found songs, Lent and first love

Hi friend, well, we had a bumpy start to the year, but we're so glad to be back with you again.

As you may know, five years ago we scrambled to find a potentially safe place to live. We left most everything behind in our house due to our intense hypersensitivity to mycotoxins—our kryptonite. What you don't know is, after moving into our new apartment, our symptoms got worse. And continued to get worse. And we were helping my momma battle stage IV lung cancer. We were in survival mode. Everything else was pushed aside.

So, it wasn't until a few years after our move that we realized we may have lost the recordings of some of our original songs. This included scratch tracks and demos of songs that had been performed live, but never "officially" recorded, fragments of new song ideas and new song demos never released. Thirty years worth.

With trepidation we started the search. And thankfully we have found many of them. Big sigh of relief.

So, what does this have to do with Lent?

We were watching a live event where Ruth Haley Barton, from the Transforming Center, was helping us prepare our hearts for Lent. It was exactly what our souls needed.

Part way through her talk, Greg and I looked at each other with that are-you-sensing-what-I'm-sensing? look. It was slowly dawning on us that Greg's most recent "found" song, First Love—a soul cry—expresses what Ruth was unpacking around the scripture verse in Joel 2 that the song was built around.

Finding this song just weeks before experiencing Ruth's talk, felt like a quiet, loving wink from Jesus.

We hope what follows is a companion for your soul as you travel through Lent.

Here are a few brief excerpts from her talk:

"...the desert wilderness is a place of returning to God. In the Old Testament in particular, we see it as a place of intimacy with God. We see it as a place of an exchange of love... Joel 2, which is one of the main verses for Ash Wednesday inviting us into Lent, says,

"Yet even now, says the Lord, return to Me with all your hearts..." Joel 2:12a

...the wilderness is a place of hiddenness. It's a place of privacy for us and God together...

...Lent invites us as leaders into more hiddenness...that perhaps we don't often allow ourselves in the public nature of our lives...

...this practice of hiddenness...of entering into the wilderness, of returning to God with all of our hearts in that private place...where very intimate things can take place... has a way of prioritizing our intimate relationship with God.

...God is inviting us...actually wooing us to Himself...God is longing for us to respond to Him like we responded to Him in our youth, like we responded to Him when we first came to know Him."©Ruth Haley Barton

Corinne and I invite you to quiet your soul and "unbusy" your mind as you listen to the song, First Love.

FIRST LOVE Lyrics

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"Yet even now, says the Lord, return to Me with all your hearts..." Joel 2:12a

Maybe you feel like you've lost touch with God a bit. Maybe you've felt Him in your quieter moments calling you in your inner being. Maybe you haven't known what to do with that sense, but it was too strong to write off or ignore.

No matter what circumstance you're in. No matter what story you're living. No matter what your pain is. He knows. Even if you feel you're still a long way off from Him. He's waiting for you with wide open arms. Loving you. And He'll never walk away.

Jesus, I know You're wonderfully patient and kind. Navigate my way. Illuminate my path as I take trusting steps to return to You with all my heart. May it be so. Amen

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Here's a link to the full episode of Ruth Haley Barton's Strengthening the Soul Of Your Leadership Podcast Episode: Bonus: Preparing for Lent | Fashioning Your Own Desert https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-preparing-for-lent-fashioning-your-own-desert/id1214483830?i=1000645298526

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With much love, Greg & Corinne