Nashville was fantastic!  Can't wait to share the new recording will you all soon.  However, after spending time in studio and with other talented musicians like my dad :D and Luke (who does all of the recording, mixing, producing, and playing of any instrument besides piano), I always come back pumped and ready to make more music.  So, I finished a song I have been working on called Empty Spaces.

This song was birthed from two different approaches to the same struggle.  Sometimes we feel alone, a bit broken, abandoned maybe.  And I am blessed, don't mishear me.  If I actually admitted to being lonely, I'd have numerous friends and family at my doorstep to prove me wrong.  However, within the past year, a close friend of mine and I became quite distant.  And that leaves a hole.  Almost makes you feel like you lost a limb or something.  You don't do all the same things you once did, and everyday looks a bit different.  You wonder, "God, where does your plan fit into this?  I thought I was loving people well." At the same time, my pastor has been preaching about hospitality.  For all you reading this who know me well, typical hospitality is not my strong suit.  I am a minimalist, so I don't have much to offer people.  And I certainly can't cook.  I just usually invite myself over to other's houses. I've been reminded that I don't have to be the queen of hospitality in order to be hospitable.  And, for every time I am in need of community and wish it for myself, there is another somewhere thinking the same thing, and God uses people like you and me who are very inadequate to manifest His shalom.  So, if we all have emptiness within us, longing to be filled by the Savior, can I first admit to that, but second, let Him make me whole so I can be a vessel of peace to others?  Can I trust Him with the parts of me that have recently been vacated and remain faithful and open to His work in me?  I pray that it is so.

Empty Spaces
Park the car, walk up the driveway
Unlock the door along with my heartache
Every room is just as I left it
Can’t help but think that there’s something missing
Pull up the shade, look out the window
Watch the sunset, still in my work clothes
Another day eyeing the fences, just making myself
Restless
 
I’ve gotta let this go
But I just don’t know how
When I look around, all I see is this empty house
We all have our empty spaces
Hidden deep within our souls
We’re all looking for a fullness not our own
 
So much of me beneath the surface
Not sure how to unearth it now
So when you find me down in the trenches, don’t let me bury myself
Further
 
I’m not the only one seeking affirmation
I’m not the only one longing for a home
Take these empty hands, empty rooms, empty spaces
Make them whole
Bring shalom
 
We all have our empty spaces
Hidden deep within our souls
We’re all looking for a fullness not our own

I will be heading into the studio this month!  My dad will be playing the piano for this track and my dear sister-in-law's sister will be singing the background vocals.  She picked this song out many years ago as her favorite that I had written.

My first few years out of college, I studied the book of Ecclesiastes.  It is about a man who had everything, tried everything, and still could not find happiness or purpose.  In the midst of the book are these words, "He has set eternity in the hearts of men, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."  There is always a longing in us for something more than what this world gives.  None of us can deny that.  How many times do I wish I could convince my students that they will not find happiness, contentment, or purpose where they are seeking it.  It only comes from the One Eternal.  So, the song Eternity Echoes was born.

Eternity Echoes

If this is all there is, we may as well not exist because all that I see, it's all vanity
We're all dying to find meaning within this life, but I've seen it all, and it's just not enough
But, the fact we're all searching for more
Must mean that there's something worth searching for

Eternity echoes in all of our minds
The home that we groan for but cannot describe
All we hold dear we will leave it behind
All behind

We've made a mess of this earth, digging for pleasure and worth
We cannot count what is lacking
Both the fools and the wise will one day realize that God is not found in His blessings
Searching for hope in the brokenness just tells us there's got to be more than this

Eternity echoes in all of our minds
The home that we groan for but cannot describe
All we hold dear we will leave it behind
It's meaningless, all of this won't satisfy
All that we need only He can supply
He makes everything beautiful in it's time
Just in time

I'm letting this go: The world and it's hopes
I'm claiming the miracle: That there's more than this life

Eternity echoes in all of our minds
It's the hope within the brokenness that screams for new life
Our worries and fears, we will leave them behind
It's meaningless, all of this won't satisfy
All that we need only He can supply
He makes everything beautiful in it's time
Just in time