fact-check.

This afternoon I was sitting in a meeting. There were six of us around a table discussing the music for BTX, our preteen Sunday School curriculum. Cheryl had brought a bag of chocolate candies, which were scattered all over the table. I took a Snickers -- even though I enjoy chocolate and peanuts separately, I don't so much when they're together. So why did I pick a Snickers? Couldn't tell ya. But I'm eyeing this piece of Dove chocolate wrapped in pink foil and trying to think how I could strategically grab it without anyone noticing. I'm not really contributing to this meeting at all, and that chocolate looks really good. Maybe I don't need it. I was going to walk the stairs over lunch but didn't. I'm still young. I have pretty good metabolism.

Sometimes Andrea smiles at me and I can't tell if she's just looking at Cheryl, who is sitting next to me. So I'm trying not to look funny smiling all the time, but I can't help it when the discussion turns to the popularity of kids' sites like Webkinz and Jeff mentions how that's like Farm Town on Facebook. "All the adults like it." What? I've never even heard of this application. Turns out 46 of my friends use it. Weird.

Mr. Tester (we met with him and his wife Esther) offered to pray, and I admit while he was praying I slipped my phone out of my pocket to check the time. 2:35pm. Jeff mentioned to them I have an interview with Brandon Heath this afternoon, and I don't want to miss his call. Then he went into this story about how he heard Brandon was inspired to write "Give Me Your Eyes." It went something like this: Brandon was living in a poor part of Nashville and even though his parents could have set him up in a nice house, he chose to live there to work with the kids in the neighborhood and that experience is how he felt inspired to write it. I thought that was strange because I had read somewhere that he had been inspired while "people-watching" in an airport.

So, while I had Brandon Heath on the phone this afternoon, I asked him. This is what he said:

The idea for “Give Me Your Eyes” started when I was on an airplane. I was sitting next to somebody for about five hours, coming from Seattle, and our elbows were touching, but we never said one word to each other, you know?” That seems a little bizarre, that we are in such close proximity with each other yet we don’t converse, we don’t care for each other.

And so I was thinking about that whole scenario and I had heard about this dude who often would share his faith on flights, like he would always make a point to talk to the person next to him and share his faith. And I never did that. I feel like I need to share my faith with people I have a relationship with. A lot of times I’ll take CDs with me now, on planes, and if people ask what I do I’ll tell them I’m a musician and I’ll give them my CD. Then I’ll let that do the work.

This song really is just about taking the extra step to hear people’s stories and care for people. Even people who are really, really far away. That’s made a big difference in my life and it’s a continual prayer. The song is really a prayer. It’s become a sermon. So many people have made it into sermons; some youth groups have made dances to it. It’s really neat to see what it’s done. I wrote it with my friend Jason Ingram.

Anyway, Brandon seemed like a nice guy. He talked to me while eating in his car. He said he had been doing interviews all day. Tomorrow at noon, Leeland Mooring (lead singer of Leeland) will be calling so I can interview him.

Coming up:
Saturday -- being tourist-y in downtown Nashville with Kennan
Sunday -- church and baseball game with interns
Tuesday -- 6:40am flight to KC!
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