Shane and Shane

Tonight was the Shane Barnard and Shane Everett concert at Riverstone and let me tell you, it was amazing! Those guys are incredible. Their voices are superb and Shane Barnard is insane on the acoustic guitar. They did Vision of You as an opener and I could have left after that song and it would have been worth it! But I sucked it up and stayed the rest of the show. I know, it was a tough call to stay! It was their "Christmas Tour" so they winged some Christmas classics. And when I say wing, I mean wing. A few of the songs they had to stop and start over, or they didn't know some of the words of the verses. To me, that's what makes a musician, artist or a worship leader great. They have enough humility and vulnerability to show that they are human and make some mistakes, but at the same time point their lives, their hearts and their music upward towards heaven. This was made even more clear after the show when I got the chance to talk to both Shanes. They are such nice and humble people. They are the epitome of David's heart of humility. When David went before King Saul before he defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17), he was confident in his ability and giftings given to him by God, but continually called himself "your servant."

Humility is one of the hardest characteristics to develop. There are 2 misconceptions on humility. Number one, "we have this humility thing in the bag," and two, "we make ourselves out to be nothing." The latter is what is commonly called "false humility." We need to be confident in our skills and abilities, but we need to take hold of and walk by the truth that it is only by and through God's grace that we have those things. So how do we develop and maintain this life of humility? First you need to focus on God's grandness and on the incommunicable aspects of His character (omnipotent, omniscient, uncreated, etc). You look at the stars and galaxies and how vast they are, but in one passing sentence in Genesis He spoke those into existence. Second, invest in obscurity. Be a "behind-the-scenes" person; look to serve! Thirdly, delight when others are blessed and/or when doors are opening for other people. We have to make sure the jealous root doesn't go deeper. We cannot have the attitude of, "Why is that person being blessed am I'm not?" or "Why did that person get chosen and I didn't?" The jealous root, if not sought out and prayed out, can ruin you!

In order to do this, we must have accountability. We need prayer! It's crucial to have an intimate relationship with friends, pastors, etc that will pray for you and hold you accountable if you struggle with humility and jealousy, which we all do in some form or fashion.

Back to the concert (and on a little bit of a side note), Shane Barnard wrote a song called "Burn us up." The song is based out of Daniel 3 and the amazing story of the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. If you're not familiar with this story, read it and you will be blown away! If you haven't read it in a long time, read it again. I say this is a side note because I play drums in a worship band called The Fourth Man (based on the story in Daniel 3) and we are recording our first CD! The weekend of January 19th we will be in a studio in Nashville, Tennessee recording! Shane Barnard told me tonight he would draw his "Sunday School" picture of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for us to put on our CD cover. He was joking but I told him we would send him a copy. So hopefully The Fourth Man will have a CD out by spring. Stay tuned!

Grace and peace.