snowed...In

Snowed in and disconnected from the world. At least, that's what it has felt like. From nine o'clock this morning until about thirty minutes ago, I've been trying to find things to do to keep myself occupied. I've watched several movies thanks to Netflix, I've shoveled about 800lbs worth of snow, I gave Elizabeth (my guitar) an early Christmas present; new strings, and continue to ask myself, "Ok, what now Thomas?"

So I decided to pick up the acoustic and work on some music, but that quickly lost my attention when a song started playing from Rhapsody. "We Crown You" by Fee. The chorus goes...

"King of Kings and God of grace (we crown You, we crown You)
Our Redeemer strong to save (we crown You, we crown You)
High and holy lifted up, there is none more worthy Lord
We crown You Lord of all"

While the melody is extremely catchy, the part that caught my attention was when the female vocals came in with a soul piercing, "we crown You, we crown You." I sat in awe and amazement at how it took a simple three word refrain to make me realize how complicated I've made things.

My prayer for the past six months has gone something like this; "God, I want to seek You and You alone. I long for a life of authenticity and a heart of purity. I know I will never be a man until I'm the man of God that You created me to be." So I began asking God to help me adjust my schedule, because I knew I needed time for myself and time for us in order for this life and heart to grow. The first few months were good and sweet. The past month, however, has been everything but. I've run upon so many struggles like finances with bills and debt, as well as struggles with my mind and heart. As fast as I ran upon them, I found myself running away from myself and the much prayed for "us time." Why? Because I have more faith in these struggles than I do in myself. I know myself, I really do. I know what I can handle and what I can't. And I knew that I couldn't handle alone time with these problems hanging over my head.

And now I'm back to these lyrics; "we crown You, we crown You". I constantly preach this idea to the congregation, to my band family, and to my friends. And that's where it stays, "we." We crown You, Lord. We find our strength in You. We give our lives to You. And I realized that I have more faith in my struggles than in myself because I've accepted that I can do all these things as long as there's a "we" involved.

So Lord...

"I crown You, I crown You"

---Thomas

THE GATHERING

The Vision...

...to gather as one body of believers, with one voice, in reverence to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We gather as a community, who earnestly seeks the face, the hand, and the will of our Living God.

The What...

...we are coming together, once a month, with the expectation that our place of gathering has been deemed sacred, as we express various forms of individual and corporate worship (prayer, meditation, song, dance, word, art/painting/drawing, etc). The only thing consistent, I pray, besides our God showing up in mighty ways, is the life sacrifice we offer every time we step into our sacred gathering place.

The When...

...from 7pm-9pm on:

Jan. 16
Feb. 27
Mar. 13
Apr. 10
May 22
June 12
July 24
Aug. 14
Sept. 25
Oct. 16
Nov. 20
Dec. 18

The Where...

...Mt. Olive Brethren Church
2977 Pineville Road
McGaheysville, VA 22840

More Info...

...please contact Thomas Carrier - tcarrier8806@gmail.com

Lets say thanks

(click image)

I wanted to pass this along to you all and encourage you to take a few minutes and write a letter to our troops to express your support. Whether you agree with why they're doing what they're doing, they're protecting your freedom nonetheless. So please take a minute to express your support and to encourage them during this holiday season. Thanks.

With love,
---Thomas

New Songs

Hello friends. I just uploaded some nasty recordings of my 3 newest songs, however they are recordings nonetheless. I'll have better quality ones coming soon, so keep your eyes and ears open. I hope you enjoy these and allow God to minister through these words as He did to me.

ReverbNation: Thomas Carrier

With love,
---Thomas

Twloha...

To write love on her arms...

I strongly encourage you to take some time and read what this "movement" is all about. The founder was out at JMU this evening, talking and encouraging this "twloha idea." I'm incredibly hyped right now just to know that there are people out there who truly care and love on people with no strings attached, no questions asked. Please check it out.

With love,
---Thomas

Lets get productive...

I really miss the days when I could sleep until, well pretty much until whenever I wanted. And not just until whenever I wanted, but as long as I possibly could. This morning definitely told me I am getting older and more comfortable with my crazy schedule.

