Keeping the Demons at Bay

This song started coming to me in the middle of a worship set. I’ve been playing drums and hand percussion for various church worship bands for the last few years, and the way I approach the whole experience has always been evolving. At the start, I was very passionate about what I did, and every set was a profoundly worshipful experience, but as the years went on the novelty and the freshness started to wear off, and the passion began to wane.

This song is about how hard it can be to enter into that place of worship as a musician who takes his craft very seriously. The second verse of the song really focuses in on the two big struggles I face. When I’m playing, it’s too easy to focus on what people think of me as a drummer. My mistakes stand out to me, and since effective worship drumming isn’t immediately impressive to someone who hasn’t played with worship bands, I feel like people think I’m a very mediocre drummer.

On the other hand, when I’m not playing with the band, I’m constantly comparing myself to the drummer who is playing. I either get mad at him for playing something I think is completely out of place, or I get incredibly discouraged and decide that I will never be on that level of drumming skill and intelligence.

The problem with both of these struggles is simple—the object of my focus is completely wrong. And when I had my little moment of epiphany in the middle of that worship set, I couldn’t believe I had been missing it. It was one of those things that you always know, but it just never jumps out at you: worship isn’t about how good I am or what people think of me; it’s about how good God is and what we believe about Him.

That’s what the whole chorus of the song is about. It’s very difficult to truly worship God when I’m putting all my stock in the things of Earth. Not that the earth or physical things are inherently bad. They’re just not the whole point. Jesus said we can’t serve two masters—when I get up there to play and worry about whether people think I’m a good drummer, I’m not worshipping God. I’m worshipping myself.

So that’s Release and Embrace. I’m running out of songs to talk about. I feel like Dear godhatesfags.com is pretty self-explanatory and The Magic Song has nothing deep to offer. Maybe I’m forgetting about some songs? I don’t’ know. If there’s one you’d like me to write about, let me know, and at the very least I’ll give you an excuse why I can’t.

Although, in the next few months, I should have a whole new batch of songs to write about since I’ve been working on a new album. I’m really trying hard to make this revolve around the theme of worship and stay away from “issue songs” and stuff that isn’t addressed directly to God. It’s probably the closest to a concept album I’ll ever come. I’m so used to just writing about stuff as it becomes important to me.

But I’m making progress. I’m about finished with two songs, I’ve got another in the works, and I’ve got plans for a fourth. I really want to do a version of the Doxology, but that one is so funky that I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it. It’s just such a fantastic song. When I was going to the Presbyterian church in town, I always loved how we would finish the service by singing that song. It was a great way to bring the focus back where it belongs.

And now it’s time for a jarring change of topic.

This blog is now on Wordpress as well as the Jamendo blogs. I created the Wordpress version during a time of near panic at Jamendo when it was looking like there was a chance we would lose the site. That ship seems to have righted for now, but I’ll keep the Wordpress blog around. More exposure and all that jazz.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say for now…except sorry that I never got a blog out for January. It’s been a strangely busy start to the semester. Whatevs. Take care, everybody.

-T.H.

-

Everything that matters to me
Fades away – I’m chasing the breeze
You’ve always been my safest bet
You never left. I guess sometimes, I forget

Oh Lord, it’s hard to raise my hands
When they’re holding onto the earth
So, Jesus Christ, I need a plan
To release this soil, and embrace Your worth
Teach me that it
It’s okay to lose my grip

My mistakes glare when I’m in the band
Compare myself to others when I stand
Lord, I’ve been too focused on me
Pull me from myself and fix my eyes on Thee

Oh Lord, it’s hard to raise my hands
When they’re holding onto the earth
So, Jesus Christ, I need a plan
To release this soil, and embrace Your worth
Teach me that it
It’s okay to lose my grip

Teach me that You’re worthy
Show me Your face
Show me all Your beauty
Teach me to release and embrace

Oh Lord, it’s hard to raise my hands
When they’re holding onto the earth
So, Jesus Christ, I need a plan
To release this soil, and embrace Your worth
Teach me that it
It’s okay to lose my grip

Posted in Song Blogs
Tags: and kings will come from your body, song blog, worship

During my freshman year of college, I took a New Testament Survey class. It was one of the required courses for all students, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. We went through the entire New Testament of the Bible in a semester and touched on all the big ideas. It was very interesting, but, unfortunately, I haven’t retained as much of it as I’d have liked to.

