Now the Tennessee heat isn’t really something to mess with. I understand that it’s hotter elsewhere. Don’t worry, I know, I’ve been there. And yes, it’s not pleasant. That said, I’ll again say that the Tennessee heat really isn’t something to mess with. I grew up in Northern Indiana which has hot summers, but I’m not sure I was really prepared for the intense humidity of Tennessee when I moved here. Don’t worry, I’m glad I moved, as Nashville has proven to be a place that I’ve grown to love and to call home. It’s just that as I’m driving my car in a traffic jam on one of the main highways in Nashville, I realize I can’t escape the heat. The AC in my car doesn’t work real well unless I’m driving at a pretty good speed, and then the air moves well enough to cool me down. For this reason, I try and stay off the main roads during rush hour. I’d rather not bake in my car while I’m waiting 45 minutes to go half a mile. It’s a hot one this year!!!
I don’t believe I’ve given you guys a big band update in a bit, so I’m going to break down some of the fun that we having coming up in August. We have a pretty busy month coming, and we’re all excited about it. We’re traveling to Montana for the Downpour Festival, which will be the first time that our band has had the opportunity to play in Montana. We’ve heard a lot of great things about this festival, and we’ll be playing alongside some great bands who will be playing that weekend; including Pillar, KJ-52, and Newsboys. After Montana we’re touring back through Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. A handful of those dates we’ll be playing with our good friends Decyfer Down. We haven’t played a show with them since we both got done touring with Disciple back in March and April, so we’re really looking forward to hanging out and playing some shows. Keep checking our website for tour updates, and to see if we’re playing near you. www.satellitesandsirens.com/tour As I’ve said before, we love meeting new people and hanging out. We’re traveling to some new cities this coming month, so we’ll be meeting a lot of new folks, and we’re all excited about it!
Last week we spent the week at a Lifeway Camp leading worship. We’ve done a few 2-3 day youth conferences, but this is the first time that we’ve led for an entire week, and twice a day at that. It was definitely a new experience for our band, as we haven’t really done that yet. We loved it. We are definitely more of a performance band, but we all got our start playing music in worship bands. It was really refreshing to spend the week in one place, and to spend the week worshipping God with 500 youth. We also really enjoyed the Lifeway staff, and the staff at Union University where the camp was held. Good times. We’re already booked to lead worship there again next year, and we’re certainly looking forward to it.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where I’ve been spending my time. This past week the pastor at my church challenged us to take a look at our lives and identify where we might have built up idols. Now granted, there isn’t a single person I know that actually bows down to a physical object, however, it’s easy to spend all of our time, emotions, finances, etc. on things that God didn’t intend for us to be “worshiping”. Granted, we are called to excellence in everything we do, and to be diligent with our gifts, but God really desires our hearts be turned to Him. It’s easy to let our jobs, or money, or relationships to garner all of our attention, when God’s desire is that we spend time with Him when we are looking at these areas of our lives.
It often does go back to faith and trust, and whether we truly give Him our hearts and our lives. If I don’t trust Him with my finances, I definitely spend too much time obsessing about how I’m going to pay my bills, or how I’m going to spend my money. Rather, He truly desires that we spend our time seeking Him regarding those areas. Can I really trust Him with my finances? Or my relationships? Or the things that I own? Man, if we’re honest, that’s no easy task. In Philippians 4:6-7 it says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the God of peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” If we really believe that, then we won’t spend our time worrying, but giving God room to move in all areas of our life. How freeing is that? Pretty amazing as far as I’m concerned.
Now, what if it isn’t worry that drives us to idolize certain areas of our lives? What if we just simply choose spend our time elsewhere? That’s a whole other area, and certainly an area where we have to take a hard look at our lives. There isn’t anything wrong with spending a lot of time at work, but there is something wrong with it being more important than God or our families. What if we made a real effort to spend those extra minutes with God every day? Where would that lead us? Does that scare us even more? Will he ask me to become a missionary? Don’t lie…that last question pops into a lot your minds when you’re thinking about pursuing God. “God, I’ll do anything…but please don’t ask me to do ____.” I know I’ve been there, as most have. It’s scary letting God into those areas, but God is good. And there is a peace that “transcends all understanding” when you really allow Him into your life.
David