Come As You Are is #1 this week!

The song, "Come As You Are" that I wrote with Michael Farren and Tony Wood went #1 at Inspo radio this week.  This is the video about the song and this is a video of the song.  Here is the chart!

Milly

The last month and a half seem like such a whirlwind.  On July 1st, we got the frightening news that our niece, Milly was diagnosed with Leukemia.  This is Sarah's brother's third and youngest child and she is 2 years old.  Our world became wrapped up in daily trips to Vanderbilt Children's hospital to check up on her and spend time with family.  The first piece of news that the doctors gave that first night we were at the hospital is that 85% of children that go through treatment recover fully and never have another issue with leukemia.  That was good news given that Sarah and her brother Chad(yes we have the same name) had lost a high school friend to leukemia.  The first few weeks felt like everything was going on schedule.  They were there two and a half weeks for the first treatment and then the doctors sent Milly home.  Chad and Marty(parents) were glad to be home but it was only to be for 2-3 days.  They took her back to the hospital with complications with a port that had been place in her chest.  The doctors fixed that and sent them back home.  They live an hour and a half away so it's not an easy trip to make.  The night she got back home, she started having a bad belly ache, a fever, and her body started swelling.  They took her back to the hospital where she was admitted for another week and a half.  Her body swelled so much that her little body looked pregnant and she couldn't open her eyes.  The scary part was that the doctors at Vanderbilt said that they hadn't seen this in a child going through leukemia treatment.  On top of this, she had kidney stones.  There were a few nights during this time that we thought that we were going to lose her.  Her body stopped making protein which apparently caused fluids to leak out of veins and capillaries.  We learned that it is called "third spacing".  It is what caused her body to swell so much.  They began to give her protein and she started losing the 14 pounds that she had gained.  She only weighed 28 pounds when she started treatment so this was a LOT of weight to gain.

We have spent so much time praying for her and asking people to pray in the last month and a half.  She is recovering slowly at home.  Evidently the second month of chemo is not as invasive as the first month which is good news.  There are months coming in the two and a half years of treatment that will be tough.  We went to go see her on Friday night and she seems to be in good spirits.  She is smiling which was good for our souls to see.   If you think about it, pray for Milly.  Pray for continued healing.  We have seen the Lord answer prayers over and over again.

Welcome to the new CHADCATES.net!

Welcome!  Take a look around.  I've had this site for a while but have refined it and added elements in the last few days.  I've also redesigned the blog.  Hope you like it. 

Come As You Are-New Single Coming Out...part 2

This video is of us playing the song

Come As You Are-New Single Coming Out

I have a new single coming out this week by Pocket Full of Rocks.  I wrote it with the lead singer Michael Farren and Tony Wood.  I am so excited for people to hear this song.  This video is about the process of writing this song.  You can download it on iTunes here.  Check it out!

True Greatness: The 2010 Belmont Best of the Best

On Saturday night, Belmont hosted the Best of the Best Showcase.  They have 5 student-produced showcases throughout the year and this show was the winners of all of those showcases.  The show was amazing.  The production was stellar...and again all student-produced.  For the past three years, they have honored someone tied to Belmont.  This years honoree was Vince Gill. 

My wife Sarah has found so much favor in her job at Belmont.  I think it's because she loves to inspire people.  She also loves leadership and is not afraid to walk into conflict knowing that something great can come out of resolving it.  For several years, she was the staff advisor for the student showcase council and walked closely with them as they planned the showcases throughout the year.  A couple of years ago, Belmont allowed her to hire and lead someone in those responsibilities.  She has a new employee in that position and is still in the process training and equipping her.  Because of this, Sarah has been more directly involved with the students as they prepared for The Best of the Best.  A few weeks ago, the student council went to breakfast with Vince Gill at Noshville and the students talked about how selfless he was.  He made the statement, "What if we lived in a world where we always put ourselves last?"  This quote was directly in line with what my wife has been telling the students.  She has kept saying, "This is not about you.  This is about honoring someone and it will make your show SO much bigger."

