eggs and Jesus and Good Friday.

we are less than a week away from Easter...there are still eggs to dye, baskets to be hidden, and jelly beans and peeps to consume.

it's also the single most important holiday for Christians. when a man, who was born to a virgin and lived a perfect life, was murdered and then rose from the dead to save all of humanity from an eternal life of condemnation.

yeah, if you've never read the Bible you're missing out on some gnarly stuff.

so Easter is great and i'm for it all. i completely understand that it's about Jesus but i don't hate that it can also mean a get together with my family to eat ham and cheesy potatoes and a pastel manicure in place of my usual black/dark grey. i just really like celebrating things so i'm not usually one to bicker about the over-commercialization of every holiday known to man.

but before we get to the sunday morning service it's important to remember the three days prior. those dark days when hope was gone and a heaviness had settled in. i assume the disciples felt alone and scared and lost. they'd followed this dude around for 3 years and now he was dead and he seemingly didn't do the thing they thought he had come to do.

maybe that place is where you are now. hope seems lost and you feel abandoned. nothing is going right or turning out the way you planned. for every step forward it's three steps back. i've been there. we all have.

don't give up, sunday morning is coming.

bruce balgaard put it best when he said, "you don't always see Easter during your [personal] Good Friday."

when your situation feels like it's swallowing you whole know that God is in that too. there's that saying, "God will never give you more than you can handle," i think it's crap. i think God gives us more than we can handle so we turn to Him. your wait may be longer than three days. it might take weeks, months, years but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. it won't seem like it, but squint and you'll see that pin-prick of sun in the distance.

so when Easter rolls around in just 6 short days and you find yourself in church singing 'up from the grave he arose' and 'victory in jesus' in the midst of your personal Good Friday sing with gusto because your sunday morning is coming.

xo

frontman friday: nicholas petricca

okay, so who else was blindsided by the zayne malik news this week?! i wouldn't call myself a directioner by any means but it's weird that he won't be there anymore. he was by far one of the best singers of the group and he's got that bad boy smolder down. zayne, you will be missed by legions of girls worldwide.

but no use crying over spilt milk...let's get to some frontman adoration.

take a second to swoon: nicholas petricca

got that frontman swagger.

photo credit: the internetz

nicholas is founder and frontman of: walk the moon

think they wanna be my friend? 

photo credit: wtm

their current single on the radio is loads of fun. loads of fun, you guys. 

seriously, everyone loves this song.

and get this: they are playing in my city tonight and tomorrow night AND they were just announced as one of the acts for this year's cultivate festival! THAT'S RIGHT, not only is chipotle bringing their festival back to my city they also got these fellas on the bill! 

just when i thought i couldn't love you any more, chipotle, you go and pull a stunt like this. you da real MVP.

now nicholas, i didn't manage to get tickets to your show so if you wanted to leave a pair for me on the guest list that would be top notch. my name is sara walz. i'm not greedy, if you only have one ticket available i will totally ditch my friend. if you have no spots left, well then i guess i'll see you in august at chipotle fest! 

xo

john mayer on the brain.

john mayer keeps popping into my life these days.
not literally (i wish) but in other ways.

somehow a group of us girls that were on the film set got talking about him one day, not even entirely sure how it started. annie was the only one who had ever met him (i guess mat went on tour with him once) and she said that he's so good looking in person that it's actually ridiculous. she had never thought he was attractive before but then she met him and said all she wanted to do was kiss him he was so good looking. "he is a total d*** as a person but he's hot." is it weird that i'm the most jealous of his skin? it always looks flawless.

then i was in the car with my parents this past weekend (driving to their house from church no less) and his song your body is a wonderland came on the radio. now we are all adults and my parent's had had 3 kids by the time they were my age so i'm sure they know that i know about sex but it still made me fifty shades of uncomfortable. i love that song, it might be one of my favorites of his, but this time instead of singing along i talked really loudly over it for the entire four minutes because that's how i deal with awkward life situations.

