Every once in a while I seriously contemplate stopping this blog. As some of you may know, I used to have a blog called Colossians Three Sixteen. But those malicious Jihad hackers implanted so much bad code and malware into the site that it became unrecoverable. I was faced with the choice of trying to go through thousands of files trying to weed out all the bad code, continue under the same name, deleting all the files, scrap everything and start all over or quit blogging.

I chose to scrap everything (carrying over only the interviews minus one) and start under a new blog name. To many people this was “blog suicide.” I had labored to build a brand and I was essentially walking away from that brand and starting all over. But it was a great time to reconsider why I blog in the first place. I’m not here to promote myself or “create a brand.” It has, always for me, simply been a platform to explore the many implications of the Gospel for all of life, primarily the intersection of popular culture and the Gospel.

I was also reminded of the many great people I have connected with who share my passions and I’m reminded why I keep blogging. People trying to find a deeper faith than Consumer Christianity offers. People who are gripped by the beauty and power of the Gospel and want to share that with others. One those people has been Steven Wesley Guiles. Guiles, along with his wife, have recorded the best Christmas album you need to hear under the name Friction Bailey. Guiles also performs with the band Pushstart Wagon.

For his first solo album for California label New Cool Now, Guiles probes the depths of Beatles-infused folk-pop to great effect. The theme of thankfulness weaves itself through nearly every song, from the opener, a song looking back on God’s faithfulness, “May He Keep You As You Go.” The stand-out track and most overtly thankful is “Thankful,” rising to a crescendo as Guiles lists thinks for which he is thankful, opening with the lines:

I’m thankful for the air I breathe,
I’m thankful for a steady job,
I’m thankful for this hair upon my head . . .

As the music increases in intensity, so the items for which Guiles is thankful:

I’m thankful for these steps from the bottom to the top,
and dear Lord, I have to thank you that I finally got caught,
And I know that I’ve been wasted and been worthless and unwise
And I’ve squandered my resistance and I barely felt alive
With my final breath I’ll tell you when I’ve got no time to live
I thank you for all that you give to me

The music throughout is at once wistful yet joy-filled. Simple melodies lodge themselves in your heart only to be replaced by the next. Guiles seems to be at a point in life both of retrospection but also of thankful forward-gazing. In a day and age when so much music reminds us of what’s wrong with the world, it’s incredibly refreshing to spend 30 minutes being reminded what’s right and of the God who provides and directs us all. We have much to be thankful and how that thankfulness has a soundtrack.

• Visit Steven Wesley Guiles’ official site