19 min read ⭑

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

Kirk: I grew up in the deep South (on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia), so of course, it makes complete sense that my go-to restaurant in Augusta, Georgia (where I now live) is the local Mediterranean Grill called Laziza. There are many reasons I love this place. First, the food is just awesome. Gyros, kebabs, chicken shawarma, falafel — it’s all gloriously tasty.

Second, this place has a unique way of connecting me with the spirit of my city. It does this in a number of ways. When you walk in, you always see someone you know. I always walk away having had a conversation with a friend or an acquaintance, and I love that. Laziza also features amazing coffee from my favorite local roaster, Buena Caffe. (If you know me, you know I love coffee!) On top of great food and great coffee, there is a wonderful draft beer selection from Augusta’s local breweries. But perhaps my favorite thing about Laziza is the large mural of James Brown just outside the window. Did you know Augusta is the birthplace and hometown of James Brown, the hardest-working man in show business? The mural is epic, and it’s 100% Augusta.

Paul: Over the past 15 years, I’ve moved around quite a bit, from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, Guatemala, St. Louis, Santa Barbara, Nashville and now to beautiful Longmont, Colorado. And conveniently, my favorite spot has followed me each step of the way — my own kitchen table.

As much as I love professional culinary creativity that awakens seemingly dormant senses, I most enjoy the company of friends gathered around my kitchen, sipping wine and sharing joyful stories while the wood stove — my latest addition! — burns across the room.

When I lived in Alaska (where I worked as a conductor of a railway — but that’s another story), we would regularly have friends and strangers come by for dinner. Rhubarb grew wild along the streets, so we’d harvest some and make strawberry-rhubarb crisp. We even wrote a song about strawberry-rhubarb crisp and would sing it together loudly as the mouthwatering dessert came out of the oven.

Now, in Colorado, we’re slowly re-establishing those regular rhythms of kitchen gatherings — and I love it! There’s a simple joy in having neighbors and new friends filling my home with stories and laughter and even song. I recently purchased a piano for our living room and had friends gather around to sing some pre-dinner tunes — what a joy! It’s these unhurried and warm spaces where I love to eat most, where delight in people and flavors seems easy and the evening often lasts for hours on end.

Oh, and my neighbor recently offered me a gift from her garden: rhubarb. Good things are ahead!

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?

Kirk: This may sound boring, but I love walking. I love encountering and savoring the beauty of nature. I’m always particularly struck by the grandeur of mountains. Early as a songwriter (probably when I was 16), the Appalachian Mountains inspired me to write a song called “That Mountain Song.” The lyrics went:

The mountain song is chiseled on my soul
Its melody brings back the dream of a little mountain home
How I wish I could be breathing that wild mountain air
While sitting on a front porch in a creaking rocking chair

Oh mountain high and the river strong
Oh country life that living on
The city lights are far and gone
Oh hear the sound of that mountain song

Walking in mountain scenery moves my soul to a sense of inner peace, as though I’m finally hearing a song that I struggle to hear in my day-to-day. I love the smallness I feel from a simple hike through beautiful grandeur. This smallness leads me to feel enveloped in the bigness of God’s goodness, power and beauty. I’m a few hours’ drive away, and I try to experience mountains as often as I can, but in the meanwhile, there is also much to savor as I walk through my little town in North Augusta — like the smell of honeysuckles growing in the spring on my neighborhood trail, the Savannah River rushing over the rocks or stopping to look directly up and watch the sway of a tall, skinny pine tree.

Paul: I really love growing things. And I also love peach pie. This week I planted a young peach tree out back which reminds me of eating them fresh as a kid. I still love their rich, sweet flavor. In fact, I received a plum and apple tree today — and surprisingly, another peach tree arrived, too! (What a wonderful mistake!)

I find so much rest in getting my hands dirty and planting things. There’s a daily excitement walking past my vegetable garden and seeing what has grown. There’s a satisfaction in seeing the fruit of my labor — followed by the joy of making meals straight from the garden. But fruit trees are different. They take years of care before producing fruit. Those big trees in our charming parks were planted thoughtfully by people decades ago. It’s a gift of ages.

