http://loriharris.com/blog.html Lori Harris: Blog Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:56:37 -0800 http://loriharris.com/blog.html/testing_something_new
This young gal and her husband loved Reliant K and I saw her post on facebook that they'd be attending their upcoming concert. That was a couple of weeks ago. The other day when we had coffee at Starbucks, however, she told me that she was FRIENDS with one of the band members. Real friends, not facebook:)

That changed everything. Her story held more weight for me now...and for her, too, evidently. She recalled the scene when she and her hubby talked outside the back door of the venue with their long-time buddy, catching up on what they'd been doing during the time of the tour and other stuff...soon he started giving them some of the back stories of the songs they'd be performing that night.

"That made the concert so much more enjoyable to us," she said. "And even afterward, when I'd listen to the cd in the car, I'd remember what he'd told us, and I'd be like, oh man, I GET it...and what was a great song before became stellar."

All because she knew the guy as a friend and listened to his heart behind those public statements.

Okay, bottom line: that's why you've GOT to know Jesus as your friend. Not on facebook. You can't just know about Him, but as a real friend you can really talk with. He'll tell you privy info as you're reading the Bible or chatting about things...and He'll blow your mind, because they're way smarter than you are. Life will become soooo much more enjoyable, because if you want it, you'll sometimes get the backstory. Send a friend request right now--ask Him to be your pal for REAL:) It's so worth the faith you spend...]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/testing_something_new be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/just_dance
So dance with the partners you have. They are yours. Dance to the tune of your life, with its dips and sways, majors and minors, lifts and movements. It's yours; no one else has that song. You may like it, you may not, or you may only like some parts and really detest others...but it's yours. it's yours, it's yours. It's the only one you get. Don't waste it. Choices shaped it and please understand that choices will shape it again. And again. Please admit your song. Take the baton in your hand. And dance.

Your life depends on it.

I'll see you on the dance floor.]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/just_dance Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:56:37 -0800 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/follow_to_india
I've never been. I don't know anyone there. It started with food, but I am really that shallow? No, this runs deeper. For a year or so India--the people, the land, the systems, the needs, the rituals, the colors, the smells--the entire notion of India has come up again and again in my mind. Why? It's so weird it must be divine.

Today I met with a friend who was wearing a pretty shirt that reminded me of India--maybe because I was watching a history of India documentary film just before bed last night--and mentioned my obsession to her. She knows me well and just smiled. She's come in contact recently with a lady associated with Dalit Freedom Network (http://www.dalitnetwork.org)...and my name had already come up in their conversations. How could my friend have known of my private India-imaginations over here?

Yes, I want to see the palaces, walk the markets, breathe the spices, taste the cuisine. Yes, I want to take the most killer photos and post them on facebook and share how wonderful that culture is with my friends. Yes, I want to experience a totally foreign culture and feel more alive for it. These are the selfish reasons...are they reason enough to ask God to send me? To spend money and time on a trip? Nah. I'm sensing there may be more inside me that don't belong to me, that could be difficult, requiring bravery, skill and commitment to pull off.

The more I learn of their people, the more I admire them. Their history has been long and intricate, rich and harsh. Visiting a nation knits it to your heart; compassion flows from interaction. I want to get the Indian people into my bones. I want to look into their eyes, have conversations with them on the train, listen to their music, hear their hearts. This is how I know it's not just my wants. I strangely want to feel their pain. I want to engage deeper than I'd naturally want to go, even so far as to let their problems get into my life.

They are trapped. I have been delivered in order to deliver others. What do they need to be rescued from? Bondage. Endless rituals tie as they earnestly serve many gods, 33 million of them or so. I can relate. I too once believed there were many ways to God, and bowed under cycles of prayers, rituals, practices, disciplines...I well know how empty, how futile I felt in honest moments. I was bound, trying to be good enough, but Jesus Christ picked me up out of that frenzied pace and sat me down in a peaceful place! Today I enjoy complete and unquestioned rest. I know for sure where my eternity will be spent. Only He gives that blessed assurance...and it's a lot easier than what I knew before. The Lord God wants to share His easy yoke and light burden with people He loves in India.