There is one thing about the class that’s always stuck with me, though—our professor continually emphasized that, as 21st century, post-enlightenment Westerners, our frame of reference is very different from that of the New Testament’s original audience. Our political system is very different, as is our social structure, economy, and philosophy. We can’t read the Bible like it was written for someone in our exact situation. The truths are universal, but sometimes the way they are conveyed is more specific to an ancient Jewish resident of Asia Minor than anything else.

So how are we different from the Bible’s original intended audience? One thing that I have been struck by is how intellectual we’ve become. We have all kinds of books on theology that explain almost everything you could want explained in the Bible. Not to say there’s anything wrong with studying the Bible, but I think when we get too intellectual, we lose sight of just how mystical our faith really is.

God didn’t reveal himself to Moses by handing him a five-point essay with a unifying thesis. He lit a bush on fire, turned Moses’ walking stick into a cobra, and then gave him a skin disease. And when Moses asked God who He was so he could tell the Israelites who was pulling the strings, God didn’t respond with a name and an explanation of how he was preexistent in Trinitarian form. He just said, “I am who I am.”

Donald Miller makes a good observation in Searching for God Knows What when he mentions that when you look through the Bible, the vast majority of it isn’t systematic theology. It’s true—there aren’t bulleted outlines that tell us who God is and what he’s like. There are stories, though. There’s poetry, there’s trippy prophecy, and there’s even some ancient Jewish law. No bulleted outlines, though.

So why does all this matter? Shouldn’t it be a better thing that we understand God so well now? Isn’t it great that we have Him all figured out?

That’s the thing. The minute our theology tells us we have God figured out, we’re doing bad theology. I don’t believe in a God small enough to fit inside a 1,000 page Bible commentary. If we could understand everything about God, then He wouldn’t be God. We would.

So that’s about it for Mystical. As far as other news, it’s been a busy couple of months for me. That would be why I’m just now getting this month’s blog done. I just finished up one of my busiest semesters of college, so that ended up occupying a good chunk of my time. On top of that, there’s been a lot of cool stuff going on band-wise. The music video for Terrify Me is up on YouTube now, and I’m very pleased with how it came out. I’ve been super fortunate to have incredibly talented friends who are willing to do stuff for me free of charge. If you haven’t seen the video yet, I highly recommend you check it out. I’ll even embed it at the end of this post so you don’t have to search around for it online.

I also made the crazy decision that I was going to do a two-song Christmas album and get it posted before Christmas. That wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I’d started working hard on the album in, say, November. This was, unfortunately, not the case. Come December 18, just a week before Christmas, I only had one half-done Christmas carol. But I worked hard and managed to crank the beast out in a matter of three or four days. You can now listen to my Christmas EP if you go to my artist page. I also made a playlist on my user page that has those two tracks along with my cover of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen from Keeping the Demons at Bay. So if you were looking for a three-song playlist of synth pop Christmas carols, then you’re in luck.

I also hit 100 fans on Facebook. I know I shouldn’t be too elated, but I’m pretty pumped. So pumped that I finally made another vlog to celebrate. I’ll put that vlog at the end of this post, too.

As far as my current musical addiction goes, I’ve been bouncing around between three or four different CD’s, but the one I really like has been Imogen Heap’s Ellipse. Apparently it came out in late August, but I didn’t learn that until just a few weeks ago. I feel a little out of the loop, but I’m glad I finally got around to listening to it. It’s a great album if you like spacey electropop stuff, which I do quite a bit.

