“Let me know if there’s anything I can do!”

“How Can I Help?”

“I’d be happy to help in any way I can!”

“Surely there’s something I can do to help!”

This is just a small sample of how many of you have reached out to us this past week since we shared our current situation with my wife Ashlie and our daughter Piper. Thousands of social media interactions, website visits, and blog comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of your prayers, kind words, stories of similar cases, flowers, and more. We feel incredibly loved and supported by you. I couldn’t imagine how it might be for a family without this kind of prayer support from friends, family, fans, and even complete strangers.

Many of you have offered to help, and have asked how to help. Thank you for your willingness and loving reaction to serve. But the truth is, there just aren’t very many ways to help. I’ve been responding a lot by saying, “Just letting us know we aren’t alone is plenty.” However, for some of you who really want to DO something, that hasn’t been a satisfying response. My apologies.

This morning Ashlie and I were surprised, shocked, and overwhelmed to learn The University of Notre Dame started a crowdfunding campaign is Ashlie’s name last week to help assist in the weeks of uncertainty to come. At the current time it has already surpassed its goal of $100. We are so incredibly moved by this loving gesture, and we are grateful for our connection and relationship with Notre Dame.

If it is your desire to contribute financially to our family, you are welcome to by following this link to the Notre Dame campaign. You can do it anonymously if you wish.

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/4c78/the-ashlie-fund?utm_source=giveforward&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=donation_notify_oganizer&email=rgonza12%40nd.edu

Please know that most of our needs are being met well. The only real expense to our family at this time is the gas and food from all of the time the boys and I have been spending on the road. Ashlie is in a South Bend hospital 25 miles from our home in Goshen, IN. And although we will not know the impact the medical bills will have until this event is over, we know they will be vast. We do have health coverage, and we are hoping that our insurance will help keep the cost to our family realistic. Our home church is helping to assist in supplying meals to me and the boys when we are home and we have gotten a few gift cards from friends and family that are fun and appreciated greatly. We are doing just fine, but I know that hasn’t been a good enough answer for some of you, and your generosity is humbling.

Thank you for loving us so well and holding our hands through this. We still have a long way to go.

We love you too.

-Cody

Meet Piper.

Piper is my daughter. 

My wife Ashlie and I have 3 children. Our oldest son Charlie turns 5 on Friday, and our youngest son Henry is 3. Piper, is 25 weeks along and is due to be born on July 15th 2015. You may remember this from my announcement around Christmas. We have kept Piper’s name a secret and planned on telling you her name when she was born – as sort of a surprise to accompany the birth news. However we think now is the best time to share her name with you. She could really use your prayers.

Yesterday, Ashlie began experiencing complications and was admitted into the hospital. We have found out that her water has broken a small amount… a leak, if you will, of amniotic fluid that has put her at high risk for early labor. After having consultations with several doctors we have learned a lot about these types of situations and have a pretty clear outlook for what to expect.

Currently, doctors are planning on Ashlie staying in the hospital until she reaches 34 weeks (If she does not go into labor before then.) At that point they feel that labor will be ideal given the situation.  If that all plays out, Piper will be born on May 26th... 6 weeks early. That is what we are praying for. The next 9 weeks are going to present some major challenges for our family. Of course our first priority is giving Piper the best chance to remain inside her mommy’s belly for as long as possible.

We also have started trying to figure how we are going to balance everything else going on in our lives. Charlie is in pre-school, Ashlie is in law school, I’m leading worship, touring, the radio station, etc. We’re going to still try and do as much of it as we can, but we know we have limits.

We consider you all family, and you have supported us so much over the years I’ll try to keep you updated as much as I can. Right now we are taking it day by day. We feel the most out-of-control we have ever felt, and to be honest, we’re pretty scared. But every day Piper stays inside gives her an even better chance, and we are believing that God will protect and strengthen us all until we meet.

Thank you for taking the time to pray for Piper and Ashlie. They are my girls.

-Cody

The acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once) became popular a couple of years ago. Typically I would hear it from teenagers when they did, or were about to do something silly; a mantra for decisions that may not have been the wisest… you’ve all seen it in action. I think the YOLO movement has slightly warn off however, much like many ideas of this generation that trend on twitter for a week or two, then you are only reminded of it at the end-of-year montage. I look at it a little differently.

You also may remember “carpe diem.” (Latin for ‘seize the day’) I first heard this about 15 years ago from the 1989 movie “Dead Poets Society” in which a private school literature teacher encourages his students to take risks, try new things, and make their lives extraordinary. It was really inspiring. Who doesn't want an extraordinary life? How exactly does one make that happen?

At this point in my career I’ve been thinking a lot about how to leave a lasting impact on this world. And while I’m staring down the age of 30 in my cross-hairs, how to do that is becoming much clearer with every day. God has given me an incredible opportunity to do something extraordinary for the small window of time I am here. How do I carpe diem?

A few days ago, my wife Ashlie and I made the announcement that we are expecting our third child in July. We’re so excited! Raising our two boys Charlie and Henry has been so much fun and rewarding. They are beautiful, sweet, loving, smart boys. And while it has not been easy, it’s been the most fulfilling, dare I say extraordinary part of what we do.

Particularly for us, our exciting experience of raising children is escalated because of how busy we are. I’m writing music, recording, leading worship at our home church, touring and playing concerts all while my wife Ashlie is studying, interning, reading, writing papers, and physically going to class as a 2nd year law student at the University of Notre Dame. Exciting is one way to describe it. Crazy is another. Why in the world would we have another child? There’s no time! No money! No room!
Mostly because we have another opportunity to change the world.