When I’m in the garden, there’s freedom from screens and to-do lists. And not just a freedom from but also a freedom to — to be, think, cultivate beauty and pray. And some of that beauty grows quickly and sustains me in my meals. But there’s also the cultivation that feeds a different sort of gift. A salad is grown in a couple of months, yet it takes many years to grow a peach pie. Sometimes those greatest delights bear fruit years down the road. And my soul learns that spiritual lesson when my hands are dirty.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

Kirk: I recently heard a sermon at my church that referenced the book “When People Are Big and God Is Small” by Edward Welch. Sitting there in the pew, I felt my heart exposed. What do I love most? What does my heart long for? Is it God and his glory, or is it the praises and admiration of people? The truth is, in my brokenness, the latter is oftentimes the answer. As an artist, I can greatly fear not being impressive to anyone, and when I am not diving into the rich truths of the gospel — God’s unchanging love for me, his delight over me, his righteousness applied to me by faith in Christ, my permanent place as a child in his house — I can live with a lot of insecurity. Failures can easily lead to self-condemnation, and successes can easily lead to pride.

During a recent car ride, my wife, Susanna, expressed to me how much she loved Psalm 139. It is an amazing consideration of God’s constant watch, thoughts and care toward us. He intimately knows us. He’s always thinking of us. I, on the other hand, am often only thinking of myself! Oh, that I might think of God more, and myself less! “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30, NIV). Oh, that I might think of others more, and myself less! “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3,4). My ongoing prayer is that God would continue to draw the self-centeredness out of my heart and lead me to rest contently in his delight over me through Jesus.

Paul: I think my kryptonite is easy comfort — but not of the overindulgent kind. After all, my wife lovingly pokes fun at me for being content with just a half square of chocolate. Rather, I have an unseen, frantic yearning to avoid discomfort. For much of my life, I’ve been a people-pleaser, always aware of the desires of others and oblivious to my own. This means that part of me was always assessing situations, always processing others, always adapting and very rarely being still to be with my own thoughts and feelings. People-pleasers often avoid conflict and that’s been my default posture. I’ve grown a ton in this area and now often walk headlong into conflict, but it’s an intentional choice — moving against the grain of my story.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I took a five-month road trip across the western side of the continent. One of my goals was to be bored. I’m so quick to run to distraction. The instinct in me to open my phone and grab whatever can soothe my discomfort of boredom is strong. I can so quickly turn on a podcast, play an album or engross myself in some unimportant event on the other side of the world. On our road trip, the most rejuvenating and glorious days were those when my phone was off and boredom was common. It was super uncomfortable at first. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I felt phantom phone buzzes and thought about what I was missing on Instagram. But in time, I learned to be still with myself, to move toward the conflict within me rather than numb it, and to learn the joy of being present in the moment. This is still hard, yet moving toward the discomfort of stillness, prayer, songwriting, poetry and simple observation is, ironically, the comfort I yearn for yet eagerly avoid.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

Kirk: It was March 2020. I was sitting in an empty church building on a Zoom call with my friend Paul Ranheim. We were trying to wrap our heads around all that was happening in the world. The uncertainty, the confusion, the isolation and so on. Sitting 1,500 miles apart (Paul in Colorado and me in Georgia), we started writing songs that expressed our desire to hope in God. After we got accustomed to the freezing and lagging of a zoom call, one song led to another and another, and soon we started our collaborative worship project, The Wood Drake Sessions.

The truth is, we were just writing songs in those moments that we needed to sing to our own hearts. I speak from personal experience, that social media floods my life, and in these tumultuous times, I’ve been prone to listen to other voices rather than the voice of God. I believe this is true for most of us. We desperately need God to lead us away from the chaos of this world and back to the quiet waters of his beauty and truth.

