http://loriharris.com/news.html Lori Harris: News Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:10:41 -0800 http://loriharris.com/news.html#23
A quick note: Life is full and only gets fuller. I've put my gift on a shelf for a while to get to work, earn my keep and play along...doing a show here and there but not having enough time in the day to really pursue a career of going full on to promote the music God has given. After all, I have four kids, a husband, a home, a job and 16 baby chickens.
I've been half hearted at best.

Thank you Brandon for saying something short and sweet that cut right to the quick, and gave me a note in capital letters:
WHAT IS YOUR HEART?
YOUR HEART IS PLAN A.
ARE YOU LIVING PLAN B?
THAT'S NOT YOUR HEART THEN.
AGAIN: WHAT IS YOUR HEART?

Funny how the beginning of a dream is like the innocence of Eden--shiny and promising, glistening with dew. The farthest thing from your mind in the beginning is how getting off track may feel...and how easily that can happen. Yet God is faithful; what he begins, He will complete. We may veer, but His intentions do not change. As Britt said tonight (as if only to me), "When God gives you a promise, you might have to wait a long time, but hold onto every word He speaks and don't let go."
His plans will come to fruition if you stay and do not give up.

I have been available, but only halfway. Experience has tainted me. I have allowed God's call to me to slip and become background. Who is not guilty of this from time to time? Yet tonight, in the light of Jesus Christ's cross presented by some of His fellow minstrels, I resumed my original stance of availability for His use...and sure enough, dew fell on my upturned hands.

Come on, Plan A.

In faith I sponsored a child in Uganda through Food for the Hungry (www.fh.org) as an anchor for my decision to fully engage again. Jasper is now a living, breathing reminder of God's call to me to feed His sheep...His bride, whom He loves. To honor that I must rearrange my life to schedule writing time in, rather than feel guilty spending precious time that way. I must record that new album, using the resources God reveals to me (kickstarter, etc) to raise the funds. I must prioritize actions that promote (gulp) my product--this gift of music that happens to bless me and a few others.

Over time there was an end to the innocence, but in Christ there is new life, and it never is actually the end.

Hello Eden. I am home.]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#23 Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#22
This is the good life, folks. The name of the game is relax and let Him do His thing through your yielded self. Let go of whatever entangles you, because when He's driving, life takes off on a faster clip. Hold onto your hat; changes come around the bend like a storm sometimes, but He's in control, brother. He's taking care of you and yours, sister. Better than you ever thought about handling it, He's got you covered.

So the news is, I'm trusting Him. He's coming through. I'll keep you posted as developments manifest. New album? Coming. Fresh wind? Guaranteed.]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#22 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#21
We're moving to the country, people. It's really happening.

This lady walked by four years ago and said as I worked in the yard, "If you ever sell your house, I want to buy it." Since we didn't want to move at that time, I didn't ask her name, just thought she was nice and hid that comment in my heart.

One year ago, when we found our country estate and put our home here on the market, I kept imagining she'd show up. Nope. We got cold feet and bailed in a few months. I forgot about her again. Spent the summer in peace, received unction to move again, and put the for sale sign back up.

Sure enough, this time here she came. Signed on the dotted line November 1. We accepted her offer and wrote an offer for our new homestead today. WHoo Hoo!!

Trust in the Lord. Feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord. He WILL give you the desires of your heart. Glory to His name!]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#21 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#20
While there, i learned a ton. Tonight I'll find out just how much as I type out my notes; they're that good. Perhaps even more important, or at least as important on another level, were the connections I made, because they're relationships...actual camaraderie...with people just like me. Always picking through the world for interesting details in the story, clever lines and cool perspectives that will make great reading later. Or listening. I love them with my whole heart and cannot wait to know them forever.

I met with a publisher from the company I've always wanted to work with. If I loved her more as a person, I'd pop--she reminds me of my best friend from high school and she loves God's Word as much as I do. She seemed to really like the song I played for her, and recommended an audience with her boss. From the first time I entered his class at GMA and didn't even know who he was, I had a hunch about him (I think he's part of my destiny, but don't say that too loud because it's kind of weird). The song's been sent and it's in God's hands and I can't wait to see what will happen next.

Regardless, I trust Him. Regardless, I'll stand,
Chosen, appointed and holding his hand.

