Hello my people and thank you for checking to see if we wrote anything today.
I recently began reading a book called The Peace Maker. This book teaches you how to have have a biblical response in resolving conflict. Right now God is teaching me how NOT to respond. I want so badly to honor Him through my relationships but this can be kinda tough. A while back I was reading in Keith Green’s biography about how he asked God to shine a spotlight on areas in his life that were not honoring Him. Through this prayer in my own life God has shown me that reconciliation is one of the areas where I can
improve. There are times when I want to just retreat to the middle of nowhere with my wife and my dog and not deal with people anymore, however I know this is not God’s will for my life. He has called us to be in community with one another and this DOES include those that can be difficult to get along with.
Last October my wife and I started going to a new church that has a heavy emphasis on community. I have learned so much from our house church (a.k.a. Small group). Doing life together is teaching me so much
about the importance of relationships and accountability. So…yeah, this is
what’s going on in my life right now.
I’m all for creativity. Sometimes to my own detriment. (if that’s possible) If someone told me they were going to write a song and create a word within it I would probably say “cool idea” then walk away thinking “good luck with that”. Although country music does this all the time with slang and variations of improper English, (which I love and embrace by the way) there aren’t many times when a word can be created out of thin air and given a vague meaning, then used as the title of an entire song, then be the title of a song that actually makes an album! We as Connersvine have done this and actually lived to not regret it.
A few years ago I came to Chris with a song called Hungerlove. It was not the Hungerlove you can listen to here or on the album. It was something I wrote alone in a whimsical moment of inspiration. Well, Chris liked the song but it always tended to go away when we startedtalking about album songs. A lot of times as a songwriter you have to write songs in order to finish others. By that I mean that many songs will never be used in themselves, but the idea/inspiration or pieces of the lyric or melody will be used on another idea in the future. Such was the case with Hungerlove.
One day we were in the studio with one of the co-producers of our album, Pete Kipley. We took a break and decided to write a song together. Chris started playing this “vibey” guitar rhythm and singing a really cool melody over the top of it. As lyrical ideas started to come I realized that many of the ideas I was having already existed in the old Hungerlove. When this happens you usually have to succumb and lay that old song on the altar. I layed it down allowing it’s meat to be separated from it’s bones and out of the picking came the new Hungerlove. Chris shows his melodic genius in this song. To me, somehow, this song consists melodically of very soulful verses, a passionate “hit you in the face” rock chorus, and a driving euro-rock bridge.
Lyrically it is a love song. It was written from the standpoint of a God longing for fallen creation to return to His love. The wonderful thing about this love, I believe, is partially summarized in this portion of the first verse.
“Though I see you’re running from me
the more you run the more you’re near.
Cuz I was there in the beginning
and I will be there in the end
with a heart that’s beating for you
and a love that wants to mend”
Contrary to how the world views love and relationship, God sees those seemingly farthest away from Him as those who are actually closest. He is the King of an upside down kingdom. Remember the rich are poor/weak are strong, etc. This worldly foolishness/wisdom of God comes through in the second verse as well.
“Welcome to the days of danger, risk, and security
where love will change your nature
if you will just believe.”
Danger and risk only can be coupled with security when God is involved. That is the whole idea of the song. To leave your life and your other loves and taste of the one true love and life that He gives. The risk is also self contained in the title of the song. What is hungerlove? To be honest it is hard to define. OK, impossible, but I’ll try. It is not a love you give. It is only a love you can receive. Don’t worry this is not heresy. The term hungerlove is my own guttural emotional recognition of the love I’ve received from God. With our limited and poor English language we do not draw the same discrepancies between loves that ancient languages do. We l-o-v-e cookies and our spouses/children/pets. This is Connersvine’s attempt to create a wordout of English that captures the voracious, passionate, appropriately jealous love that the God of the universe extends to every soul under the sky. His is a Hungerlove.
Just wanted to catch everyone up with what’s been going on with us. Last Thursday and Friday Hunter and I had the opportunity to share our music at the Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs. We had a wonderful time getting to know the FOTF crew and the legendary Dr. Dobson.
From there we headed to Nashville, TN for GMA week. For those who aren’t familiar this is the Gospel Music Association week. The entire Christian Music industry comes to Nashville for several days of interviews and showcases. This year we didn’t do any showcases but our label filled our week with plenty of interviews that kept us busy. The week concludes with the Dove Awards and Connersvine…not up for a Dove! So, we took off Wednesday after our interviews. It was a productive week and we are happy to be back home now.
Tonight we played in Noblesville, IN at White River Christian Church and had a great time worshiping with the crowd that came out. If you are in the area Friday night we will be at Second Presbyterian Church on North Meridian Street supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We hope you guys can make it out.