Our name, The Wood Drake Sessions, captures this idea. Inspired by the Wendell Berry poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” it speaks to the inevitable rise of fear within our hearts and the longing for comforting peace. When this despair grows within, Berry writes of going and lying down “where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water” and coming “into the peace of wild things,” experiencing the grace of the world. The imagery of a created things so still and without worry extending its welcome of peace profoundly touched the ache of our hearts. This is the spirit of how we want our songs to exist — as works of art inviting us into the stillness of God’s presence to hear his voice.

Paul: My father passed away last year and, as you can imagine, it has been immensely difficult to say goodbye prematurely to such a good man. The waves of grief continue. But as he lay in the ICU, I couldn’t help but sing “Grace Will Prevail.”

It was the song I needed at that moment. It was a comfort because it was filled with comforting truth. I needed the presence of God and the hope of Jesus’ resurrection.

For the past two years, I’ve been working with Kirk on “From the Valley to the Golden Shore.” It’s the result of bringing our whole, anxious hearts to our experience of an immensely difficult season of life and global history. In this way, this album is for everyone. We have all experienced — and will again — anxiety, sadness or the temptation of numbing out. In those moments, we need signposts that point our minds and hearts to what is true and good. We weren’t setting out to create The Wood Drake Sessions. Rather, it was the result of showing up every week and being faithful to write the music our hearts needed to hear.

Aside from songwriting, I also work as a pastor of a young church. I try to spend time listening to the stories of these people. I so deeply want the Good News of Jesus not to be some stale message that sounds like empty words but to be rich and relevant, the greatest hope in life and death. And so there’s this huge overlap between my music and ministry. In both, I long for the goodness of God to be fresh words for the honest, candid places of those who listen.

I remember talking with Stephen Crotts (an incredible artist) about the album cover, and I was adamant that the foreground have wreckage — clear and focused images of hurt and even catastrophic sorrow. Even though hope is everywhere in these songs, I wanted this to be hope for real pain in real places. So these songs include scenes of the dark valley so that the golden shore is that much more beautiful.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

Kirk: Not long ago, a dear member of my church reached out to me to tell me about the quilt she had just created. I was blown away when she told me her work of art was inspired by one of our songs, “Grace Will Prevail.” It was so powerful (and humbling) to see how my art inspired her art. I felt affirmed in my work, but also invigorated to continue to create. This was a great encouragement from the Holy Spirit to me. I’ll often receive a text or have a conversation about how our music is carrying someone through a significant painful trial. This evidence of God at work is his grace to me, and I believe it’s a nudge from the Holy Spirit to continue my work.

There are some days when I feel I have nothing creative to bring to the table. There are some days when I feel like I’ll never be able to write a compelling song again. When those times come, I do my best to remember how God has used my work in the past, to remember the words of encouragement spoken and all the moments when I’ve seen how my work has ministered to others. That gives me the strength not to give up.

Paul: I’ve learned that the Holy Spirit often works and speaks in unexpected — and even unwanted! — ways. By default, I probably have the overly spiritual view that God works only in idyllic scenes at the golden hour of the day.

Yet I find the Spirit is just as much at work in moments when my emotions align in worship as when I’m pulling out my hair trying to finish a line of a verse. In retrospect, I can see God active in both places — but I only felt it in one of them. So I’ve learned to trust the Holy Spirit to be at work when there’s no shining beam of light descending from the heavens. I trust him to still work in the ordinary and mundane, when work feels like work, when my desk is messy and my to-do list insolently long. And that takes more faith for me to believe.

I don’t want to think that God works in those ways. I want his ways to be natural, quick and filled with emotional ecstasy and mental awareness. And although I love it when that happens, I’ve found those to be less common graces. My faith is slowly growing to trust God’s 24-hour grace — and believe that it’s at work when I least see it, least expect it, least feel it. And it’s proof that God is bigger than me, his ways continue despite me and his good work in me does not depend upon my ability (thank God!) but on his moment-by-moment faithfulness.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?

