Everyone Hates 2016 Except For Me

I've been dragging my feet about writing my annual year in review post because I'm one of approximately 14 people in the world who don't absolutely abhor this year.  I mean, some people created a horror movie trailer with things that really did happen over the past 12 months. While some bizarre things happened around the world, 2016 was actually pretty great for me.

There. I said it.

I remember sitting in church last November when my friend Bridgett passed me a note with a heart on it that said. "Let His hope be your new beginning." About a week later, Pastor Steve said 2016 was the year of new beginnings. For Christmas, Jill gave me a bracelet with the word "hope" on it. Little did I know how accurate all of that was.

2016 had a pretty rocky start, but hitting that low forced me to dig in and decide that I was going to move forward, no matter how much it hurt. Believe me, it did quite a bit. There were some major hurdles, like losing Jill and so many others in the spring, and my cousin just passed away this week, on top of the every day struggles of life. While those lives are very dearly missed, I've seen time and time again over the past 12 months where God twists a scenario and makes it good. It's pushed me out of my comfort zone, and that is where the growth happens. There was so much good, I could yap about it all day, so this will just stick to the broad generalities.

This year put some of my life-long goals in the 'done' category. As long as I can remember, I've wanted to do certain things, but never really thought of them as possible. It was more of a "wouldn't that be nice" type of thing. Some might be deemed silly, but that's your choice to soak the joy out of a situation.

In 2016, I finally read through the entire Bible (after many attempts that didn't make it past Exodus), I read more than 50 books, I got my passport and left the country, I traveled alone, I visited Pearl Harbor and marked D-Day at the National World War II Museum. I sang karaoke (horrendously), jumped off a cliff into a river, kayaked, swam out to a waterfall used in a movie, stood on an extinct volcano (although, I question if this counts since I didn't see lava). My team earned an Emmy nomination, and I'm now back on track to graduate earlier than I should have, but it's on time with the rest of the class.

I'm getting my vision back, but this time, it's coming with follow through.

Then, there were the bonuses. I lost track of how many ballets, musicals, plays, operas and concerts I went to, but bucket-listers like Underoath, Switchfoot and Panic at the Disco are on he list. Chance the Rapper, Winter Jam, and TobyMac's tour were entertaining. I got to meet amazing people, like Marvel's Stan Lee, Gary Sinise from Forrest Gump, Nicholas Sparks, Rainbow Rowell, Barry Williams from 'The Brady Bunch', the guys from Underoath, and Pearl Harbor survivors including Donald Stratton. I got the opportunity to coach young girls in volleyball and be a part of a kids show that's going to reach people around the globe. I was blessed with the ability to get a new car and laptop this year. Heck, I even sprang for a gopro camera, finally. I caught up with old buddies, made new friends and learned who never really fit that title in the first place, and became a better friend to others. There were so many adventures and shenanigans throughout the year, it's crazy to think about how blessed I was.

All of that is fun, but it's the inner changes that are more important. I became stronger and more stable in who I am, while also developing a softness and vulnerability at the same time. It's the weirdest thing, but God is complex like that. I feel like I grew so much, yet have so much more work ahead. Pastor Eric always says, "with God, the journey is everything," and I am thoroughly loving the adventure He's writing for me in this time. It's creating the me I was supposed to be all along, but lost in the flesh's struggle to fit in. Let's face it: I was never meant to be classified as normal.

Despite all of these amazing moments, I know it's just the beginning. It's a thought which is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. 2016 saw the first few pages of a book come to life and the shiftings to set up some big things in 2017. I keep thinking of the line from Switchfoot's song "If the House Burns Down" which says, "I may not know what I want from this life but I know I want more than the starting line." The next couple months are going to be filled with some deep thought and visioneering as some interesting possibilities are floating around. That's just what I see, so who knows what God still has in His pocket for me. Pastor Steve said 2017 is the year of opportunity and I cannot wait to see how everything will play out.

I hope you grab ahold of the hope for a better life that is found only in Jesus. If He can turn my life around so drastically in just one year, just think where you could be 12 months from now.  Think about what JD King preached last night: "Jesus wants to meet you where you are so He can take you to where He is." He makes all things new and will give you more than what your heart desires when you trust Him.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Paying Attention To The Lyrics

The struggle of writing on the go: forgetting to post. 

You know what happens when you go to three musical in five days while taking a couple worship classes? You start paying more attention to lyrics.

Granted, the first musical performance of the week was the opera… Hansel and Gretel sang in German, to be exact. Listening to music in a foreign language that you haven’t studied in five years forces you to pay more attention. There was a little screen in front of each person with a gist of what the actors were singing, but judging from the random pockets of laughter that burst out from a handful of people, you were missing something by not knowing the language. I was able to enjoy some of those moments with my college German knowledge, but the 12-year-old who went with me was lost. I didn’t really think much of it at that time, but it was the first block for the week.

