Stanton Lanier

Scripture inspired piano to refresh your spirit

A 4-minute Tool to Refresh Your Spirit

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 Click above to listen to This Very Moment from the album Open Spaces as you read. If you enjoy, take time to watch the music video down below too, and consider ordering the CD or MP3 Album or Sheet Music (also available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and Pandora).

Does your spirit need refreshing?

If your answer is “yes,” I can relate. When I first began writing piano instrumentals, the creative process was (and still is) therapy for my soul. The music was refreshing my spirit without me describing it this way. Over time it began to touch other lives in a similar way.

About one year ago I was prompted to search “Scripture inspired piano” on Google. To my surprise, I learned that my music and Music to Light the World held the #1 position, with several other links also on the first page of Google. This is what I had been calling my piano compositions from the first melody in May 2000.

Testimonials

This revelation inspired me to create the new tag line “Scripture inspired piano to refresh your spirit” to support Music to Light the World’s vision and mission. To learn more, click here. If you have been blessed, I invite you to join our 2015 Vision as well.

Even though this is the heart behind all ninety-nine tracks I have recorded so far, This Very Moment is one of the best choices as a 4-minute tool to refresh your spirit. Whether listening to the track or watching the sunrise music video filmed beside a pond with birds singing, I hope you are refreshed, and would love to hear from you.

If your spirit was refreshed, how would you describe your experience?

This Very Moment was inspired by the idea of cherishing life’s moments, and this verse from John 5:24 — “The Son gives life . . . Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real and lasting life.

A Valentine Love Song Just for You

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Instead of the typical free music stream, for this post I am providing you with the Pure Fountain love song music video down below. If you enjoy, check out the CD or MP3 Album, or Sheet Music (or visit iTunes, Amazon , Spotify, Pandora, etc.).

Have you ever had a love song written just for you?

With one week until February 14th, this question came to mind: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had a love song written just for us? I’ve got some good news — I think we do.

My worst Valentine memory was the year I forgot my wife was preparing a candle lit dinner for two. Ouch. That one really hurt. Sometimes I can still feel like I am making up for this mistake that happened twenty years ago (my wife has forgiven me, and yes, she still loves me!). One of our family’s best in recent years was cooking a gourmet dinner to enjoy together. There are many sweet Valentine memories filled with love and smiles.

In my brokenness, I frequently feel like I need to “earn” my wife’s love. It becomes conditional. If I “do this” or “don’t do that” then she will love me more. If I am not careful, I can also begin thinking incorrectly that God will love me more based on what I do or don’t do.

Pure Fountain is probably my favorite of three instrumental love songs I have composed (Captivating and More Precious are the other two). When these Scripture inspired piano melodies were born, I was writing them for my wife, but I was inspired by God’s unconditional love for me. His forgiveness, love and acceptance are not based on my performance, but on His grace.

So, read the few phrases below from Song of Solomon Chapter 4 (taken from The Message). Then, watch for them in the Pure Fountain love song video. Receive this as your love song — God’s love song, music, and words written just for you.

Dear lover and friend,
you’re a secret garden,
a private and PURE FOUNTAIN.

A garden fountain,
sparkling and splashing…

You’ve captured my heart.
I stay until dawn breathes its light
and night slips away.

Body and soul you are PARADISE.
One look my way and…
I was hopelessly in love!

How did this speak to your heart?

This Very Moment – New Music Video

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I am thrilled to announce today’s just released music video This Very Moment from the album Open Spaces. This 4-minute experience was created just for you, to see and hear music and nature that reminds us to cherish life’s moments, to be fully alive and present for “this very moment.”

I hope you enjoy and would love your feedback…

“Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real and lasting life.” – John 5:24 (The Message)

Rejoicing

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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.

photoLife’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

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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

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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 Leap

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

A New Way to Listen to Love Songs

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Click above to listen to Pure Fountain (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, Pure Fountain PDF Sheet Music, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora.

Do you know those “Aha” moments? When a “light bulb” goes on in your brain about something?

Here is one regarding an interesting way to listen to love songs. This may not apply to every love song, but I think it applies to most. I believe love songs can be instrumental music inspired by romancing words, such as Pure Fountain, but for purposes of this idea, let’s define “love song” as lyrics searching for or affirming redeeming, romantic love, combined with a beautiful melody that sings to the heart. So, play your favorite love song and listen like this… If the music and words are affirming love, pretend the words are being sung by God to you. Receive the love song as written personally for you, and sung to you, by God. If the music and words are searching for love, pretend the words are being sung by you to God. Listen to the love song as written personally by you, and sung by you, to God. Do you get the idea? It may take a little practice, but it is worth a try. For me it gave some of my favorite love songs a deeper meaning and life application. What did you experience when you listened this way to one of your favorite love songs? Below I am including the music video for Pure Fountain so you can receive this as an example affirming love, where God is singing to you. I hope you enjoy!

This Very Moment – Being vs Doing

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Click above to listen to This Very Moment (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, This Very Moment PDF Sheet Music, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora.

Be. Be still. Be still and know. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know that I am God.
Mountain Meadow This way of praying through Psalm 46:10 is a great way to pause and allow your “being” to refuel all the “doing” that lies ahead. Repeat the phrases above a few times while listening to the music. Consider pausing a few times throughout your day to reflect on Psalm 46:10. Gives thanks for life’s blessings that come to mind. Remember a time that God helped you through, or maybe even a time when He did something amazing. Cherish life’s moments today. What area in my life needs a little more “being” before I keep “doing?” “…Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life…” (John 5:24, The Message)

Humpback Whales Echoing Brilliance

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When is the last time you saw something brilliant?

What does this have to do with humpback whales? The connection was a “brilliant” experience for me. In high school and college years I worked several summers at Adventures Unlimited, the largest canoe rental in the Florida panhandle. In recent years they built one of the top zip line tours in the southeast through pine forests and along the Coldwater River. Jack, the owner, and my boss, taught me and all his employees the value of hard work and customer service. He also made sure we laughed and had fun in the process. He was, and still is, a great leader and visionary on a person-to-person basis, with creating unique outdoor adventures, and with preserving natural beauty. He is also a lifelong friend.

I got to see Jack last December when he and a friend attended one of my concerts in the area. My performance included Singing in the Ocean Deeps from the album Open Spaces. Afterward his friend said, “I have a friend in Tonga, in the South Pacific, who is a world-class ocean videographer. Do you want me to see if he might want to combine his film with your music?” Below is the result…

Sometimes we see something brilliant, literally, like this amazing video of a mother humpback whale and her calf. Sometimes we “see”something brilliant when we take notice that something good wasn’t just a coincidence. Like what may happen through a friend. Sometimes we can sense that God was the author of “brilliant” as expressed in Psalm 8 (The Message)…

“God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name. Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble. I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps. God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.”

This is the passage that birthed Singing in the Ocean Deeps. God was brilliant as the inspiration came, as the piano keys began to sound like the ocean, and as the French horn was added in the recording studio to symbolize whales singing.

What is an experience that echoed “God, brilliant Lord” in your story?