Morning Launch Rocket Fuel

May 14, 2014 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click the player above to stream In the Morning from the album Still Waters as your background music. If you enjoy, consider supporting through iTunes, Amazon, or stantonlanier.com.

Do you start some days feeling “low on fuel” like I do?

Every day is fresh and new with grace and opportunity, but sometimes I still need a boost of “rocket fuel” to help me launch with confidence. Back in 2002 I discovered a Psalm that offers refreshment when my heart needs reviving. Here is how it speaks to me and how I apply it.

The Psalm is chapter 5, verse 3, which says, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”

This reminds me to step back and begin the day with surrender, early in the morning. With all the day’s issues and to do list ahead, Psalm 5:3 encourages me to pray, to remember there is power in prayer. I take a moment to marvel in awe, that the Lord of the universe hears my voice. Since I am wired to be anxious, worrisome, perfectionist, and fearful of uncertainty, it is so reassuring that once I lay my requests before Him, He has them. This shifts my posture from striving to achieve, to abiding to receive. I wait with expectation, and I trust that God “…is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Waiting can be the hard part. Sometimes God’s pace is standing still with no indication of an answer. Sometimes it is to take one baby step of faith at a time. Sometimes it is to start walking in stride with Him as He reveals each instruction. Sometimes guidance and direction comes like a flood and it is time to run or even sprint. The key for me is to do the part He is asking me to do, and to trust Him to do His part. Not to “over wait,” but also not to “over act.” Embracing the mystery and wonder that His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) brings peace and hope to my spirit.

How do the music and words of reflection around In the Morning speak into your story today?

Thanking Our Mom – Happy Mother's Day Weekend

May 9, 2014 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click above to listen to More Precious from the album Still Waters. I wrote this love song for my wife in 2002. She is an amazing wife and mother, two things which are precious, and priceless. Mother’s Day expanded my thinking to allow this love song to be for moms as well, so feel free to share this special Mother’s Day blog post with streaming music above, and special video below.

Have you thought of your wife or mother as “more precious than jewels?” An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. Proverbs 31:10 (ESV)

I am thankful to still have my mom in my life. She taught me a lot of things that have traveled the years with me: share kindness, give encouragement, enjoy creativity, have fun, honor and respect others, laugh out loud, cry when you need to, bake blackberry cobbler like this (with the family recipe), love and trust God in life. These are just a few. She has also loved me, prayed for me, believed in me, and encouraged me. I am thankful and will always remember her caring, her character, and many special memories we share. All of these things are “more precious than jewels” (and rise above past disagreements or arguments).

Below is a special love song music video called Pure Fountain. If you are a mom, take in the music and text as a love song from God to you. His heart is filled with love, grace, and forgiveness toward you as a mother and in your life. If you want to say “thank you” or “I love you” to your mom, consider sharing this video link with her as an expression of your appreciation.

What is one special thing you can say or do to let your wife know, or your mom know, she is precious and priceless?

Working While I Sleep

May 7, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 4 Comments

Click the player above to stream Beloved (Lullaby) from Walk in the Light as your background reading music. If you enjoy, consider supporting through iTunes, Amazon, or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

Do you sometimes wish your work could get done while you sleep?

If you are like me and answer “yes,” I have an idea for you. Before I share it, here are two practices that will help this idea take root. First, I try to practice “sunset remembrance.” When the sun goes down, I focus on being thankful for all that DID get done that day, versus all that DID NOT get done. Second, I try to practice “sunrise gratitude.” I give thanks to God for waking me up another day, for the gift of life, and I reflect on His many blessings. Then, I try to focus on abiding and surrender, while giving my best, since I cannot pull off each day’s productivity and accomplishments in my own strength alone. With these sunset and sunrise practices, I have a mindset of aiming for progress, instead of trying to be perfect.

Now, for the idea. The song Beloved (A Lullaby) was one of my earliest works, inspired in the year 2000. It came from two verses rich in meaning and life application, which point to an increase in the amount of work that gets done while you sleep. Psalm 127:1-2 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep (some versions say “provides for” His beloved, even while they sleep).

When I discovered this and began to take it to heart, it was incredible to think that God is at work on my behalf through the night, as I sleep. What a relief! I am reminded of this when amazing things happen at a future time, following prayers or seeds of action I have planted. Sometimes it takes only days, sometimes it can be years, and sometimes God is silent, but I rest in this powerful truth. What an encouragement that good works can actually happen for me while I sleep, whether they be physical, relational, emotional, spiritual, or financial.

What is one thing you can surrender and wait for in expectation as you go to sleep tonight?