then my friend and i were having a conversation and she mentioned his song slow dancing in a burning room. so obviously now i've listened to will anderson's cover of it a million times. i know i could just listen to the john mayer version but i love a good cover. and i love will anderson.

and now i just wasted ten minutes trying to come up with a good way to end this post by incorporating a bunch of his song titles into one sentence. it's one of those kinds of tuesdays. 

xo

frontman friday: all the things

holy balls, there's a chance that i would win worst blogger award for the past week if there was such a thing. life has been packed recently, not complaining, it has been fun and exciting and wonderful but has left little time for other things. so here are the few pictures i managed to snap in an attempt to remember the blur that's been life as of late.

i assisted with my friend jonathan's film. got to meet some really cool people and see all the behind-the-scenes...that's about all i am allowed to say about the movie. but i'll keep you in the loop because you are going to want to see this beast when it's released! 

hair and make up area on set. angela duncan is an all-star.

figuring out how to throw sawdust on set so it's visible
on camera.

behind the scenes shot from one of the photoshoots.

we are leo was in town for an acquire the fire event and gave me a ticket to catch their show. like the stellar friend that i am i got there as they were halfway into their first song and hung out for a grand total of maybe an hour after their set. good thing they are good people and love me anyway for some reason.

aww, look at doug on the big screen.

went to the just kids tour featuring mat kearney, parachute, and judah & the lion. i've been looking forward to this concert since early december and they all did a bang-up job. it was my first time seeing mat and he crushed it. dude sounds EXACTLY like his recordings. his wife, annie, was on the film set too and after the show invited a few of us on to the bus to hang out. in case you were wondering, his bus is really nice.  sorry, no pics from that though...i was NOT about to be that person.

judah & the lion getting in the st. patrick's day spirit. i don't think 
judah had any shorts on under that kilt.

terrible picture but great performance. i would marry will anderson.

the man of the hour, mr. mat kearney. in addition to being a fantastic singer-songwriter he's

also a really genuine dude. super nice and married to an equally great girl. job well done, mat.

the radio is hosting another stripped-down concert here on campus this next week so if you live in the st. bonifacius area (which i realize is basically no one) you should join us! minneapolis artist, lukas leesen, is performing and it's sure to be a good time. and it's free so i really don't know why you wouldn't come. 

i feel like there were enough musical men mentioned here for it to count as a frontman friday...i mean, i realize most of them have already had a frontman friday post but i'm counting it anyway. now it's the weekend and i'm off to play with my baby nephew who is flying in from colorado tonight (with his mom, he's not flying by himself, i promise). i am one happy girl.
xo

guilt and grace.

"the beauty of grace is it makes life not fair." 

probably one of my favorite relient k lyrics ever written. and it's true...grace really gives us an undeserved upper hand in life. 

i'm a rule follower by nature and believe that there should be consequences to actions; grace comes and blows that notion right out of the water. obviously there are still natural consequences for actions but grace says that if we are truly sorry that all is forgiven, wiped clean. what incredible news!

but sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) it's hard to extend grace and even harder to accept it. 

recently a friend confessed to me that he's sleeping with his girlfriend. they aren't married, he's in his mid-20's, he loves her and plans on marrying her. oh, and he's a pastor's kid. 

he asked me not to hate him. he literally said, "please don't hate me." 

firstly, it showed how un-grace-giving i must come off because how could i hate someone for sinning when i sin daily? the Holy Spirit was at work during that conversation because i would be lying if i said i didn't want to judge him. the human part of me wanted to wrinkle my nose in disgust at his blatant disregard for what Scripture says on the matter...then i was reminded of my own nature. i'm not out murdering people but pride counts as sin the last time i checked and sin is sin, right? there's a whole parable about a plank and a speck and eyes and who wants to be the jerk with the plank in their eye? 

