Unexpected Blessings

It's been quite a busy week, both at work and at home. At the office, a series of last minute deadline changes kept me on my toes from the moment I walked in until the moment I walked out.

At home, I've been working on a new website for The River Fort Smith, which should be ready to launch very soon. Currently I'm awaiting some additional content for a couple of the pages and a few more photos need to be taken, then the final edit, and then we launch!

In between all that, I am thrilled to have gotten back into the songwriting mode after so many years. At the risk of sounding cliche, it really does seem almost like riding a bike, because now that I have gotten back into this groove, melodies are coming very quickly, and lyrics (or at least thoughts and ideas that will become lyrics) are also coming very readily.

What I am finding interesting about this whole process, and quite rewarding, actually, is that some songs I had started years ago are coming back to the forefront and are now in the process of being completed. It was like somewhere I had gotten the idea that I had to leave the old behind me, when as it turns out, it has been the key to help unlock the new. As I am bringing back certain songs, they are not only now being finished, but they are releasing new ideas for new material. I was in the car the other day and started humming a new melody that I now see is the missing piece of a warfare song I started several years ago and have never been fully satisfied with how it ended. I always felt like it needed more. Now the more is here.

So to you, dear reader, I offer this encouragement. No matter where you are and what things lie in your heart that seem to be incomplete, the Lord is near. Those dreams and visions, passions and poems, dances, songs, and hopes are not dead. They are simply sleeping, waiting for the Life Giver to walk into the situation and speak the words, "Wake up!"

Don't give up. Keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep chasing after Him. He is near. Hear His approaching footsteps and the keys rattling in His hand. Stand up and prepare to walk out of your prison, for the door is about to be opened, your chains are about to be loosed, and the sun is rising on your day of freedom.