Three days later, it became #throwbacktuesday. Two bands I listened to from middle school through my early college years put out new albums and went on the “Looking For America Tour” together. I was pretty excited to see Relient K again and Switchfoot for the first time, despite the fact that my friends got seats in the balcony and I was heading to the cramped and sweaty general admission floor on my own. (I did run into a friend in the line who was also going to be alone on the floor, so it worked out.)

Not going to lie, I was more excited for Relient K than Switchfoot. I like Switchfoot’s new single, “Live It Well” but I was never super into their music before. On the other hand, I listened to Relient K all the time in high school. I saw them once on Warped Tour almost a decade ago and it’s still something I remember vividly.

But this time was different. Why? Because I’m different.

They only did a handful of songs from the olden days, but I wasn’t bouncing around like the tightly-wound spring aimed straight for the front edge of the pit that I generally turn into once I set foot on a concert floor. Instead, I was l hanging in the back thinking about the words. The goofy songs weren’t doing it this time. Instead it was lines like, “Now I’m sunny with a high of 75 since You took my heavy heart and made it light,” and, ”This one last bullet you mention is my one last shot at redemption/ because I know to live you must give your life away.” Just think on that for a second.

In between sets, I slipped into a crowd snaking their way to the front and ended up in a pretty good spot. I’m not sure what I was expecting, since I knew next to nothing of the new cd and they have 10 albums so it’s not like the chances were great that they were going to play the random assortment of songs I liked. But going into it pretty blind allowed me to pay more attention to what they were singing out of that roboticness that comes out of familiar music. Don’t even lie, you know the lyrics lose their meaning as you hear a song over and over until you can belt them out without so much as a thought about them.

John Foreman also spent some time talking about how their bus broke down and they almost didn’t make it to the show. He called being on that stage one of the most beautiful moments of his life because a miracle happened to get them there on time. They performed an acoustic song not on their set list because it described the moment. It’s called “Hey Hurricane” and says “Hello hurricane/ You're not enough/ Hello hurricane/ You can't silence my love/ I've got doors and windows/ Boarded up/ All your dead end fury is/ Not enough/ You can't silence my love, my love.” That song was such a great reminder of where my strength and hope is, and that nothing can cut me off from that.

John talked about a sing inspired by evacuating with his family and only what fit in the car and how that moment triggered the realization of what matters.

So many lines left a mark on me that night…. “Love alone is worth the fight.” “Your hope is the anthem of my soul.” “Maybe redemption has stories to tell/ maybe forgiveness is right where you fell/ Where can you run to escape from yourself?” and “We sing these broken prayers where the light shines through/ The wound is where the light shines through.”

I realized, I was hearing the heart behind the lyrics. My friend, Dean’na, says that all the time when she doesn’t want to misunderstood: “Hear my heart.” It became more than just words that pour out of your mouth when you hear the melody. It was someone’s life, experiences, and heart.

That made it a powerful moment that I gushed about in worship class the next day.

But the next day was also the final leg on my crazy week. This time, it was Chance the Rapper with a girl I’d only met once before. I only knew songs from his latest album, “Coloring Book,” which has some really great God lyrics mixed in with profanity. Again, not sure what I was expecting from a mainstream rap concert, but it sure wasn’t people smoking weed on the floor. You could see the lighters glowing in the middle of circles, followed by puffs of smoke drifting toward the ceiling. I’m insanely grateful that I got balcony seats instead of going down the general admission.

Because the majority of people were inebriated in some way, I don’t think they were able to absorb the weight of what Chance was doing.

Early on, he performed a song called “Blessings.” It’s one of my favorites from him as it is. The screens around the stage featured a graphic that made it look like there were rock walls. The second verse ends with Chance rapping, “I'm feeling shortness of breath, so Nico grab you a horn/ Hit Jericho with a buzzer beater to end a quarter/ Watch brick and mortar fall like dripping water, ugh!” At that moment, there was a rumble and the rock wall graphic crumbled and fell. It was incredible. My jaw dropped all the way through the balcony to the floor. I looked around and it was like no one had even noticed the spiritual undertone and meaning. During another song, a puppet choir was singing “How great is our God” while Chance faced away from the crowd and put his hands in the air. Once again, no one noticed the moment.

Throughout the show, a Jack in the Box kept telling Chance, “don’t forget your message, big fella.” Finally, at the end of the show, Chance said he couldn’t let people leave without letting them know what his message was. “Did you know, that your blessing, is not on an album? Did you know, that your blessing, is not at a show? Did you know, that your blessing, is not a piece of flesh? Are you ready for your blessing?”

It really made me sad to see how many people missed out on those moments, but at least, maybe, a seed was planted through those lyrics and the heart behind them. That’s a thought that weighs heavily on my heart as we write psalms and songs this quarter at World Revival School of Ministry. I guess we will see what happens.