There’s a verse in the book of Job that I love where God is talking to Job out of the storm, after all that Job has been through, and God asks him a series of questions beginning with, “Where were you.” He gets to one that has always stuck in my mind from Job 38, where he mentions laying the foundations of the earth and the sons of God shouting for joy. I love the brief glimpse into the early creation of the world and the angels responding to it, and I believe it paints a picture of God’s gradual revelation of his love that is shown through that same creation foreshadowing a time when he joins it. I coupled this verse with the idea that the Kingdom advances relentlessly in the world, taking spiritual ground in the hearts of those who hear and believe. This song is a battle call for all believers; a reminder that God is calling us to abandon our previously held life in its entirety, casting aside our hang-ups, and even our successes so that we can live out what Jesus called us to.

There is a belief that most people hold unchallenged in their mind about God’s character and it runs thus: Jehovah in the OT is stern and distant, like a father who  sometimes provides but doesn’t really care for his children, who eventually gets so fed up with people that he sends Jesus, who in the New Testament loves everyone unconditionally, attempting to put a loving face on an otherwise unlikable God. I have heard some Christians use an almost apologetic tone about the OT and treat the NT like a rebrand. Of course, this idea does not hold up if you read your Bible cover to cover. A long time ago I did just that and was (almost) shocked to find the amount of love and grace in the OT and conversely, judgement in the New. The schizophrenic God that many Bible believing Christians profess to worship does not exist. The God of Abraham, the God who appeared to Elijah (my favorite story), the God of Isaiah chapter 6, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth are all the same. We worship a God who is all loving and unchanging.

A few years ago, my brother and a few of our friends decided to try and memorize 1st John. Although I have not (yet) completed the task, 1st John has become one of my favorite books. John is old when he’s writing it, and like many old people he repeats himself. Repetition in the Bible should always be paid attention to, and the one persistent word in 1st John is “abide,” and is ubiquitous throughout. It’s easy to overlook this one word and its meaning because abiding is something our American culture does not easily do. Our culture glamorizes the fast paced, flashy, shallow lifestyle that ultimately bears no fruit. Abiding is a concept that is lost on us, because it is not immediately gratifying. The fruit takes a long time to mature, and the tendency is to give up when we don’t see immediate results. I’m convinced that most of the Christian life is just about perseverance, and I’m immediately skeptical of quick fix spirituality. This song is about staying close to Jesus and the Gospel that we originally heard and believed with joy.

​In Acts chapter 17 Paul is walking through the city of Athens, and he is observing all the idols that the ancient Athenians have erected to various gods, and the splendid temples that honor them. Paul then notices a small monument to an “unknown god,” just in case the religious Athenians missed one. Paul preaches one of his most famous sermons, the Sermon on Mars Hill, proclaiming to them the resurrected Christ as The Unknown God. This song is along that theme whereby each one of us is lost and groping in the dark, and not far away is the Father who can only be seen by faith in Christ. Out of all the songs on the album this one took the longest to write by far. I never felt quite satisfied with any version I was working on, and if you could see the material that never made it, you would see it has enough scrapped verses for perhaps another two songs. Crafting any song is usually difficult, but this one seemed just out of reach, and never what I wanted it to be. I am ok with it now, but art is never perfect, and we never really arrive. This one definitely stretched me.

​I wrote this song after seeing the movie “Hacksaw Ridge,” which I realize is an odd inspiration for a worship song. I was on a songwriting retreat and was watching Netflix on the second night before I went to bed. The movie opens with the main character reading from Isaiah Chapter 40 verse 21. This is a very well-known chapter from Isaiah because it has the voice crying in the wilderness that John the Baptist laid claim to, and although I’ve read it before, this time it resonated differently. I started reading it in a new light, and I like the parallels between those verses and the Church’s mission. Our job is to cry out into the world, to make a path for the people to come to Jesus and make it smooth so everyone can walk it. The song itself is fun to play and was based around a riff that I was messing around with on that same retreat.

​This is the one song on the album that I did not originally write. While it is true that I arranged it, the writer of the song is Luke Weeks, one of my friends from Portland, OR. I always liked the simplicity of the message in the song: that God would recreate us in His image. Romans Chapter 8 speaks on the tension that we hold while we live in this world, led by his Spirit and waiting for our Savior to return for our ultimate redemption. It’s been a long time since Luke wrote it, but it always stuck with me as a really good song, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out on the album.

Songwriting is always a personal endeavor, and all songs I write are things that I have been thinking about or dealing with. This song is about repentance and somehow knowing that grace is bigger than we could understand. Sins that we haven’t yet repented of, uncommitted sins, and unrealized sins are all washed away by his grace. Our expectations of God’s grace are limited by our own humanity, where we love conditionally and imperfectly, but the reality is one of infinite grace and love that we find only at the foot of the cross of Christ.

This song more than all the others was written to me by me, if that makes any sense at all. I was working through it and trying to find a direction for it when I realized it was to me, which after that realization it all fell into place. I  find my own self inadequate, which is fine as long as I keep my hope in Jesus. We can do all the right things and have all the right intentions, but in the end we will fall short, and Jesus’ grace has to fill in the gap. I think it's just a confession that all that I do will eventually fail, but Jesus has already won the battle. It takes a little pressure off. The reminder that on my best day Jesus still has to carry me across the finish line is all at once humbling and deeply relieving.