HERO: Available Now!

Praise God! HERO is now available for download from ResoundingMusic.com! It's been a long journey, and (largely thanks to my amazing web designer) a fun one. This album features 20 tracks, and clocks in at just over an hour.

You can learn more and download the album here.

Here are samples of the tracks:

The Story Begins - December 27

It's official!  God willing, HERO will be available for download from ResoundingMusic.com starting December 27th.  Here's most of the text I wrote for the Facebook event, if you want more info... it's best when read in an epic voice.  ;-)

HERO is an album of legends; a chronicle of journeys and of those who take them; musical tales of overwhelming odds, imminent danger, stubborn courage, and final victory; a point of departure for flights of imagination set for destinations unknown.

HERO invites the listener to take a daring trip; to set forth boldly through treacherous terrain and against insurmountable odds; to fight, to die, and to conquer. It is a journey fraught with turmoil but founded on hope, knowing that the just God Who reigns over all will be victorious in the end. It is a journey which roams from the wild west to the wild oceans, from city streets to ancient citadels.

It is the journey of heroes.

Here's a taste of the music:

These images are all different ways of saying the same thing- pointing people to my website- and they are for you to share, if you feel so led.  I appreciate the help with spreading the word.

Oh, and if you take away all the text except for the title and my name, you get the final album cover.  I happen to think it turned out pretty awesomely.  Praise God!

#CLASSY - (Another Political Post)

I love how the liberals' best argument isn't.

It is at once hilarious and heartbreaking that so often, instead of offering coherent and compassionate

reasons for their beliefs, they respond with vulgarities, angry name calling, and plenty of ALL CAPS.

Expletives instead of explanations.

This, of course, should win no one to their cause. Really, we should be happy that this is all that they

have to offer. The bankruptcy of their philosophical positions is made evident by their masterful use of

fallacies and their impotent use of pretty much everything else.

But I'm not writing this to the left- may they repent and may God open their eyes.

I'm writing to my fellow conservatives. You know who you are, you Chick-Fil-A eating, freedom-

loving, Bible-thumping, gun-toting, Constitution-quoting patriot. You understand that debt doesn't

make for good economic policy, that inflation is theft, that socialism makes everyone equally poor, that

babies have the right to live, that marriage is something that God defines, not the state.

And you're right. Your arguments are firmly rooted in truth.

But are you acting like it?

A few months ago, a video of an exchange between a Chick-Fil-A employee and a dissatisfied customer went viral. The video showed liberal activist extraordinaire Adam Smith oh-so-tolerantly berating the angelic Chick-Fil-A employee and her company. I say angelic because Rachel's poised and gentle response to the man's childish attacks were exemplary. The reactions of conservatism were far less so.

Adam Smith and his coworkers apparently were threatened with harm (!!!), while Smith was called every name in the book- and some names that aren't in the book. The cries for his apology were

(rightly so) loud and widespread.

Then he apologized.

What did Rachel say? “I forgive you.”

What did conservatism say? “Yeah, right. Whatever, jerk. [expletives]”

And suddenly, we sound just like the liberals.

The Adam Smith issue is just a poignant example of a searing inconsistency within conservatism- that

while sometimes we stand on truth and speak with compassion, truly desiring to see “them” come to

understand the truth, sometimes we drop the truth of the matter, jump in their sandbox, and kick sand

with the best of them. Like so many 3-year-olds.

When we do this, we validate the claims of the Left. We empower their criticism. Why would anyone

want to join a movement that can't accept an apology?

While I'm talking about Adam Smith, it is worth noting that I'm not suggesting that we naively embrace

Adam Smith as a repentant and remorseful prodigal son running into the arms of truth for a touching

reconciliation. We can be compassionate and forgiving without being doormats. Nor am I suggesting

that there is never a place for well-placed satire. The occasional well-placed “You brood of vipers!” is

never amiss.

My plea is that we continue to take the high road- to focus on and fight for truth.

Jesus said this, just hours before His death: “For this I have come to the world, that I may testify to the

truth.”

Of all the things that He could have said, moments before an agonizing death, this is what Christ gave

as His reason for coming to earth.

For those of us who are followers of Christ- isn't that what we aspire to?

For those of you who are conservative but don't claim Christ- what's wrong with you?

I tease. We can argue over that one later- you can yell at me through Twitter.

But in all seriousness, isn't this what we want to do? Testify to the truth? And if this is really about

truth, why are we relying on superior insults and more advanced mastery of curse words instead of

standing on the abundance of evidence that is piled around us?

Has this gone beyond a search for truth and into a matter of pride? Or have the liberals, by their

incessant flow of vitriol, finally worn us down to where we can't argue beyond our own frustration?

If we let them do this, they win. We become the haters.

Scripture commands us to “overcome evil with good.” We all know that this is the most effective

method of argumentation.

We have the truth to stand on. Reality is on our side. We can afford to represent a calm,

compassionate, confident conservatism to the world- and that is far more likely to win others to our

cause than kicking sand.

Let's leave the hate speech to the liberals. It's all they have.

As for us, let's be Rachels.

Not Adam Smiths.