I had some family come in from out of town late last night. I sat up and talked with my uncle until a little after 12 and didn't get to sleep until about 12:45ish. It was such a perfect night/morning to sleep. It was raining, the wind was blowing, and it was cold. But no, Thomas is wide awake by 8:00am. My first thought when I woke up, rolled over and saw the clock was, "Ah man! I'm going to be super late for work!" After jumping out of bed and throwing some dirty work clothes on, I realized that my uncle, aunt and cousin were talking downstairs and then realized that it was in fact Saturday. Bummer, sort of?

But I'm actually excited. E&M is closed on Saturday's for the rest of winter, so having a day off is very nice. But I'm really excited because my goal for today is to be PRODUCTIVE. I hate sitting around and doing nothing. I feel so useless when I don't have a schedule, plan, or purpose. So, first on my list is changing the oil in the old Mitsubishi. Amazing, I've had the car for close to 5 years now and I have never changed the oil in it myself. So being broke and feeling lazy has given me the motivation to change it myself this morning. I have to mention my excitement about my wicked awesome deal on 5 quarts of oil and an oil filter from Advance yesterday though. Except I realized I can't find my oil filter wrench or drip pan, so back in to town I go.

After Emily's got some clean oil in her, I'm off to church to set up and prepare for tomorrow morning. Come out and worship with In August tomorrow morning at Mt. Olive Brethren Church, 11am-12pm!

It's J-mo's birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAL!!) so we're all gathering for some food, fellowship, and celebration tonight. Which reminds me, I need to get him a card. Put it on the list!

Alrighty, well I think that's about the extent to my productive day. Now looking back at it, I'm really not doing a whole lot, but that's ok. I'll just keep telling myself I am.

With all my love,
---Thomas

Reflecting on our last worship night for '09

Last night was our final worship night for the year. The focus was on prayer and silence. Our lives our so chaotic that we never get a time of silence to reflect, think, pray, or even just breathe. We focused on the songs Our Prayer (Ps. 101) and Shelter (Ps. 61) and spent a few moments in silence in the beginning of the evening and then again in the middle. My prayer was that God's grace and mercy would just pour out among us as a body of believers in these moments of silence and prayer. It's amazing that even after I spent weeks praying for pure, God given expectations for that evening, He still came in and completely shattered every single one of them. It was such an overwhelmingly beautiful experience for me and I praise God for allowing me (us) the freedom to worship how I (we) please.

I want to thank everyone who came out last night, or any night we've gathered. You all are very special to me and I thank you for allowing me to worship with you. It's truly an honor and privilege. And a big thank you to my In August family. Worshiping with you week in and week out has been such a blessing in my life.

Looking to the future, I ask for prayer as I continue to follow God's voice in these gatherings. "May there be less of me and more of You in all things, amen."

With all Love,
---Thomas

Ready, set, GO!

Well here we are with my first post. I'm really not sure I know the in's and out's of this blogging bit yet, so we'll just wing it and have faith.

Why am I starting this blog, you might ask? Mainly because I'm saddened by the fact that no matter how much I try and organize my schedule or plan things out, I never seem to have as much time as I would like to be able to sit down with each and everyone I come in contact with and just talk, fellowship, and love on. So my hope is that this blog will be a way for me to reach out and connect with you and also a way for you to feel more connected to me.

Alright, well here's a little run down on the wonderful me...

I'm 21 and currently doing everything in my power to seek the living will of my God. As in the title of this blog, my heart's desire is to be purely, wholly, 100% authentic in all that I am and in all that I do. Right now, I'm investing my time and energy into this wonderful ministry in which God so graciously blessed me with, called In August, and our role within our home church and community. Music has been my biggest passion for as long as I can remember and worshiping with the folks of In August has been such a gift and highlight of my young life.

What do I want to be when I grow up? As long as I'm still a child of God, I'm good. Where am I going with this? Good question.

Ok, let's wrap this first post up then. As I said earlier, my prayer is that I'm able to connect with you as you feel you connect with me. As your brother in the Lord, I love you. Good night.

---Thomas