New from Switchfoot

First single off Switchfoot’s “Hello Hurricane”. Can’t wait for this album to come out!

Good, Not Great

I have felt this urge my entire life to be good at everything I do. As a kid, I was the most competitive person I knew, which compounded with a bit of athleticism and decent hand-eye coordination, naturally led me into the world of sports. Even at an early age, I felt like I had an acute ability to focus on a specific goal (no pun intended) and that I could always muster up enough determination to succeed. And as a pitcher, goalie, right offensive tackle, and at other various positions/sports, I usually was.

When I was a teenager, and started thinking more seriously about my future, I determined this blessing was also somewhat of a curse. For some reason, I also believed I was somewhat predisposed to indecisiveness. Therefore, it left me feeling that while I could pursue almost any area of study I had an interest in, I would not be capable of putting all my effort into one thing and be the best I could be, let alone one of the best at all.

As a result, I held off from going to college after graduating high school and joined the minimum wage workforce. Coincidently, this turned out to be the best and worst decision I made in my life. While it put me behind and hindered me from graduating from college until the past Spring, it also allowed me to find my wife (and therefore have the family I could not imagine living without). For that alone I could not be more grateful. The problem remains, however, of not knowing what I should do with my life, both in the short term and long term future.

I have a job that I am pretty happy with, although it is not an ideal situation (does such a thing exist?). I am consistently waffling between trying to be content where I am and longing for something more fulfilling regarding where I spend the majority of my waking hours each day.

What it boils down to, as I recently realized, is my fear of becoming great at something to the point where I cannot hide behind my own shadow of insecurity and self doubt. In fact, in almost everything I do, I fear success more than failure. I believe this mindset has come from a misunderstanding of how to live the Christian life and what humility actually looks like.

By trying to steer clear of any hint of pride, I have been attempting to be “the most” obscure and unrecognized person I can. As it turns out, there is pride in that line of thinking as well. Only recently have I begun to understand, and perhaps more importantly, accept the idea that God is glorified and glad when we use the gifts He gave us. What I can take “pride” in is knowing that anytime I receive a compliment for something I have done well, I can accept it with the knowledge that they are seeing God’s work in my life and not something I have created (and would therefore be worthy of the praise myself).

Giving the glory to God and using my gifts for His praise is why He created me in the first place. By hiding them from the world, I am denying Him the glory He so justly deserves, as well as myself the experience of enjoying His gifts that ultimately will draw me closer to Him.

I now pray that God would continue to help me see every day as an opportunity to share the gifts that God gave me, because He loved me enough to give them to me in the first place. I believe it His plan for all our lives to be content with what we have because He has given us everything we need, as He will use us to show His greatness through us so that all may come to know Him.

What exciting news this is, to be given the most important task on God’s agenda, along with the promise of His help to carry out the mission! What more could we ask for or need?

Because I Said So

So, new theme, eh?  I like it a lot.  I hate being limited on the free side of WP to the themes they offer, but I was immediately impressed by the shininess of this one here.  Well, I’ll play around with it and see how it goes.  I noticed it allows nested pages to link in the main menu as drop downs, so I would like to take advantage of that at some point.  Anyway, I’ve been writing a few new songs recently so I’ll get them posted soon.  And hopefully recorded!

The End Is Nowhere

I can’t seem to stop writing new songs to give myself enough time to record them.  Anyway, this song is about life.  So, for now it’s called just that.  I’d been playing this guitar riff over and over and over for about 3 days and coming up with really corny melodies that you’d probably recognize from a late ’90’s boy band.  Finally, tonight, I just sat down and hammered this out.  It’s easily one of the most honest/revealing songs I’ve ever written, which is where I’ve always found the most comfort and meaning in doing all this.  This is life.

Life

verse 1:
Every day is a war
Every night there’s a storm
Every time we ask ourselves,
What are we fighting for?

verse 2:
It’s a struggle at best
We are lost and a wreck
There is nothing to lose
But our lack of respect

chorus:
Why do we go on, fooling ourselves?
We never find a solution, or anything else
There’s enough pride in the room, to save us all
But no one is willing to lose, to die, or fall

bridge:
I don’t have the answers, I don’t even know the question
All I can do is try to find the right direction
When hope is lost I’ll carry on
And I’ll never wonder where you’ve gone

New Ideas

This is the next song I hope to record.  I think I am planning on releasing a 6 song “EP” by the end of the year.  So far, I have 4 songs mostly done.  It will likely be my most recent music, such as “Inspire Me”, which I just finished recording.  More on that later.  Anyway, here’s the latest:

Start To Live

What makes us wonder why
About anything at all
What makes us want to fly
Also causes us to fall

There’s nothing left to do
There’s no one left to love
We’re always on the run
But we don’t know what from

What else can I say
Without getting in the way?

chorus:
When I finally start believing that I can change the world
You take away my life, so you can give me yours
And I finally found a reason, to give it all away
So help me start to live today

Who can give us comfort
In a world with so much pain
Who can give us answers
When the questions always change?