NEW SONG RELEASING NEXT FRIDAY! Details below!

men's black top — Photo by Knut Troim on Unsplash

You know what I absolutely love? BEING ALIVE. How about you?

Let me tell you why I do, and ask you to ponder how you might answer some of these questions.

Q: What’s the best part about life?

A: Connecting with people. It can be family, friends, or complete strangers. I love finding commonality with all kinds of people. Traveling the world has been a great teacher of how to see our shared humanity beyond our surface differences. Spending 23 years going into a Nashville prison on a weekly basis further cemented my knowledge that we all have way more in common than we might think.

Q: How do you “carpe diem” and make each day count?

A: When I wake up I thank God right away for another day to live, love, and be loved. I’m very aware that one of these mornings I might not wake up, and so some mornings, I’m a little surprised and grateful. I don’t take being gifted another day lightly. Beyond that, I want to live open-handedly and curious. I choose to limit my distractions as much as possible, so I can hear nudges from God. I don’t completely understand how “listening for nudges” works, to be honest, but I’m certain that I have many instances where I heard or felt a nudge to go out… outside, out of my apartment, out to a restaurant, and I saw very clearly the blessing of connection that occurred because I did. Sometimes it’s a conversation, sometimes it’s a great picture I took, sometimes it’s a gift of peace that fills my soul. These magic moments always occur when I get out of my recliner… and out into the world.

Q: What does it mean to choose hope today?

A: I haven’t always loved being alive. There have been times I felt that it would be way easier if life just ended. Thank God, I have been rescued. Saved. Helped. Held. Carried through. It’s glimpses of hope that have kept me going. Some gifted from God. Some gifted by people who love me. Some have been mustered up by myself, or my awesome therapist. Hope is the belief that this is not the end of the story. That there is still good yet to come. No matter what today feels like, or how the sky appears filled with clouds and the storms don’t seem like they will ever lift. They will. I don’t know how or when, some of the clouds-lifting seems pretty indiscriminate. Hopelessness thinks it can see the future… but hope knows it can’t. And for me, I trust God is with me, and making good out of all this mess. Somehow, someway, sometime. My faith is not rooted in any kind of certainty. I’m choosing to be a person of faith, a person of hope, a person of love. It’s a choice.

I’d love to hear how you’d answer these questions, either here in the comments or through an email.

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New Song Releases Next Friday!

Just a reminder that my new song “Jesus Kind of Love” releases out into the world next Friday, January 27th. You can listen to it anywhere you stream or download music, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube.

As a truly independent artist, with no team or machine behind my efforts, the beautiful kindness of people like you is so meaningful to me. If you want to help support the song, you could go to iTunes on that day and purchase the song as a download for $.99. I’ve always dreamed of having a song show up on the Top Songs chart for Christian music, and this would be the way that could happen. Another way to help would be to post the video on your social media page and ask your friends to support the song. I’ll send more details about this next week. In advance, I appreciate your help!!

I love Substack! Here’s another Substack post from a guy I follow and respect deeply for his deep thoughts and free-wheeling creativity. This one’s about learning not to judge your thoughts and I found it super helpful. I hope you like it as much as I did!

FFOREST

💭 TREE 512: The amorality of thoughts

You might think of birdsong as good and a slug eating your lettuce as bad. But both are just animals doing what they do. They have no inherent goodness or badness. What about a slug eating a weed 10 miles from your garden? You have no opinion. I’ve had…

20 days ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Jeff Gill

Crazy Hope

The One Thing I Absolutely Love