A Night of Worship with Matt Maher

So to share another facet of my creativity, I decided to tell you a bit today about a recent opportunity that I had to lead worship at Regent. My husband, Jacob, and I have an amazing band called "Crossing Currents" which consists of him and I on vocals, him on acoustic guitar, our friends Dan, Ben, Tim, and Chandler on bass, drums, electric, and electric respectively. Chandler just recently joined our band and is the newest member as the rest of us have been playing together for almost two years now. When we were asked to open for Christian songwriter/singer and recording artist Matt Maher, we jumped at the opportunity. Since school only started two weeks ago, we basically had only three weeks together to write the original songs and practice after a whole summer off for this huge concert! Kind of intimidating but God was definitely on our side! The concert was this past Thursday night and by Sunday, we still had only one original song which Jacob had pulled off his archives. Even that one was not satisfactory and we ended up changing all the lyrics and the melody two days before the concert. But on that Sunday, before we had one of our final practices before the big day, a miracle occurred. Jacob and I slept in for once as he had been working 14 days straight for Campus Ministries and had not had a day to rest in 2 weeks. After we woke up, we took a brief trip to Guitar Center so Jacob could buy a pedal for his guitar. While we were at the store, I went to play around on the keyboards (even though I really can't play anything). While I was sitting there in the piano room of the shop, Jacob peeked his head in and said "I love you" and winked at me like he always does. As always, his loving words inspired me and I began to fumble through a few chords on the keyboard while singing these three simple words. While they have so much meaning, it just did not feel like enough to express what I wanted to tell God that day. "I love you...like the moon loves the stars??? No...that's not right... the moon doesn't really love the stars... but it does something to the ocean doesn't it? It draws it..." So out came the first two lines of my song which I scribbled on a receipt I found in the bottom of my purse...

"You draw me like the moon draws the tide..."

When I got home, the tune was still on my heart so I went to our music room to continue my fumbling with our own keyboard. I have tried writing songs so many times and while lyrics often come quickly, I often am never completely content with them. I try to put them to music but my lack of ability when it comes to instruments leaves me frustrated and tuneless. Yet that day I found that my pen was flying across my old notebook and my fingers found all the right keys to play. Within an hour, I had a beautiful song of worship laid out before me and was playing it completely through from beginning to end, verse, chorus, and bridge. Done. Jacob came in to adapt it to the guitar and we left for our practice. The band thought it was a hit and quickly caught the groove of it. By Thursday, we were on stage in front of 800 people but only One member of our audience really mattered. As we worshipped our hearts out, I was amazed by what God had enabled us to do... Matt and his band were soooo very nice as were his reps from Sony Provident. We could not have had more fun and after everything was over, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for an awesome ending to our night. My parents had driven up to listen to us and my mother-in-law surprised us by hitching a ride down on Wednesday. What an amazing experience! If you have not heard Matt Maher's music, I highly encourage you to listen in and buy his songs! Some of his hits include "Alive Again" and "Love Will Hold Us Together" and he also wrote "I Will Rise" (sung by Chris Tomlin) and "Your Grace is Enough" (sung by pretty much everyone). One of my favorites that he sang said something like "You're making my heart a garden" and then another song I really liked said "We're less than perfect, more than flesh and bone." Oh, and besides the fact that he gave an amazing concert and worship night, it was also amazing that he even came all the way out here to be with us since he is getting married THIS WEEKEND! Congratulations, Matt and thank you SO much for spending a night with us. I. AM. INSPIRED. ....

For those who are interested, here are a couple shots from the night as well as the lyrics I wrote (or that God wrote through me). Don't worry, I've already copyrighted them :)

- Crossing Currents -

A view from the wings...

- Matt Maher -

Worshippers!

A view from the balcony...

