more valuable than everyone else’s; that is, whether that person realizes it or not (doing it intentionally, or unintentionally), they place a higher premium on their own time than they do yours. Ever known a person like that?

Ok, next question: how often are you that person? How often do you break your commitments? Back out? Reschedule? Show up late? Are you the one that is making a habit of placing your own time above other people’s time?? If the answer is yes, then it is time for you to change!!

As Christians, we should constantly be pursuing after the character of God. That means we should seek to emulate His ways and His characteristics so that we will be more like Him. It seems that we focus on certain characteristics like love, patience, and kindness—which are all wonderful—but neglect other parts of His character. Is God not also faithful?! Does He not remain true to His Word?! Why should we work on ourselves in all these other areas but not strive to be more like Our Father in this area?

Let me be blunt with you today. If you are a Christian, you should be faithful. When you give your word to do something, you should follow through. When you say you’ll help with something, you should show up to do it. When you say “7pm”, you should be there at, or before, 7pm. It is very simple really: your “yes” should be yes, and your “no” should be no.

As humans, we will screw up, and we will let people down. Only God is 100% faithful, 100% of the time. But we can be more like Him in this respect. I’ll leave you with 3 simple tips today that can help you be more faithful:

1. Consider before committing. Before you say “yes”, make sure that you are up to the task. Check your schedule, check your bank account, check your personal commitment level to this particular thing.

2. Learn to say “no”. If you foresee potential conflicts, don’t bind yourself. Although it may be hard to say “no” on the spot to someone, it will be much more beneficial to you both than if you cancel later.

3. Leave early. If you really want to get better at being on time, leave at least 15 minutes earlier than you normally would. It is human nature to underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something…we don’t take into account little things like the time it takes to gather our stuff before we head out the door, unforeseen traffic, parking, time it takes to walk from the parking lot to the destination, etc. If you arrive early, then great! You are showing the other person that their time is valuable to you.

May we all be more like Him every day. In Jesus' name, Amen.