I value them. They need to know how Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God, esteems them. Not in terms of their status, but of their soul--intrinsically, they matter to Him, from royal to untouchable. They are valuable and deserve honor because they are made in His likeness. Any other belief system is from the enemy of their soul who is not in tandem with Him because they are not in the truth. They need to hear love. They need to see Jesus as Savior King, the one True God. Who will know unless we tell them? How can their lives change if their ideas do not? Who better to deliver the message but one who has been delivered and knows how good it feels?

I want to rescue dalit girls that are bought and sold for sex. That's mean and gross and leaves them damaged deeply...but they can be healed by the lover of their souls, Jesus. They need to be ministered to in their woundedness. I am compelled by their need and God's furious love.

I mean to enter their world and administer His justice by releasing the authority of His Word, strong and sweet. His kingdom pours like light into dark places, and darkness has no chance to hold it back. Things will change when He comes in, be restored, be replaced with goodness.

All of a sudden I wonder if you know Him. Have you allowed Him to come in and restore your story with His goodness? Let his easy yoke and light burden replace what has bound you, so you may follow Him too.

He's leading me to India. Now I know the more of why.]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/follow_to_india Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:12:34 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/being_a_good_patient
Like a good mommy, she'll always come back. In the meantime, I might as well put on my boots and have praise God in the snow.

I'm learning to trust that good times really always do come back. I'm learning to speak of them as if they're already here.

See, for six months I've had this cold in my throat that produces, for lack of a more delicate word, phlegm like glue that has made singing hard and not satisfying to me or anyone else. It lasted so long that I wondered and began to accept that this is how it will always be...never even considered going to the doctor or taking medicine to try and change my life. Sound familiar to anyone? Have you ever accepted your unacceptable plight without question because it came upon you slowly and took over your brain? There's a surefire way to lose your zest and enthusiasm.

I knew I didn't like where I was and had no idea how to change it. I began to pray for "want to" again and out of pure obedience begun to book opportunities as people called and asked me to sing. I pressed into Jesus desperately, picturing His face in my imagination and trying to stay present with Him throughout the day. He began to speak to me in pictures and reveal issues in my life that needed attention. I began to obey His suggestions to call people, pray for them, and watch Him work. Even though fatigue always stood like a bog around me, an excitement to see what He was going to do next pulled me into the next moment.

Until the flu hit me like a truck. For a week I fevered and coughed. It came and went...yet the bog of fatigue around me got soupier. My boots kept getting sucked off and I'd have to lie down, but life goes on, you know? I pressed on as mom, wife and friend because who else would if I didn't? Paul wants me to get a job, so I kept applying and networking. Put together my portfolio. Called people and prayed with them. Pressed into Jesus every morning. Laid down when I saw double, got up when duty called.

Chloe, my twelve year old, had been the last kid here to get the flu. She recovered, but continued to sleep every hour she was not at school. One day a raised red rash covered her body. Off we went to the doctor. The rash was scarletina; pills were prescribed for strep...but she would not under any circumstances take them. Weary, I called in a liquid form and drove back to town to get it. On the drive I heard the Lord say in my heart, "I'm behind all of this. Take those pills yourself."

Hmmm. Really, Lord? They weren't prescribed for me. I don't feel that bad. Really?

Back at home, I sat on the bed next to Chloe as she balked at taking even the liquid stuff. I said to her, "Chloe, you can do one of two things. You can refuse to take this medicine and stay the way you are or you can believe your caregiver and get better. One is a bad patient, one is a good patient. The good patient says, 'I don't want to take this--it's yucky and I hurt and it's hard--but I'll trust and honor my caregiver enough to overcome myself and do as they say.' It's always your choice. You pick."

