Journal entry for: 12-17-1999

Hey everybody

      It's me again. I'll try to keep it short today, but I just want to thank everybody for the great year that we've had in 1999. We played a million shows and met a million people and a lot of you have truly loved us and supported us, and nothing we did ever deserved that. Thank you so much.

      As some of you may know, I never really wanted to be a musician, but I just sort of woke up one day and had dropped out of college and gotten a record deal. Ok, it wasn't that dramatic, but it did happen really fast and then I spent a lot of time wondering just what it is that I had gotten myself into. This past year was crazy! Driving all over America a couple times, breaking down all over America a couple times, saying goodbye to people I really loved, welcoming new people into my life whom I have grown to love, feeling lonely, feeling home, being hacked off and being content. There is always so much pushing me up and pulling me down.

      It's my prayer for all of us, but especially me, that I take what little down time I have here at the end of the year to let God put it all in perspective for me. We live in a society where we have so much stuff thrown at us all the time and we never really get to think about it and pray about it and figure out what is good and what is bad, what is putrid and what is holy, what is fun and what is beautiful. I hope that your year, no matter what kind of year it was, ends with all of us realizing that good and holy and beautiful things happened all around us, and all throughout us, this past year. That He uses all things for His good. God is always doing that and He always will. Let us take this time to rest in the fact that He loves us where we are and, because of that, won't let us stay there for long. God bless you all and have a wonderful Christmas.

Grace and Peace,
Andrew