CHECK OUT THE MEANING BEHIND THE SONG “FLY”.

“FLY” is the first song from Jarrell’s new album “RISE”. RISE is a concept album that tells the story about a person who decides to defy the odds in life and reach for more. Watch Jarrell explain the story below.

After 13 years of being married to an artist, I can tell you there are pros and cons. Every marriage takes work, whether you’re an artist or not. But I must say, my marriage has been one of my life’s greatest works. It’s a work I have devoted a lot of time and effort into. My relationship with Jarrell has been the relationship that I have put before all others for the last 15 years. So even though we are sooooooo different from each other, we are still together. Even though we do not initially agree on a lot of approaches to segments of our life, we are still together. Even though he has lots of females around him all the time because he is an artist, I still trust him and we are still together. Despite these things, our partnership grows and expands each year. Even though right now we are in one of the most stretching and scary seasons of our entire marriage…we celebrate 13 years today.  Another year down. We are an anomaly. I want to see all of my married creative friends go beyond celebrating that their marriages have made it another year. Instead, I want to see their union and partnership get better and better as they simultaneously bring their creative visions to life.

3 Keys that I believe has helped our artist marriage thrive over the years:

1. Jarrell has always acknowledged our marriage and family to his fans, in his music, and from the stage- Sometimes we feel like the “odd man out” when we are at large industry events… simply because we are married with a family. Singleness is esteemed in the music industry sometimes. Maybe you’ve seen a few married artists choose not to wear their wedding rings on stage in order to give a “single” look to their fans. It happens, but I don’t know if Jarrell and I would still be together if he felt like he had to pretend like his family didn’t exist in order to “make it” as an artist. All that pretending on stage could definitely tempt an artist to act like it is true, even when the music stops.
2. He has purposely made space for me in his music career- Music isn’t “his thing” it’s OUR thing. I can’t play instruments, sing, rap, or produce music, but WE have music albums. You may ask, “How can you claim his hard work as an artist as your own?” While I haven’t played a creative role in the putting all of the music together, he has allowed me to play major parts behind the scenes of the album’s production. It is 100% a team effort. He has given me the freedom to insert my giftings into what he does. Over the years, I have invested more and more into the creative process as I have realized my talents and his needs. Music can never be “the other woman” if we are doing it together. In fact, every member of #TeamFlowers (our family) has consistently sacrificed to support his creative endeavors.
3. We both have submitted our lives to our Creator- I saved the most important key for last! Because we both strive to please our God, it can help bring closure to the disagreements that could destroy our union. I know that, if Jarrell is really in the wrong and not listening to me, he will listen to his Creator correcting him. That makes all the difference. I don’t have to nag or whine or manipulate to get him to see his errors. I just have to patiently allow the Holy Spirit to change his heart on the matter so that he sees the truth. And this happens vice versa too. Ecclesiastes 4:12 teaches us that one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves, but a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Our Creator is our 3rd strand.

Today Jarrell and I have been married for 13 years. We would love to celebrate marriages with our friends. In the comments, tell us who we are celebrating by telling us your names and how long you have been married.

Bonus: Watch a music video of my family here. If you and your spouse are going through a difficult time let this song encourage you.

During the soundcheck for my concert last weekend, one of the volunteers came up to me and asked me how many people I would be attending the event with me. I started to add everyone up. “Well, I’ve got my family with me so that’s four total. Then I’ve got my drummer and his wife are with me.” My friend (who was also performing) had two people with him as well. The volunteer said to me, “We’re just gonna reserve two rows for all of you. Is that ok?” Two rows equaled about 14 chairs. I told the volunteer that it was great!

After the soundcheck, the service starts. I do my concert portion of the service, and then I go to the green room to cool down. I grabbed some water and headed back out into the service. If you know me, then you know that I don’t really like to draw attention to myself. I try so hard to be unnoticed that it’s to my hurt most of the time. There were over 500 people at this particular event… and here I am in the back of the building walking around in the dark and trying to find a seat in the back so that I wouldn’t bring any attention to me.

I finally found some seats that were blocked off. The event hosts obviously didn’t want anyone to sit there, but I’m one of the guest artists, right? So I snuck into this row that was blocked off and I just sat down. Oh yeah, there was this huge pole that was blocking my line of sight to a part of the stage and I was wayyy in the back. But I was unnoticed so I was good. Then the Holy Spirit whispers to me, “You have reserved seats in the front.” I totally forgot about those!  But the message had already started, and I couldn’t get up and walk to the front. That would bring too much attention to me when people should be listening wholeheartedly to the message. I decided that I was gonna stay right where I was… but that thought wouldn’t go away. I knew that God was actually challenging me to sit in the front. I stood up, walked to the front, and sat in my reserved seats. Something crazy happened when I did.

I didn’t hear anyone complaining about me distracting them as I was walking up to my seat. I didn’t hear anyone say, “Who does that guy think he is sitting in the front row?” I had plenty of room and I could see the stage clearly without a big pole in my way. Then came the lightbulb moment. People weren’t ever gonna be upset or even surprised that I sat in the front. In fact, people EXPECTED me to be in the front. In fact, some people probably thought that it was WEIRD that I WASN’T sitting in the front with the other guests. Then God started speaking to me again.

