I've been challenged to think about leadership this week.  It reminded me of the song I posted on 3/8/11 -- "Kingdoms Will Fall" based on Isaiah 2:2-5.

It really summarizes my theology:  Go out with the life God has given us, light up the world, be generous and feed others' bodies and souls, lead them to the Mountain of God.  Leadership is exercised in many ways.  One of my favorite leadership movies is U-571.  It's about a man rising up from just wanting to be one of the guys to being the one responsible in a crisis situation.  Gary North says "leadership always flows to those who take responsibility."  I adhere to that. 

More than anything, thinking about the song again, our exercise of leadership in every form or fashion should show facets of our heavenly Leader and lead others up to him.

It's been a busy week but I'm posting a new worship song tonight - "Kingdoms Will Fall" based on Isaiah 2:2-5.  Hope you enjoy and benefit.

Kingdoms will fall around us
Kingdoms will fall
Kingdoms will fall around us
Everywhere
Lift your eyes to God's mountain
Above them all
Kingdoms will fall around us
Everywhere

Going out with a message
Kingdoms will fall
Going out with his life
Everywhere
Going out from God's mountain
Into the night
Bringing the world around us
Into the light

Teaching the world around us
Kingdoms will fall
All the kings of the earth
Everywhere
Feeding the world around us
Feeding his sheep
Lead them up to God's mountain
From everywhere

As promised, here is the second scripture chorus updated from 30 years ago especially for Steve and Cindy Baney, but all the old Bloomington folks and anyone else who is interested:  Psalm 9:10 - "Those Who Know Thy Name".  Love and prayers.

Along with many others, I received a prayer request on Facebook recently from Cindy Baney regarding her husband, Steve -- (both old Bloomington friends) -- who was recently diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer and has just begun treatments.  Cindy and Steve were college students when I met them and was involved in a church-planting ministry there at Indiana University.  They subsequently married and have been teaching in the Indianapolis area for many years.

Cindy was on the worship music team with me and reminded me of some old scripture choruses of mine that we sang in those days.  One was “He Longs To Be Gracious To You" (Isaiah 30:18).  I had almost forgotten about them but she has a fond remembrance of them.  In her honor and with a hope to encourage both of them as they begin this journey through cancer treatments, I wanted to blow the dust off of it and create a newer version of it with another one -- Psalm 9:10 -- to follow later.  You can listen here.  Prayers and best wishes, Cindy and Steve.

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 started another song today... my fourth consecutive love song and the second one I am working on concurrently.  It's loosely based on a love story that started in 1977 and ended in 2009.  I'm kinda shy when it comes to gals, hard to believe, right?  But because of that, my late wife Cindy and I got off to a rocky start.  Over time she found that even though at first she didn't think I was the man she wanted, in the long run I was the man she needed.  If you haven't read the story, you can read the long version here.  There are three blog posts covering the whole story, starting with the post regarding how we met.  It's a great story if you have the time.

Songwriters find sources for their songs everywhere.  Someone asked me if my dad was the man behind "The Worn Pages" and I told him that, in fact, the story was pulled together from a variety of sources -- my own Bible, situations that people are facing today, and the desire to represent an ordinary man who finds real answers for life in the God of the Bible.

So, in this latest love song, I will go back a few decades and draw on a true story, put in in a more modern setting, but try to communicate the same thing... God gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want.

My goals for the songs I write are simple:  well-crafted, enjoyable and meaningful.  I have to believe that if I meet those three goals, the songs will find a way into people's lives.  Trying to stand out is a sea of faces is very tough.  Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame.  I read a couple of things this week that make the point well.

South Arkansas native Odie Blackmon is a hit songwriter who is well established in the business.  This week, he posted on Facebook that one of his co-writes (with Bill Deasy) called "This Is My Day" has been picked as theme music for a new Melissa Peterman comedy on CMT called "Working Class".

