Because Of Your Love

Jesus You endured my pain
Savior You bore all my shame
All because of Your love


Maker of the universe
Broken for the sins of the earth
All because of Your love


Because Of Your cross my debt is paid
Because of Your blood my sins are washed away
Now all of my life I freely give
Because of Your love
Because of Your love I live

song by Phil Whickham / posted by Rich

Surviving Tragedy

Texting is the in-thing. I resisted it for as long as I could, but I now find myself txtg my bff 4ever back 4rth all day. And last Saturday I received one of those texts you hope you’ll never get. 

  From Bethany : We got in an accident on 190…it was not my fault. Think we r all ok. Cops here.

I rushed away from my job to meet my wife and 3 little kids on the shoulder of the highway. Our minivan was completely smashed in the front. Thankfully everyone was ok aside from a few bumps and bruises and we got them safely home.

For the next 48 hours, every time I prayed with my kids we thanked God that everyone in our family was still alive and not hurt. It was such an emotional experience as I realized how close I was that day to losing my family.

Sometimes it takes a survived tragedy to realize how our lives are utterly and completely in God’s hands. In the end we have very little control of what happens to us. God not only creates us and redeems us to new life…each and every breath come from Him.

I’m naturally a very controlling person so it takes big things like this for me to realize that I’m not in control -- He is. Sunday’s message was about living according to God’s plan (not your own) in order to give Him all the glory. After this weekend I’m even more convinced that there is no other way but His. It is my desire that my life and my family bring glory to God, the one who has granted us life yet again!


- Rich

Not Leading Worship

It’s very rare, much more than I realized.  Today I did something that I haven’t done in over a year.  I went to church with my family.  And it's the best thing I could have done.

The reality is that every single week for longer than I can track, I've been leading worship on Sundays.  Every week I come early to church.  Every week I finalize details and rehearse before the service.  Every week I mentally gear up to give my all to the worship.  And every Sunday morning I don't get to be much of a dad.  Today was remarkably refreshing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It was the whole week’s experience, really.  Every other week I’m thinking about songs in my head, analyzing every little detail.  The musicians, the dynamics, the transitions, the length, the spiritual takeaway, tying it together with the whole service -- all of these things consume my thinking.  And this week I got to lay it all down.  And the world continued to spin on it’s access successfully without me!

The biggest takeaway for me was to relax.  Chill out.  Lay back.  And trust in God.  The words of Ecclesiates 2:22-23, as depressing as they are, ring true when “getting the job done” is deified as an end in itself.

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

- Rich