And here's the new song :)

Deeper than Deep (Moon and Tide)

Written by Anna Wright, Jacob Wright – Crossing Currents

Verse 1:

You draw me like the

Moon draws the tide

And I can’t resist your grace

And though I try to run

I know I can’t hide

For you find me in the secret place

Chorus:

Deeper than deep, higher than high

Lord, I have seen how wide is wide

Farther than far, closer than we know

Your love is sure, your love, O Lord, is mine

Bridge:

And if the world stops turning

Or just a sparrow falls

Lord, you prize me more than all

My heart cannot contain

The wonder of this love

It is too wonderful for me

A Day on Set...

Those of you who have read my blog know that I am a creative person....Yet some of you may not have heard me mention one of my greatest passions...acting. I am an actress at heart and have been since I was three. Acting brought me to Regent for the theatre program and Jacob came to Regent since they are one of the leading Christian film schools. Although I don't get a chance to do this very often since I have been quite busy with my classes and job lately, I did get the opportunity to work on a film set with some friends yesterday in which I played the victim of a car accident who gets rescued by a superhero. Here are some shots from the shoot for those of you who are interested. There was a lot of fake blood, a totaled car, EMT's, policemen, sirens, and an ambulance but I couldn't have had more fun! Call time was 4AM so even though I didn't get any sleep...I'm so glad I was able to be a part of this. I know the people involved have bright futures as Christian film-makers and I hope I was able to bless them as much as they blessed me :)

My wonderful Jacob is running the smoke...

Epic!

The makeup artist did an amazing job and captured a few shots of her victim while I waited on set for my scenes.

For those of you who haven't used cinema-makeup before, the blood is made out of Caro Syrup and food coloring. So in all those movies where you see blood, there's no need to get grossed out or scared- it's just red syrup! If any of you get a chance to be in a film, even as an extra, you really should. It is a great experience for meeting people and sharing in the creative movie experience.

Have any of you been in movies before or would you like to be? What are your experiences with acting- stage or screen?

Where Does Creativity Come From?

If you've seen my recent posts, you know I am a creative person and I know that most of you are also creative people. But do we really realize what enables us to be creative? Why are we creative? The answer is that because we serve a creative God and we are made in His image, we too are able to be creative beings. Look at the world around you... everything you see was created by someone... and that someone is either man, another created being, or God. Houses are made by men. The nest on the roof of that house was made by a bird. That bird was made by God. It all comes back to the Master Creator. So I want to know...

In what ways is God creative to you? What do you see as one of the most majestic ways that God expresses His creativity?

Fabulous Flowers

Firstly- if any of you has a good picture of a Gerbera daisy, preferably a white or yellow one, I really need one and would love to have that shot!

Although I have no professional photography experience, here are a few photos of some flowers that I have taken in the past couple years. :) These are the kinds of photos I will eventually use for portraits...

A rose from one of the beautiful bouquets Jacob gave me before we got married.

Beautiful flowers from Napa Valley, CA.

A daisy. Simple and gorgeous. I had the best lighting for this shot!

Orchids from my mother-in-love's kitchen.

Carnations also from mother-in-love's kitchen.

Isn't God amazing? He makes such beautiful works of art and our imitations of them cannot even compare! Even photos don't capture the true beauty. I LOVE flowers and cannot wait to do some more portraits!

Looking forward to seeing some of your photos! Please email them to bellabeloved.music@gmail.com or post them on your blogs and let me know about them. Thanks, everyone!

Inspiration...

Hi everyone! I am looking for some inspiration as far as what I should draw next...

I know many of you are talented photographers so if any of you have photos you have taken that you think would make pretty paintings or drawings (and if you wouldn't mind me playing with them!), just send them to me and I will see if I can make them into a fun project! :) I love working on new projects and I love seeing how God has blessed others with such amazing talents!

Beautiful grace for the day:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 38-39)

Happy sunshine, everyone!

Gifts...

These are two portraits that I did as gifts. This beautiful family is my brother, Evan, his wife, Jenny, and their adorable Charlie who just turned one today!

The other portrait was a gift for my old boss who has a "Civil War" theme in his office.

Grace continued...

Here are some flowers I also did. Some were just for fun :)