A New Year

I'm always excited when a new year rolls around. I like to look back over the last year and think of all the things that happened that I had had no idea would happen- good or bad. There is always much to take in. At the beginning of last January, I had no idea of the people I would meet or the amazing relationships that would begin, the places I would travel including some of Europe, or the fun I would have touring with Brian Mulder all of October. And those are just the bigger things. Life is full of possibilities. I have no idea what the coming year holds.

So here I am at the beginning of an unknown territory again. I'm realizing that the last year was just as unknown to me twelve months ago. I'm realizing that I'm okay twelve months later. That plenty was frustrating or sad but the things that I remember the most are the good things I didn't see coming. I'm looking forward to living more deeply into the mysterious story. I'm also excited to think that God invites us to creatively contribute to His Story with our decisions, creations, conversations, relationships... with our whole lives.

This week I'm working to finish up a CD project that my dear friend Katie Heckel has been working on. She's very passionate about orphans in Africa. A couple of years ago she traveled to Ghana and lived for several weeks in the story of the children of poverty and oppression there. She wrote songs about it, she came back and told stories about it, and now she's going back to Africa to keep telling the story. We're finishing the CD of those Africa songs. All the money will go directly to the orphanage in Ghana where Katie has built a sweet and sacred relationship.

This coming weekend, another songwriter friend, Becca Varner will be coming to town to record some songs for an acoustic album of her own. And Brian Mulder has an album in the works that we hope to finish sometime this Spring before he goes on Blood:Water Mission's Ride:Well Tour in June. Brian will be biking about 3,000 miles across the Unites States to raise money to build wells in Africa.

I'm hoping to find a way to get to Africa myself this Summer. I'd like to go collect some stories and love some people. We'll see. I am amazed though at the endless ways to be involved in God's Great Living Gospel Story. We can really dig down into our imaginations and creatively dream up ways to participate with Jesus in his ongoing mission to save the world through his ingenious love.

In this New Year, be encouraged to jump into the call to create alongside Jesus and add beauty to the world. It's a sad mistake to think that the way of heaven is monotonous or boring. Remember the single lidless eye of the sinister Sauron in Lord of the Rings? It's evil that has just one boring unblinking view of the world. It is the vast vision of God that has spoken into existence all the vibrant variety of this universe. I want to be in on that and at work with Jesus.

-Matthew