Selectivity means choosing what not to say. It means aiming at the bull’s-eye. It means making sure the song is about one specific thing so that when folks are driving home from the show, they can say, “Remember the one he wrote for his son?”

She says that artists need “resonators.” They need someone who gets what you’re trying to do, who is moved by your work and will encourage you to keep fighting when the battle is long.

Ah, Lord, I’m so weak! And so foolish. I’ve hurt my wife, my children, my friends. I just want to go home. Write that song. Write that story. Homesickness is the way home.

That’s what really led to writing, if I’m honest. In the beginning it wasn’t about glorifying my Maker—it was about declaring my own existence, for my own sake.

But a songwriter is also a person who is sad about something and wants other people to be sad about it too, or is confused by something and wants others to feel that confusion. Songwriting is about resonance.

But the song as it’s written is never as beautiful as it was in that fleeting, exhilarating moment of inspiration.

democracies eventually vote themselves out of existence. Long-term, the majority won’t choose what’s best for

All you really have is your willingness to fail, coupled with the mountain of evidence that the Maker has never left nor forsaken you.

fell. It didn’t matter that I would probably never show anyone what I had written, though I admit I harbored a wild hope that this page of words was important somehow, even if it would only ever be important to me. I saw something beautiful, felt something profound, and was compelled to express it on paper. I spoke aloud to the presence that