Well, that’s it for this month. Have a merry Christmas!

Here’s the music video for Terrify Me:

And the vlog:

-T.H.

-

Your word is a textbook
You’ve given us answers cut and dry
Our science and schooling
Have caused our pitiful faiths to die

We study and measure
We’re kissing Your mystery goodbye
But I just can’t do it
I’ll raise my head up and cry that

I believe
In a God who’s mystical
He’s beyond me
Put my faith
In things fantastical
And that faith has set me free

You’ve sunk to our level
Where logic can totally explain
We have to contain you
We’re terrified to proclaim, God

I believe
In a God who’s mystical
He’s beyond me
Put my faith
In things fantastical
And that faith has set me free

Now you’re in our image
We’ve taken away your otherness
Takes divine strokes to paint you
My brush is just rotting flesh, oh

I believe
In a God who’s mystical
He’s beyond me
Put my faith
In things fantastical
And that faith has set me free

Posted in Song Blogs, Vlogs
Tags: and kings will come from your body, carols, christmas, christmas music, donald miller, facebook, imogen heap, moses, mystical, new testament, song blog

One of my favorite lyricists of all time is Reese Roper. He spent most of his musical career as the vocalist and primary songwriter for a 90’s ska band called Five Iron Frenzy. They played a lot of fun and goofy stuff, but every now and then, Reese would write a beautiful, meaningful song. One of these songs was called “Dandelions,” and I really think it changed my life.

Reese starts the song off with an anecdote about a little boy picking dandelions to give to his mother. Obviously, he’s just giving his mother weeds, but he thinks these things are beautiful. The mother proudly puts them on display in a vase. Reese has a great stanza about this that still gives me chills when I hear it:

Running to her, beaming bright
While cradling his prize
A flickering of yellow light
Within his mother’s eyes
She holds them to her heart
Keeping them where they’ll be safe
Clasped within her very marrow
Dandelions in a vase

In the second verse, Reese turns the metaphor on himself and his relationship with God. He talks about how aware of his own shortcomings he is, and how those shortcomings make him feel like he can never create something that will adequately honor God. He finally builds to this beautiful, vulnerable expression of worship:

Not a martyr or a saint
Scarcely can I struggle through
All that I have ever wanted
Was to give my best to You
Lord, search my heart
Create in me something clean
Dandelions
You see flowers in these weeds

This concept is beautiful to me. I believe that all people are broken and sinful, and thus unable to honor God to the degree he deserves. But we still come to him with our little acts of worship—our dandelions—and God doesn’t see weeds. He sees flowers. I love it.

I wanted to write a song around this concept. Unfortunately, I don’t have Reese’s gift for metaphor, so I figured I’d go straight to the Bible for subject material. That’s a good place to go for just about anything.

I think the whole “weeds as worship” idea is best illustrated in the story of the widow’s mite. Jesus and his disciples go to the synagogue, and they see a bunch of rich guys tossing all kinds of money into the church’s treasury, but then a little old widow comes up and sets two mites in there. That’s barely any money at all, but Jesus is thrilled with her. She’s giving nearly all she has.

I think the message to that narrative is that God isn’t so much concerned with the final product when we worship him. I believe he still wants us to shoot for excellence, but I think the real issue is the condition of your heart. When we put all we have into something and really, truly do it to honor God, that’s more pleasing to him than any sort of masterpiece thrown together by someone out for their own gain.

I think that’s the most I’ve ever written in a song blog. Ironic that it would come on a song with so few words.

In band news, I’m really going to try and get the new album finished up over Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve got four new songs ready for re-recorded vocals and mixing. I’ll also be redoing vocals and remixing Notches and putting it on the album. I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t put it on that single so that it could be new and fresh on the album. Oh well.

One of these days, I’ll be doing an acoustic version of So Are You. I’ve been working on it with my brother since the summer, and it’s sounding pretty cool. We just have trouble finding time to actually record it. So it may be awhile till that happens.

