My friend Josh just left my house. We spent the morning together in Franklin talking about life and college and girls and then he followed me home to borrow a backpack. He and four other guys leave tomorrow to hitchhike across the country to raise awareness and money for orphans, and he hadn’t yet sorted out how he was going to carry his stuff. Their plan is to part ways tomorrow morning, charting different courses until they meet up at the Grand Canyon where they’ll rest and then again part ways and hopefully meet up in Los Angeles a few days later, just in time for their flights back to Nashville. I’m trying to decide if Josh is an idiot or completely brilliant. The line between the two is razor thin.
I wonder if my family thought those things about me when I told them I was getting married and moving to Nashville to write songs and play music for a living. I was actually two years younger than Josh is now when I made my move and I had no job prospects and wasn’t even that great at music. Fortunately this was before YouTube so there isn’t a lot of evidence to how amateur I was, but my friends and parents remember. I was determined though, and willing to learn.
When God moves your heart you often do things that are extreme and stupid. But that abandon usually gets you more in touch with God’s kingdom and so it’s worth it. I’ve been fortunate to be there a couple times in my life, and hopefully I’ll have the faith to answer God’s invitation to something extreme when He gives it again. In this instance, I’m the one watching Josh asking if he’s lost his mind. So this is what that feels like.
I want to support Josh on this journey and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he and the guys are not taking a penny of the money that is raised for the orphans. You can read more about it at www.hitchhiketohelp.com. If you donate to their cause, send me a quick email at FFH@me.com letting me know that you gave and I’ll send you a brand new song from our new record THE WAY WE WORSHIP coming out this fall. And when I say a new song, I mean brand new. I just got the first mix tonight and that’s what you’ll get – the first un-mastered mix of the first song to be mixed from a record that nobody has heard.
Go big or go home-
Jerm