It is finished!

I am finished with class!!!!( I am excited... if you could not tell)

I just have to make it through about 5 exams, and then it is time to hit the road back to good old east Tennessee. 

I am ready for summer. I am ready for the break from school, for vacation with the fam, and the new job opportunities that await. 

This has been a very good semester; it is hard to believe that I am almost done with my first year of college. It seems like only yesterday that I was moving into the dorm and starting class. At the same time...... August seems like so long ago. It is strange to think about it; I feel like so much has changed since then. I feel like I have grown and matured as a person more this year than ever. 

Thank you to all who read my blog and keep up with my life. I appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers. 

PS: There is more good stuff on the way about this summer..... so stay tuned. 

From Newspring to North Point

The last few Sundays have been great. Kami and I have had a chance to go check out some growing churches. 

Last Sunday night we went to Newspring church in Anderson. I had heard great things about it from people at school, and they were right! It was such a great time of worship. Their band is really amazing; it was so good to see a band that could really facilitate in leading worship, not just putting on a show. The message was great. Challenging, uncomfortable, and very real, but it was exactly what I need to hear that night. I could feel God speaking to me the whole service.

This past Sunday, we were in Atlanta and were able to go to North Point Community Church( that is Andy Stanley's church if anyone does not know). It was also soooo amazing. I have never been to a church where they have 2 identical auditoriums that are mirror images of each other. Each side had a live worship band, and the sermon was fed to the other side via video. We just walked into one of the auditoriums, and to our surprise, Kristen Stanfield was leading worship! He is one of my favorite worship leaders, so it was so amazing to be able to worship with him. Once again, throughout the service, God was speaking to me. 

It is no coincidence that we were at either one of those services... they were both such amazing spirit-filled times. If anyone is around either one of these churches, I would recommend that you check them out. 

This is more like it

In a time when the news is filled with so much hype around the election, scandals in office, teen violence, illegal immigration, and homeland security............ there is one story that stands above the rest. 

There is a real gem of a story from Mobile, Alabama; a Leprechaun is in a tree in the town of Crichton. This is one of the funniest videos I have seen in a long time. It is even better because it is a clip from an actual newscast! 

I hope you can take a break from your CNN politics headlines to see the lighter side of the news..... I hope you enjoy this as much as I did...

( Watching it multiple times helps as there are so many lines worth quoting with your friends)

 

Happy Birthday

I would like to take a moment and say Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

I wish I could see him today.... but I am in SC. 

I am almost done with school, so I will be home soon. 

So, until then... Happy Birthday Dad! 

Inspiration comes....... faster than you can say it

Inspiration is a funny thing; it comes and it goes faster than you can write it down sometimes. (This is how it comes to me most of the time.) Sometimes it sticks with you and you cannot think about anything else until you get that though, verse, or musical line out on paper or recorded onto your computer. Sometimes it comes when I am not ready for it; actually it almost always does that to me. When I have time to sit and play my guitar or the piano and focus on writing music, it rarely comes. Inspiration comes when I have waaaaaay to many things to do and think about other than writing music. Inspiration comes when I usually do not have "time" to write it down or time to play my guitar.

I think that it is God's was of showing me that I am not in control. I cannot "plan" for Him to speak through me. (ie- sitting down to write music when I feel like it). God speaks to me and through me on His own schedule. It almost always happens when writing music is the last thing on my list for the day. Tonight is a perfect example.

I was sitting in the cafeteria, working on my papers. Then a monsoon came down from the sky; I was such hard rain, it was really pouring the rain. The rain subsided for a few minutes and I ran back to my dorm room. I was in no mood to play music; I was wet and ready to just do a little more work and go to bed. But then it just hit me. I just grabbed my guitar and started to play. One phase kept coming out- "Come, Jesus come, we are Yours" Not only did I write a song, I started some more and I finished some that I had been stuck on for months. God just showed up and threw inspiration in my lap. It was amazing, there is really nothing like feeling so connected to God( there is no way that I can take credit for any of the music that came out of me tonight).

A verse that I have come to really love is Psalm 51:15. It says, " O Lord open my lips that my mouth may declare Your praise." That has become my theme verse. I do not want to speak or sing or say anything until God opens my mouth and gives me words to speak. Tonight, God opened my mouth and gave me words, but he also gave me a renewed excitement and a little extra dose of strength to make it through the next few days. Nights like tonight only come once in a while; but when they come, there is no doubt that God is speaking to me.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do in my life in the next few months. I pray that everyone who reads this can at some point experience that kind of inspiration from God; whether it is in music or something else, I hope that you can have times in your life when God just grabs ahold of you and gives you something to say. " Everyone has their own sound, let it out "- from the new Leeland cd.