I have mentioned Bezalel and Oholiab before as examples of how artisans can be "agents" of God's kingdom in the use of their gifts and talents in a way that reflects their Maker and his character.

This week I read a very good article by R.J Rushdoony dealing with this very subject in the bi-monthly publication of the Chalcedon Foundation.  Here is a link to an online version of the article (reading it requires a free sign-up).  I highly recommend it.

http://chalcedon.edu/faith-for-all-of-life/the-spirit-filled-men-2/

New week starting... I'm on evening and weekend call for my day job this week and no sooner had I gotten to the house than I had an urgent call to drive 30 minutes back to the office.  That episode took about two hours to complete so my evening had a two-and-a-half  hour delay.

That meant I missed my normal doggie and kitty time, exercise and light supper before other stuff like practice and writing.  Instead, I had a honkin' big piece of  home made apple pie, spent some thinking time and finally got started practicing guitar which is a very enjoyable "release" time as well as preparing me to play out.  Gotta build those chops!

Saturday I had the enjoyment of being in Ben Wheeler, Texas at The Forge with my friend Carol Ann Hicks.  There we saw The Magill's (Matt and Megan) perform.  Always great to hear live music and they were very high quality entertainment!

Capping off tonight, I took a break from guitar practice and wrote the lyrics to a song I'm calling "Jack and Diane and Me" -- apologies to John Mellencamp.  It just sorta "came" while I was playing guitar and I will go to bed shortly with most of the song finished.  I like that!

I ran across an essay on a favorite commentator's site the other day.  This commentator was elaborating on the value of belonging to a community of craftsmen and he pointed to the last three paragraphs of this transcripted speech by C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) given a number of years ago.  It is of particular interest to me as a songwriter.The essence of the message is this.  Many of us want to be stars, to have notoriety -- to be in with the "in" crowd.

Problem -- the pursuit of fame, fortune or notoriety can take you places in your life that you never really wanted to go, effectively robbing you of what you wanted to begin with.

Solution -- if you focus on excellence in your craft, doing great work, you will eventually find yourself surrounded by others who are excellent in that craft.  You will find yourself in the "in" crowd for that craft almost by accident, because the great ones know who each other are and they seek to be together.

I always remind myself at my day job that it's about the work, not about the title.  The same applies in the songwriting craft.  Excellent work is what it's all about.  If that is there, the rest will take care of itself.

I am a fan of mentoring -- or "discipling" as a preferred learning method.  I read something in Exodus 35:30 and following today about how God "staffed up" the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness.  It goes like this:

Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

God endowed a master craftsman, Bezalel, with the Spirit and with know-how in all aspects of the artisanship of the tabernacle.  God also enabled Bezalel and Oholiab to teach the craft to others.  They could have been the stars of the show, but they were enablers of others for a purpose... to get the tabernacle constructed.

There are talented people everywhere.  Nashville is loaded with talented people.  More important, many of those talented people have a spiritual history and desire to honor God with their talents.  Are you one of them?  Do you view your gifts and talents as God-given and purposeful?  It is my own prayer to be like Bezalel and Oholiab.  I hope you have a similar desire for the things God has blessed you with, as well.

I posted a link to a Pomplamoose video on Facebook today with the comment "The simple joy of creativity."  One reason I am keeping this journal is to allow anyone that's interested the opportunity to "get inside my head" in regard to my journey as a songwriter.

I recently put a new love song I have written out for demo production.  This song represents a challenge for me relating to "simple joys".  One thing I run into a lot when I a getting evals for songs I am writing is the need to "punch up" the lyrics and make them larger than life.  I understand that from a commercial standpoint and I can't argue with the logic.  In this particular love song, I am looking at a couple of very intimate vignettes in the life of the couple and in doing so, must relish the fact that life's joys can be very simple.  Consequently, the song is probably weak commercially but enjoyable on a personal level.

I kinda treat each song the way a painter would treat a canvas.  I try to do my best on it and paint a picture.  I'm gonna hang them on the wall -- warts and all -- and they will be what they will be.  I hope that the enjoyment will eventually by shared by others, but that is beyond my control.

Life's joys are simple.  In love, it is the sharing of everyday joys that is most important.  Not every day and every event can be larger than life.  Enjoy them when you have them, but savor the simple things.

I have heard the comment made about how "magic" it is when the audience spontaneously sings your song along with you.  That is something I witnessed at a Merle Haggard performance last Tuesday night.

The interesting thing was that the audience was made up of twenty-somethings all the way up to seventy-ish (MH's age).  I was sitting in a row of twentysomething working men and these people all(!) knew these Haggard songs by heart and sang along.  I made a list as the evening went on:

    * That's The Way Love Goes
    * Silver Wings
    * If We Make It Through December
    * Sing Me Back Home
    * Rainbow Stew
    * Set Me Free
    * Kern River
    * Okie From Muskogee

Of course, there were many, many songs performed but these listed had instances of spontaneous sing-a-longs.  What a thing to write songs that people identify with so strongly!  Setting aside subject matter and the fact that more than a few audience members were drunk, as a writer I have to learn to connect so strongly and to cut such a wide swath age-wise.  This was phenomenal.

Writers and performers often talk about touching lives with their craft as a primary motivator.  For a moment, I want to ignore the demographics of the audience, which, again, was roughly aged 20 - 75, neither predominantly male nor female, and was kind of a mixture of honky-tonk partiers and upper middle class concert goers.

Here is a man who has an enormous body of work.  It has been covered many times over by other famous artists and is well enough known that the entire demographic I mentioned above could sing along spontaneously.  Isn't Merle touching lives?  Again, let's not get tangled up over "how" he is touching them, or to what end.  Let's look at the big picture and realize that lives can be touched in this way.  Let's take courage from that and figure out how to do it in a way that we can "overcome evil with good" as Romans 12 says.