10th Anniversary Celebration

April 29, 2014 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click the player above to stream Peace as your background music. If you enjoy, consider supporting through iTunes, Amazon, or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

Peace was inspired in 2004, the year Music to Light the World was founded. That year my wife and I, and a support team around us, took a big leap of faith. Music to Light the World is a non-profit ministry with a mission to be a leading instrument for God’s peace, rest, hope and healing in the church, the cultural arts, and the lives of cancer patients. As we prepare for a 10th Anniversary Gala this fall, I wanted to share the 2014 Vision and Mission poster below. Please take a moment to be inspired by the stories and impact that God has made possible.

I invite you to play a role in the story as we launch into the next ten years. Peace was the foundation for Music to Light the World’s Get Music Give Hope program, where generous donors and supporting customers help one CD be given away for every one purchased. Over 50,000 CDs have been donated to cancer patients and their families around the world so far, touching 500,000 lives as relatives, friends, and caregivers hear the music. Our dream is to give away 1 million CDs and MP3 Albums by 2024 to cancer patients and others in need, touching 10 million lives with a message of hope and healing.

Has the melody Peace or Music to Light the World touched your life in a special way?

The Quest – Taking Flight

April 25, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 2 Comments

Click above to listen to The Quest from album Unveiled. If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

Are you on a quest to take flight with your dreams?

Recently my wife and I had the privilege of watching a female cardinal build her nest in a dogwood tree right outside our bedroom window (see the photo below). Soon there were three eggs, then three baby birds. We learned the male and female work together from nest building to feeding the baby cardinals, which stay in the nest for about 10 days after hatching. One by one the babies were soon gone, strong enough to fly on their own. The total time it took from when the mother cardinals laid the eggs until the babies flew away was about 4 weeks.

Wouldn’t it be nice if “taking flight” were such a natural progression for us in living out our dreams, calling and life purpose? The Quest is a piano-violin duet symbolizing this journey, which is not so easy as birds learning to fly. My own career journey took me through being a shift manager in a carpet mill, to several other jobs that weren’t the right fit. At age thirty, this brought me to a point of surrender. Once I let go and began asking God what He wanted me to do, I sensed a calling to a new job. One step at at time I was able to stick with things, and I didn’t need to force my way. Surrender has played a central role in my quest to live out a fruitful life and story. Consider the passage below, which helped inspire the music for The Quest.

“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” – Galatians 5:22-23 (The Message)

What is a next step you can take on your quest to live out a fruitful story?

To and Fro

April 23, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 2 Comments

Click above to listen to “To and Fro” from album “Unveiled” as you read. If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

Does the phrase “To and Fro” have a positive, negative, or neutral meaning to you?

It depends on the context of course, but I would say I have a leaning toward the negative. In this case, “to and fro” can mean wandering aimlessly, not being on a firm path, wasting time, like branches blowing “to and fro” in the wind, etc. This was what would come to my mind when I heard “to and fro” for most of my life, but in 2006 my perspective changed when I started composing the melody “To and Fro” for my 5th album “Unveiled.”

I had heard about the verse down below before, but it started to go deeper into my heart that year, and “to and fro” began to take on a positive light. What if, instead of viewing “to and fro” as my wandering, I could see it as God’s directing and supporting my path. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time I photographed the above train at night, but this image can represent my journey down a “track” that represents God’s guidance one step, one railroad tie at a time. God lights my path (i.e. I am in the dark without Him). He equips me and helps me fulfill His calling, plans and purposes for my life. I encourage you to consider this take on “to and fro” as you listen to the music and meditate on the verse below.

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” – 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NASB).

Another version says, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (NIV)

What are your main heart commitments? Are you ready to embrace a new kind of “to and fro?”

Rejoicing

April 21, 2014 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click above to listen to Rejoicing from Open Spaces as you read (in this post I suggest a way to listen down below). If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

Can you think of something that reminds you to rejoice?

One of these for me is the azalea flower. Azaleas are flowering shrubs native to several continents including Asia, Europe and North America. They are planted abundantly as ornamentals in the southeastern United States, southern Asia, and parts of southwest Europe. This global presence of azaleas gave me an idea. This beautiful flower that reminds me to rejoice, also represents a oneness all of humanity shares — a longing for rejoicing and true joy. Azaleas come in many varieties and colors. Every April we have several blooming around our house, as seen in this just-taken photo collage.

Life’s roller coaster ride brings both joy and struggle. Azaleas remind me to find rejoicing during the ups and the downs. When I composed the song Rejoicing, I created a more open space in the middle to represent seasons of waiting, moments of uncertainty, and times of conflict, when I wonder if and when rejoicing will come. Listen to the music of Rejoicing, and meditate on the music of life. Try letting the piano illustrate the journey, and the cello symbolize God’s grace along the way.

