exploring new shirt options (an excuse to get crafty)

So our drummer Josh and his wife Lauren, my lovely management assistant, and our friends Josh Driller and Cassie Sandberg got together and painted some shirts. Wait, I should back up.

As I explained in this post, Maywood shirts are sewn by hand and made-to-order according to each fan's preference. There are limitations to what you can ask for, of course (No, I will not sew "maywood" across the butt of your pants), but as Lauren once calculated, there are still over 9000 options available for customization. HA! Other than getting something one-of-a-kind that more aptly expresses your personal taste than a mass produced one-design-fits-all shirt (which we're still hoping to make, btw), there's a whole philosophy behind knowing where your product came from and why that's important, blah blah blah. Read it here.

Ok, back to these painted, stenciled shirts. I got the idea here. I took zero pictures of what we came up with that day, of course, so this post will be short. (Yay?) We test-marketed them at our last concert on July 9th and got a healthy order of 3 stenciled shirts, including one from my new pal, Zac, who was introduced to Maywood while working a summer job with Joel, Jared and Caleb. He coudln't decide on a stencil design, so he said "surprise me." Josh saw this an an opportunity to do something over-the-top-RIDICULOUS and described a magical fantasy scene straight out of the World of Warcraft on top of which I should impose our band name. He was probably being sarcastic, but *ding* CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! The below design is what Zac got.

original sketch, stencified

after i cut it out

after painting

It turned out a little messy, but overall I am happy with it. Because it was a black shirt, we had to spray the whole stencil white first, then cover the cloud and spray the dragon green. We got it EVERYWHERE (sorry about that, Zac). Also, I can't guarantee the structural integrity of this or any of our shirts, but I hope it brings you, our fans, joy while you wear yours.

No, I will not be making anymore dragons. Sorry Dakota! But you CAN ask Josh for his design "stereo love." It is my new fav!

Provision

The summer is always difficult. We thought last year was slow, even though we were scrambling to finish our album, but this year is a molasses fest. Sprinkling concerts over summer jobs, vacations, and mission trips spread across 7 band members is a task of insanity that only a few bozos would take on. And, as you may have noticed, I haven't done a very good job. Blessedly, God is in control and He sufficiently flooded our Spring with opportunities that have kept us financially stable throughout the summer months. Additionally, a couple of very significant, though last-minute, opportunities landed in our laps and have kept the wheels rolling. But we're about to enter another season of drought.

Even as I cringe at that thought and look toward the rest of July and August with anxiety, I know from experience that drought is necessary. When burdened with financial obligations, it's easy to prioritize like this:

1. keep hands busy
2. keep brain busy coming up with ways to keep hands busy
3. keep feet busy fulfilling ideas that brain comes up with to keep hands busy
4. keep eyes busy looking for opportunities to keep hands busy
5. keep mouth busy asking for support
6. spend time in prayer and God's Word

See what I mean? Many Christian organizations and churches fall into this trap. We become so concerned about meeting deadlines or strategically evading boredom in our parishioners that we focus all our time and energy on oiling and maintaining the machine (at great moral cost) instead of focusing on Christ. As individuals, we fool ourselves into thinking that a busy hand equals good Christianity, all-the-while disregarding the message of Hebrews - that though our service to mankind is commanded of us and pleasing to the Lord [Note: not everything you busy yourself with actually serves a Godly purpose, so be careful] (Heb 6:9-12, James 2:14-26), we are slacking in our spiritual growth (Heb 5:12-14) and letting our faith wane. The ironic thing is (this is hilarious) that by faith, the very thing we put off til last, we are saved (Eph 2:8-9). And by faith, the very thing we are too busy to worry about or help grow, we receive God's blessings (Heb 11).

Why are we so stupid and distracted? Why do we try to take things into our own hands, like Sarah did (ha?) when she decided that the descendants God promised her and Abraham could not possibly come from her own womb (Genesis 16)? She said "Oh, I'll handle this!" and told Abraham to make a baby with her maidservant instead. #facepalm  Eventually, she got it right, but not until after she threw a wrench at the whole plan.

Maywood struggles with this, joyfully. We vow to stop trying to handle it ourselves and just get out of God's way so that He can bless us. This season of drought is exactly what we need to lean on Him and focus on what really matters - our personal relationships with Jesus. We know, according to the Word (as referenced above) that through our growing faith His love and truth will be reflected in our lives, multiplying His Kingdom and His blessing of provision will be poured out on us in our time of need. It's painful, yes. But contrary to what the world wants us to think, pain is good. Take up your cross.