God was talking to me, through me. I started taking the pills.

Two days later I felt better than I had in months. I had energy! Life was bright! I'm so glad I trusted my Caregiver!

It's like the sky has opened. Songs have been pouring through me. In a week I wrote six, filmed myself singing them and posted them to YouTube. People are watching, being blessed and posting the link to their own facebook pages, reaching farther than I ever, ever could have. And I feel like a million bucks.

Good times always return! They really do! Lean into Jesus. It is okay to hope. Speak of the season you hope for as if it were already here. Say, "I am full of vitality and life is bright. I want to do all God has for me. His Spirit lives in me and stokes my fire." Saying things like this (alongside obeying what He tells you to do) opens the way for that new season to come.

Spring is around the corner. Just you believe.

"Though the fig tree does not blossom and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOR. THE SOVEREIGN LORD IS MY STRENGTH; HE MAKES MY FEET LIKE THE DEER'S FEET. HE ENABLES ME TO GO UP ON THE HEIGHTS." --this is from Habakkuk, a man who listened to God 700 years before Jesus was born. Find it in His book in the Bible, Habakkuk 3:17-19]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/being_a_good_patient Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:14:53 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/trust
From start to finish, the details lined up like zipper teeth, and here we are in a whole new outfit. The old house sold to a lady down the street. The new house turned out to be the home of our dreams, built by people who loved quality where it counts, and passed on the blessing of sound construction to us. The weather held for our moving day: 45 and sunny on January 5, but snows have been coming down in record waves since we've been moved in. I've painted the bathroom and two bedrooms. All our art hangs on the wall. Not too many boxes remain unpacked, as necessity is the mother of using a box knife. The boxes that are still intact we obviously don't need, and I'm thinking of donating untouched. Less is more! It's my tendency to purge! I do so love seeing our stuff in this new environment. It's homey. It's home. It's done.

As we dreamed, so now we live. As we hoped, we now enjoy. This move inspires me to keep dreaming. That is good, because to be honest, my faith has been flagging about my music lately. I have felt pretty done with it. All fire died. No desire to play, sing or write. Not a smidgen of want-to. Perhaps being focused on packing and arranging the move sapped my attention, and yes, a bad cold made singing impossible--at least unpleasant for all involved--but there was something more. Something was dreadfully wrong. An Authenticity Girl, I knew I had to get this issue figured out before I went through the motions anymore; I'm no good at lying, and people were asking me to sing when I honestly couldn't imagine anything more awful. Ohh, the old dream flatlined! I quit in my heart.

I announced my decision to others that I would be moving on. Singing and writing was just a phase, a season in my life, and I was ready to move on to the next thing, maybe teaching English. They graciously listened and kept straight faces and wished me well. And went home and prayed for Lori.

Turns out, I had just gotten off-kilter. The cart got out in front of the horse, and it was wrenching my back into a pretzel to pull things around. No wonder I hated the though of going on that way forever. It hurt! Stopping was the right thing to do; I had to know where I'd gotten off plumb.

It's got to be Christ and Christ alone that I trust and place my hope in. I can't hope in the dream of serving God in song, for that work's fuel hinges on grace from Him. I can't hope in the cart of songs He's let me craft, for there are always some better than mine. I can't hope in my ability to write one single note or a coherent thought, because without inspiration from the Holy Spirit I'm just boring and trite. It's got to be Him and only Him I trust and pin my hopeful faith on.

Thank you Holy Spirit for leading me into all truth by stripping back my moxie: No intimacy with Christ, no meeting Him in the secret place with the intention of hearing His voice and seeing His face, no confidence. No deep thoughts. No want to. Nada. I got nothing on my own.

So that's the place I've been placing my attention since we moved. Jesus. Looking full in His wonderful face. Not facebook. Not blogs. Not writing, singing or industry websites and offers and trends. Just Jesus. The rest might come after, but He's the main show. If I want to flow, I got to go to the well, the vine, the source of all life. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the wise saying goes. Therein's peace.

