This is THIS weekend, folks. You'll be hard pressed to find this kind of lineup all FREE of charge ($10 donation suggested to go toward the cause)! Absolutely all proceeds go to the benefit of cancer research in memory of local musician, Da...nny Hiser, for whom the festival honors. Please help spread the word by sharing this event and then make plans to come on out and enjoy an amazing time, all while supporting live music and the war on cancer. Meer weergeven

These times are hard. Many years ago, only just more than ten, there was this morning that I'll fight to preserve until my last breath. It was on that morning that, after years of filling the ache of empty arms with goals and tick marks, I ...could tell Jason I was pregnant. We'd celebrated 5 years of marriage together by then; we'd mourned the loss of one child that gave me physical aches for another. "After law school," we told ourselves. However rational the reasoning, the waiting was torture at times. But that morning, the waiting was over. Our Sweet Love had arrived. I danced around our small Knoxville apartment. I sang to the dog and got his 85 pounds of dumb lug lab all riled up. Celebrating what? He didn't know and he didn't care. He knew this was a special occasion and we hugged. I climbed into my car to go to work that morning and just before I turned the key to start the engine, I thought, "Make a mental note of the first song you hear. It will be special." "Hurting brings my heart to you, A Fortress in the storm/When what I've wrapped my heart around is gone," the voices sang. The closing song on an AKUS CD that had been in my player for weeks by then played through the January cold. "There is a reason for it all," I sang along.

It wasn't long before our joy turned to terror when complications peeked back up at me. Doctors were called, emergency visits were made, ultrasounds showed us the bad news and the good news. The good news: we still had a healthy and growing baby with a strong heartbeat. The bad news: there had been a twin who, for whatever reason, wasn't strong enough to grow anymore. Call it mommy's intuition, but I'd known all along I had two babies and it was a bittersweet blow to know that one had survived, but one had not. "I'm sorry," the doctor said as she explained. I looked at her, then the floor, then at the little black and white image they'd given me. I saw the tiniest little baby there. And I saw one empty home where a baby had once been. "There is a reason," seemed to whisper in my ear from nowhere. I looked around and realized no one had said that, but in my mind, I heard the song being played. "Why do we suffer crossing off the years? There must be a reason for it all." I suddenly knew why God was playing that song for me so many mornings ago. I knew why He told me to make a note of the first song I heard. I've worked through much, much grief with that song on my lips.

It was written by Ron Block. At the time, I knew him as the guy who played banjo for a band I'd neglected for years, but skyrocketed to the top of my list after seeing them live in the early 2000's. I began to get to know more songs he'd written and was being changed by them in a lot of ways, in ways that I thought and understood God to be. I can't remember now when I did it, but one day I found Ron on My Space and, on a whim, decided I wanted to send him a message telling him how his song "There Is A Reason" was used in my life. I figured he didn't likely operate that profile, but maybe would be shown my message since it would be an encouragement to his songwriting. Within hours of me sending it, I had this lengthy and sincere reply from Ron. I was absolutely floored. From that exchange came a few more, an invitation to participate in his blog discussions, to visit an online community where he was a contributor called The Rabbit Room, and not long afterward, an opportunity to go to Galax and hear him perform. I'd been to several AKUS shows by then, but this was to be him with a band he'd assembled himself doing tunes from his two solo records (of which I had one at the time). I finally met him face to face, introduced him to Jason and Elijah, we talked for a really long while and he gave me Godly, music, and parenting advice, then he gave me his CD I didn't yet have.

Over the years, my family has come to count Ron as one of the best people God ever gave us. He has been one of Elijah's most favorite men since Elijah was just a toddler unable to properly pronounce his name ("I know who you awe; you'we Juan Bwock," he told him once). And it was through Ron that I've met some of my most cherished and Godsent friends, friends who, like Ron, have impacted how I relate to God and my own self, and who have impacted how I parent my children toward their own eternities. That's so huge.

These times are hard. Again, I find myself in a heart-wrenching struggle to accept things I can't change. I'm sad. Sadness can't be avoided at times. We walk through it and feeling it until it breaks is the only way to get through to the other side of it. What I'm not is hopeless. I think back on that morning when I listened to a song that then God used to mend a breaking heart, to bring a friend into my life who brought more friends into my life who all have said, "This is Christ in your life; this is the enemy in your life," and have changed me and they have made me a better parent. Our sacrifice to get that was experiencing the life we lost access to for a time (for they are not lost to us forever). It's a blessing as a mother to know these lives we grieve and mourn and miss every day will never knows these pains and heartaches we suffer. Today, I am so very heartsore and I'm weary of sin that takes and takes and takes. But I hope in the Lord and He renews my strength. And He tells me still, "There is a reason for it all."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKXi7Q6OFjI Meer weergeven