He told me that He has reserved places for me. These are places of influence. These are places of “more than enough” for me and for those who are with me. He told me that people are actually waiting for me to step into the places that God has reserved for me. Then He told me that I have actually been (1) holding myself back from receiving God’s full favor and (2) robbing others from receiving what God has given me… and I’ve been calling it humility. Ouch! In an attempt to blend in and feel like I’m no better than anyone else, I’ve been sabotaging my own mission. I wasn’t walking in humility as much as I was living by the fear of other people’s opinions and a mentality of lack.

So here I go. I’m embracing everything that God has called me to be. I’m not average. My life is a unique story that God is writing for all of eternity to read. And guess what? Your life is too. It’s time to RISE.

In the dream, I was in a pretty clean grocery store. It was a pretty well lit facility, and  I found myself stacking boxes with some of the workers. Have you ever had a dream where you knew certain things even though they were never directly communicated to you? In this dream, I knew that the job was super easy for me. I also knew that I was going to be getting a financial raise by choosing to work at this job. My family wasn’t in this part of the dream. It was just me and the workers. I also felt that my life calling wasn’t being fulfilled in the grocery store. I was just going through the motions. Then the scene switched…

My family and I were in the lobby of a business complex. It looked like a real shady place. The room lighting was really dim (like that dim yellowish kind of lighting). Between the lobby and the business area, there was a row of rooms with mattresses in them. I got the sense that, in order for people to get to business area, they had to spend some time in those rooms. My wife was dressed in business clothes and was headed towards the business area. I was sitting in the lobby with my daughters and a few other people. There was a lot of profanity being used in the lobby. I was concerned about the safety and innocence of my girls. Then the dream ended.

I woke up and knew what the dream meant. I would be presented with two options:

1. I could continue doing what I was used to doing (church leadership). It would be a nice and neat job that would come natural to me, but my family wouldn’t be active participants with me. I would get a financial raise.
2. I could go into the business sector. This would be a place that would not come natural for me (represented by the dim lights), and my wife would play a major role in leading this journey. It would be a place where we would encounter a lot of opportunities to compromise. I would have to become more intentional about the discipleship of my wife and kids in order to survive there.

Well, the dream is real. I was soon presented with the choice in real life. I can choose comfort or cultivation.

(click here to read part 2)

Well, the dream is real. A few weeks later, I received a random message from a church leader in Kansas. They wanted me to come and be their youth pastor. That one was easy to decline because…yeah…I didn’t feel like Kansas was for us! Shortly after that, I received another offer from another church here in San Antonio. A good friend told me that he heard about the position and the Holy Spirit brought my named to mind. This opportunity was a different story. I had old friends who attended the church. The staff is full of amazing people that I knew I could work with. I really liked the vision of the church. I even mentioned some stuff that I was reading in my personal time and they were already aware of the materials and seemed to be on the same page. After going back home and doing some calculations with my wife, I found out that I would also be getting an amazing financial raise with some great benefits. There would finally be some good margin in my family’s financial situation. We went to check out the church. The people were friendly, the facilities were nice, and there were great upcoming plans for expansion. We reconnected with old friends. The service was nice and neat…and it ended on time. It seemed like it would be something we could fit into. But then I remembered the dream. This was the well lit room where everything would come natural to me…and my family would just be tagging along for the ride.

During this time, my wife Jeneil was becoming more and more interested in…you guessed it…BUSINESS. I haven’t seen her this passionate about something (besides me) in a while! LOL! Seriously though. She’s been listening to podcasts, reading articles, and watching videos about entrepreneurship nonstop. The dream is real now. Do I commit to something that I know will help a particular part of the body of Christ and ease some financial strain for my family? Or do we blaze an unfamiliar trail together and see what happens?

Fulfilling my wife’s dreams has become very important to me. When we were married, she uprooted from the comfort zone of her family and friends in Florence, Alabama and came to join me in an unfamiliar city. I respect her so much for that. After almost 12 years, we are still trying to find out where and how she fits. She is a person who will serve anywhere behind the scenes. However, we both know that she has so much more passion and potential inside of her. I want her to find that place where service meets purpose. That’s where passion is ignited. It’s also important for another reason…

Growing up, I’ve seen many women follow their husbands around in ministry. They do stuff that they would never want to do in the name of submitting to their husbands. Years and years go by without them ever feeling like they have a unique calling from God. But I don’t see that in scripture. In the bible, I see the bride of Christ living in full submission to Jesus while discovering who the Father has uniquely created her to be. The bride of Christ isn’t tagging along on God’s global mission in a semi-depressed state. Unfortunately, this is what I see in a lot of ministry marriages. I vowed that this would never be us. I want to be like Jesus – intentionally leading my bride on a journey of discovery and adventure.

In the spirit of the dream and my convictions surrounding it, I declined the second youth pastor offer. I did it knowing that something would necessarily need to change with my current situation. We’re at a crossroads and it’s time to pull the trigger on some decisions. “Burn” and “GO!” have been on heavy rotation for me lately. I feel like it’s time for that leap of faith. It’s time to RISE.

Prayers please.

No mic. No stage. No concert. Just publicly standing for what we believe in. I’m calling it the #SoapboxChallenge.

The funny thing is that this was my original idea for my Soapbox video (minus the challenge part). I wanted to go to a public place and just rap. But since challenges are going around on social media, I decided to add a challenge to it. Check out my original Soapbox video HERE!

Since the challenge, a few other artists have done the same thing. It’s been so encouraging to see!

Check out the my #SoapboxChallenge video that I did at Northstar Mall in San Antonio. (Spoken word starts at 1:34)