Community

One of the greatest blessings since this change in my life is the opportunity for communion with others. I always knew I’d appreciate that if I ever had the chance to experience it, though now that it has come, I find that I’m a bit like a fish out of water in extended social situations (God is teaching me much).

Community dinners are the best. I’m not very into pancake dinners at the fire department, that’s not really what I mean, I mean our friends coming together for dinner and everyone bringing something and cooking together. It’s so incredibly awesome, and I didn’t even know people did this! One of my favorite things in the world is to work alongside friends, it always brings a sort of bond that can’t come just from being entertained together or competing in games, it teaches you so much about one another and grows a fondness that is priceless. I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of this much lately and I feel so overwhelmingly blessed by it all; cooking meals, learning how to make great coffee and playing music.

Music: Speaking of music, Colin Elmore brought the performing of music back into my world in the past couple of months and it keeps coming. When my family quit touring last April I wasn’t sure when if I’d ever get to play music for people again, and after what seemed to be a long lull, God has brought it back to me. It’s so lovely, one of the most beautiful things in the entire world of the living.

Albums: I know lots of incredibly talented people and occasionally I get to work with them, but it’s just wonderful knowing them, my siblings included. My family has a new album coming out soon. I’m beside myself with excitement. It’s our best installment yet, and I’m so excited to share it with everyone. My brothers are also working on an album with Chelsea Moon and it’s going to rock your socks off!

Helping hands: A few weeks ago Adam and I moved across town. It was a pretty simple move since we only had a one bedroom apartment, we didn’t have many belongings, but moving and packing is always a job that requires much of you. We had so many helping hands to do this job, even people who were only in town for the day, took six hours out of their day, which they surely could’ve spent doing something much more facile (Colin and David, you know who you are) but they chose to give us their assistance and muscles. When we arrived at our new apartment we discovered that it was in need of much scrubbing down, without a question Ben, Audra and my mom set to work cleaning (and fixing stupidly placed towel rings/unclogging drains/sanitizing out the whatever-the-heck-that-was) in the bathrooms and kitchen. Gosh, I just shake my head at what kind of genuinely good people God has set into our life. I told Adam after that day when we were so tired and blessed to the core that this whole day was a testament to being in community with others and truly building relationships with people; how we need not hire anyone to do anything because we have so many caring people who love us and whom we love and we can help one another. What a blessing God has designed in our lives, the ties that bind the believers together.

I’m thankful.