I still hear Christian artists singing about “the mansion waiting for me along a street of gold just beyond a pearly gate.” It is a picture I am only beginning to understand…a picture I think I have misunderstood for too long.
Earlier this year I walked the streets of Thessaloniki, Greece with students who were sharing [...]

Pain is not the enemy. Comfort is not your friend. I wish I could remember now where I read these ideas. (Maybe some of you can identify the source.) They’ve begun to echo in my mind in recent days and I’ve decided it is time I learn to make friends with pain. It’s seems counter-intuitive [...]

As a band we search for ways to endure the crazy hours and miles of this glamorous life on the road. Two new obsessions have overtaken us this summer. I discovered that our new bass player David had never seen a single episode of the ABC series, LOST. I decided that was tragedy so [...]

I was asked this week to make a list of the songs I wish I’d written. You know, like “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “Achy Breaky Heart.” The girls asking the question were thinking about those million-selling mega-hits that people are still singing decades after their release.
I sat at a stop light in Nashville [...]

I was surprised by the question; it came out of nowhere; four guys swapping small talk over sandwiches. Paul, sitting across from me in the noisy Nashville deli, isn’t sure he believes “all this stuff about Jesus” yet but Easter has the cross on everyone’s mind. I think Paul posed the question not because he [...]

I’ve had car troubles again 3 times this week. I suppose the troubles are less with the car and more with my ego. I’ll admit something risky here…I own a Lexus SUV. As I was pulling into a show last weekend a woman from the church came out to greet and us and immediately said, [...]

We’re in rural Georgia today with a bunch of students from a Christian school. Early this morning as we were loading in gear I walked right through a giant spider web. It was thick as thread and stretched out between three different trees. People always talk about how beautiful spider webs are but the dude [...]

My friend Jacob posed an interesting question Saturday. Who’s the better athlete, Michael Phelps or Michael Jordan? Like most of us, I have an Olympic fever of 102 degrees. I have loved watching Phelps pull speed from deep inside. I held my breath while Dara Torres pulled and scraped across the pool. I laughed out [...]

It was about 2AM when the real conversation started. Not my favorite time to be awake. I’m more of a 2 PM guy. Sometimes it just takes a while to wade through all the shallow water and get to a place of rich deep truth.
I was sharing a room with our drummer on this trip [...]

The earth shook today. I was definitely rattled both emotionally and spiritually today but I mean the earth ACTUALLY SHOOK. My first earthquake. A 6.0 aftershock in Western China.
I finished singing at a little college in the mountains of Western China and have driven back into the bustling city of Chengdu. With a few moments [...]