Someone commented about how hot Odie was now and Odie's reply shows the reality of the business even for someone with his credential.  He replied, "I'm about as hot as tap water! :) The music biz ain't what it used to be. I wrote this song about seven years ago and it is a miracle that it made it through all the gate keepers. I really had nothing to do with it."

Another side of the "getting my 15 minutes" is something that Nashville calls "gherming" -- taking advantage of people to "move up in line".  Songwriter and producer Rand Bishop commented about how the advent of social media like Facebook has created a morph call "e-gherming".  He wrote an enlightening blog post about it here.

So how does a no-name like me move up in the ranks?  How do I get my 15 minutes?  One of the most famous songwriters in history was King David.  Songwriting was not his day job, ever.  But one of my most favorite comments about him comes from Psalm 78 verses 70 and following (written by Asaph -- David was not promoting himself!)  It goes like this:

He chose David his servant
   and took him from the sheep pens;
from tending the sheep he brought him
   to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
   of Israel his inheritance.
And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
   with skillful hands he led them.

The story line in this scene occurs when David was a very young man and his job in the family was to go out and tend the flocks.  The prophet Samuel was sent by God to David's daddy's house to anoint Israel's replacement king.  Samuel looked at each boy in the home and thought, "this must be him, he is strong" or "this must be him, he is handsome" and God kept saying, "Nope, not the one."  He finally ran out of boys and asked if there was anyone else.  David's daddy said "well, there is one out in the pasture."  Samuel said, "Go get him." and the rest is, as they say, history.

What does this have to do with my topic?  This:  the reason David was chosen was because of the excellence of his integrity and the excellence of his work.  If I will just focus on those things in my life, songwriting included, God will take care of the rest.  So, I will write songs that are well-crafted, enjoyable and meaningful.  With God's blessing, they will find their place in history.

I was intrigued a couple of days ago as I read an interview with Ricky Skaggs in The9513 Country Music blog.  Most everyone knows that Ricky has been in the music business since he was a sorta bluegrass prodigy in his teens.  He can play just about anything with strings, not just kinda, but well.

He made this statement:  "I’ve always loved diversity. God is a diverse god. He’s very creative, and I think He created us to be creative. I think He wants us to be creative. That’s the thing I love about music: there’s so much music out there. My iPod is full of all kinds of different music, and my kids have helped me with that a lot because they listen to a lot of different music."

I was immediately reminded of Eric Liddel -- the runner who was the subject of the great film "Chariots of Fire" about thirty years ago.  Eric came from Scots missionary family and eventually, at the end of the Second World War, died in a Japanese prison camp in occupied China.  His sister's opinion was that running was a waste of time.  His memorable reply in the movie was, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."  This comes the closest to what I can describe as my "feeling" as a songwriter.  Songwriting is hard work.  The joy of a song well-written and well-received by others who know that is wonderful.  Eric Liddel considered running as a part of his purpose.  He honored God by doing the things he was blessed with to the fullest and most excellent degree possible for as long as God enabled him.

Ricky Skaggs, 90 years later, is echoing the same sentiment.  What a joy to honor God in the diverse, creative ways he has made us.  I only, ever, want to make this creative "partnership" with God the basis of why I write.

Well, since the last "Rewrite" post, I have finished up "The Worn Pages" (formerly "The Brown Pages") and have sent it out for demo.  I took it to the Little Rock regional NSAI meeting and got some valuable suggestions then a couple of small rewrites and NSAI evals later it is ready to turn loose of.  I hope to have a demo of it up in a few weeks but until then I will put the worktape in the Home Studio > Workstapes section of this site.

It's November today.  October 28 was my birthday -- 59, thank you.  It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I finally put "I'm Happy With Me" to bed and had a rash of ideas last weekend, one of which I'm currently developing.  It is called "The Brown Pages" and the idea for it came while I was looking at a very well used part of my Bible.  As you might have guessed, the pages in several places are brown from frequent contact with my fingers and an occasional coffee spill -- since I usually have a cup when I'm spending any length of time in the Book.

I finished an initial worktape of it last night and will get it posted pretty soon.