During Easter yesterday my heart and soul were stirred with rejoicing in Jesus’s resurrection, which is filled with the promise of new and eternal life. Oswald Chambers has a great reflection rooted in the following verse: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

“The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father — the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed.” (from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 31st reading).

Have you seen anything today that reminded you to rejoice?

Shadows into Light

April 18, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 2 Comments

Click above to listen to Shadows into Light from Open Spaces as you read. If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

“He reveals the deep things of darkness, and brings deep shadows into the light.” – Job 12:22

This will be a first to share a few words on Good Friday, which Wikipedia defines this way…

“Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover.”

When I was composing Shadows into Light I wasn’t thinking of Good Friday. However, there is a connection. The piano in Shadows into Light goes back and forth between the darkness inside us and the light that God offers through His son. Jesus dying on the cross for our sin was the ultimate conversion of shadows into light. Interestingly, recently I saw this unique art below at Wheaton College during a Chicago concert trip. It allows you to go through the shadows of the cross into the light of the cross.

Wherever this meets you in your story today, whether life seems more in the “shadows” or in the “light” right now, I pray the blend of piano, light percussion, and keyboard, brings you hope and lifts your spirit. Does this music or reflection speak to you in a special way? If so, I would love to hear from you, and will respond personally.

May the light of Jesus shine on your Good Friday, your Easter weekend, and in your heart.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:5-6

Are You Standing at a Crossroads?

April 16, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 2 Comments

Click above to stream Ancient Paths as you read. This track from Open Spaces features piano, percussion, French horn, and vocals to offer rest to your soul. If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

Are you standing at a crossroads?

crossroads |ˈkrôsˌrōdz|
noun
an intersection of two or more roads.
• a point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences: we stand again at a historic crossroads.
• (crossroad) a road that crosses a main road or joins two main roads.

Each of our stories has many points of decision along the way. These can be small, medium, large, or huge. I can think of a few: Should I quit piano lessons? Where should I go to college? Is this shift manager job at a carpet mill the right one to begin my career? Should I ask this girl to marry me? Do I keep waiting or do I take a leap of faith?

It seems that a hope for “success” is present when we stand at a crossroads. We want to make the “right” decision, and not make the “wrong” move. When I was thirty my definition of success shifted from “striving to achieve” to “abiding to receive.” I began to trust God more with each crossroads, asking Him for guidance and walking in it by faith. In the beginning I thought I was starting to know His plans for my future. Instead, He started teaching me just to take things one day at a time, to listen for His voice with a heart of surrender. I think of it as trying to keep in stride with God’s pace. Sometimes this means waiting, sometimes walking, sometimes running, and sometimes sprinting to keep up. I don’t want to run ahead, but I don’t want to lag behind.

How is your pace right now, as you prepare for your next crossroads?

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

Crossing Waters – Taking a Leap of Faith

April 14, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 8 Comments

Click above to listen to the piano, percussion, violin trio Crossing Waters from Open Spaces as you read. If you enjoy the music, please consider supporting by visiting stantonlanier.com, iTunes, or Amazon.

Is an idea stirring in you that will require a leap of faith?

This is what I was reflecting on as I was composing Crossing Waters. I will explain in a moment, but first, here is a short story that required a big leap of faith…

A few summers ago my son and I were part of a high adventure Boy Scout trip to the Northern Tier boundary waters on the Minnesota-Canada border. Our group of five scouts, two adult leaders, and a guide canoed fifty miles in five days. Our route took us across a dozen cold water lakes, and included two miles of carrying three canoes and all our camping gear between each lake. The night sky was breathtaking, with more stars than I have ever seen.

The biggest “leap of faith” moment came when we all had a chance to jump off a 40-foot cliff into deep water. My son and I both took some time looking from the edge. If we made the leap, it would be a symbolic moment. We would bond through overcoming our fear, and we could call on this experience when facing life’s future “leap of faith” moments. There was risk. We were scared. But we jumped. One thousand one, one thousand two, splash — exhilaration!! Wow!

The uplifting, upbeat piano melody in Crossing Waters is symbolic of child-like faith, that anything is possible. The light percussion joins in, indicating there is a rhythm to life’s “leap of faith” moments and how we respond. We often have to jump into the unknown, to “get our feet wet” so to speak, before any results can happen. The violin represents looking back over our shoulder in gratitude and remembrance for all the times God has been faithful to help us “cross the waters” of fear, and revealed the exhilarating blessings on the “other side.”

What leap of faith “next step” is God asking you to take?

“And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap. So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing…The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” Joshua 3:13-17