88. answered prayer

So in the last blog I shared some of the general prayers that I've been praying lately. One of the prayers that I didn't share was this one:

"Lord, everything around me seems broken and none of it seems to be getting any better. Can't there be at least one thing in my life that's going right?"

God is god and can do whatever he wants. And sometimes he answers prayers. And sometimes he gives us more than we ask for.

I can think of at least three things that started going right for me over the weekend in answer to that prayer:

1. Last Thursday (09/15) my band, Harrison, was playing at The Wave. After the gig we had this big argument in the parking lot and it got kind of ugly and even though we left with the band intact, I wasn't really at peace with the way things ended. It's complicated and it's band business so I won't go into detail, but this weekend we had a gig at Detox and afterwards we went to Zippys and in a way that I didn't expect and in a way that only God could have done it, we came to a very good, very clean, very peaceful resolution to what had started over a week ago. And it was a weight off of my back.

2. Another thing that I can't really go into much detail right now (mostly because it's still very much in the planning stages) is this Christian artists meeting thing that I'm involved with. This thing has some really explosive potential, and the key people involved are jazzed about it...but we don't know what it is yet. I mean, we know what it is, but we don't know how to put it into words, exactly. It's one of those things where only a few people get it but those who do get it know what it is. What we're trying to figure out is how to explain it to those who don't get it yet because if it can catch on, it could literally change the world (not in a day or a year, maybe not in our lifetimes...but it's got that kind of revolutionary power to it).

So I'm working on this thing and what sucks is that even though we kind of know what the problems are that we want to solve, and even though we have a vague, conceptual idea of what the solution is, we're woefully lacking in specifics. And so I've been praying for breakthrough. And on Saturday afternoon while meeting with Nate, we actually made headway in this thing. After three hours of fun, frustrating, inspiring, depressing conversation, we ended up with one sentence that seems to point the way. It's not the answer and it's not enough, but it's the first really solid lead that we've had.

Okay, so I know you're wondering...and I'm tempted to not share the sentence because to read it, it doesn't seem like all that much, but believe me, it's the result of months of prayer and discussion and observation and reading and thinking and thinking and thinking some more. And to read it out of context, it doesn't seem that big of a deal. And so I'm tempted to not share the sentence because maybe it's better to leave you all wondering about it because that's more exciting than the sentence itself.

But I'll share it anyway. "We are not called to redeem the arts, we're called to redeem the world through the arts."

"What, that's it?" Hey, I bet that's what the captain of the Titanic thought when one of the deck-hands pointed out the iceberg out on the horizon. Believe me, there's a lot of mass beneath the surface of that little sentence.

3. So I'm working with Disc Makers, trying to get my band's CD manufactured and we're running into problems with the graphics. Well, the second set of proofs arrived on Friday and even though they're not quite what we wanted, I'd say it's ninety to ninety-five percent there. I showed it to the rest of the band and they said it was okay, which is good because everytime we make a change it's another $50 added to the bill. I also got to show the proofs to Nate (who I mentioned above), who designed the graphics and he seemed okay with it, which meant a lot to me. So the graphics are all approved and that means the Disc Makers elves are hard at work with our CD.

I asked for one thing and God gave me three. God is god and can do what he wants. And sometimes, he wants to bless us with more than we asked for.