No word on progress for the music video right now. We’ve got all the shots we need, so right now it’s just a matter of fine-tuning the editing and all that good stuff. Things have been a little delayed because after we shot the music video, Robert and Gary (my music video master makers) had to pretty much turn right around and go to work on another project. They’re back now, but Robert is really sick, so it may still be a few weeks before the video is ready. Rest assured, it will be worth the wait.

I like to end my blogs with a discussion of my current musical addiction, but I’m not on any sort of kick with any band in particular right now. I will say that Josh Woodward recently released a new album on Jamendo, and it’s fantastic. It was about all I listened to for a week. Josh is probably one of the best artists on here, and if you haven’t checked him out yet, I highly recommend you do.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Thanks to everyone who’s been encouraging me and supporting me in my musical journey. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this.

-T.H.

-

Lord
Take this worthless mite
My prayer to You
Lord
Take this worthless mite
It’s how I worship You

Forgive me for the times
I gave like a Pharisee
Forgive me for the times
I only worshipped me

Posted in Song Blogs
Tags: acoustic, and kings will come from your body, dandelions, five iron frenzy, Jesus, josh woodward, music video, new album, reese roper, song blog, widow's mite, worship

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week, so I spent my long weekend shooting a music video. Here’s a taste of things to come:

Not sure when the video itself will be done, but stay tuned to this blog or just subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Anyway, that’s all.

-T.H.

Posted in Updates
Tags: and kings will come from your body, music video, update

The song “Overcome My Disbelief” is a reference and a tribute to what may be my favorite miracle story in the gospels. In Mark 9, we are told the story of a boy who has been possessed by a demon since he was a young child. The boy’s father had taken the boy to Jesus’ disciples, but they weren’t able to cast out the demon. After the disciples had failed, Jesus shows up, and everything goes quiet. He asks what’s going on, and the boy’s father fills Him in; and then, almost like some sort of last-ditch effort, he says, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

Jesus latches on to the first part of the request. “If you can?” he says, “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

And then the boy’s father says one of the most beautiful, honest statements in Scripture: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

I love that verse. That mixture of faith and doubt is the exact thing that characterizes 99 percent of my spiritual life. Deep down, I know that Jesus can and will do all the things he promises to do, but there’s always that other part of me that really has trouble believing I’ll ever see any presence of Jesus in my life. The best I can do sometimes is to pray for Jesus to conquer my doubt, while, ironically, I wonder if he will do even that for me.

The parable of the mustard seed seems like it’s always been preached in an encouraging light: “Even with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains!” But no one has ever thrown Everest into the ocean. Jesus is certainly telling us that there is incredible power in faith, but I wonder if the bigger point is that we are so poor in faith.

Like Thomas, we have trouble believing in things we can’t see, and, as Hebrews tells us, faith is being “certain of what we do not see.” Sometimes the best we can do is to pray for Jesus to overcome our disbelief.

So that’s Overcome My Disbelief. I’ve been wanting to write a song about that passage for several years now, and it was fun to finally finish something.

In other band news, I’m hard at work on material for the new EP. I have no estimations on when it’ll be done. It could be ready by the end of Thanksgiving week, or it could grow and be a longer project done during the Christmas season. We’ll see. I can say that I’ve really been enjoying working on the stuff for this one. I’m starting to get a grip on how to write vocal harmonies (simple ones for now) and that’s been helpful for giving the songs more life. One song on the new EP will be a goofy love song, addressed to no one in particular, of course. I’m very excited about that one. Imagine a peppy, poppy version of Overcome My Disbelief, and you may have an okay idea of the overall sound.

Fall Break is coming up, so that means I get to road trip back home. That would be enough to look forward to, but to make things even more exciting, I may be doing that music video I promised last spring. No promises, but that is the plan for now. There may even be a making of featurette that will air on the college’s TV station. That part is very up in the air, but it is a possibility. If it does air, I’ll see if I can get a copy of the video and put it on YouTube for those of you not on campus with me.

