I’m Still Alive…And…
Yes. I am still alive.
I just got back from a week at the beach in Destin, Florida with my family. It was very nice and I actually got away with staying off Facebook, my blog and Twitter for the most part (however, I snuck a few Tweets in occasionally).
Today is July 4 and I am looking forward to enjoying being around friends and family. Holidays and fun days just don’t mean anything without friends and family around to share it with. I’ll also be cramming in a little homework somewhere in the day. This assignment I have to get done before I go out of town…AND it’s the last assignment due in one of summer classes…which means I’ll be done with one of my summer classes! I hope to knock out another one while in Texas.
Oh, by the way…I’m going to be in Texas for the next 11 days or so with Chris Orr. We’re doing 3…yes, three…Student Life kids camps. I’m excited about doing kids camps…they’re just so different and pure fun. And I’m looking forward to working with the Student Life team again. Please be praying for our drummer, Kirk. He’s gotten extremely sick and possibly might not get to go out with us to these camps…he needs a lot of prayer.
The house is coming along. We’ve been painting the majority of the house and it’s really starting to look good. I’m hoping a lot more progress is made while I’m out of town. A month until we move in…couldn’t be more excited.
I’ve started tossing around the thought of getting a dog. Hannah has talked about wanting to get one for a while, but the more I’ve looked into it, the more I’ve fallen in love with Boston Terriers. I want to wait until I move into my house and I’m not for sure about if or when I’ll get a puppy, but we’ll see…
I’ve gotten a few people asking me to go through my gear via video. I’m going to start doing that, hopefully on this next outing. And also, Chris Orr Band has a YouTube Channel now. You can check it out here! We’re going to try to post how to play songs and answer any questions about song meanings and what not as much as we can. Go subscribe to our videos and ask us some questions!
Hope all is well with each of you! Thanks for reading!
Fame Redefined
Like most of you, I was blown away by the news of Michael Jackson’s death. Just earlier that day, I was singing one of his songs. And this is not a rare thing. His music is some of the stuff that I have probably sang daily since I was a young fellow. My freshman year in college, I purchased his Number Ones record on iTunes. Since then, I constantly find myself listening to classics like Billie Jean, Beat It, Man in the Mirror and Black and White (all some of my favorites). It’s hard for me to stop, every single one of the songs on that record (and many others) are incredible and difficult for me to not include in my list of favorites.
I can only imagine what it was like when Elvis Presley passed away, but I have a feeling it was very similar to this. I would definitely rank Michael Jackson up there with Elvis and the Beatles in changing music forever in the past century. Although I cannot defend any of Michael’s actions later in the life, his music and dance moves will forever affect the world, and for that I am so thankful.
I remember hearing about Matt Redman feeling like the Spirit was leading him to sing “You are not Alone” during the set one night. After battling with doing or not, he finally ended with it acoustically. He sang, “You are not alone, for I am here with you. Though we’re far apart, you’re always in my heart. You are not alone.” Of course the Spirit was moving and many people needed to hear that God was with them. It’s amazing how God can and has already used Michael and his music for His own glory.
I could quickly talk about how eye-opening it is that life can be so short and change so suddenly, but I don’t think that’s necessary as it’s really on all of our minds. But I have some other thoughts about this…check out this video below before reading on…
What worship. What adoration. We are so quick to give our worship to superstars like Michael, but are so hesitant about giving it to our Creator. How amazing would it be if our worship was like this?
Even beyond this thought, I enjoyed reading Steve’s Twitter thought on Thursday night: “The ‘King of Pop’ stands before the ‘King of Glory’ today…Fame redefined.”
Fame Redefined.
Imagine the King of Pop receiving worship like in that video, now standing before the King of Glory. The King of All.
That’s Fame Redefined.
It’s Happening
I’m in the green room backstage at First Baptist Church Woodstock high school camp. It’s been a very interested weekend coming into the week. I got a total of 45 minutes of sleep the night before driving to Panama City Beach. Always a good idea…
The week has been great so far. We’ve gotten to hang out with some cool students and old friends. It’s hard to see a door close and know that a season of your life is over, and I definitely miss leading worship every Wednesday night for FBCW. But it’s also very refreshing to get to be with the leaders and students again. We’ve had way too much fun and laughs, and feel like God is doing some cool stuff. Chris Coleman has done a great job leading worship and Pete Hixson from Vinings Lake Church is bringing the Word and God’s been using him to speak to me. It’s almost a little selfish but my prayer this week has been for the Lord to start with me. Start working on my heart and use me to work on others. So far I think it’s working…
Tonight we play for the middle school too…it’s going to be packed and awesome. Looking forward to that…
So the summer has begun. It’s actually happening. From here, I’ll head out to Alabama and then to New Mexico. I know I’ve said this a lot, but I’m really looking forward to this summer.
I think I’m going to go back to the room and take a nap…I got a little too much sun yesterday, so I guess I need to be more careful today.
“Life Light Up” – Christy Nockels
I got my pre-ordered copy of Life Light Up by Christy Nockels today. I’m super pumped about this record because it’s Christy’s first work since Watermark days. I’ve always been a huge fan of her voice, but this is quite the album.