That's the chorus of this news flash. Did you catch it? Since WAJ, life is an opera, I swear. I've written three songs and there are a hundred more lined up behind them. Hallelujah! I think I caught a bug...]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#20 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#19
Summer came and went, but in the meantime Paul and I drove out to the country twice. Once on the Fourth of July. Someone very adventuresome financially spends about $20,000 a year on fireworks and sets off a private show for his friends...and we found out about it. The kids were with Grandma and Grandpa, so Paul and I got last minute sushi and drove in that guys's general direction totally intending to crash his party (we did know someone there). Last minute indeed; they shut the gate just before we got there. One phone call told us we'd have to make it a private showing for ourselves from the other side of the display if we wanted to take part at all, so we pulled off the country highway into a little nook and started eating.
Boom! Sure enough, we had parked brilliantly--the display was perfectly centered in our field of vision! It was big, it was loud, it was spectacular. With the taste of sushi in my mouth, the barely beginning rain falling gently on my skin, the dramatic percussion of the explosions and the sky full of magnificent patterns of light, I stood up on the bumper of the Trooper and threw my arms in the air. I started to cry--it was all too much--and with a huge smile on my face I sobbed, "For Your glory! For Your glory!" I'm tearing up now just remembering. God set us up. It was one of the defining moments of my life, for how he played upon my senses so, and took such delight in my reaction. I honestly thought I'd burst with praise, He made Himself known so clearly in that hour.

Then again, one summer night in August, Paul and I took one of our famous midnight drives out to, you guessed it, the country highways. We turned off the engine in the middle of a road and got out. We looked up...and it was all over. Stars. Stars like headlights shining down. The Milky Way, a gigantic streak. After a while of standing still in awe, simultaneously we said, "We belong out here."

Drove past the house we had put an offer down on earlier; still for sale. Called the next day; $10,000 price cut. Interest rates lower than ever; only a couple of hundred dollars more to live on 10 acres in a larger house than to live here. We love our house, but now's the time, and there are STARS....

As of today, October 7, we're back at it. Reprise. So much for putting down roots, huh? This time I don't think we'll shrink back, though. God's mind is stayed on us wherever we are. He knows the times and places we will live...so the plot thickens! Thank God I'm a country girl....]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#19 Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#18
;)]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#18 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#17
The next day, Paul's stomach would be hurting. And I'd go over the list with him until he was back on board.

Then it'd be my turn to ache. Back and forth until one day I woke up and said, wait a minute. Lord, are you trying to tell me something?

He will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him. Maybe His mind wasn't stayed on moving us to the country...

So we slipped out of the contract before anyone got hurt. In one day, we undid what we'd been heading toward for the rest of our lives, probably. And the stomach aches stopped.

I've never loved where I am more than I do right now. The Lord totally tricked us, because we'd done an epic amount of home improvement to get our house ready to sell. I typed up a quick facts sheet about all the special things about this house, ending it with the line "Great home lovingly maintained and updated just for YOU!" Glory be, I was talking to myself! How wonderful to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor instead of passing them onto the next guy, which so often happens. I'm so happy to be in a place that's been customized and kept tip-top for ME.

That's just like God. He sweetened the deal of our staying by upgrading lots of things around here; He knew the task was so daunting that we'd never have tackled it just for our own sakes. Maybe that's the point. Maybe He's saying it's okay to take the time and spend the money to improve the big things that matter to you in life...that you're worth it. That being content where you are, and finding Him in the middle of it, is really what will satisfy us best in the long run anyway. Maybe the ideal and the real can coincide after all.

I'll take it. And I'll see you outside as I sit on my front porch this summer, having officially put down some roots.]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#17 Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#16 http://loriharris.com/news.html#16 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#15
In thirty minutes I get to return to my stage at Lee's Summit Community Church to sing with some more good friends, the band from Open Range Fellowship. An outreaching country church extraordinaire--these people are throwing rodeos, horse training clinics, riding events for at-risk kids, traveling to native American hotspots to serve and preach God's loving truth...They truly live to seek and save the lost. Outsiders, get ready to come in--the posse is coming to love on ya! This weekend is Open Range's opportunity to tell it on the mountain and ask for support to keep telling it in the valley of the shadow, if you know what I mean. Man, I love partnering with people who mean business.... Souls saved...that's what I'm talking about. Praise God for the open range--freedom in Christ!]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#15 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News http://loriharris.com/news.html#14 I hydroplaned coming up a ramp into morning traffic. Angels let my car spin in the middle of the wet highway for a 360* turn and a half, then stopped it completely, perfectly, facing the oncoming two lanes of traffic. Wait...wait...BOOM. Airbag. Strong push to the side. Smoke. Head shake. Bones hurt. "Mama...." Dread to look over, afraid of what I'll see. Beautiful Olivia, grimacing at the smell of the airbag stench. Precious Chloe in the backseat, totally fine, opening the door to get out.
And that's all. The other driver was unhurt, the crews were lightning fast to get us out of the way...it was all over in thirty minutes. And we're alive.
Never have I felt more purpose. It's all because of Jesus I'm alive...in more ways than one. Grace time, that's what this is.]]> http://loriharris.com/news.html#14 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800 be inspired. leave humming. - Lori Harris - News