And all at once, singing isn't so bad. At a women's retreat this weekend as I led worship, I sang with the heart of one who meant what she said. Desperation has kicked in. I don't want anything to die that God has plans for. Revival has come upon this nation, and it's started with me, here in the heartland.]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/trust Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:38:24 -0800 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/sunshine_and_horses
They give us everything we need for life and godliness, but they are not limited to what He wants me to do with my time on earth...or what you do with yours...because ultimately our time here will end and we'll still need life and godliness. So, in bible study today, I told the ladies of Open Range Fellowship of my blog and asked them to shout out some of God's promises that apply to life and godliness, then wrote furiously as they did.

"Well...they're every good thing there ever is..."

"Eternal life!"

"'I'll never leave you nor forsake you...'"

"We get to worship Him forever..."

"We could name off all the 'I will' statements. They're for us." (This from the teacher.)

"Deliverance!"

This from a soft voice up front: "No more pain, no more sadness, no more fear..."

"No more defeat...winning with Him..." (Victory, I nodded.)

My friend Sharon read aloud, "Ephesians 1:3--Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

A sweet pause swelled as we pondered "every spiritual blessing in Christ." Every (any and all there are)...Spiritual (not physical or emotional or social or relational, but spiritual--where it matters most, forever)...Blessing (intentionally favorable occurrences, meant for our good profit)...In Christ (the only place we ever truly want to be). And God has already given them! This is stated in past tense. They are already ours in heavenly realms. To receive and bring them into the natural realm, we have only to visit our Father's throne room and sit with him a while. He's already seated us there with Christ; we're welcome to come any time. When's the last time you closed your eyes and went?

What makes you alive? What makes you godly? It's yours.

Just think: every spiritual blessing in Christ, already yours. Promise fulfilled. Simply receive it. Find Christ in the midst of where you are and receive the blessing you need from Him. Wow.

There in the little church adjoined to the arena and stables, as morning sun streamed through plate glass windows that oversaw autumn pasture and hay bales, we soaked for a second. Then someone piped up,

"Sunshine and horses!"

That raised a cheer. Joy erupted as every lady chimed in her own horse-lovers' idea of perfect bliss. My friend Beth chuckled, "Sunshine and horses and seventy degrees!" Oh, definitely. :)

I could almost feel Jesus standing by, grinning, delighting in His women as we reveled in the gift He won for us on the cross. Promises, promises, promises. Fulfilled to infinity and beyond.

That room was electric with praise for a while. Mmmmm. Great and precious indeed. Thank you Lord God for everything good there ever is. We see you grinning behind it all. Love you so....]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/sunshine_and_horses Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:21:01 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/my_precious
2 Peter 1:3-4 says, and I personalize:
His divine power has given me everything I need for life and godliness.
Through my knowledge of Him, who called me by His own glory and goodness,
He will display that power.
Through His great and precious promises I will participate in His divine nature
and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

In 2002, God called me to sing and write songs for Him at a Sara Groves concert. It was right when I was seeing from the corner of my eye how my unbelieving husband was softening as she sang. He said inside my heart, "You are going to do this." I startled and thought, I just had four kids in four years! How could that possibly be? I dropped that dream a long time ago when I cancelled the contract to sing with the agency, Lord. He simply said, "Do you want to look back from 50 and say, 'why didn't I?'" I chose to agree in that moment, and a tiny seed of light dropped into my heart.

Here I am years later. Sure enough, He was right. I do write and sing songs that move people into wider moments with God, play my own piano (which I didn't know how to do at that time), and travel a bit. In days to come, I believe this tree that has grown from that mustard seed of faith will continue to grow, and many birds will nest in it. That call was a promise to me, and He keeps His promises.