They succeeded in really making the show about Vince.  Sarah had hired a former student to do several videos about Vince's life as a musician, as a family man, and as a philanthropist.  They were very moving to watch and I teared up a few times.  There were also video tributes from Dolly Parton and Brad Paisley.  During the tribute, Vince's daughter Jenni played a song and told a story about asking her dad to play at he first grade talent show.  The week before, he was asked to play on the Grand Ole Opry for the FIRST time.  He turned it down to play for his daughter.  It reminds me of a Kyle Mathews song called "The Way We Go About It Matters".  His wife, Amy Grant and his friend Rodney Crowell both played a song. 

When Vince accepted the Robert E Mulloy Award of Excellence(which were replicas of his and Amy's basketball seats in the Curb Event Center), he kept telling stories that honored other people.  Vince is an AMAZING musician but what makes him truly great is much more than his voice and guitar ability.  He is so generous with his time and resources.  I was a recipient of his generosity in college.  I received one of his scholarships and was able to thank him at a reception before the show.

The students who produced the Best of the Best succeeded in making their show SO much bigger by honoring Vince Gill.  It was a wonderful evening with so much good music that was filled with true greatness.

Doghouse

I received an email from my publisher this last week telling me that a guy in Australia had cut my song and it was his second single!  Here's the video...

There's a Bluebird on my shoulder...

I played the Bluebird Cafe on Thursday night with some GREAT writers.  John Lemonis invited Tony Wood, Dave Clark and myself to play.  Dave Clark has had 25 #1's in Christian Music and Tony Wood has had 18 #1's.  If your doing the math, that is 43 #1's between them.  They have held the Bluebird cafe in such high esteem and it was both their first time to play.  I was so honored to be playing with them for their first time there.  It was a wonderful evening!  Thank you John for the invitation!

The Central Park Sabbatical

I have written songs professionally for the past 9 years. I try to work really hard and treat it as a job and show up every day. In March, I really started feeling like an empty well and as the month progressed it began to feel overwhelming. I just wasn't enjoying it.

There was a day in March when I began talking about taking some time off. I started asking the people who this would affect(my wife Sarah, my publisher Holly, and several co-writers) what they thought of the idea. To my surprise, everyone resoundingly told me to take time off.

I met with several people that last week in March to wrestle with how to rest well. One of the guys who was really gracious with his time was Jeromy Diebler. We had several days down to write and he so willingly switched gears and helped dream with me about my time off. I'm in a marriage mentoring community group led by Greg Ham. I told our group that I was taking the month off and that I wanted to take a two-day silent retreat to begin my month. Greg had done this in the past and recommended that I meet with a counselor named Al Andrews. I took Al to lunch at Puckett's Grocery in downtown Franklin. I had heard a lot about Al as he is a counselor to many artist's and musicians. Our time together was wonderful and one of the things that he said stood out to me. He said, "I want you to consider finding your Central Park." It's like my spirit smiled when he said that and I nodded for him to continue. "Your life is like the busy-ness of New York City and the planners of the city carved out a huge space in the middle of that city that seemed to communicate rest."

I left for my two day retreat and went to a place called Deer Run. I stayed in Lodge in the Treehouse Suite. The first morning and early afternoon was great. I read, prayed, journaled, hiked, and listened. In the late afternoon, it started being really hard and lonely and I had another day to go! Looking back, I'm so glad I took that retreat...for margin, for rest, for wrestling. I will continue to look back on the things I journaled about. This is one of the entries...

Central Park Metaphor

The City is extremely busy. Tourists, people dressed in suits. Sidewalks packed, walking, waiting at red lights.

The forethought of city planners to carve out a HUGE chunk of the city and make it a place of relaxation and renewal. They could bring machines in and dig up the trees, rocks for climbing, ponds, bridges, places for running and riding bikes. It would have been seemingly easy to build more city blocks of skyscrapers, money-making structures. Instead it seems, they valued margin, space, something green amidst something gray.

Yes, the beauty of NYC is the sum of it's parts but the sum of it's parts includes the vast oasis that is Central Park. The city wouldn't be nearly as magical without it.