As far as music goes, I know it’s a little early to talk Christmas music, but Family Force 5 released a Christmas album that is all kinds of fun. It makes me think of Flo Rida doing Christmas carols. Their version of Carol of the Bells is super entertaining.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this month. Thanks to all of you folks who’ve been commenting and liking on the Facebook page. I enjoy that interaction. Even though I interact with most of you on a regular basis in real life…

Anyway, adios.

-T.H.

-

Do You think he felt guilty?
You were his backup plan that day
The Savior was his last resort
As he begged his son passed away

And the shine in Your eyes said
You could steal his son away from death
You asked if he believed You could
With tear-stained eyes he whispered, “Yes…

But overcome my disbelief
Could you overcome the doubter in me?”

You once said to Your children
That a seed-sized faith could move the peaks
But they’re still where they’ve always been
Has my faith just become so weak?

But the shine in Your eyes says
You can save me if I just confess
You ask if I believe you can
With tear-stained eyes I whisper, “Yes…

But overcome my disbelief
Could you overcome the doubter in me?”

“But overcome my disbelief
Could you overcome the doubter in me?”

Posted in Song Blogs
Tags: and kings will come from your body, carol of the bells, christmas music, demon possession, doubt, facebook, faith, fall break, family force 5, flo rida, gospels, Jesus, love song, mark, miracle, music video, mustard seed, song blog, vocal harmony

This is a song about an attitude towards evangelism I’ve seen in a lot of Christians, myself included. It seems like the people we’re trying to reach cease to be people in our minds sometimes. They just become this target, or a check box that we want to fill in on our “good Christian checklist.” To me, that’s just horrible. We need to realize the beautiful humanity of everyone, whether they’re Christian, Atheist, Muslim, whatever.

It also seems like there’s this mindset going on that all you have to do to “convert” someone to Christianity is to win in some sort of theological argument against them. We stack up all our evidence against evolution, we try to come up with every defense for God, for Jesus, and for the Bible; and we forget that evangelism isn’t a duel where the winner can decide what the loser believes about Jesus.

I didn’t talk about this in the song, but sometimes I wonder if we’ve developed this mindset because we think it’s our job to change hearts when that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. We’re messengers, not heart changers. I firmly believe that any sort of belief about God requires a measure of faith, and faith involves more of the heart than we are in control of.

Well, that’s the best I can say on that without starting to get scatterbrained. If I haven’t started already. Let’s talk about things other than Notches.

Let’s see…I’m writing more material for the new album. I’ve finished the demo of one song, and I’ve written the intro and a verse for another. I’ll be re-recording the vocals for Notches with a good mic, and I’ll probably use some good studio monitors to mix it.

I’ve also been talking to my cousin about doing some collaboration with him. He’s played guitar for some post-grungy Nickelback-ish bands for awhile, and he’s been wanting to incorporate some of the electronic elements I’ve built my songs around. So we may do that and then re-mix some of my stuff with his guitar as well. So that’s pretty exciting.

Music of the month has definitely been Future of Forestry’s Travel II EP. It’s fantastic. All kinds of creative percussion and instruments involved. These guys make some great music, and they just keep getting better.

Well, that’s it for me this month. Hopefully within a month or two, there will be another EP. That would be nifty.

-T.H.

-

Carving notches in my Bible
There’s one for every sinner saved
These heathens all once acted tribal
But now they’re not depraved

Couldn’t tell you what their names are
And I would lose them in a lineup
These aren’t people I’ve been chasing
They’re just targets
I’m the sniper

Outthought a drunkard yesterday
I trapped the heathen in his words
He had no choice, no other option
But to accept what he heard

Couldn’t tell you what his name was
I would lose him in a lineup
It’s no human I’ve been hunting
He’s the target
I’m the sniper

I know every formula, and I know every argument
I know every trick to get them into our establishment
So gather round my friends and fans, and please be of good cheer
Because today, I’ll be named evangelizer of the year

