Episode #300 — Pat Barrett has noticed something about the year we’ve just shared together. It takes no effort to see the challenges, the disappointments, the plans remade. But woven into the fabric of this unforgettable time have been unmistakable faithfulness and redemption.
“When everything shut down I remember the disappointment of – wow – I had a lot of plans for this year. A lot of goals. And I was in a lot of meetings about what was going to happen over the next few months. And when I found myself homeschooling my kids involuntarily as the world was coming to a stop I was like, ‘Ok what do I do with all of this time?!'”
“And I had a lot of hopes. ‘I’ll write a bunch of songs! This is going to be great!’ But then it’s like, ‘I can’t write songs with 3 kids at home!’ I had all these goals, and I achieved none of them! Absolutely zero of them.”
But in the unexpected & the unimaginable came a peace and a hope.
“Something really beautiful happened. Instead of gradually experiencing 2020, I started to actually participate in it. And go, ‘Ok. Well this is the way it is right now. God, how can I find You here? How can I find You today? 2020 taught me to be grateful for now, And that we don’t really need all the extras. We don’t need as much as we thought we did. And it doesn’t mean that it’s always pleasant, but it does mean it’s enough.
“In talking to my daughter about last year one of the things she said – I thought this was so profound coming from my 9 year old – she said, ‘Dad. I hate the Coronavirus. I hate it.’ And then she took a positive outlook, ‘You’ve been home a lot. And I love that. So maybe everything this year isn’t bad.'”
Pat Barrett is the recording artist and prodigious songwriter behind songs like Build My Life, The Way, and the brand newest single Canvas and Clay from the upcoming record Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly, available now.
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On the Road with Pat Barrett
