Billie Eilish picking up where Lorde left off?

I will be starting this post with a completely unsubstantiated claim:

Billie Eilish is the new Lorde. 

OK, so now I’ll try to back this claim up with data.

Lorde pretty much fell off the map back in 2018 after her sophomore album, “Melodrama,” was released in 2017. To date, it’s sold under a million whereas her first album (“Pure Heroine,” 2013) blew up all the charts and has since sold over 4 million.

Enter Billie Eilish.

Billie Eilish’s debut album came in 2019 and, like Lorde’s first album, has slaughtered the charts. She has a couple of big hits from that album and is basically the belle of the ball at this point. Both Billie and Lorde were 17 years old when their first albums debuted. Lorde was 21 years old when her second album was released, and as of this post Billie Eilish does not have a second album made public.

I don’t feel like looking into this anymore. 🙂

But in my mind, Billie Eilish has picked up where Lorde left off. What are your thoughts? Will Billie’s second album be as well received as her first, or will it slump like Lorde’s second album did?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

The case of the missing frisbee

When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago, a tragedy happened! Not a real tragedy like this date that went horribly wrong, or flying my drone into a tree…

…but a tragedy my dog Asia would have been devastated by. I say “would have” because luckily, she never found out that her frisbee went missing! Well, I say “luckily” but luck didn’t find her frisbee. My parents did!

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The frisbee is often thrown into the ocean and one particular day, it was thrown into cool water and then we all left on a boat excursion. A few hours later the frisbee was nowhere to be found and no one could say exactly where they last saw it.

My brother and I scoured the shoreline but came up empty. I was upset at first because Asia loves this frisbee, but if I’m being honest, I was more upset about the lack of care from responsible parties. I guess I’m officially an adult when things like that bother me. I had given up on finding it and somehow was able to let the carelessness of others wash by like water under a bridge. I can tend to hold grudges, so this was progress, right? I guess I’m officially a Christian when things like this can be “let go” of. Thank you Lord 🙂

I made it back to Nashville frisbee-less and not more than a day later got the text from my Dad that what was lost was now found. Hallelujah! Amazing grace! OK, that doesn’t exactly fit but I’m so happy to know Asia will have her frisbee again when we get back to Florida, thanks to her favorite grand-puprents!

-Out of the Wilderness

Prayers with periods

A few days ago it dawned on me that my prayers have a lot of periods in them.

“Lord, thank you for this and that. Please do this, this, and this. Help me with that, and this and that.”

I do truly value humility, but I’m wondering if there’s an underlying high level of accidental arrogance in my prayer life. As if I’m telling God what to do. “Here’s a list of things I care about. Please answer me in the following ways.” Wow. God in Heaven is on the edge of His seat, waiting for His earthly to-do list from me. Ha!

So as I am very humbled by this misstep in my spiritual life, in my relationship with Him, I think there needs to be more question marks in my prayers.

“God, will you please help me today? Can You keep me from going down wrong paths? Which areas can I grow in and become less annoying to You and to others?”

The mindset of a servant who knows his own plan doesn’t really work anyway, so this servant has an open mind and is willing to ask for help, but not demand it.

Anyway, I know it’s only Sunday, I’m just thinking out loud. I hope you all have a super week with a handful of question marks and a few exclamation points sprinkled in! 🙂

-Out of the Wilderness

I guess I’m weird?

I recently had a chat with a good friend and he and I often talk about relationships. In this conversation he let me vent about something that’s been bothering me the past few weeks. So for that alone, if my friend is reading this– thank you, sir!

I won’t get into the details of my issues quite yet, maybe in a future post, but we wrapped up the conversation with this word play:

Maybe I’m single because I’m weird.
But I’m not weird because I’m single.

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

I AM that bird

The story of the bird I posted recently has managed to lodge it’s place in my mind ever since. As tragic as it was for the bird, the driver of the car, and me, I need there to be something good coming from it. What can I learn? What can I do to make up for it? That’s the main reason I’ve decided to save a bird, to balance the scales in a way.

Well, on a day trip to Memphis I had another thought about this bird and it almost stopped me in my tracks. This little bird was just trying to survive, avoid hardship, elude predators, to make a life for itself… this bird is ME.

I float around Nashville enjoying the beauty of all that’s here: friends, outdoors, music, all the good things I experience. I try to avoid hardship whenever possible, elude predators (like the inclination to have road rage, for instance), to be selfish, to lust… but a lot of times I am naive like this little bird. I land in the middle of life’s road just to be run over by sin.

I blame the evil forces at work in this world. They approach so slowly sometimes I don’t even see them coming. Then boom, they flatten me when I try to escape.

I’M THE BIRD.

While I was wrestling with these thoughts, halfway from Nashville to Memphis, I couldn’t help but become overwhelmed. Then this song popped up on Spotify…

…and I cried. God is so loving that, as a shepherd, He will leave the ninety-nine sheep to rescue the one who’s strayed away. I’m so grateful for this love. And as this song builds towards the ending, it becomes a celebration. I’m very much hoping and believing this is how life is supposed to go, too. No matter the struggle, it can turn into a celebration. Even as a little, often helpless bird, I can soar on wings like an eagle because I know God is FOR me. If only I can have hope in Him.

This hope is for all of us, too.

-Out of the Wilderness