Brent is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ray Stevens, and more.  He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Man… I don’t know how this is gonna turn out.

I usually draft these posts ahead of time, but not this time.  This one is a “here’s something that hit me just now, and I want to share it with you” post.

I was just reading through “One Way Love” this morning by Tullian Tchividjian as part of my quiet time.  He talks about how we get exhausted by trying to fulfill the Law instead of relying on grace.  He also made the point that we also have innumerable little laws that we and culture dictate.  And that’s what hit me.

He says many folks butt up against the law of success that says, “if you don’t achieve __ level of success, then you don’t measure up.”  “If this person or that person is further along in their career, even if they started later, then you don’t measure up.”

Here are a few of my self-imposed laws:

*If you don’t get to write songs and do creative things you enjoy for a living, then you are a failure.

*If people who got to Nashville after you are having greater success than you, it’s because you are not good enough.

*If people who used to write with you are having greater success than you, it’s because you are not good enough.

I struggle against these laws.  I am convicted by them almost every day.  These laws drive me to get up at 5am before work and sometimes stay up till midnight after my wife goes to bed in an effort to build Man vs. Row and my songwriting business into something that satisfies the law.

These laws convict me through the radio, facebook, and twitter.

Guilty.

Guilty!

GUILTY!

Grace.

Grace tells me I don’t have to be enough.  God’s Law is good because its purpose is to hold up the true standard, the perfect standard that I’m incapable of meeting.  It’s purpose is not to drive me to perfection, but to drive me to relationship with God.  Where there is grace.  Where there is love.  And where the Law is fulfilled and no longer has jurisdiction over me.  Where I can rest.  Where I’m free.

Personal (and our cultural) laws are dim, twisted reflections of the good and holy Law.  They condemn me, drive me to exhaustion, cause me stress and fear.

My laws are a lie.

If I never get to live the creative life again, it has no bearing on my success or failure in this life.  That is NOT the standard.

If other people have more achievement than me, it has nothing to do with my worth.

My value is not determined by how many songs I get on the radio.

That’s the truth.  And with grace, that truth will set my heart free to do whatever God sets before me to do.

And to do it with joy.

God Bless,

Brent