After moving from Boston to Florida in 1999, I found myself starting over, and by 2001 — after ending a long-term relationship and moving into my own apartment in Boynton Beach — I was caught between the excitement of a new social life and a quiet pull toward something deeper. While spending weekends on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach with new friends, I began to feel a tug in my heart that I didn’t yet recognize as the Holy Spirit, only a growing sense that there was a better way to live. One summer weekend in 2001, I stayed in my apartment with a cheap electric guitar and wrote “Rise Above,” a song born from that inner tension. It marked the beginning of a long personal journey of confronting my own sin and understanding how it shaped both my life and the lives of those around me.
