Well, the new record is out as of yesterday, and I'm really excited to get these songs out there and start playing them in concert.  But to give you a little bit of the backstory on making this record, I'd tell you that not all the songs are new.

"Right in Front Of Me" was recorded for my last record (Trying to Fit the Ocean In A Cup), but when we whittled it down to the final 11 tracks it got booted.  It wasn't that it was a bad song - it's just you can only have so many ballads, so many up-tempo songs, etc, etc.  There can be a lot of weird reasonings on why a song does or does not make a record.

When you love a song but it doesn't make the project, you always say "we'll put it on the next one".  And sometimes you do, and sometimes that song ends up never seeing the light of day.  "Right in Front of Me" almost got the boot again for "Trying To Fit The Ocean In A Cup".  Not because it didn't fit or wasn't good enough, but because I wanted to be sure that I was comfortable with the lyrics.  It's a song about struggling with questions about your faith.

For a long time I thought that asking questions about my faith meant that my faith wasn't very strong.  What I've learned in the last few years, though, is that questioning doesn't mean your faith is weak.  Questioning means you take your faith seriously.  It means you want to know why you believe what you believe.  The Bible says that "you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13), and part of seeking is asking questions.  The scriptures also say that God's presence is made clear by the things that He has made (Romans 1:20), and so if you are truly seeking, He will reveal Himself to you.

So ask questions.  But don't stop there.  Really, really seek the answers.  Read the scriptures.  Pray.  Ask other Christians to help you on your journey.  God is faithful, and He won't let you go.

If you'd like to hear the song (and the rest of the record) you can click here to preview and buy HERE .

Thanks so much for reading.  If you have any thoughts or questions to add, ask away.  This is a conversation, not a speech.

Blessings,

Josh W

Happy Tuesday, my friends.  It’s been a while since I blogged, and a lot has happened in the last few weeks.  The biggest news is that I was married on August 8^th to an amazing gal named Becca.  After the wedding, we honeymooned in California, and then moved all of her stuff from Tulsa to Nashville, where we are now settling in and getting back into a normal routine.

Becca has been traveling with me to concerts for the last couple of weekends, and we had the most amazing experience last Sunday.  It reminded me that there is no such thing as a coincidence.

I played at Dallas Baptist University on Saturday, and shortly before I went on that night, I received a text from my older sister, Rachel.  She told me that she and her husband (Steven) and their daughter (Ellie) were driving by our favorite restaurant in Texas.  This restaurant happens to be a few minutes from where I was playing. They had been gone for the weekend and were driving back to their home in Athens, Texas.  She had no idea I was in the state, and I had no idea they were so close.

Rachel, Steven, and Ellie stopped in to say hello after I played, and they invited Becca and I to drive to Athens that night and stay with them.  We had to change a few plans (find a car, change a flight) but we were able to make it happen.

Sunday morning, Steven asked if I wanted to play a song or two at their church, and I told him I’d love to.  Without thinking too hard about it, I decided to play “Amazing Grace” and “Savior, Please.”  I arrived early and sound checked, just like I always do, and then we sat down and the service started.

What I didn’t know when I chose my songs is that there were about 40 people at the church that morning from an organization called “Prison Entrepreneurship Program” (or PEP for short).  During the service, they shared testimonies of how God had transformed their lives while they were in prison.  PEP is an amazing ministry that helps with the redemption and restoration of those forgotten and shunned by our society.  Their goal is “to be on the front line, diving into the source of the problem and reclaiming the human spirit” (www.pep.org).

I sat in my seat, humbled as I listened to these men speak of how God had rescued them from past lives of assault, theft, money laundering, and murder.  Each one spoke of how God had used PEP to teach them to use their talents and knowledge for building others up instead of tearing them down.  Some of them have been out of prison for over a year, and some for only a few weeks, but they all share one thing in common: they have been forever changed by the grace of our Lord.

When they finished speaking, I walked up to the stage and played my two songs.  It took everything in me not to cry as I looked at these men who were a perfect picture of myself: a great sinner, saved by God’s greater grace.

There is no such thing as a coincidence.  I needed to hear the words of those men of God, just as much as they needed to hear two songs about life-changing grace.

From our perspective, it looks totally random that we ended up in a church in Athens, Texas last Sunday.  From God’s perspective, it’s no surprise at all.  He’s known about that special day since before the world was created.

-JW