secondly, it's weirdly humbling when someone confesses something to you. they trust you enough to pull the skeletons out of their closet and lay themselves bare saying "this is me at my most guilty." when someone is nervous to tell you something because they care about your opinion of them, there is a sense of weightiness that comes with that. being vulnerable with people is hard and when another human exposes their secrets to you it changes your idea of who they are. he was concerned i would think less of him but the fact that he was honest about his wrestlings with his own humanity made me appreciate him more. 

thirdly, he struggled to accept the fact that i wasn't disappointed in him or mad at him. do i think he should be having sex outside of marriage? no. he even knows he shouldn't be having sex outside of marriage, he called it "one of the big bullet-point sins." he grew up in the church, his dad is a pastor, he knows the Bible, and he has probably been on the receiving end of disapproving looks by well-intentioned Christians who think that a pastor's kid should have it all figured out. so when he told me his secret and i didn't disown him on the spot he felt the need to keep apologizing and explaining. it's a struggle most Christians can relate to, myself included. we want to pay for our mistakes because otherwise it seems too easy. like getting caught with our hand in the cookie jar only to be rewarded with two cookies. receiving grace is hard.

so those lyrics ring true...grace makes life so incredibly unfair and it's the most humbling experience of your life.

xo

frontman friday: jonathan thulin

there is a story to accompany today's frontman:

i met him 4 years ago at a battle of the bands. we were both judging. i've written this story before so if you slog back far enough in the blog you'll find it.

well we've remained friends throughout the years and recently he told me that he was given money to make a film! and guess what, filming starts today!

guess what else, i'm going to hang out on set for the next week and a half. which is why this post is going to be completely half-baked, i'm supposed to be out there right now. oops.

so his name is jonathan thulin and he used to be in a band called press play and now he is just doing solo stuff and his new album, science fiction, comes out march 17th. here's a video from his last album to hold you over till st. paddy's day. 

i'm late, i'm late, for a very important date! 

xo

warning: this might make you feel terrible.

a little over a year ago jon foreman did an interview with air one radio. i know, i know i am obsessed with jon foreman. yadda yadda yaddda, whatever. settle in for the next half hour and watch this.

the man is crazy inspiring and incredibly humble and every time he talks (or writes or sings) it makes me think. there is so much goodness packed into this interview i could probably write 15 different posts on it but i'll start with this: 

toward the end of interview he's asked if he's ever insecure.  

here's a guy who started a surf competition/music festival to raise awareness and funds to help end youth homelessness. a guy who writes songs and performs songs for a living...and actually makes a living at it. a guy who's won a GRAMMY. a guy who has thousands of fans and a verified twitter account. a guy who has played on some of the biggest stages and at some of the biggest festivals in the world. he and his band made a movie about their trip around the world chasing songs for their latest album. and he's got a beautiful wife and daughter and loving family. 

on the surface, he's got every right to be the most secure man on earth. he's successful and he's loved. but he answered with a resounding, "yes, i'm insecure." he followed saying that he just wants to do something that matters...that we live in a technological era where people are so afraid of being bored that we rush from one thing to the next, we click app after app because then we don't have time to stop and think about if what we are doing is worth anything. 

heavy, right? 

it's easier to keep ourselves busy (and probably simultaneously still bored) then to ask ourselves if what we're doing has any value because what if it doesn't? what if we're just spinning our wheels and wasting the little amount of time we're given on this earth? word from the experienced, don't read ecclesiastes when you're questioning the meaning of life.  

i have no answers for you. i start to feel the panic well up in my chest when i think too much about if what i'm doing that has lasting impact in this world and the next, mostly because the answer is probably not. 

really uplifting post, sara. 

maybe we need to stop being so busy just for the sake of being busy and be okay with asking ourselves hard questions even if the answers scare us. you matter. jon foreman matters. i matter. you have purpose for being alive. you're right here, right now and that's what you've got so what are you going to do with it?

xo