About a year ago I learned about an organization started by one of my favorite authors Donald Miller called The Belmont Foundation. When I was about four years old my Father left my Mother, two sisters and I. Being so young I didn’t totally understand what that meant. As I grew older the void left by having no male presence in my life was tough and I am still to this day wrestling with my own issues that this vacancy has left in my life. I was blessed with a great Mother and sisters but at this point in my life I have realized that in a country where over 50% of marriages end in divorce (including the church) we have over half of our country’s children growing up in single parent households.
The Belmont Foundation is devoted to help fill this need by developing mentoring programs for children (mostly boys) without Fathers. This is a cause that is very dear to my heart and I want to raise awareness of this epidemic in our culture. If you are interested in getting involved or learning more about this organization check out their website www.belmontfoundation.org.
Hey good people of the World Wide Web. Hunter and I just finished a great weekend of shows. Friday night we were in Plainfield, IN at First Baptist Church of Plainfield. We had a great time getting the full band back together and playing again. Saturday night we played at The Filling Station in Rushville, IN. This was the second year in a row that we have had the opportunity to hang out with the youth in Rushville. Again we had a blast and were able to partake in the glory of Pizza King which is right next door.
Now we are gearing up to head to Colorado Springs on Thursday and Friday where we are going to lead worship for a Focus on the Family chapel service and Hunter is going to speak. We are excited to be with the good people at FOTF and the get the opportunity to worship with them. Also, to me there is little greater than the feeling of looking out a window and seeing mountains instead of flat corn fields. I love my state but lets be serious, in a fight mountains would kick corn’s butt.
Keep us in your prayers as we travel and share the message and songs that God has given us. We are so grateful for your support and prayers.
OK, so we haven’t been very good with keeping up with our blog for this we apologize. I wanted share something very important to me and it may be boring to some but to me it is extremely important… what’s new in music.
I have been waiting a long time for the release of the new Counting Crows album. I know many of you may not be familiar so I probably wont receive many comments to this blog but I feel you need to know greatness. The new album Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is AMAZING! I once heard someone say that when they heard Charlie Parker play they vowed never to play again because they knew they could never be that good. When I hear Adam Duritz lyrics I feel the same, I should never be allowed to write lyrics. He can put poetry to music like no one I have ever heard. The new album is truly their best in a decade.
The album begins with what Adam describes as the “Saturday night” if this was a record it would be the “A” side. Full of beautiful rock reminiscent of their work on Recovering the Satellites. The “B” side full of lamenting broken-down acoustic tracks that bring you back to August and Everything After days. Haunted by regrets and glittered with hopes of love this album sucks you into to the brutal honesty of a tortured soul. I hope even the new listener will pick it up and get their life changed by the raw transparency of one of the best song-writers of our time.
OK, I know this might be a lame post. However, today my wife made up a recipe for cookies, and they were UNBELIEVABLE. She made oatmeal/peanut butter/butterscotch cookies and I’ve had 4 already.(it’s only 6:12 p.m.) I’ll probably hit 10.
Eating these cookies has renewed my love for cookies in general. (such a healthy love to rediscover) At any rate, I need to know some new cookie ideas. What is your favorite cookie? Is the recipe easy? Obviously there are the standards (chocolate chip, peanut butter, etc), but what I’m talking about are the cookies maybe you or someone you love made up or had passed on to them that are really good secrets.
Please think hard and let me know. This is world changing stuff! By the way, I’m working toward getting the next song commentary posted soon. Time has been scarce and I want to be thorough as you who read my posts already well know. Alright, off to get another cookie.
Well, at the risk of all of my cool (which is very little) I have made a purchase that will forever cause my rock ‘n’ roll stature to walk with a limp. I’ve purchased a mini-van. NOTE TO ALL MEN: DON’T TAKE YOUR WIFE AND MOTHER OF 2 CHILDREN TO LOOK AT MINI-VANS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BUY ONE!!!
Monday morning at 9:30 I was standing in front of the sink in our kitchen, and in response to my wife asking if we could go look at mini-vans said “No, I don’t want a mini-van. I will never own one.” Then to appease her I told her I would take her to look at them if she really wanted to go. At 6:00 that evening there I was pulling up the driveway in our new (but used) family bus.
Here’s the problem. Once you go look at them you kinda get sucked in. I mean those things are amazing. (I’m trying to make myself feel better) Seriously, they almost drive themselves these days. When we saw all of the doors open and close by themselves we were all hooked. I mean apart from the obvious convenience of it all that’s just freakin’ cool. (yes, I know they’ve been doing this for quite some time but I’ve been avoiding that reality) I made an offer without ever talking to my wife about it. The sales guy met me half way and I figured that was good enough. Game-set-match and Hunter had taken a right of passage fully into responsible husband-father-plaid shirt and Dockers-penny loafers-safe haircut-Clark W. GriswoldHOOD!
