Arise and Shine
So it was roughly 8 yrs ago when I felt God giving me the nudge to get back in song writing, I say nudge but it was more of body blow, right there and then I had song words flowing back, I hadn't prayed about, I hadn't had a word spoken to me not even a bible verses jump out at me in my daily bible notes, in fact even though I felt in myself my faith was strong (not a Star Wars quote) as I had not stepped away from my Christian faith, but I have to be honest here and say I probably wasn't even reading any daily bible notes at the time.
But here I was setting up what I refer to now as my 'Mancave' making frequent visits to my local music shop, Music Direct, where as it happens my parents took me when I was around 10 yrs old to as it was know then in town, Keys Music Shop, to buy my first organ. Having had a number of years drifting away from playing the organ and song writing, mainly because I didn’t feel it was going anywhere, and the frustration got better of me.
This time I simply said to God, if this what You want me to do, then I'm not going to stop until You say "we're done". Back then (sometime in the late 1990s and early 2000s) few years on after a spell of playing keyboard in a worship band, with friends, and the occasional organ playing in the worship group at church, having written a number of songs I had took what I thought was the next step of doing a demo disc and sending them off in the post, but to no avail. I did get one letter back, I had the opportunity to hand a CD to a worship leader and song writer when they came to Cliff College while I was studying there having taken a year out, following God's call. I heard nothing back.
By now round 2003 Instead of song writing I found myself immersed into a career in working with initially children, then families. A job which I would still say, looking back I fell into totally by accident. Though when God has a plan, God has a plan.
I met my wife to be Wendy on a childcare course and we got married in July 2006, the 29th (just in case she's reading this, I can remember the date lol) and I became part of her family, with her three children, and being called grandad in my 30s is game changer, and privilege especially when your grandson says it for the first time. Now skip to 2018 and times that by 5!! (well almost, our youngest at 10 months he says it with kisses).
Its summer 2011 and I'm in training to run my first of what was to be 5 Manchester 10k runs, after taking up running after having one of them health check were they tell you to exercises more and eat healthier, then being talked into running a 10k (never managed to break the hour mark, though there's still time) as well as building up my hardware and software in the Mancave, I'm not advertising so I won't list the gear I have in my current rig, just to say while I genuinely believe the song writing is a gift from God, I asked and received, (yes it does happen) understanding how to use the software is definitely a continuous learning curve. Btw when I say when God has a plan, God has a plan, how was I to know when my mum and dad asked me if I wanted to learn to play a musical instrument at 10 yrs old, I'd have come straight out and said an Organ, how did I know it would lead to this? Why did I not say, Lead guitar, Drums, Bass or be a singer and play piano like..... from my favourite rock group?
From the start of 2017 I spent some time getting a selection of songs I had written over the past couple of years, to a point where I felt I was happy with them, then began to start work on recording with the plan to produce a CD, with the help of a very good friend. We made good progress, though I felt the songs needed that expert experienced touch. With advice from another Christian singer song writer they put me in touch with Cornerhouse Productions.
It was while at Cornerhouse Productions God showed me how `I'd been stuck at what I felt was my limit, in terms of playing and singing ability, and being reminded that with God there is no limit, and through Him and others that God bring into your life He can breakthrough that limit and take you further.
I recently heard three words spoken at a Christian Conference, Slowly Steadily and... and I knew, that was God saying "that’s you", I might add the word Driftily (if it is a word) that also describes me with God's plan, the third word was Suddenly.
So here I am 27 years on from writing my first tune having had the opportunity to share some of my songs with my church family about to release my first worship album. Is this my Suddenly? Its certainly my Arise and Shine....
Here are some of the bible verses that God has drawn me to along this journey and generally throughout my life, I recommend looking them up for yourself.
Jeremiah ch29 v11-14
Joshua ch1 v9 Proverbs ch3 v5-6
Thanks for taking the time to read my story.
Bless ya, Martin