The drunkard wasn’t sure he bought it
But I’d won the verbal fight
He had to bow down to my logic
I forced on him eternal life

Couldn’t tell you what his name was
I would lose him in a lineup
It’s no human I’ve been hunting
He’s the target
I’m the sniper

Posted in Song Blogs
Tags: and kings will come from your body, evangelism, Future of Forestry, holy spirit, Jesus, song blog, Travel II

Hello, friends. It doesn’t feel like it’s only been a month since my last post on here. Part of that may be because my last post was a video blog, and did not require me to sit down and labor over what to write, but whatever.

Anyway, in this post, the main thing I wanted to talk about was one of the hymns on my latest EP - Nothing But the Blood. Even though I usually only do hymns whose lyrics really ring true for me, I honestly didn’t have too many feelings toward this one at first. It’s been sung so much that the words just kind of lose their feeling and the whole thing takes on this sort of Christian-campfire-ish cheesy quality. To be honest, I have no idea what even convinced me to start fiddling with the song. But fiddle I did until all of a sudden I had this arrangement that I was excited about. The lyrics still didn’t click much for me, but I liked the music enough to continue with the song.

When it came time to record the final vocals, I was blown away. Singing that song may have been one of the most beautiful spiritual experiences I’ve had in several years. The lyrics weren’t complex, deep, or new, but something about them hit me just right. I found myself in the presence of God.

The same sort of thing happened to me when I did Come Ye Sinners. I was only familiar with the first verse but loved the line “If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.” When it was time to record final vocals, I had trouble choosing just three verses for the song. There were four or five that I thought were phenomenal, but I just couldn’t hold the song together for that long. The last verse I used in the song was probably my favorite:

View him prostrate in the garden
On the ground your maker lies
On the bloody tree behold Him
Sinner, will this not suffice?

I guess I just love both of these songs because they deal so heavily with grace. To me, the grace of a sinless God toward sinful people is the most beautiful concept in the world.

Moving on to more current stuff – after I finally finished We are all priests. We are all sinners., I found myself incredibly drained – both of energy and creativity. It’s only been recently that I’ve started fiddling around on GarageBand again. I guess I get all this creative excitement when I see the album almost done and then I work really hard, and then as soon as I hit that goal, I don’t have the excitement left and the creative energy goes away for awhile. But it’s good to be back. I was on a bit of an electro-rock/new wave kick today, and listened to Metric, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, etc. So with all that stuff on my mind, I started a new song. It’s different from my other stuff. I’m using a completely different vocal effect, and the instrumentation is a lot less lush. Although I’m sure it may grow as the song continues. I have a tendency to do that. Anyway, we’ll see where it goes.

I may just release this song as a single. I’ve always wanted to do a full-length album as And Kings Will Come From Your Body, but more and more, I’m realizing the short album format may be better for me. It allows me to churn out material much faster, and it doesn’t give me time to say, “I hate this song. It’s never going to see the light of day.” And then there’s the whole Digital Age of music and how it’s making full albums almost obsolete. So yeah.

What’s going on with me outside of the band? I’m less than a week away from returning to college. It’ll be my third year up there, and I’m pretty excited. My cousin will be attending school with me, and he’s a fantastic guitarist, so maybe there will be some collaboration there. I know I’d sure enjoy that. Also, I’m rooming with a guy majoring in Cinema, and he’s been talking about having me do some acting and composing for some project of his. He hasn’t even given me much information on that, but that does sound like fun. We’ll see where that goes…if anywhere.

I was going to spend my “current musical fixation” section talking about the new Showbread album and about how I was surprised that I liked it so much since that’s not my usual style, but I just stumbled across something that is a hundred percent awesome this evening. Check it out:

Yeah. So cool. I love both of the originals, but I never would have thought to combine them.

Well, that’s a plenty long blog. It’s 12:30 AM and I’m telling the Bible story for the kiddos in church tomorrow. I should probably get some sleep. Take care, friends.

