goodbye to a good, good year...

I don't ever remember as a youngster saying, "where has the time gone?" It seemed to creep along and move pretty slow to me then, especially those last couple of weeks before Christmas and those last, long few days of summer. Of course, summer break from school seemed to last a lot longer back then. I'm a bit older now, so I have the obligation now of saying it. Where has the time gone?

I think about time a lot. Try if you want, but there's no escape from the oft reminders. As long as there's a need for perpetual calendars, deadlines, watches, time clocks, birthdays and reminders from the TV weatherman to replace the batteries in our smoke alarms twice a year we'll be reminded that time comes, goes and generally leaves a trail. Follow the crumbs back and you'll remember hard earned promotions, happy celebrations and magnificent milestones. Of course, the difficult moments and devastating memories are there too. Life has such a texture.

The year 2006 was landmark for me and my family in several ways. I started a new decade of my own. Casie, my daughter, became an adult of eighteen years, and my son Christian turned into a teenage middle-schooler. We've made some fantastic family memories these past twelve months. I traveled coast-to-coast visiting California and New York and lots of interesting places in between. After seeing much of the country through a bus window, it was fun actually getting to touch things.

My first solo recording in over a decade was released back in May. We'd worked on it for nearly a year, and I was excited, nervous and anxious to see what kind of response we'd get. I couldn't have predicted it. I can't imagine that I would have said to anyone a year ago that I expected this recording to get the attention it has. For years I sang to my fellow choir members. We enjoyed safe, harmonious fellowship; engaged in a little friendly competition; amanned each other's songs; and were grateful for the success. I still am. But I've found a somewhat different audience this time around. Many of them didn't follow my previous career, so I get to start at the beginning when telling them my story - yuck and all.

This new record has brought newer, broader opportunities than I've known before. I've spoken with more mainstream writers and reporters in the past year than I ever did my entire previous music career. Looking into cameras that typically cover major news events and telling whoever is waiting for the weather and scores how grateful I am that grace still works is an awesome thing. Reading in major newspapers and trade publications how I've proven that prodigals remember and return, and then getting a note from a celebrity wanderer is just overwhelming to me.

Then there is the GRAMMY thing. I told a friend of mine that, that was certainly not on my list of things to do. But again, the honor has brought many more opportunities to tell chart minders and career watchers why I sing of mercy and grace.

I've given a lot of thought to these unexpected opportunities. I believe firmly that God has all of His people in strategic places, and if they are not there, they are on the way. If that's true, knowing that I'm quite likely not where I will always be, these next seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years ought to be really exciting. Pray with me that I do something smart and effective with them.