OK, here’s the reality. I used to have too much pride to drive a mini-van. However, 2 children will get you fed up with your cool little mid-sized SUV. You realize just how much something like a mini-van will help your wife. No more baby on one hip-pushing the cart through the Target parking lot with the other hand-hey, stay close to momma!!!! to the other one-while you search for your keys in order to unlock the 3 doors that you have to manually open then lift EVERYBODY including the groceries into the back of your inconvenient car that your husband spent way too much money on. No, you push buttons and kids jump in or are LOWERED not LIFTED into their carseats, after which you put the groceries into the spacious storage area in the back before pushing a button that will lower the hatch that you can’t reach back to a closed position.
Hey guys, make it easier on your wives and buy them mini-vans. Put your
pride down. By the way, I bet mine’ll be cooler than your’s.
Hello.
Tonight as I was spending some time in prayer it dawned on me how certain issues continue to arise in my conversation with God. I live a very blessed life and have so many things to be grateful for. However there always seems to be that one thing that no matter how hard or how long I ask God to take it away it still remains.
I have realized that sometimes that very thing is not placed there by the enemy but by God Himself. It seems that very thing is what causes me to humble myself daily and to pursue Him more. I know that God loves his children and I also know that being a good parent means sometimes allowing your children to go through things that can be tough. I am so concerned with
my own happiness and get frustrated when God allows something to remain in my life that conflicts with my being happy. Then it hits me that happiness is not one of the Fruits of the Spirit. He gives me love and joy and peace but happiness is different. I have an eternal joy in my life knowing Christ and knowing my eternal destiny. However, happiness can be fleeting and conditional relative to what I am going through at the time. I know God gave Job peace and patience and I believe a joy that truly surpassed ALL understanding but I would take a guess that he was probably not happy while enduring all that he did.
I am not trying to say we can’t be happy people, I am just learning to embrace even the difficult things in life knowing that my Father is in control and loves me so much more than I will ever know. So I turn to the love, joy, peace, and patience He gives.
“Live For You” was a very defining moment for Connersvine. Chris and I had been writing and playing together for a while and we were having fun. God was being glorified, ministry was happening to us and through us, and we were growing both individually and as friends. One day we were talking on the phone and I asked Chris if we could get together and write soon. It had been several days since we’d written together and I had some ideas I wanted us to explore. I told him that I felt we should write something intimate and worshipful that was full of passion and in the mid-tempo range.
The next night we met at our church, got out our laptops, and started the dialogue. However, there was very little dialogue this night. I asked him if he had any ideas. He said he did. I asked him to play them. He got out his guitar, and in typical Chris and Hunter fashion apologized and disclaimed what he was about to play completely. (just in case it was heinous) Then he opened his mouth and this came out:
I wanna live for You
I wanna die to me
I want to be emptied
I want to be freed
from all that holds me captive
all that brings me down
all that’s tried to lose me
now that I’ve been found
I wanna live for You.
After I dried my eyes and picked my jaw up off the floor I went into a rave session for about 10 minutes. There are very few moments where I’ve sensed the annointing of God so strongly on something. I made Chris play it over and over again just so I could hear it. He complied then said he had no more of the song written. So, we embarked on finishing this already incredible song in my opinion.
To be honest “Live For You” could have had “Ol’ MacDonald” as verses and “The HokeyPokey” for a bridge and would have still been a great song. Chris brought something to the table that night that was perfect apart from our culture and industry’s need for cookie cutter structure in a song. With this in mind I thought it would be fitting to write verses that were honest and simple. I remember wanting the verses to point to the chorus and really make it pop. The first verse is a vulnerable acknowledgement of God’s complete person and ability to cleanse us:
All that is within me
cries out to You my Lord,
my God, and King
For You alone can cleanse me
and set me free
The second verse is a picture I love. A picture of dependence and leaning set in the here and now. It is not an ideal to be attained. Rather, it is today’s need and longing for both the sustenance and intimacy of God:
Here in this hour
leaning on Your mercy
Your throne of grace
You are all I am after
The beauty of Your face
The bridge is my second favorite part of the song. As I’ve said before I believe a good bridge should sum up the overall message of the song AND iterate any final thoughts, emotions etc. This bridge is almost like a broken explosion of passion for God and a realization of who He is and who we are to Him. I love the melody also. It came from a little guitar part Chris had been working on:
All I am broken on the ground
In Your hands knowing You surround me Lord
Father now I know that I am Your’s
Every song is different. About 3 hours after Chris played the chorus for me the song was finished. There have been only a couple of minor modifications to it since that night. This song was and is the cry of Connersvine’s heart. We’ve played “Live For You” pretty much every time we’ve played or led worship since. The response to it has been overwhelming. Thankfully we had very little to do with it. God poured it out almost all at once and we just tried to be trustworthy with His idea. We carry this song with a deep fear of the Lord. This is a powerful message and we, by His grace, we will walk it out as we sing it.
