Seasons
It’s crazy how life changes. It’s also crazy how time seems to keep going faster and faster. You grow up listening to old people talk about how time flies. Then all of the sudden you are an old person. Well, 31 years young anyway. All I know is the last three years of my life have been pretty wild.
About three years ago I was sitting on a tour bus in Arizona playing a show at a school called Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
All things considered it was a normal show day with Kutless. However, by the end of the day I found myself talking with a representative about possibly attending GCU’s online program. Little did I know at that point that the next three years would include far more changes than simply going back to school. As I started my GCU program, an attempt to complete my BA degree, along with two of my Kutless bandmates, I had no clue what I was stepping into.
I was nervous, excited, and completely unaware that massive changes were on the horizon.
Over the course of the next three years, as I continued to press on in my studies I changed careers, started my own full time graphic design business, became a co-founder in a startup company, oh and my wife and I also had a baby :), my amazing son Amos Henry. Never in a million years would I imagine that I would go back to school, let alone that the school process would take place during one of the most challenging seasons of my entire life.
However, as we all see through challenges in our lives, the results that only the fire’s of life can produce are indescribable.
Through the challenges of the last few years I have seen the reality of God’s presence in my life like never before as I have been pressed to likewise cling to Him like never before.
But every time I hit a wall, I was lifted up and over it (or sometimes I would just punch the wall, like when my wife and I weren’t sleeping during the first few months of parenthood). Speaking of my wife, she has been the strongest supporter through this crazy season. Giving up family Saturday mornings so I could finish essays every week, standing firm while I threw algebra books across our kitchen table and wanted to give up, you know… that kind of support. Not to mention she hardly flinched when I told her I felt like God was telling me to leave the band and start my own business. It’s this kind of support that was so necessary for me in this season.
As I submitted my final assignment for my degree about a week ago, and logged out of my final class for the final time I couldn’t help but flash back and realize how God has blessed me and my family over the last few years. I have been stretched further and challenged harder than I ever have but God has carried me through and allowed me to gain invaluable new knowledge of His Word through my degree program in Christian Studies, and even more importantly,
He has revealed His faithfulness in ways that I never could have experienced without taking the leaps of faith He called me to in the last three years.
I would love to quickly encourage any of you who are considering going back to school or finishing a degree online to check out GCU. I have never been a “school guy,” but man, this program was absolutely perfect for me. Even in the midst of the many massive life-changes that have occurred, the GCU online process was flexible and exactly what I needed to finish my degree.
Today, I am about to hop on a plane to Phoenix to return to the very arena where this journey started years ago at GCU. This time to participate in celebration of the completion of my degree alongside my 18-month old son and my wife (who I’m pretty sure is even more excited for school to be done than anyone). As I complete this season, all I know is that we are all more capable than we know if we are willing to follow God’s lead in our lives and to let Him be our strength. My time at GCU has reassured me of this truth. And if I never even gained a degree, my time here was worth it for that realization alone.
Thanks to my family and to GCU for supporting me through this amazing journey.
Let’s party.
