Day 50: Favor

I suspect this will be my last post of the year, so we're going to make this count.

I switched churches mid-September not so much because I was out church-shopping, but because a need arose within the community of God (which I stress above individual churches) and I was asked and able to fulfill it. Oddly enough, the new church was actually in the process of moving to a new building down the street, a $1.2M renovation of an Amish Furniture Store. The final price tag that the church actually paid through special offerings was only like $300,000 because individuals stepped up and paid for individual things on the direction of God, we received awesome deals that were mind blowingly low (like 19,000 instead of 70,000+) and there was just this amazing progress that the whole project proceeded with. Everything was paid for, no loans in four months which is about how long it took to renovate. The pastor attributed it to Favor. By responding to the Will of God, he said, God placed immense favor over the Church and things were allowed to happen, and the Pastor recognized it solely as the Provision of God. This is Biblical.

I thought it was pretty sweet.

I would now like to draw your attention to Day 21: Fatigued. You see, I said I was "retiring" from the music industry. I told you why I started. Never why I was quitting. I was quitting because I feel more called to do pastoring/preaching/speaking/counseling (whatever you want to call the Conglomerate of that. I shall refer to it as conglomerate A) than I did music and writing and acting because I did not have the same passion that I had for Conglomerate A. So I gave up on it. I was gonna finish the final two albums, and that was going to be it. Then I switched churches to where almost everyone on the worship team is working on or has produced at least one album in their lifetime, and more than just a garageband album. Like me. (Ouch. May my pride never recover!)

Naturally, they saw me, someone of less talent than they thought but more talent than some. So naturally, I suppose, I fielded an offer to assist a band. . . erm. . . artist on an album. This person has passion. The passion that is required for but does not guarantee success. And they've asked me to assist on a kids worship album as well as theirs, but to do complete the kids worship album first.

So basically I'm coming out of retirement to do all the things an artist would ever want to do. Write and record an album. The beauty of it all is that I won't have to worry about contracts and all that jazz because it's not my band. I'm getting the fun stuff without the paperwork.

Favor?

Similarly, the whole publishing gig has worked out to where it'd be beneficial to actually publish my own material. I'll produce enough randomly over the course of the time on the contracts I'm requiring all the other authors to do, and I wanted four decent authors to start with. I only knew three. And even in the wake of being quit on, the sort of things I need to do to really successfully pull this off are being given to me. A website that's professionally built in flash? Built and maintained for free exactly how I want it. A photoshoot? Done, free. All three writers I asked? Absolutely they're interested. I even had two others ask me about publication contact me. It's kinda crazy, but I had a thought flash through my head.

Favor.

Could my renaissance and pursuit of God be the beginning of me using the gifts I have for the right reasons in such a way that really brings glory to Him?