Where art thou O' Martin?

My last real blog was about O’ Martin. I want to share how he came to be.

Something my friends I have made in the last few years don’t know about me is music used to be a BIG part of what I did and where my heart was near. Everywhere God sent me, music was there. It was not only there but it was the main tool of being the hands and feet of Christ. I played in coffee houses, churches, for youth groups, all over Texas, in the schools and prisons of Africa, and on the front porch of the Terrace in Yosemite. What landed me in Yosemite was the need of a worship leader for The Gathering where the following year I met my husband.

Music...writing songs...it has just always been this special communication between God and I. It is so intimate. So beautiful and extravagant. It is this unique language where no words even have to be exchanged in order to feel close and understood. When I think of praying and how I talk to my Father, I picture myself, in the bathroom, where the acoustics are outstanding, sitting on the toilet with music and journals scattered all over the ground, a smile on my face, my guitar every so often banging the wall or sink that I am way to close to because the bathroom never seems big enough, and Him just kind of dancing there with me...tapping His foot, humming the words...perhaps even playing a small drum.

Fact: 95 percent of my original songs were written in the bathroom.

Let me get a little more to the point. In 2001, I spent the summer working with a youth group in Washington State. A week after I came home I was back with the youth I normally work with. The band and I went back to a room to pray right before we started. When we came out and started to get on the stage, I went to grab my guitar on my stand and it had been replaced with O’ Martin. There was a card in the strings and two post it notes that said “Heard you needed a guitar -God”. Needless to say I lost it on stage. I could hard play and sing I was so touched and overwhelmed by love. The youth had saved up their money all summer to surprise me with that guitar. It was quite something.

2 days after my Martin blog, my guitar was stolen from the new house. There was mostly construction items in the house sine we hadn’t moved in yet. He/She/They were able to take off with a nail gun, my guitar, and everything my case had in it. The reason I wanted my guitar at the new place was The Kid can hear now and because it just sounds so awesome in a half empty house. I was getting excited about playing again and the same day it got stolen we talked to a friend and college professor about starting up a gathering with the college students at Montreat. It was an ironic week.

I was in shock the day I realized it was gone. I had no idea what to do or think. All my music including my originals were in the case. It was just gone...and there wasn’t a thing I could do to change it. Lot’s of emotions. Every time I started to cry I couldn’t breath. I still have trouble breathing out of my nose so crying just couldn’t be an option.

As much as I loved my guitar and though it has much sentimental value to me, I really just wanted my words and journals back. I knew they wouldn’t mean anything to the person who took it. It was all a bummer to say the least. I couldn’t sleep a couple of nights after it happened. I kept thinking of the different things that were in those journal or in my case.

Now it is a praying and waiting game. If it turns up at any pawn shop in the US our detective will know the very next day. O’ Martin has a serial number and so there is a chance we can retrieve it that way. My prayer is that this person opens up some of the music and journals and just reads out of curiosity. God’s word does not go without void and so I never know how this could be turned to something beautiful.

The enemy come to steal, kill, and destroy, but my Father comes so that we may have life to the fullest. We have seen the enemy do some serious work this year, but we will not give up as with one with no hope. We are no longer hopeless or desperate. We have abundant life and so many good fruits from our Father.

Round two on this coming soon.

love Jesus,

love chocolate pie,

love life,

spesh