-T.H.

Posted in Updates
Tags: acting, cinema, collaboration, college, come ye sinners, depeche mode, digital age of music, eurythmics, grace, hymn, lyrics, mashup, metric, nothing but the blood, showbread, single, white stripes

Posted in Updates, Vlogs
Tags: and kings will come from your body, boston terrier, chihuahua, color, craig ferguson, dogs, hair, recording digs, shirt, studio tour, vlog

In several spots throughout the Old Testament, the various authors mention people who “fear the Lord,” or they command the readers to “fear the Lord.” I remember several Sunday school classes where we learned exactly what this fear was. I don’t remember how most of them went, but I do remember that the point of all of them was that having the fear of the Lord didn’t mean that we were afraid of Him. Supposedly, the “fear of the Lord” has more to do with respect than terror. I’ve read a few commentaries that solidify this point, and maybe they’re right. Why would we be afraid of the God who loves us, forgives us, and saves us?

Maybe these interpretations are correct, and when the Old Testament commands us to fear God, it really means we should just have a lot of respect for Him. I don’t know that that necessarily means it’s wrong to be afraid of God, though. God is intensely powerful, and for all of our volumes of theology, we barely even understand who or what He is. That’s scary. Job was one of the greatest followers of God ever, and to prove this, God nearly destroyed him. That’s scary. It’s been mentioned in the Bible that just to see the face of God would kill any man because of the brilliance. That’s terrifying. We sing worship songs where we beg God to let us see him, and sometimes I wonder if we really know what we’re getting ourselves into. We like to see the things God does for us, but to actually see God…

So what else is going on these days? I’ve been on vacation with my family – we passed through Illinois to see my dad’s brothers, and now we’ve gone to Ohio. My mom’s parents live on a farm up here, and we’ve come up pretty much every summer for quite awhile. I’ve only missed coming up one summer – the summer before I started going to college when I needed to stay home and work as much as I could. But it’s been fun. The weather has been awesome. I went outside in the afternoon and had to put on a sweater because of how cool it was.

I’ve been using the free time that comes with a vacation by working on some music. I’ve almost finished another song. I think by the time we get back home, it’ll be time for me to break out the good microphone and record the real vocals. I’ll also be doing an acoustic song on the album, which will mean plugging in my brother’s acoustic guitar and mic-ing my cajon for some live instrumentation. I’m pretty excited about that one. Hopefully it turns out well.

As far as other music goes, I’ve been on a fairly big Eels kick. They recently released a new album – Hombre Lobo – and it’s awesome. Real stripped down, bluesy rock. These guys are a fantastic band. Each album has its own unique flavor. They’ve done the rock thing, alt-rock, orchestrated acoustic stuff…and all to a very high degree of effectiveness.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I may do a video blog sometime. Not sure what I’d talk about. But it’s about time for another one of those. Haha.

-T.H.

-

Late at night, I know You’re here
I call Your name, I shed a tear
To see Your face, to hear Your voice
I’d die for You if I had the choice

In the air, I see a flap
But I’m afraid to pull it back
I’d see Your face, I’d know Your name
I’d be consumed in the billowing flame

You are the one who has numbered the sand, and
You are the one with the ocean in hand
You are the power that I don’t understand
And dear Lord…
The wind and the waves do as You command and
In Your bright presence no man can stand
You are the power that I don’t understand
And dear Lord You terrify me

They say this fear should not be fright
But I know You — Your dreadful might
When you stand, the sun’s eclipsed
I’m just a man of unclean lips

You are the one who has numbered the sand, and
You are the one with the ocean in hand
You are the power that I don’t understand
And dear Lord…
The wind and the waves do as You command and
In Your bright presence no man can stand
You are the power that I don’t understand
And dear Lord You terrify me

Posted in Song Blogs
Tags: acoustic, and kings will come from your body, eels, fear, hombre lobo, illinois, ohio, old testament, sunday school, weather