Thrive/ Just Getting By

While listening to my music on shuffle, I heard these to song back to back.  Both are great reminders that this life is not simply a waiting room for heaven.  We are not just getting by, we were made to thrive.  Here is Mark Hall, the vocalist for Casting Crowns talking about the inspiration for thrive:

We’ve kind of had this Celtic feel with a couple of songs in the past like ‘Praise You with the Dance’ and ‘Spirit Wind’ so it’s always been a little part of us and we just thought with this big, fun worship song, that we’d just make it a big camp song. It’s kind of natural, but the idea of ‘Thrive’ came out of our student ministry. For years I’ve been using the idea of Psalm One in showing them what a believer looks like… If you’re not getting into the word for God to define Himself to you, you will define God with what makes sense to you and what makes sense to us is, ‘I better do good or I’m in big trouble’ and ‘He’s going to stick with me for so long, but I’m going to blow it.’ That’s not the picture that the Bible has. God didn’t put you here just so you could survive through hard times. He put you here to thrive, to dig in and to reach out and this record is an effort to draw a picture of what a believer, a follower of Jesus, would look like if they dug into their roots and understood God and themselves more. ~Mark Hall

Thrive – Casting Crowns

Here in this worn and weary land
Where many a dream has died
Like a tree planted by the water
We never will run dry

So living water flowing through
God, we thirst for more of You
Fill our hearts and flood our souls with one desire

Just to know You and to make You known
We lift Your name on high
Shine like the sun, make darkness run and hide
We know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives
Its time for us to more than just survive
We were made to thrive

Into Your word, were digging deep
To know our Fathers heart
Into the world, were reaching out
To show them who You are

Joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable
Love unstoppable, anything is possible

 

Just Getting By – Tenth Avenue North

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=385ULKbiyBo

Oh, when we were born, when we first arrived
We took it all in through innocent eyes
But we got jaded ’cause the beauty faded
So now we fake it in worlds built in the sky
But we keep coming up dry

I’m waking up to what’s around me
I’ve lost too much to a fantasy
I’m tired of living like I’m just getting by
Just getting by
Am I just getting by

Life can take a toll, everyday demands
So much energy, so many mundane plans
So we go digital, purely physical
Hey, it’s just medicinal
We need to ease our minds

I want to be all here now
Wherever I am, that’s where I’ll be found
Staying present even in the fear now
Life with open eyes
Please don’t pass me by
Life, don’t pass me by
Life, don’t pass me by
Feel a spark when we look each other in the eye

I’m waking up to what’s around me
I’ve lost too much to a fantasy
Tired of living like I’m just getting by
Just getting by, just getting by
Am I just getting by

I don’t want to just get by

House of Their Dreams

I have come to really like this song.  I think there are a lot of songs that point out just how isolated that we have become.  There are even some really good songs that show us a life or a family turning around because of Christ.  What makes this song any different?  For me, it is the fact that nothing is ever fixed.  The song tells of the brokenness in the family and of how it seems like everything is falling apart, and then the good part.  Nothing is miraculously fixed, it isn’t a “we’ve got Christ so we have it all figured out” but instead tells of how the family is broken and they fall on their knees, knowing that they are broken and ask God to save their family.  That is more like real life than what we usually see.  And in their brokenness, we see togetherness.  In this case, we see that the prayer is already starting to be answered when the tears pour down their face and the family comes before God together.

“House Of Their Dreams”
Casting Crowns

A corner office was his dream
More like a prison now it seems
Somewhere on the corporate climb
He left his warrior behind
Now he’s just a worker at a daily grind
Steals his years and numbs his mind
His strength is fading, his dreams are blind
This is not the life he had in mind

She lies awake cause he’s up all night
Staring at a screen that tells him lies
That the grass is greener on the other side
So she’s at the gym fighting off the years
To be young again and calm her fears
That she’ll never be enough for him
Just as a young man catches her eyeNow they’re trapped in their own worlds, in their own wars
With their cell phones and the closed doors
It’s funny how quiet and peaceful that it seems
But they’re all alone together
In the house of their dreams

Little sister, she’s a sixteen-year-old princess
Lost somewhere between the swing set
And her brand new crush’s chariot awaits
And big brothers rooms glowing with trophies that shout his name
But he’d trade all his high school fame
For some backyard catch with his hero again

So now they’re all dressed up in Sunday best
Sit up straight just like the rest
And they sing the songs of peace and rest that Jesus freely gives
And then their kids look up as daddy stands
And he takes his bride with trembling hands
Brother kneels at his father’s side as princess looks in the mothers eyes
Their tears tear down the walls as daddy prays

Were trapped in our own worlds and our own wars
With our cell phones and our closed doors
God, only You can save our family
And on this Rock, well build
On this Rock, well build
The house of our dreams

Toward Summer

The end of the year is quickly approaching for all of us students.  The elementary school kids are looking forward to playing in the sun, the high schoolers are looking to do some honest work for some cash in their pocket, and college students are trying to figure out which extra class they will have to be working through all summer long.  Everyone is looking forward to the change that is just around the bend.

Earlier today I was thinking about change.   Not big changes, not huge transitions, but small changes, like those between the school year and the summer.  You know, those times when you are looking forward to a little variety in your life, and then after you have it for a time you just want to go back to the way things were?  Sometimes, I imagine that is what a lot of Christians go through all the time.  They see all the world has to offer and they just want to try some of that variety, they go astray and everything is wonderful for a while, but then it doesn’t feel so great anymore so we search for a little more spice to our lives.  When the spice loses its flavor we look for even more change and step by step we move farther and farther from the place that we know we should be; we begin to walk away from the things we know we must do – we slowly fade away from God and the life you once had.

When you get to that point you realize that all you want is to go back to the way things were, but you can’t – You have moved on to a new season; your summer has turned to fall and the only way to get back to summer is to go through winter.  You don’t want to go through the darkest times: the times without the drug that has kept you going through the rough times.

The good news is that God is there to help.  He will not let you jump over the winter cold, dark times in our lives, but he will hold our hands when we stumble, he will carry us when we fall.  Jesus has walked ahead of us and he has left some big footprints in the snow so as long as we follow his lead and cling onto God, we can make it through to the summer again.

SYFC 12/28/12

If you did not get a chance to come out to SYFC, you are in luck.

This is the link to our concert Friday the 28th of December, 2012.  The quality is not great for the video or audio but at least it is something.  I hope you enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/u3RuSFP9wQk

and part 2 at:

 http://youtu.be/VXWPZNAyWfM

If you or anyone you know would like us to come and play for your church, for your youth group, for anything really (we have played every venue from leading Sunday morning worship to funerals) contact me (Dan) at daniel.buckley15@houghton.edu.  Due to several scheduling difficulties we try to schedule as early as possible to assure that we are available.

email me at:

daniel.buckley15@houghton.edu  (preferred contact method)

Or you can call or text me at:

315-323-6024

Letting God Down

“God, I feel like I have let you down.  I know what you have called me to do, and I keep failing.  You ask me to do so many things and I can’t even keep up with the smallest of them.”

Have you ever felt like you let God down?  I have.  It hurts to feel that way.  It is one thing to feel like we have let other people down, or let ourselves down, but it is something else entirely to feel we have let God down.

The thing is, we can’t let God down; we were never holding him up.  God doesn’t need us to do anything, God doesn’t need anything we can do.  “How refreshing to know You don’t need me/ How amazing to find that you want me”(Casting Crowns-In Me)

When we feel like we have fallen short, like we have disappointed God remember that it is God that holds us up, not the other way around.