Kirk: A couple of things come to mind. First, I have to seek moments of stillness. I’m not a morning person at all, but I’ve found the stillness of the early morning to be a deeply powerful time to sit in the presence of God, and it’s often my only opportunity for stillness in the day. Specifically, waking up before my children is vital to this. I spend that time in our guest room that faces the sunrise, and I simply read Scripture and devotions and pray. Nothing crazy. Just stillness, Scripture and prayer.

One other thing is my 15-minute drive to the office. It’s actually a fairly stress-free drive with very little traffic, and it’s scenic, making it ideal for a meditative time. I recently decided to start listening to the Old Testament from my Bible app during that time. Often, I have struggled to read portions of Old Testament Scripture, but I’ve found that just listening on that drive has helped me to take in the Old Testament and enjoy it in a fresh way.

Paul: I find my most significant spiritual nourishment in digital rest. It’s bizarre to say practicing inaction is most helpful, but it’s true. The biggest barrier to my spiritual growth is doing good things. There are so many good things to do! And so I need practices of inaction to jolt me out of the daily frenzy of doing those good things.

The most helpful practice — born out of that five-month road trip I mentioned earlier — is digital rest. It’s worth it to take a day or even just 30 minutes to turn off all my devices (not merely set them to “do not disturb”). When there’s no chance of disruption, my soul finally begins to slow down. Once that happens, journaling and prayerful hiking are the two most helpful active actions for me. When journaling, I find it so helpful to read a Psalm until I learn something about God. Then I just write that out in praise, slowly mulling over that aspect of who the Lord is and trying to see it from as many angles as I can. Sometimes it stops there. Other times, I continue writing out my prayer about how difficult it is to believe and where I need help.

Similarly, when I’m outdoors, it’s helpful to leave my devices behind or turn them off so I can hike and practice enjoyment. There are so many beautiful things outside, especially here in Colorado, but I so rarely enjoy them. Sometimes I force myself to sit at a beautiful spot or to smell a flower for an uncomfortably long time — to do it until I delight in it and enjoy it. Praise and prayer come much easier when I’ve exercised my muscles of enjoyment.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three resources that have impacted you?

Kirk: Here are three game-changing resources:

1. Timothy Keller’s “The Prodigal God.” I grew up in a religious household. I grew up doing “the right things” and was a “good kid.” But this book gave me a deeper understanding of the gospel. In this journey through Luke 15 and the Parable of the Prodigal Son, I realized that I am not just the younger son, but also the older son. I didn’t just need to repent of the things I had done wrong in life, but I also needed to repent of the things I had done “right.” It wasn’t just my immorality that kept me from God but also the pride of my moral standing. The gospel reveals to us the righteousness we long for, freely given through the merits of Jesus alone.

2. “The Valley of Vision,” edited by Arthur Bennett. I’ve found these collections of prayers to be a balm for my soul. Often, I just don’t know what to pray or how to pray, and these prayers have helped carry me into meaningful, rich times of personal prayer.

3. Ray Ortlund’s “The Gospel.” For a number of years, I attended Ray’s Church in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time, much of the content for his book “The Gospel” was being taught. In it, he writes about the culture the gospel creates in the walls of the church.

He says, “Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. The doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace. When the doctrine is clear and the culture is beautiful, that church will be powerful.”

This profoundly impacted me. When I started attending his church, I didn't just hear truths of God’s grace at church, but I felt the power of grace expressed in the culture of the community.

Paul: There are so many books I could choose, but speaking of hope, N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope” deeply inspires me and is one I keep coming back to.

In terms of slowing down, I’ve been reading a lot more poetry recently. It has helped me to wonder and dream, and the use of language is often captivating. Mary Oliver has been particularly impactful. Right now, I’m working through her “Devotions,” and it’s a delight to open every time. I’ve never been so excited about — nor read straight through — a collection of poems.

I grew up playing the violin, so the “Tchaikovsky Violi” concerto (performed by Jascha Heifetz) has always been such an inspiring piece to me and still moves me listening (especially the first movement). Turn the lights off, close your eyes and soak in the highs and lows of this powerhouse of a tune. More recently, Jon Guerra’s devotional album called “Keeper of Days” still moves me to tears.

