mountain time

My family and I are only making one resolution this year, but it's a really big one...

(Push play to listen to Rory read this blog post)

We’ve spent the last two days in Big Sky, Montana… blessed to have friends who have a place here, and even more so, good friends to be here with.

On Monday, we took a beautiful sleighride up a mountain pass through the snow, and yesterday our friends all wanted to go on a gondola ride up to the peak of Lone Mountain. A hair-raising 12,000 foot climb to the summit.

Rebecca and I are both pretty leery of heights (I slid off the roof of our farmhouse in 2000 and hurt much more than just my pride) and so our little family stayed behind in the lodge below, drinking hot coffee and cocoa, as our friends made their way into the big sky.

Dangling by only a cable… as they went higher… and higher.

Until they finally reached the tip top, where they could see for more than a hundred miles.

As we sat in the warm lodge below, looking up at the snowy mountain, and receiving pictures from our friends who were bravely going to a place they’ve never been before…

I knew in my heart that my family and I were about to do the same thing, although in a much, much different way.

A new song

Although I moved to Nashville in 1995 to be a songwriter, and have been very fortunate to have had some success… I stopped writing songs for about 10 years. In 2014, right around the time our little girl Indiana was born, I put my songwriting pen and paper away and although I continued telling stories in many different ways (this blog is one of them) I went a long, long time without writing any songs. Not for any particular reason, it just wasn’t something I felt a yearning to do anymore.

But a while back, I found myself holding a guitar with a blank sheet of paper in front of me, feeling as though God was putting a brand new song in my heart. And since then, I’ve written a number of new songs…all of them about my faith and this new journey He has me on.

But the very first new song, and the first thought and line that He put in my heart was this one. “I’ll do anything Lord that you want me to”. I thought the song was going to be about how much my faith has grown, but by the second line, I realized it was just the opposite. He was revealing something to me that I was unable, or more likely, unwilling to see in my walk with Him.

The song is still not finished. It is still being written - unfolding, as I face my fears and learn to trust and give Him more…

Some songs we write. Some songs write us.

I could tell you that that was the old me… and that I have it all figured out and that I give God everything now. But it wouldn’t be true. A more honest answer is that I’ve been good at giving Him everything… as long as it’s not out of my comfort zone.

It’s been nearly two years now since I started writing this song, and since I began taking a cold hard look at myself and sincerely asking, ‘Lord is there something I’m still withholding from You?’ And I’m grateful to say that I have begun following His leading, and following through as He reveals each thing to me (and there have already been a lot of them). And I’ve already seen some of the wonderful fruit, and life changes, and the incredible challenges that have come from it.

And though I have made some headway, I still struggle with control. With truly giving anything, and everything, to God.

As I said before, I’m more than a little scared of heights. Through the years, I’ve taken some painful falls and been hurt very badly and so, like many people, I find myself wanting to stay close the ground. Safe, and in control.

But I also know that by staying safe and in my comfort zone, I’m robbing myself of the view from above that God has for me. And the ride of a lifetime that He wants to take me and my family on. And so this year, my list of resolutions for 2026 is only one.

Anything… and everything.

As our friends excitedly made their way up their mountain… I was just as excited in the lodge below, knowing we are about to begin to find out the answer to the mountain of a question I’ve been wanting to have the courage to ask for years and years…

“What would happen if I gave God everything?”

And so my resolution this year is to be whatever He wants me to be, to do whatever He wants me to do, to give whatever He wants me to give, to go wherever He wants me to go, to love whoever He wants me to love… and on and on.

I honestly have no idea where it will lead us. But I feel certain that like that gondola, we are about to embark on a ride that will most likely be both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

I’m excited about 2026, and so are Rebecca and Indiana.

What is your mountain?

Perhaps many of you feel similar about your walk with Christ and your need to face your own mountain. If so, I want to encourage you wherever you are to consider making a similar resolution.

Honestly, for me, and most people I know, giving God everything is the big one. The resolution of resolutions. The one that changes everything. I guess that’s why it’s so scary and so hard to do.

But what have we got to lose? Christ says in three different places….

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it“ - Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:24, John 12:25

Happy New Year to you all.

May we all have a childlike faith, and see the scary, looming mountains that God puts in front of us as little hills that we run to… filling us with joy, and bringing us up, up… closer to Him.

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