Francesca Battistelli

I don’t know how to keep track of what day it is lately. Starting my work
week when everyone else is clocking out puts me in a strange place. I always
feel like Friday is Monday, and Saturday is Tuesday, and Sunday is Friday.
Then Mondays through Thursdays all feel like Saturdays. Weird, I know. Such
is the life of a traveling artist! Ah, but it’s wonderful. Honestly, I’m not
sure I could do the whole 9-5 thing. So, thank you, God for creating a job
for me.

This was a particularly good weekend. I can look back on every day of the
tour so far and see so much of what God is building. Relationships,
community, friends: it’s what we were made for. I was inspired last night
listening to my new friend Aaron (Shust) in a quiet moment describe how
blessed he feels about the season of life he’s in. He finds so much joy in
providing for his family, and you can tell that he truly loves looking out
for them more than for himself. It is encouraging. He is the real deal,
friends, and if you haven’t heard his latest project, check it out here. He
actually sold out this past weekend before the last show! Never fear, that
was only his road inventory. You can still find him on iTunes, his website,
and at your local Christian bookstore. Do it.

I am really going to miss everyone on the tour for the next two weeks! We
don’t meet up again until mid-October, and I can’t wait to swap stories and
eat meals together and catch up on what everyone’s been up to. The last few
weeks I’ve been learning what lives are made of: people.

I’m home tonight, sitting in my favorite spot in my house, listening to a
guy named Phil Danyew sing his heart out. I just discovered him, and he’s
fantastic. Check him out here. But as I listen, my heart hurts. I’m
contemplating the cycles of things, how they begin and how they end. It
seems like every piece of good news for one person comes with some sort of
bad news for someone else somewhere in the world. (Nichole Nordeman’s song
“Miles” from her last studio album is a good reminder of that.) My mind is
drawn to a particular scenario that produces a bit of an ache inside of me.
It’s good. God knows so well what He is doing, and His plan is a thousand
times better than mine could ever be. Still, I can’t help feeling the weight
of emotion that this circumstance produces in me.

God, thank you for letting me feel deeply. If it weren’t for moments like
these, I wouldn’t recognize the great moments when they come. And oh, they
will come! Thank you, Father. You are the light of my life. Continue to show
me the joy in the everyday moments, to find the surprises you have for me,
and to love You more tomorrow than I did today. Now, in the words of the
incomparable Shust, “give me words to speak...‘cause I can’t think of
anything worth saying, but I know that I owe You my life.”

Francesca