We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it's done for you.

Kirk: Currently “Gentle and Lowly” by Dane Ortlund has been a tremendous resource for me. It is a slow, meditative journey through Matthew 11:28-30, in which Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (NIV).

Unpacking this Scripture has unbelievably renewed my heart. I have a strong propensity to doubt the tenderness of Christ. I often believe he is growing thin with patience for my sins and shortcomings, or often believe he’s apathetic toward me because he's tired of the “same old, same old.”

This dive into the heart of Christ affirms the deepest part of who he is — one whose heart is gentle and lowly, ever affectionately drawn toward sinners with endearing love, and one with whom sinners can find great solidarity.

Another aspect of this resource that I enjoy is that the chapters are all short, so you can take it in a little at a time.

Paul: Through this recent season of grief following my father’s death, the collection of liturgical prayers called “Every Moment Holy (Vol 2: Death, Grief, and Hope)” has given me words when I didn’t know what to pray. It’s apparent that these prayers weren’t written in a vacuum but rather fully informed by those who have walked the dark, circuitous paths of grief.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

Kirk: We have just released our first album, “From the Valley to the Golden Shore.” We are so excited about this release, and we’re honestly just trying to do the work to get our music out. Our great desire is for our songs to help the Church flourish, and right now, we just want to steward the release faithfully to that end. I have personally released music in the past (not through The Wood Drake Sessions) and have poorly stewarded the release of that music, so I want to learn from those experiences. It can be a bit frightening to release music into the world. You hope people receive it well. You want your labor to be fruitful in people’s lives. It can also be tempting to shy away from the vital work of bringing attention to the music out of a fear of failure. Right now, I’m most focused on spending this album-release season well.

That said, we’re definitely having ongoing conversations about a second album, but we don’t know much beyond that. We both have a vision to continue this work and write more music that reorients our hearts back to God, and trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance for the next steps!

Paul: In many ways, we’re only starting the process of sharing these songs with the world, and it’s a joy awakening to the beauty of seeing “From the Valley to the Golden Shore” reach new people and communities in their personal and gathered worship.

There’s the insecurity of wondering if, in light of all the time we put into this project, it will actually resonate with people. It’s scary. But we’re hearing stories of these songs shaping people in their knowledge and experience of the Lord amid the difficulties of daily life. And now that we’re playing them for live audiences, it’s awakening a new joy as we see the work of this music — which has ministered to my own soul — have similarly beautiful effects on new listeners.

In looking to the future, we’re dreaming about the next project, but we’re still in discovery mode. We loved how this album had a thematic focus, and we’re wrestling with a few ideas for the next one — writing some initial songs and trying them on. Our biggest fear is that we spend a ton of effort on a project only to have it fall flat and end up being unrelatable. So we’ll be trying them out at our local churches and share them with those who follow our music to see what resonates with people.

When was the last time you put your whole heart into a task or project? It’s terrifying to finish and then stand back and wonder if it will actually work — or if anyone will even care.

But ultimately, the apostle Paul tells us, it doesn’t matter how people perceive our work. What matters most is that we honor God. In his letter to the Colossian Christians, he specifically called out his spiritual brother Archippus and said, “See to it that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord” (Colossians 4:17, ESV).

And of course, it’s not wrong to want others to benefit from what we do in the kingdom of God. But the more we wonder what others think, the less we focus on fulfilling that call God has placed on our lives. So today, let’s ask ourselves: What work is God calling me to in this season? And how can I fulfill it faithfully?

Birthed in 2020 when longtime friends Paul Ranheim and Kirk Sauers began songwriting via Zoom, The Wood Drake Sessions is a creative collaborative seeking to provide inspired and timely sacred songs that reorient us to what is truly beautiful. Paul is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, worship leader, minister and church planter currently on staff at Redeemer Longmont in Colorado while Kirk is a worship leader and artist-in-residence at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia.

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