What up God?

What up Bali, Indonesia? Here I come!

Let's start from the beginning of this process. Honestly, I think one of my main reasons for going is to serve the Church. Men in the ministry I am apart of, as our pastor said, simply aren't standing up and have decided to not lead in the church. In my own personal life, I can honestly say: yes. That is true. I am too often lazy. So what do I do, I cease to lead. So after hearing that message series that He went through, that thought really just rested in the back of my head. Not pressing in really deep and consuming my thought life, but every once and awhile I would think about it, and asked myself what my role was in serving the church as a man?

I remember one Saturday evening, this deep interest toward missions this summer just consumed my thought life. (What's really ironic I guess, is I remember saying to my friend Adam, "There's no way I'm going to do a short-term mission trip this summer, I want to do something long-term"). Anyway, so I started texting my pastor asking him what the dates were for Ireland and Bali this summer and he told me. Nothing really happened after that, as far as me doing something/signing up.

Then one afternoon, I felt compelled to call my pastor and say, "Hey Trace! What are you doing?... oh really?... that's neat... What's up with me?.. oh nothing really, just felt like you should go ahead and just write my name down on the Bali mission trip sign up sheet..." What's crazy is that during that process, there was this huge sense of peace before and after telling him that I was planning on going.

What up Music?

Last semester, God really just put on my heart a deep passion for music. I think He really just confirmed that it was a passion and not merely a interest/desire. So I started praying. I remember saying that I was going to start pursuing music. But practically I had/have no idea what that looks like. Where does a senior in college really start with something like that? I don't know, so i started praying.

Well this semester happened, right? So I continued helping leading worship on Wednesday Nights. And then out of nowhere, I ended up calling up all the musicians that i knew, and asked them to come over to my house. Well, it started happening. My friends/musicians, started coming over and we started playing/jamming/worshipping. It was awesome. Banjo's. Bass's. Guitars. Hammer dulcimers. pianists. voices. mandolins. cellos. Beautiful stuff. We started doing that every Thursday nights, and we jammed out. till late hours of the night and early parts of the morning... Just worshipping and playing music.

And then my friend Clifford recently just asked me to start playing with him and some of our friends at a local restaurant on Thursdays.

And then something crazy happened last night. Now it might not be a big deal to you but I was called by another fellow friend/musician and was asked to consider doing some musical stuff this fall. Where we would be helping a younger generation of musicians exercise the gifts that God has given them with a Kingdom perspective and purpose.

Wow. Humbled. I couldn't believe the conversation that was happening when I was talking to him last night. Mainly because he gave me this vision of the events that had lead up to last night musically. He reminded me of that late night car drive last semester when I started praying. He reminded me that He is faithful to those who are faithful. He is also faithful to those who aren't faithful. I was reminded of how unfaithful I have been to Him. and EVEN SO, he pours out blessing and favor on me. Why? I don't know! A 'crazy' God loves me and pursues me even when I am unfaithful and so undeserving. Humbled.