In Matthew 6 Jesus tells us how to pray. It’s an awesome piece of the Bible to memorize! The best way to memorize anything is to hear it, speak it and see it… this video is so pretty to watch, you might want to watch it again and again. You will for sure walk away with the verse in your head! The song is called Your Kingdom Come, by Diane Luna. The song is available on iTunes.
I love reading my Year-Through-The-Bible. There’s something for each day, and somebody ‘else’ schedules the something. This means that if something spoke to me today as I read, I can have confidence that I didn’t manipulate my reading to fit into my plans. It’s usually GOD speaking. In today’s read, in Mark 5, Jesus was just cruising along doing his thing, and comes across a girl who died and needs to come back to life. He goes to her house, goes inside, grabs her hand and says, “ARISE!” Boom, just like that, she’s healed. Yes!!!! That’s my Jesus. I love picturing that scene in my head, and I love that I can reach my hand up to Jesus and he will pull me up to standing. Boom, just like that, I can have His supernatural help. And that is awesomeness for today.
I totally believe God can inspire you through simple obedience to Him. How do I know? It happened to me recently.
First, a little about me. I’m Diane Luna: mother of two tykes, happily-married pastor’s wife, busy worship leader, part time day job worker and full time garage sale forager. I’m also a painter. And… I am a songwriter and a blogger.
How did I manage to pull off making a new album? Settle in, grab a coffee, and I’ll tell you. And while you’re at it, heres a little video I made…
Life has been crazy the last few years. Our two kids arrived unexpectedly out of nowhere (we had been trying for six years), my husband left his day job to become a full-time pastor of a church, and we dug up our roots and relocated. New kids, new ministry, new town, new friends.
In the midst of the “excitement” my prayer life kinda took a back seat. It wasn’t like I had a bad attitude, I just became caught up in work, chores and mommy-do’s.
My first album Rock Everlasting (click to listen/download) came out about six years ago, while we thought we weren’t going to have kids. Surprise… Isaac arrived right smack in the middle of recording everything. He was so cute, his little bundled-up six-week-old self all snuggy on the studio couch during recording days. Love!
Seeing a song go from scribbled bits of paper to moments of beautiful recording has been amazing. Indescribable, really. I toured as much as I could with that first album, even though our life-happenings made touring progressively harder to accomplish. Dragging diaper bag in one hand and guitar case in the other is not very glamorous. Do-able, but not glamorous!
I learned something with that first album. I learned there comes a point when you kinda want to make ANOTHER album. Those old familiar songs might still be new to some folks, but to you they’re just… old. So I recently summoned up my courage and approached my hubby: “Babe I really want to do another album.” Want to know what he said?
In that low, steady voice that I adore, I heard these words:
“Do you have songs?”
I can’t remember how I hedged answering that question, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I did NOT have songs. I just had scattered piles of ideas.
My thoughts went a little something like this: “How can you expect me to finish songs while pulling THIS schedule? Come on, just say yes for now, I’ll figure it out.” But my hubby in all his wisdom cut straight to the chase: To make an album, I needed songs.
I’ll not kid you, our schedule is definitely challenging. Any of you who have children will nod to this: it’s entirely impossible to get it ALL done. You have to let things go. You might get the little ones to school on time, but maybe your bills are a day late or the fridge is running on empty. You just choose your priorities for that day, and shuffle the rest. At least that’s what we do in our house. It works, and we have a blast. All is good.
But adding another project in? Oh so hard. I had NO idea when I’d make time for working on songs. In my sleep maybe? My new-album balloon deflated at the thought. But something inside me wanted to try.
Well, one can only keep their prayer-life in the back seat for so long… and conviction came deep to my heart. I knew that God had been wooing me to Himself. To spend MORE time with Him. To linger over the scriptures like I did when I was younger. To talk with Him about my goings-on. To include him in my stress level. To become a better wife. A better mom.
I wasn’t sure how I was gonna do it, but I decided in my heart I was gonna do it.
Enter… the alarm clock.
It is as simple as this. I began to drag myself out of bed an hour early, and zombie down the hall to my pre-designated quiet-time spot. Or “psot” as my two year old daughter affectionately calls it. I had my year-thru-the-bible permanently placed on the table, a little throw-blanket, my iPhone with prayer list, and my wonderful hubby who gets up earlier than I and makes the coffee. Wakie wakie! I made a commitment and have stuck with it since.
And here’s the best part of the story:
Does anyone else’s mind wander during prayer? Or is it just me. I had this new commitment to spending God-time, and I was doing it (just about) every day before the kids woke up. Awesome! But I kept getting DISTRACTED by bits of songs I would hear in my head as I read the scriptures. So, as every good songwriter dutifully attempts, I would STOP and write the ideas down right then. I never could quite focus. And I felt guilty for straying from plan.
…it took me a while to realize… that WAS the plan.
Duh. Hello! God hadn’t wasted time rewarding me for committing to Him. He rewarded me HUGE… with songs, and songs. In less than three months, I had a whole stack of finished drafts to play for a producer friend to see what he thought. (He loved them by the way.) This after like a four year dry spell! And not only did I have a stack of songs, the songs had distinct vision and direction as a group. They were like this little bundle of gifts from God. Which were designed by Him to become an album.
Enter… the album title: Everything is Good.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17
This new album? Sounds WAY better than I ever dreamed.
Coincidence? Not at all…
Still praying? yes I am.
Are YOU?
