It’s been a busy week with Music to Light the World and family activities. I recorded several demos for the new album A Thousand Years, including new originals Always in Blossom (Psalm 1) and Bread of Angels (Psalm 78:25), as well as original work blended with unique arrangements of Amazing Grace, The Doxology (a piece titled For a Lifetime Blessings Flow), Pachelbel’s Canon in D, and Bach’s Air on G String. Some Oswald Chambers thoughts that really spoke to me this week are, “Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. I must maintain an adventurous attitude toward God, despite any potential personal risk. The secret of walking by faith is showing no concern for the uncertainties that lie ahead.”

The song Simplicity from the Draw Near CD was inspired by a version of Ecclesiastes 7:29 that says, “God has made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” I have to be intentional to seek out and to treasure moments of simplicity. This mindset is counter cultural, like swimming upstream, due to the volume of information and the fast pace that the world brings on. I am working on new music that integrates great classical melodies with hymns, and I found this inspiring quote by Frederic Chopin. “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

I have had my quiet times more sporadically lately, at different times and in different places, but God’s still small voice still breaks through the “noise” of life with encouraging words. Oswald Chambers “My Utmost for His Highest” is often a companion. Here is one of his recent quotes really encouraged me recently – “Look at how we limit the Lord by only remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past. We say, “I always failed there, and I always will.” Consequently, we don’t ask for what we want. Instead, we think, “It is ridiculous to ask God to do this.” If it is an impossibility, it is the very thing for which we have to ask. If it is not an impossible thing, it is not a real disturbance. And God will do what is absolutely impossible. Once we not only look at what Jesus says, but we trust and see Him, the impossible things He does in our lives become as natural as breathing.