When this all began, He told me in my heart, "Lori, this is your road. You have songs that you want to get out to a broader audience, to bless them in my name, and you don't see the way to do that, so it's frustrating. Everyone has a road. Some have the road of cancer. Some have wayward children that it kills them daily to watch screwing up their lives. Some have unfaithful mates. What would you tell them is the single most important thing they can do if you were to counsel them?" I answered, "To know you in the midst of it all."

He'd shown me in the word over and again how this is the entire point. It is the reason He sent His Son: that we may know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent...for this is eternal life, John 17:3. It's the entire point of the Old Testament, the choosing and training of the Hebrew people through whom His Son would come...and the New Testament, in which Jesus' innocent sacrifice redeemed the whole world from the cause of separation: sin. I am convinced: To know God, to be inextricably bound with and to be one with God as He actually dwells within believing men is the entire point of His fabulous story. God wants to be known, and He's created us to want to be known, too. Best of all, He's fulfilled that fundamental want in both Himself and men: the risen Jesus holds our hands together, mankind may now know God and He may now know us. Ah, eternal Life with the Living God!

We on earth actually receive God inside of us via the Holy Spirit. This is how He performs His perfect will through us. Life and godliness, walking like a child of God, is only possible in God's own divine power. His promises require life and godliness. He has to be the one driving. This is the way He has designed for us to know Him: we have to need Him to fulfill the promises He's called us to. We need to know Him from a front row seat: Him doing the impossible from inside of us.

"Lori, know me on the road." I've carried these words with me through long walks over prairies and swamps of despair, over barely surmountable. challenging heights and under crashing waves of doubt. Yielding and then knowing His power has brought me to this day, and will take me wherever else He has for me to go on this epic promise-quest.

He called me because of His own glory and goodness. He will display His power and deliver me into His promises. This is my precious. I turn it over in my mind often.

Through the promise that I will sing and play to sold out venues, make many albums of excellent quality, tour with like-minded souls who are passionate for the good news of Jesus Christ and the healing of nations...through this great and precious promise, I am being made into the character He wants me to be. Living for the promise is making my wedding dress. With every scripture I study, song I craft, prayer I pray, encouragement I give and journey I make, I'm helping to sew the Church's gown.

The alternative? If He'd never spoken that call to me? Issued a promise? I'd probably be singing secular music in bars and fairs. That's what I was used to; it's easy to do what you've done before. That lifestyle is rough with drink and smoke, men and women, egos and breakdowns.

So because of the promises, I have escaped all that. Like a bird out of the snare, this is not my path anymore. Because of His promise that is seeming especially precious right about now, I get to know Him...and escape what might have been otherwise. Glory and goodness indeed. Precious.

This is my story. What is yours?]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/my_precious Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:56:03 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/true_that_matt
"Songs are a big deal. Andrew Fletcher said quoting Aristotle, “Give me a nations songs, and I care not who makes it’s laws.” Martin Luther placed songs right alongside preaching in their importance and their formation of theology. In the realm of Christian music and the music of the Church, songs are sermons that people will remember. People forget sermons within a week. People remember songs for a lifetime. There is much at stake. People’s view of God. People’s souls.

"That’s why I write songs. If songs hold a great deal of power and permanence , then we need to get better at writing them for the glory of God and the building up of the Church."

I found this on his website blog, and totally wanted to frame it. This is my heart. This is my calling. To proclaim God's Word to the nations and see them healed, someone has to craft their most winsome vehicles.

Songs.

"Here am I Send me/ I'll follow wherever you lead/ I will tell the world that Jesus is the way/ Won't you send me Lord/ Here I am/ I offer my dreams, my plans/ I will give my life a living sacrifice/ Lord, here I am"

Check out this cool article on him here: http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/artistdetail.php?artist_id=2525 and see his website: http://mattpapa.com/home

He's one of the best out there in my humble opinion.]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/true_that_matt Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:54:07 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/look_through_the_pinhole
She poked her head through the doorway of my room where I sat playing that afternoon. "Lori Dawn, it's time to look." I put down my Barbies and ran to her side as she led the way to our front yard. Everything looked normal to me, but when I tried to raise my eyes to the sky she stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. As she handed me our black paper, she said, "If you look straight at the sun it will hurt your eyes. Just keep your eye on this hole in the paper and you'll stay safe. And you will see...."