Have you ever had an embarrassing moment? Mine was at the Summer Concerts outdoor event at Horizon Valley Center a couple years ago. I was super stoked to play with Ricky, producer for the Rock Everlasting album, and also to share the stage with Ian Galleghar and the Dance Floor Prophets. I love outdoor evangelism, it’s so amazing to watch God work on people’s hearts. And I like the loud sound systems too! So I get up there, begin a beautiful song, and this fly starts buzzing me. It went in my nose, buzzed my armpit, my eyes… I totally flubbed. I actually had to start the song over. Howwwww embarrassing! Everything turned out alright but I was humbled. And at the end of the day, after all the great bands… it was the clown with the Gospel Puppet Show who truly made an impact. SO many kids raised their hands and wanted to know Jesus! A good humbling is necessary now and then, to keep things in perspective. God is in control, and He will always do good things, no matter if we flub, or not. And at the end of the day… I was totally encouraged to keep on keepin’ on, despite when there are flies in my armpit.
I had the most wonderful time recently with my son’s preschool teacher. I noticed something special about her the moment I met her two years ago. And with relationship over time, invites to our church events… genuine friendship… we reached the grand finale: I got to pray with her one night to invite Jesus into her heart. We spent hours looking at bible verses, giggling about life, shedding tears of repentance for sin. She left my house with a smile on her face, bible in hand, one of my CD’s… ready to rock-and-roll for Christ. I am so grateful that God would let me be a part of His plan for her life. And, I am encouraged to keep making friends… even the teachers need Jesus!
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven… it’s called the Lord’s Prayer. The rest of it is spelled out in the Bible. Recently I led worship for The CC Escondido women’s retreat, and Cathy Dickinson was taking us through the Lord’s Prayer. A few of the gals were asking me if I could play the Lord’s Prayer hymn. Well, me not being raised on hymns, I honestly had no idea how to play it. Feeling somewhat inadequate as a worship leader, I spent some time in my room Saturday writing my OWN Lord’s prayer song. It was pretty cool, just came flowing out in about 20 minutes of writing. Then another half hour or so of practice and the song was ready to go. I decided to play it at our Saturday night session, and even though it wasn’t the hymn they wanted, at least I was able to give them something! The coolest part of the whole thing… the new song actually turned out pretty good, and will be featured on my next album coming soon. Yay! Who knows, maybe it will be the next Lord’s Prayer Hymn.
Taken from my journal in 2007:
Yesterday morning John and I went to the publishing facility to pick up my CD’s, brand new and hot off the presses. Of course we had to celebrate at Starbucks! Over chai lattes and one shared blueberry scone, we took off the plastic wrap and opened the very first CD. Musing over the graphics, so pretty, I noticed that the songs are listed in the wrong order on the back. Ugh, a beautiful moment ruined. Well, most people won’t notice, I guess. But such a huge error!
Then it was ‘bye to sweet hubby, and off to my day job. Excited to have an album out, wishing I didn’t still have to work, and then my phone rang. It was John, and his dad had died. Dad had been in the hospice facility, daily wasting away from the cancer, and we had been waiting for this moment. But, why on the day of the CD? So bittersweet this day was turning out.
The family gathered in dad’s room at the hospice facility. Much sadness, much laughter, as we recounted memories. Then we all went over to mom’s, who also has cancer. She’s not doing super good, she’s sad, kinda mad, and really worried about her future. My heart went out to her. A few hours later, I left to make the hour drive home and take care of my kid. Of course, I was rear-ended by an uninsured motorist. Who was a college age girl, begging me not to tell the police, and assuring me that she would pay for the damage on the side. Right!
Why do people have to get cancer? Why do I have to get rear-ended? Why do things always seem to go wrong? I don’t have the answers to the “why’s” of life. But I do know that God loves me, and I Him. What a RELIEF! That crazy day a couple years ago, when John’s dad died, I realized how much bigger God is than my troubles. And I was so relieved to have God in my life… always taking care of me :)
Oswald Chambers, verse for today: ”Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8
Chambers goes on to say, “God did not address the call to Isaiah, Isaiah overheard God saying, “who will go for us?” The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God’s call depends uponthe state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition.” And he ends with, “If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we to shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, “here am I; send me.”
Aren’t we glad that Oswald Chambers said, “Here am I,” to God?
Taken from my journal:
ROMANS 3:20,21 (PARAPHRASED) THEREFORE BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW NO FLESH WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT. FOR BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN. …THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD APART FROM THE LAW IS REVEALED… ON ALL WHO BELIEVE FOR THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. FOR ALL HAVE SINNED… BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS.
There’s that word, justified. So we’re not Justified by doing the “deeds” of the law, but by grace. Thank you Jesus! ”Lord, please forgive me for being lazy and slack regarding your instructions. Just because I’m under grace doesn’t mean I have an excuse for my sin, and freedom to not make an effort. Please help me to be strong, and to keep doing what is right.”
Here we are, the “chick band” as we used to call ourselves. Oh how I loved doing music with Michelle and Jen. And oh how I loved Horizon San Diego Women’s Ministry! What can I say about Sandy MacIntosh? She is beautiful, sweet, wise, intelligent… and a fabulous bible teacher! The four years I spent as worship leader there were spent just soaking it all in. The funny thing is, when I started I didn’t even LIKE women’s ministry. I came reluctantly, invited by a friend. Boy, I’m glad I gave it a chance! Especially now, as a pastors wife myself, having flown the coop so to speak… I am forever grateful for everything I learned from Sandy, Alison, and all the others. And oh… how I loved wearing short blonde hair :)
