I have met more than one person who has lost hope. I penned this in an attempt to empathize. Lord help us long before we ever feel this way.

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Verse 1

I’m going 90 miles an hour, the way these days go by leaves you spinning in circles sick from the ride. The faster that I go, the more important things I miss. This can’t go on forever, I can’t keep up like this.

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Verse 2

When you look you see a stranger…my face is just a shell. No one else has noticed, but you know me too well. The light that shone inside me has dwindled to a spark. Who knows how long it will be before it all goes dark?

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Bridge

Can you save me from this ride? Take this fear from me? Can you bring me anything to curb the insanity?

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

I wrote part of this song for Marixa on her 25th birthday. A few years have passed between then and now and I realized something about the song…I will still do anything for this amazing woman.

I had to give the verses a redo. I thought I knew how I felt about her at 25. Now I know, I have so much deeper to fall…and there is no end in sight.

Verse 1

There are times when I say I love you that three words just aren’t enough to describe what I feel inside and how you mean so much. You are the smile in every morning that sends me on my way. You are the arms there to hold me at the end of the day.

I am so thankful for you.

Chorus

I would do anything, anything for you. I would swim the deepest ocean just to be with you. I would do anything, anything for you. I would climb the highest mountain just to make your dreams come true. Baby, anything for you.

Verse 2

With every day that I spend with you I fall so much deeper in to this wonderful world we’ve made as lovers and as friends. Baby take my hand. Come walk along with me. For all of my days You are the only one I need.

My darling how I love you.

Chorus

I would do anything, anything for you. I would swim the deepest ocean just to be with you. I would do anything, anything for you. I would climb the highest mountain just to make your dreams come true. Baby, anything for you.

Chorus

I would do anything, anything for you. I would swim the deepest ocean just to be with you. I would do anything, anything for you. I would climb the highest mountain just to make your dreams come true. Baby, anything for you.

One of the things I love about being a parent is getting to see the world through my son’s eyes. He has such a fresh, new perspective on everything that I would consider commonplace or mundane. It brings new life into many things for me as I get to enjoy them with him. I am very thankful for this.

I was reminded recently of attending my cousins wedding when my son was 3. She is a beautiful young lady who married a fine young man. I am very happy for them both. We went to the ceremony and we sat off to the side, not knowing how a toddler would handle sitting through a wedding (thank the Lord for the iPhone). As the ceremony started our son looked back and saw my cousin in her dress. He looked at his mama and said, “Mama! Its a princess!” Now, that is exactly how every woman wants to feel at her wedding.

It was a great joy to watch her get married. I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with that side of the family over the years as I am 12 years older than she is. However, I have enjoyed watching her grow up. Her dad and my aunt got together when she was three. I remember meeting her for the first time. She didn’t know what to think of me, but we became buddies pretty quick. I didn’t know that my own three year old would be watching her in her wedding all these years later. She was a cute kid. She is a beautiful woman. I am proud of her. She did look like a princess.

As I sat there watching I was taken back to my own wedding. I remember when the chapel doors opened up and I saw my bride in her dress for the first time. I cried. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I experienced a range of emotions in that moment: She looked beautiful, She was about to be mine, We were declaring our love to the world, We were promising to be together always, and so much more. The emotions rushed back at me as I remembered my bride, who also looked like a princess. She is more beautiful now as my Queen.

I am grateful for the perspective of my son. Seeing the world through his eyes is a privilege that I cherish…when he was three and all these years later. He saw a princess that day. It still makes me so thankful for him and my Queen.

Verse 1

All of my life I have found that love breaks your heart and lets you down. Just when you think it is right, you give all you can give your love fades away and makes it harder to live.

When I wasn’t looking love came and found me out. With every day that passes there is little left to doubt. Her love was unexpected, something I never thought I’d find and before I knew it she was changing my mind.

Chorus

She’s changing my mind. She’s helping me stand. The hurt has gone away wounds starting to mend. I swore to myself I’d never go through this again, but she changed it all with just the touch of her hand.

Verse 2

I don’t know how to act, I don’t know what to say. She is all I ever needed, her love has made a way. She brought this heart of stone back to life again with just the touch of her hand.

Chorus

She’s changing my mind. She’s helping me stand. The hurt has gone away wounds starting to mend. I swore to myself I’d never go through this again, but she changed it all with just the touch of her hand.

I was sitting at work the other day and I couldn’t get it off my mind. It bugged me and bugged me and bugged me. I did my best to ignore it. But, it nagged me until I paid attention. I tried to put it off again. Fail. I tried again. Epic fail. What had me in its grip? Worry.

It doesn’t matter what it is that we worry about, once we let it get in there it is so hard to get it to go away. It could be about money, health issues, relationships, or a variety of other things that are important to us. They are often unfounded, or barely founded. But, once it gets in your mind it multiplies like wild fire.

I have spent more than my share of time battling it over the years. Finding out I had cancer in 2004 and again in 2018 provided a ton of it. Losing a job years ago added a bunch. Complications with our son’s delivery added more than I thought I could bear. What did it all amount to? A lot of stress that didn’t do me any good in the end.

There is a great verse that goes like this: who by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:27) I have discovered this time and time again. Being concerned about things can be productive. Doing my part is necessary. But, letting those concerns shift to worry only makes us anxious and clouds our minds. Concern and hope can exist together. Worry chokes hope.

After my diagnosis in 2004 and in 2018, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to live. I would endure the surgery. I would undergo chemotherapy. I would do everything I could to make sure I had the best chance possible. The results were up to God. I just wanted to make sure I did my part. I was concerned. I refused over and over to let it turn into worry. Thankfully, the outcome is what I wanted it to be. I am still here. I still fight worry all the time. I am still here.

What do you worry about? Are the problems real or imagined? Are they things you can do something about? Do you need to ask for help? If they are things you can tackle, get after it. If they are things you need help with, ask. If they are things you have no control over, do what you can do.

Even if I have to make the choice a thousand times, I refuse to let worry overtake me. I know it won’t do me any good in the long term and it makes the short term miserable.