There are some new songs and some that you might recognize (”Marvelous Light”, “Hosanna”), but this collection of songs has a great musical sound, accompanied with Truth in the lyrics. Her husband, Nathan, did a great job with the production! And I love the artwork! The title track “Life Light Up” is still one of my favorite new songs. We used part of the pre-chorus as the theme to Hannah’s mom’s memorial service stating, “I may live and I may die, either way you’re glorified…” What a line! It really hits home with me…
I would not be surprised to start seeing more women leading worship in church to sing these songs, or the men trying to transpose them to get to sing them. A lot of times we get so used to men leading worship and caught up in the “woman’s position in the church.” Without getting into all of that on this post, I think that something has to be said about Christy’s gift in writing and leading worship. I’m excited to worship to these songs, both in my car and in the church. This is an excellent record and a fresh take on worship music and women leading.
Get it on iTunes here for only $7.99!
Pre-Summer Blues
What is there to be sad about when it comes to summer, right? I realized this weekend that I leave next Monday morning for my first camp of the summer. With the exception of being home for a few hours before the second camp, I’ll be gone for about two weeks. The first leg is Panama City, Florida (with Chris Coleman), Talladega, Alabama and Glorietta, New Mexico (with Chris Orr).
I guess I should be thankful that I have a few weeks off, but it will be weird to go hard for a few weeks, then back off for a few and then go hard again (reminds me of the intervals we used to run in track and cross country). One thing that has been awful is figuring out that I have a week to get done the things I need to get done. The worst part is finding out all the things I have to buy to get ready for the summer (new suitcase, new clothes, strings, cables, smaller pedalboard, etc…) and having to pay for it all.
I’m really looking forward to summer and traveling and playing, but also to get past having to spend all this money.
Quick Update
I feel awful for going a week without updating my blog. But I wanted to give a quick update about what’s going on and what’s coming up:
- The memorial service for Rhetta went really well. It’s amazing to see how many people came and showed their support and love for the family and Rhetta. Thanks to everyone who came out!
- Hannah’s Relay raising money for Relay For Life in honor of her mom. It’s been really cool to see everyone’s support of her through that, and how it all worked out even though she started before her mom passed away. Check out Hannah’s RFL Page here.
- Kris Allen won American Idol…called that one again! I should give Hannah some credit, since she convinced me early on (I think she liked him for his looks a little more than his voice though). So excited for him…check out this video too.
- On Friday morning, Hannah and I drove down to Jekyll Island to spend some time with her family. Her mom wanted her ashes scattered over Jekyll so we got to spend some time doing that…and having fun too. Unfortunately we had to come back Saturday night so I could play on Sunday, but it was still a great time!
- Sunday night I got to play at Ashley Jones’ CD Release in Kennesaw. As I mentioned earlier, Ashley and I have played together a while, but it was also really cool to play with the same band that used to lead worship for the high school every Wednesday night at church through my high school years (minus Katherine and Kenny). It was like the student band all over again…
- After playing, I met up with some friends to go camping for Darren’s bachelor party. We started this tradition for Ty’s bachelor party to go camping. Bachelor parties can be kind of awkward…what does a Christian bachelor party look like? But we had a good time…
- Today I worked at the house for a little while. It’s really coming along, slowly but surely. The sheet rock is all done and the cabinets will go in soon, followed by some tiling. Somewhere in between, we’ve got to pick some paint colors and start going to town painting it. Can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s done.
- Then went over to the Dennard’s for a little party. It was really good getting to hang out with some of my best friends and I’m really looking forward to living with Kyle in the fall.
- This week is somewhat busy…we’ll see how it goes.
- My brother, Nick, graduates on Saturday. He’s going to go Southern Poly and work to become an architect…pretty cool. I’m so stinkin’ proud of him!
Rhetta Watts Funeral Arrangements
Visitation will be from 4-9pm tonight (Monday) at Parnick Jennings Funeral Home (430 Cassville Road, Cartersville, GA 30120).
The funeral will be at 2 pm tomorrow (Tuesday) at Cartersville First Baptist Church (241 Douthit Ferry Road, Cartersville GA 30120).
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in honor of Rhetta to Hannah’s Relay for Life team. Details can be found here.
About Nathan
I think there’s probably a lot that I could say. After living as myself for about twenty one years, you get to know yourself. However, I’ll stick to the basics…
I’m a full-time student at Atlanta Christian College studying Biblical Studies with a minor in Student Ministry. I like music a lot. I play guitar at different churches, shows and events as a contract musician and play with a few bands (see my Links page).
I’d like a XXX Vitamin Water or Dr. Pepper to drink, or maybe a sweet tea (I mean…I am from the South). I’m a Mac guy and will always be. Organization is vital to most of anything that I do and I thoroughly enjoy making lists (especially if it’s on a 3×5 notecard or a Post-It). I live off my iPhone now…it’s wherever I am. I like to read many books, especially stuff from C.S. Lewis, John Piper, and Andy Stanley (Nerd? I think not…).
I am on the MySpace world as well as Facebook, but I’m on Twitter a whole lot now too.
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Pics From My iPhone
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