For the next few minutes that paper was glued to my face. I could see through. I did see how the sun grew smaller, covered by moon, then grew back to normal sized again. As an adult now I'm so glad that I got to witness such a rare event. Mom was right.

In the same way, the other day I had an epiphany on the yoga mat. Rascal Flatts sang about wishing my dreams always stayed big, and I balked; cynicism had become a shroud wrapped tight around me. Inside my heart I heard the Lord suggest that I start saying, "Someday my music will sound like that." Nashville. Exactly what I hear in my mind. Expertly produced. Dreams long abandoned, really. There on the mat, I said, "Why not?" and repeated after Him for a change.

A tiny pinhole of faith poked through my cynicism. A miniscule mustard seed planted in the soil of my disappointed heart...and reminded me that my appointment hasn't gone anywhere. God still has appointed me to bear much fruit that will remain. He has chosen me for reasons I cannot fathom. His gifts are irrevocable. His promises ALWAYS come to pass. His call to me included Nashville production and touring. Now I remember.

I will remain faithful. I will press my eye against that hole and choose to look through there instead of at the black paper or the world on this side. I will make decisions in my mind that water the seed He planted regarding the original dream that day on the mat. My music will sound like that someday. I agree. As He appointed Rascal Flatts to their place in this world, so He has appointed me to sing for Him far and wide. It has been said that the nations will be healed as He sends forth His Word on the timbre of my voice.

I can see that. It makes me squint and tear up when I look. Good things are happening. I'm witnessing a rare event. It's really happening on the other side of that paper. I feel God's hand upon my shoulder.

He thinks it's awesome too.

The best part: I think He's ripping the hole wider. And I think He intends for me to climb through.]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/look_through_the_pinhole Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:27:34 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog http://loriharris.com/blog.html/in_the_afterglow_on_the_cusp
I'm there.

The songs are inside Larry's recording studio. My memories of them are out here, and they're fading! I remember thinking they were solid, tight, very, very good...and seeing the guys faces affirmed that my thoughts matched theirs. These very skilled and experienced musicians were pleased with the outcome. But now two weeks later, my memories are cloudy and muffled, and all I can do is keep hope alive until I can listen to them next....

You may be wondering why we didn't just burn me a copy of them to take with me after the session. That's because the recordings are all done on different tracks--some 24 or so--and to compile them all into one track that can be burned to disc would take time. Arg--Time is money! I have to keep all of that resource funneling toward more recording time. All I have are the memories for now, in that case. And so goes the drama of independent recording projects!

Ten songs with a full band sit tight, waiting for layers of guitar parts to strengthen and build them...strings arrangements to heighten emotion and pulse little rhythmic hooks atop the melodies...interesting organ sounds to give idiosyncratic character to some songs, mandolin and steel guitar for others. Sonic visions of grandeur dance in my head! Three more songs wait for me to record them live in their purest form; just me and piano, as if at a show, or in the listener's living room. I'm so excited for the next date!

Here's where I pray: Lord, you know how much money these projects take. I'm tapped out; all the funds I made this spring have gone toward the foundation we just poured. Please inspire investors who have a heart for my music; stir their hearts to join the fun and spread Your good word. With thanks I bring this prayer, this petition to You, asking You for the $10,000 or so I need for the next phases. I can't wait to see how you'll answer; You always do. Bring on the next really, really great date!]]> http://loriharris.com/blog.html/in_the_afterglow_on_the_cusp Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:58:18 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - Blog