I’ve grown up asking lots of questions; I think it comes from a desire to learn. This is probably why some of my music asks questions of God, of myself, and of others. I think asking the right question is one of the most important parts of the learning process.

—–

Music:

Music has always been a consuming love of mine.

Even before I was born, I couldn’t hold still in my mother’s womb when there was good music playing. As a young child, before I could talk, I would sit at the piano making songs, singing quietly and soulfully. At the age of four(?) I wrote my first song when I was visiting my grandma. She has had significant amounts of her own music published, and took the time to write my little song down that day; and we still have it someplace. It only had four lines, but it was a love song to Jesus, and I was so glad to sing to Him.

I had music lessons from a young age, and was blessed to learn from many wonderful people. In junior high, high school, and college, I played piano or keyboard every week at church as part of the worship band for a church in Grand Rapids, MI.

After college, I helped to lead worship at our small church in Holland, MI. When the staff worship director left to follow the call of God elsewhere, I stepped up to lead the team there for a number of months. God called me out of the state to work full time with a Gospel recording artist, and he brought someone else to take the leadership of the worship team there in Holland.

Writing:

I’ve always had a special love for words and good writing. We grew up with lots and lots of books in the house, and we spent time as a family reading together on the nights and weekends. C.S. Lewis has been our favorite, and we’ve read the Chronicles more times than I could count. Other favorite authors include L.M. Montgomery, Mark Twain, and John Eldredge.

During grade school, my siblings and I took part in various poetic recitals through school, and always enjoyed learning and hearing and reciting the beautiful words by Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Frost and a number of other favorite poets.

In high school, I wrote some verse for a writing assignment, and it was selected to be included in the school publication. I didn’t start writing regularly until college. It was then that I remembered how much fun I’d had with creative writing for assignments high school, and began to write as a way to clarify my thoughts and settle my heart. Also while in college, I was part of the leadership in the college and carreer group at church, and started a writers group there called Freeing Young Inspiration. We met at various homes and enjoyed writing on the spot as well as sharing things we’d been working on recently. After enjoying a number of months together, our group began to be pulled to different places around the states and the world. We still kept in touch and shared writing, but stopped meeting in person.

During the past few years, the more I’ve written, the more I’ve come to love writing, and the more I’ve wanted to grow and learn in the craft. I’ve had the joy of learning from various great published poets, some of the most incredible poetry professors at multiple local colleges and universities, and a number of local writers. I recently got a chance to talk with Frank Peretti after a film event that he was one of the officials for, and he gave me some great advice. He said that people are often advised to “practice, practice, practice.” However, they might be headed in the wrong direction if they don’t also work to learn as much as they can. You want your practice to count for as much as possible. So his advice was “learn, learn, learn; then practice, practice, practice.” I think this is a natural progression for those who are really passionate about something though. You want to learn as much as you can by any and every way possible. You’re naturally practicing constantly because it is your passion; what you love; what you were made to do. It’s what you do.

A few of my favorite things:

As far as music goes, I love lots of different styles. My favorite musician of all time is Rich Mullins, and I also really enjoy Third Day, Vicky Beeching, and Bethany Dillon. Outside of music and writing, I love photography, inline skating, snowboarding, swimming, camping, and other active and outside kinda stuff that doesn’t involve throwing or catching anything. :o) I absolutely love everyone in my family. I’m the oldest of five kids and my youngest sister is 21 years younger than me. My brother Jason and sister-in-law Christine live in Chicago and my three sisters, Julie, Jenissa, and JoyAnna live just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan with my parents.

Now:

During this past couple years, I’ve really noticed an increase in my creative output as well as in my desire to do something significant musically. It seems like that I was wired to love making music and I want to do it with all of the passion I am capable of. My desire is to please God and to bring beauty and joy and truth to the people I connect with.