Cornerstone 2010

Cornerstone is over. I have no idea how I am as tired as I am, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired before. At least, I’ve been sitting here thinking about whether or not I have been this tired before, but I’m too tired to figure it out, so I don’t know if I’ll ever know. Here are some of my favorite things about this year, for anyone that gives a crap, but mostly for me, cause who really gives a crap?

• Watching Hands play at the Underground Stage because they’re amazing and they play good, fun, rock and roll, and it’s nice to watch a band that smiles a lot and looks like they’re having fun jamming with their friends. (Also, I’m still getting a sleeve on my right arm based off of their song, “Hope”.)

• Getting to see all of my friends at Solace Venues, and getting to talk/pray with Josh Evans about life and love and change and decisions and the irony what it is that God does with the things we think he can’t do anything with.

• Getting to watch my beautiful girlfriend’s face light up when I introduced her to the dudes in Take It Back! That band changed her life, and I’m glad to be their friends.

• Seeing my sister, Kane, Seth, Hunter and a bunch of my good friends from Albuquerque that all road-tripped it up here together.

• Hanging with Doug Van Pelt. My heart swells with excitement when I get to see him. I love/respect him more than a lot of people, and I wish that I could hang out around him more than is possible. His eyes shine with excitement about a good amount of things, and it makes me smile when he’s happy, and horribly sad when I think that he might be sad. There’s a humility and a wisdom that surrounds him, and he leads by example, and there is a good deal that I could and have learned from him.

• Seeing RYFO’s influence on the artists at Cornerstone. They have been such a blessing to us touring folk. I know I’ve said it a million times, and you can be sure that I’ll say it ten thousand more. God is using that ministry for amazing things. It’s amazing what an impact community can make - and what powerful love emanates from it.

• Performing a new poem that I wrote for a dear friend back home. I haven’t ever performed it, but I felt like the Lord put on my heart to share, even though I was scared as crap because it says “fuck” in it. Afterward, I was able to pray with a girl who felt she resonated with the poem. She had been molested as a child and has never been able to get past it, and I hope and pray that the next time she looks at herself in the mirror, she will see a beautiful, restored woman who is fearfully, wonderfully and perfectly made - and that the Holy Spirit would remind her that he is the great physician, a transformer, a hope-restorer.

• Playing with my friends In The Midst Of Lions and White Collar Sideshow. It is amazing to see what growth the ITMOL dudes have been able to see since last year’s Cornerstone. After the show on Thursday night, Matt - the vocalist - came up to me all smiling and shining bright and saying, “DUDE! I crowdwalked!!!” - Haha… I love them. And then, of course, WCS: there is no one like them. I don’t know anyone else in this scene whose lives are such a pure reflection of true transformation by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. They are hands down the most genuine, loving, kindhearted people that I know, and I am horribly sad to have had to say goodbye to them again… hopefully not for long.

• Getting to dance and praise with my girlfriend at the Sleeping Giant set, and to see Veronica (WCS/Faceless Woman) sing with them. We both love those guys so much, and it hasn’t been since last year that we’ve gotten to jam a show of theirs together. It was also really cool to sit in on their question/answer deal at the Come&Live! tent, and to have Chad J kinda probe them with tough questions that really extracted the heart of where the band is at right now. I love them all. They’ve been huge blessings, impacts on and encouragements in my life, and I can’t wait to get to hang with them again.

• Watching my boys in A Hope For Home, Listener, Bradley Hathaway, Onward To Olympas, Take It Back!, The Gun Show, A Plea For Purging, and Archibald.

• Getting my mind completely blown by how many kids even know who the crap I am. I did not expect it at all. It’s an enormously humbling thing. To think that the Lord could use words that I wrote in journals - never to be shared - to resonate in folks’ lives and give them something to relate to and hope for - it’s out of this world. There is absolutely no room for pride whatsoever because, quite frankly, I never wanted this when it all started. I have stage fright, man. Haha. “God will use the foolish things of this world…” I certainly am a fool, and I praise Jesus for his mercy. May he always be the one who stands in front of me during a show. I would rather folk see him before they ever see me at all.

• Being privileged to pray against addiction and hopelessness in people’s lives, and using the verse that my old pastor gave to me countless times - such a beautiful thing: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” - Heb. 4:14-17

• Being completely blown away by Ascend The Hill.

• The sunsets and the stars at night and smoking a cigar with a buddy by the lake and talking about God and growth and what is happening in life.

• Community.

• About five hundred other things.