Good day people with a computer.

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.

Chris

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.

Chris

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.

Goodnight and listen to good music.

Christopher

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.

-chris

Well, the tour is now over. Its such a bittersweet thing. I had a great time on tour and met so many great people. I was asked tonight by a friend what was the highlight of the tour was for me and I told him it had to be the relationships that were formed on the tour. You never know when you join a tour where you are traveling with 98 people who you will build lasting relationships with. Last night there was a lot of trading phone numbers and promising you would keep in contact.

Also, there is nothing like knowing that the songs that God has given you have now been shared with over three hundred thousand people! I can’t tell you how incredible it has been for our first tour to be with such an incredible group of people. We had a great time.

The reason I say “bittersweet” is because I now get to be home with my beautiful wife and spend a lot more time with her which is always a good thing. Keep check our myspace page to see when we are coming to a city near you!!

-chris

**For those of you that haven’t heard, tonight’s show in Atlanta has been cancelled due to severe weather damage.**

-chris

Tonight over dinner my wife and I had a talk about God’s desire for reconciliation. I recently had a text message conversation with an acquaintance of mine that turned into a horrible miscommunication and offense was taken by the other party. Sure I could just chalk this up to the perils of the technological age we live in and blame it on the cell phone company, but for some reason I have not been able to let this one go. Relationships are important to me even though I often talk about buying a house in the woods somewhere where my wife, dog and I could just disappear. We talked about how we will forever justify in our own minds why talking to the person face to face surely isn’t the answer. Confrontation is so difficult for both us. If we are so haunted by the lingering issues that remain unresolved why can’t I just bring myself to sit the person down and talk through it?

I had to ask myself the question, “why have I not created an environment amongst those important to me where it is natural to deal with offenses the moment they arise?” It should be obvious how much I care about the person when it affects me so much.
I know what I must do and I will do it…maybe reluctantly, maybe begrudgingly, but I will. Relationships are hard but the reality is that we are not alone on this earth and I am slowly realizing that the earth doesn’t revolve around me.

Chris

Tonight God revealed Himself in a new way to me. Recently I listened to a talk I found online by Brennan Manning. In the talk Brennan shared a story about a man that was about to die and told Brennan about how for the last two years he would set up a chair next to him and talk to Jesus as if He were right there next to him like you would talk to a friend. I loved this picture and the vulnerability it took for a grown man to talk to what appeared to be nothing more than an empty chair.

So, tonight after my wife and dog went to sleep and after watching pointless things on television and surfing the web I decided to put this into practice. It was kind of awkward at first. I was laying on the couch and every time I shifted positions I feared that I would kick Jesus. Once I got over the initial discomfort I could truly feel Him listening to me. I began to apologize for my broken, sinful, selfishness. As I did this I could just feel His grace. I realized that I have made my work my relationship with Him. I go out every evening and sing songs about Him and talk to youth pastors about what He has done and somehow have made this my
“personal relationship” with Him.

Just as I began to start feeling guilty for how stupid I can be I felt Him say that he knows that I am a sinner. God created us a people that need Him. God could have created us perfect people if He wanted to who did nothing but praise Him and make all the right decisions but He didn’t. His servant-nature created a people that need Him daily to survive. This is such a humbling revelation. The all-powerful, perfect God wants to serve us and love us despite our sin. This little exercise has taught me so much about the intimacy that God wants to have with me and I hope to be forever changed by it.

-chris

So here it is. My new tattoo. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. I know many of you think I have fallen off the deep end and sold my soul to the rock and roll lifestyle but no, this has not happened.

So… what do you guys think?

-chris

-chris