It's all about connection.  Friends, family, churches, workplaces, you name it.  Perhaps these descriptions will help you to connect to the music more completely? 

These descriptions are based generally on the main melodies or "heads" of the songs.  The solo sections can carry on with the general themes, or expand them in different ways.  The descriptions are meant to convey the personal meanings of the music to the writer, and if it helps you the listener, all the better.  If you disagree, that's alright as well.  Email and let me know what they say to you. 

1.  Flesh & Bone:  The tune is supposed to expose the human condition, and the power of God to touch our circumstances.  He helps us in our fragile state, sometimes with our cooperation and others while we are kicking and screaming.  Sometimes it is a painful process which seemingly puts us out of time.  The journey is full of communication, and the dialogue should not be missed.

 2.  Funky Jacob:  If you read the story of Jacob in the Bible, you will discover that he was in many ways a scoundrel.  However God still used Jacob mightily to achieve His purposes.  He was still, in spite of his many shortcomings, an integral part of the story. 

3.  King Of The Fire:  Another description of God, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from Him.  Fire is used throughout the scriptures to offer images of cleansing, holiness, refinement and purification. 

 4.  Peaceful, Like A Child:  This tune was written while watching my then infant daughter play blissfully.  No cares, no worries, just joy and peace!  Kind of made me think about how we are supposed to view being a new creature in Christ.   

5.  Providence:  When it seems that there is no good solution to the problem, God appears and makes a new way.  Amazing.  Think about finances. 

6.  Hard Place:  This song describes a place where one has come to the end of his rope.  Where he is about to break something, or lose his mind completely.  Things are out of whack slightly and then moreso. 

7.  A Struggle Of Man:  Again to the funkiness of the human condition.  The frustration of not making the grade, or when life does not go in one's intended direction.  A valley.  A Struggle.  God works in theses places, sometimes through the words of another, helping to lift us out of the descending mire and laying something upon our hearts that allows us to reenter the "human mess" more peaceful and able to survive.  Sort of a cyclical spiritual car wash.

8.  Two Words:  This song was written in Williamsburg, VA soon after we found out that we were expecting our first child.  "I'm pregnant!"  So there's this shakiness and uneven bit that happens in your stomach when you find out you are about to become a father.  Moments both beautiful and scary.  Right on the edge of full happiness and full panic.

9.  Habbakkuk's Complaint:  Read the book of Habbakkuk in the Bible.  Habbakkuk complains to God about many things, and God responds.  This tune was written about the time the war in Iraq was beginning.  Interesting that the old story involved ancient Babylon, which is thought by many scholars to be part of modern Iraq.