You can see the city from a long way off. In the same way, I want to be a sort of City on a Hill. I want to love the Lord and love people well with His love. Living well seemingly means I need to value margin...not just value margin that exists in a Redbox, a racquetball game, or 18 holes but margin that listens, that prays, that memorizes scripture, that takes time to love people in need.


I have one more week of time off. It has been good for my soul. It has been really interesting to see how the Lord has already blessed this time off. I keep hearing good news this month about songs being cut or singled to radio. I'm excited to get back in the room with friends and start creating again. As I have started to schedule May, the temptation is to pack my schedule and start building "skyscrapers"...but I am mindful to leave space...a Central Park for my soul.

Miracle on East 45th Street

Sarah and I got back from New York City this last week.  Part of Sarah's job at Belmont University is to coordinate an extension program in New York and Los Angeles.  A Belmont student was receiving an award from the ASCAP Foundation in NYC and we were there to support her and Belmont.  It was our first time to be in the city during Christmas.  We loved it!  The lights, the window displays, the decorations, and the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center all gave such a different experience to our trip. We had a day off and we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and had a great time.

We usually fly home in the late afternoon so we can spend a good part of the last day shopping and taking in the city.  Sarah and I slept in a bit on the day we were leaving.  We were staying at the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street.  We were in the process of getting ready and packing so we could check out the when I decided to call ASCAP about an upcoming check amount.  I left a voicemail with a lady at ASCAP and within 5 minutes she had called me back.  This bulk of this check was going to represent a song that I had on the radio this last year called My Deliverer by Mandisa.  I typically try not to get my hopes up for a check amount to guard myself from disappointment.  I had a really conservative amount in my head and was setting myself up for it to be even less.  When my friend from ASCAP called me back and told me the amount, it was substantially higher than I anticipated.  I got off the phone and played the game with Sarah, "Guess how much?".  She started with my conservative amount and I kept saying "higher...higher...higher".  When I told her the amount she started jumping on the bed.  She started hugging me and said, "The Lord is using your gift to provide for us."  As if this moment wasn't holy enough, this is where story takes off.  Sarah and I are still hugging when we hear a voice in the hallway(the walls of the Roosevelt are not the most sound proof) say, "The Bible says that the Lord will prosper you."  You've got to remember that this is New York and you don't hear people talking like this. Sarah and I went to the door immediately to see who had said this.  There in the hallway was one of the housekeeping staff on the phone.  She looked a little startled because we were looking surprised at her.  She held the phone away from her ear and Sarah asked her if she had said what we had heard and she smiled and nodded.  Because she was on the phone, we didn't say anything else but I put my fist in the air and she smiled a little bigger.  We went back into the hotel room and a minute later she was knocking on our door.  Her name was Monica.  We invited her into the hotel room and I told her the story of My Deliverer and about my phone call and that the Lord is providing for us to get out of debt.  I played her a bit of the song on my iphone.  She started smiling and praising the Lord and said, "You know...people are so busy these days that they don't take time to read...but they WILL listen to songs...bless you."  I asked her how we could pray for her and you could all of the sudden see the yearning on her face.  She said, "My husband is not a believer and I desperately want him to be."  She told us his name is Eric.  They are both from Ghana in Africa.  We prayed together there in room 385 of the Roosevelt Hotel for Eric's salvation.  Monica seemed SO blessed by our exchange when she said goodbye.  When the door closed, Sarah and I just praised the Lord for making a moment of blessing for us into a moment of blessing for someone else.  The Lord is SO good!

This past fall, there have been moments during football games where I had given up on the team I was pulling for because it looked like there was no way to for them to come back.  There have been moments where I didn't know if my song was going to be cut by an artist or whether it was going to be singled.  Sometimes I give up easily.  Sarah never stopped BELIEVING.  She started saying, "I believe.  That's who I am!"  We walked by Macy's in New York and "Believe" was on the side of the building.  Sarah said, "I believe. That's who I am!" and we snapped the picture.  I am so grateful for her.

I hope you see the Lord's blessing this year at Christmas as we worship Jesus.  Please take a moment to pray for Eric!

Merry Christmas!