Desert Thirsty for Rain

January 26, 2016 By Stanton Lanier 4 Comments

Click above to listen to Desert Thirsty for Rain (from my 8th album Open Spaces) as you read. If you enjoy you can stream, download music, or find sheet music at the following links: Open Spaces CD, MP3 Album, Piano Book, Desert Thirsty for Rain PDF Sheet Music, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora.

Is your soul thirsty like a desert thirsty for rain?

When I composed this song, I wanted to express the emotions of life’s “desert” moments or seasons, when life seems dry, prayer seems empty, and God seems distant or even very far away (if sometimes fear grips you like us does me, you should also check out the Far Away from Home music video and its inspiration).

It only takes a moment to remember some “desert” moments from recent times to years ago: the five-day long stomach illness a few weeks ago, when the car didn’t start leaving for a trip last fall, when our house was robbed, the jobs early in my career when there was something missing, working third shift in a carpet mill, making an “F” on several college exams, missing the game winning shot, wanting to quit piano lessons when I was twelve, having to get glasses when I was ten, stuttering when I was five. The list go could go on.

However, there is another perspective in Psalm 143, which gives me great hope…

“I remembered the old days, went over all you’ve done, pondered the ways you’ve worked, Stretched out my hands to you, as thirsty for you as a desert thirsty for rain.” (The Message) “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” (ESV)

I can choose to dwell on a “desert experience” from the past, to focus on some “desert moment” in the present, or to fear a “desert season” in the future. Or, I can choose to remember all the good things God has done for me in the past, to reflect on how He is working on my behalf today, and to give thanks for His faithfulness to be with me in the future, wherever I go (Joshua 1:9).

I hope you will use the new Desert Thirsty for Rain Music Video as a resource for seeking God’s presence, whether life right now seems like a dry desert or a thirst quenching waterfall. If your soul is thirsty, God’s grace, forgiveness, love and care are there for you like the rain drops in Desert Thirsty for Rain.

What is one memory of something good God did, which you can cherish today?

December 31st ~ Confetti Moments

December 31, 2015 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click above to listen to Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring as you read. This unique arrangement is from 2009 Best Holiday Album December Peace (ZMR Awards, winning over Enya and Yo-Yo Ma). If you enjoy, please consider sampling and ordering the CD, MP3 Album or sheet music. You can also listen and download on iTunes and all other digital outlets.

This story is from 31 Days of December Peace (soft cover or eBook). Also available from Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other e-Readers.

Where could you use some “December Peace” today?

Even though I have played the piano or keyboard over 500 times for concerts, events and groups of all sizes, I haven’t been to that many concerts in my life. On July 2, 2012 I got to go with a friend to see Coldplay live in Atlanta. The audience was captivated from the opening moments. Confetti was blown in huge volume from the stage to the ceiling throughout the second song. Then, it floated back down over the crowd in millions of pieces. This was followed by huge, colorful, air-filled balls being hit into the air across the arena. All kinds of celebration symbols were lavished on everyone like it was New Year’s Eve. It was magnificent.

Here is what I learned…

1. Humankind Loves to Behold Beauty. Rainbows of colors and lighting illuminated the stage, the band members, the confetti, and the computer programmed sparkling wristbands (that everyone in the audience was wearing). These experiences illustrated C. S. Lewis’s words that our greatest moments of beauty, adventure and intimacy in this life are glimpses of heaven. Also, that God planted eternity in the human heart. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

2. Humankind Longs for Hope. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “All joy… emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.” Pleasure, comfort, safety, security, good health, provision, enjoyment, seeing the world, loving people… these are some of the ways in which we look for and long for hope. The list could go on and on. G. K. Chesterton adds, “I had always felt life first as a story; and if there is a story there is a storyteller.” The idea that my life is part of a greater story gives me hope.

3. Humankind Loves Moments of Wonder and Adventure. C. S. Lewis also said, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.” There is this hard wiring we are born with. One part says guard your life, another part says go for it – “it” being experiences of wonder and adventure. Life moments that make our heart race – like being mesmerized by nature, taking a faith risk, or serving others in love – are worthy pursuits.

What beauty are you beholding today? What hope are you longing for? Where are you feeling nudged toward wonder and adventure in the New Year? Watch for life’s confetti moments…

December 30th ~ Don’t Wait

December 30, 2015 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

Click above to listen to Silence as you read. This piano solo is from 2009 Best Holiday Album December Peace (ZMR Awards, winning over Enya and Yo-Yo Ma). If you enjoy, please consider sampling and ordering the CD, MP3 Album or sheet music. You can also listen and download on iTunes and all other digital outlets.

This story is from 31 Days of December Peace (soft cover or eBook). Also available from Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other e-Readers.

Where could you use some “December Peace” today?

“If you’re waiting to do something with your spouse, don’t wait.” These words rocked my world in the final hour of a men’s weekend retreat in May 2008. Even if you’re not married, read on. All of us are waiting to do something. Maybe you’ve waited long enough.

The Souly Business retreat had brought several powerful moments. I thought I had experienced all that God was going to do. Then, during a talk titled Finishing Well these words cut straight to my heart. The speaker told a story about a very successful Texas chicken farmer, who had died suddenly from a heart attack. At his funeral service, his wife said, “If your waiting to do something with your spouse, don’t wait.”

Ever since 1995, for thirteen years, my wife and I had received a newsletter twice each year inviting us to consider a trip to Greece and Turkey. They were always mailed from the same couple who had led a group of twenty people, including us, on a spring 1995 pilgrimage to Israel. That experience was unforgettable. We had never seen the Bible come so alive and be confirmed so incredibly – geographically, archaeologically, and spiritually.

We knew Greece and Turkey would be just as amazing. It was called The Journey’s of Paul. The itinerary included Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, the island of Patmos where John wrote Revelation, Instanbul and much more. It just wasn’t practical. In the 1990s we both worked and it was just us. No kids. But from 1995 to 2005 our two children were born and an unexpected career curve ball was pitched to us. In 2004 I left a ten-year financial planning job to found Music to Light the World and become a full-time pianist and composer. Since then, our finances had been “just in time” with no surplus.

When the “don’t wait” words stirred my heart with such clarity, I sensed God whispering, “Take a leap of faith. Trust me. You’ve waited long enough. It’s time to do this thing with your wife. Go on the Greece-Turkey trip.” It was crazy from a worldly perspective. I would have to make a withdrawal from my IRA, paying a 10% penalty and income taxes on the entire amount. Yet, there I stood. After each talk there was a space for a few men to speak their mind. For the first time during the weekend I was telling eighty guys what had just happened. Apparently we were supposed to take this trip and not wait. But we were living month-to-month, and our only savings was in retirement accounts. And, I was a former financial planner and would be withdrawing the cost of the trip from my IRA (the room erupted with laughter at this point). Yes, God does have a sense of humor!

I have found when we move forward by faith, things start to line up. They don’t line up in advance. All the steps are not clear if we wait too long. But when we follow God’s nudges, He reveals things little by little. Like the $1,000 down payment toward our trip that was a gift from a complete stranger at the retreat, who heard my story and just “happened” to have been assigned the job of praying for me in secret the entire weekend. Like the fact that our parents’ schedules were open so they could stay at our house with the kids. It was stunning to witness all that took place. This story alone is one reason I live by faith in a God who loves us more than we can imagine. Even when life doesn’t make sense. Even when I have my doubts. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”

What are you waiting to do? Don’t wait too long. Take a leap of faith.