What Gives Me Life

I may be stating the obvious here, but it's always been easy for me to forget this. And I often need reminding. So at the very least I am reminding myself of the following realization.

The way out of weariness, boredom, exhaustion, depression - you name it - for me, is to choose to do things that I know will give me life. If you are not feeling like any of those things, that's great! A way to avoid them is... you guessed it - to do things that you know will give you life.

I had a fantastic fall season. My new CD LIGHT UP THE SKY was completed and released. I traveled to various destinations with a fantastic band, shared my songs with people and received generous encouragement from my home community. Working at Vernon Alliance I am affirmed in my role as a worship pastor regularly, and my family now includes 2 beautiful children, and an incredible wife. But I have to confess, I know I pushed a little bit too hard this fall, and I am spent. And I know many other people who feel exactly the same as me, albeit for different reasons.

So now what? How do I recharge. I am reminding myself today to find the things that give me life and do them - so that I can recharge body, mind and soul. Most things are obvious... trips to the gym, exercise, simple family time (being present at home - not running around), maybe even an indulgent time of movie watching and pop-corn. The best thing for me though is my time alone with God - bible reading and prayer... I have shared before, my lack of discipline in this area. But every time I focus back in, I feel my spirit, soul and body restored.

That's my reminder to all of us today - including myself. I think I'm off to do something that will give me life - you do the same!

Jon

Story Behind the Song - KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

So I was just writing about building God's house, and how easy it is to find myself building my own house instead. Building my kingdom instead of His. Being that I am a pastor, but also a Christian musician, it's easy to get my kingdom and God's kingdom mixed up (confession time again!). It's not bad to be successful, but it's dangerous ground when my goals for success start driving what I do, as opposed to my relationship and obedience to God's call on my life. So I've been trying to refocus on what it means to build God's Kingdom.

I've been wanting to write about some of the new songs that I wrote, and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is one that I co-wrote with a great friend and guitar virtuoso Jacob Moon.

About 3 years ago Jacob and I were at a songwriters retreat in the mountains of Whistler, BC (tough life I know!). Thanks to a ministry called INCARNATION we were blessed to have the opportunity to hang out for a weekend with some theologians and other wonderful songwriters like Bob Bennett, Steve Bell and Carolyn Arends. What a time to learn and write music! We were inspired to write about the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN because we were learning about how we pray for God's kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10, the Lord's prayer), but that God's kingdom has also already 'arrived' through the INCARNATION of Jesus (God in the flesh), and the mystery that Jesus lives within us through the presence of His Holy Spirit. Because of this 'the kingdom of Heaven' is already here - within us, and we need only live it out so that it will continue to come to fruition.

In Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Jacob and I wrote about that.

So let the children come, and sing a holy song - for theirs the Kingdom is, and all the glory His.

The chorus became significant for me to, since there was a time in my life where I was paralyzed by fear and depression. My favorite bit of theology is that God is a Trinity of 3 'persons', the Father, Son and Spirit. One very important thing about this is that it says God is about 'relationship'. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father and the Spirit makes them known to us. In other words God is 'Love'. And we know that 'Perfect Love casts out fear'. So we wrote

There's freedom from darkness and fear, the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

A special thing for me that happened when we recorded the song was that my friend Tim Neufeld, lead singer of STARFIELD agreed to come in and sing a guest vocal. So Tim sings on the 2nd verse and through to the end of the song. And may I humbly say, it sounds great! So, two great friends and favorite people of mine were involved in making this song a meaningful reality. We also sing this song often as a worship song in the church where I am worship pastor VERNON ALLIANCE. So I feel like it is giving voice to some important theological truths, and I hope it helps us understand them a bit more. That God became one of us, and then sent us His Spirit to live within us, so that we could truly be part of realizing His Kingdom coming and His will being done, in us and among us. So that we could sing with truth

All who now weep will rejoice, sing to the Lord with one voice, glory hallelujah there's freedom from darkness and fear, the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

Building His House... or Mine?

So I've been on this 'read the bible in 1 year plan'...for about the last 3 years! Yes, I'll admit it, I need to be more regular at this, but that's not the point of this blog. I was reading Haggai the other day, an Old Testament Prophet. This book is about the Jewish people and their return from Babylonian exile. They had begun to rebuild their own homes and businesses and to establish their statehood as a Jewish community but had seemed to put on hold the construction of the temple for worship. The focus of their faith was losing its' central place.

These are the verses I read that caused me to stop and think.

Haggai 1:5-9

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." 7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. 9 "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.

It was a simple reminder for me. I am working hard at having a ministry, whether it is local and church based (I love my job at Vernon Alliance church), or further afield on the road including writing, recording and traveling. I don't plan to return to the road full time, but having a new CD I want to expose it wherever possible to new audiences and that involves promoting it in whatever ways I can. At the same time I want to honor my job and responsibilities at home.

But after I read these verses in Haggai, I knew I had to do a refocus. It's too easy for me to say I'm building God's house, when I'm really busy with my own. I want the music that I make to be successful, but I don't want that to happen at the expense of my relationship with God. I believe that He has called me to do what I am doing, but I also know how easy it is to lose focus and make it about me first, and God second - but make it sound like it's the other way around by using the right language.

Why am I writing this? I suppose in some way it makes me accountable to whoever might read it. It's also a little opportunity for me to consecrate, or dedicate my life, my family, my music back to God again, for His purpose and for His glory. I want to build His house. I know that if I do that, the rest will take care of itself.