I’ll be honest, I was not too keen on the idea of adding to our family because of the exact reasons I just mentioned. We had been discussing it, but it just didn’t seem like a responsible idea. We could just start focusing on our future with our diaper changing days behind us. Then one day, while I was reflecting asking God how the world is a better place because of my footprint, God placed in my heart that the world is a better place because my real footprint, is actually the little footprints that we are raising. At that moment, I was all in.

As parents, we have the opportunity to change generations to come by raising our children in faith and love. By adding to our family, we are making the biggest impact we can make. There is no greater contribution to this world than creating a human being that loves and desires to help others.

Our lives are only so long. We only have so many of those years we are physically/mentally/emotionally able to raise children. We are in that exciting window right now. We’re going to seize the day. YOLO!

-Cody

My new record BREAKING FREE (available now) is a wide open look into me. There are a many allusions to some very personal moments in my life, faith, and relationships. Here are the stories behind the songs:

Track 3: THE UPRISING

After the success of my first record MY HEART IS RUNNING, I was really excited. I had been so afraid of sharing songs that I had written before then. I didn’t know if people would like them, hate them, maybe not even notice them, or if I should even care. After all, the point of writing them was to bring awareness and glory to God, not me. But when you create art, you create vulnerability, and when you are as insecure as I am, “putting yourself out there” is an incredibly gut wrenching experience.

However, it went well. I found myself satisfied with people’s response and what I had learned through the process. But I found out that was a problem. Because of how well it went, I took a break from working so hard… because “I deserved it.” I eventually found it difficult to maintain my passion for creating new music. Then when I finally wanted to jump back in and write something, I found it really difficult to come up with something different. Then that led to discouragement and frustration… and I eventually stopped. At one point my wife even asked if I had retired, because I definitely wasn’t working. Ouch.

So I did what anyone would do in that situation... I got depressed and starting looking at myself internally; picking myself apart and wondering why I can sometimes feel so useless. I have such huge dreams and visions of music ministry, but how can a normal guy like me (who has challenges focusing and completing ideas) ever get there? Oh, and by the way, I feel like I’m doing it alone and no one understands how hard this is.

It was after a long period of this that I finally asked myself a pretty simple question. “What actually inspires me?” And the answer was pretty easy. The things I love. My family, Jesus, music, people… Then I began to discover “the man” keeping me down… was me. The only person telling me “That’s too hard,” “You’re not good enough,” “No one will notice” and “This song is terrible” was me. It had to stop. And wouldn’t you know it, it inspired a song. Not just a song, but the battle cry for the whole album. I believe in the message of this song. So much of life, family, and faith has a direct connection with having a healthy relationship with yourself.

God believes in you. He gave you great gifts to use for His glory. Use them often, and with great joy, because no one can do, what you can do, the way you do them, but you.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10

THE UPRISING

verse
to the ground over and over I tumble
it's the sound of me hiding from my struggle
drawing the line at laughter tears they fall
my eyes can't take me to the dreams I saw

pre chorus
my body aches I arise.
I’m awake I'm alive.

chorus
this is the uprising I’m gonna break free
from all these ropes and chains and stains that bind me
this is the uprising

verse 2
stretching miles of hope I travel on
these pseudo smiles even now are gone
paralyzed by fear and the unknown
but this time I know that I'm not alone

chorus 2
this is the uprising I’m gonna break free
from all these ropes and chains and stains that bind me
this is the song I am gonna sing
its time to stop this swollen heart from wandering
this is the uprising

My new record BREAKING FREE (available now) is a wide open look into me. There are a many allusions to some very personal moments in my life, faith, and relationships. Here are the stories behind the songs:

Track 2. Under The Moon:

Under The Moon is a love song to my wife Ashlie. Now some of you might be wondering, “why would you put a love song on a Christian Album?” or “Aren’t these songs supposed to be about Jesus?” or “Where’s the worship?” Honestly, those are legitimate questions to ask. You should be asking them. You don’t normally pick up an album from a Christian artist and find a song like this, but this isn’t your typical Christian album. On BREAKING FREE, I really wanted to tell the true story of this station in my personal, and my family’s walk with God. I feel like after you know the story, it will help make sense of it all.

The song was written as a Christmas present in late 2012. We were in the worst financial times of our marriage, so the holidays were really not a very exciting time for us. I knew the only way I was going to be able to give her a gift at all was to write her a song. So I began thinking about ways to tell her how much I loved her, and I thought there was no better way to do that than to remember some of our favorite memories. Under The Moon is filled with personal references from all points of our relationship up until the time it was written. The original working title of the song was “Seventh December” a lyric that locks the song in time as a mention of when it was written. Other references include:

-our first date

-our first kiss

-our wedding day

-that one really sad time

-that one time I really messed up

-the times all we really had was each other

-her beauty

-her grace… and more.

I never even intended to record the song or share it with anyone. As far as I was concerned the song belonged to her. It was her property. The first lines of the songs are even, “This is a song just for you, for only your ears and mine too.” Ha! But as BREAKING FREE was coming together, and I was writing songs about real life, she encouraged me to record it and share what our real-life love is like; so that it might encourage other couples who might be trying to “keep up with the Joneses” on a relationship level… cause… we’ve been there before. We’ve had to put on a smile more than once when we got to church because of a Sunday morning argument.

It’s OK when your marriage gets hard. That’s when you learn. It’s OK when your relationship gets intimate on any level, that’s when you build trust. And it’s OK when your marriage is strong, because that’s when you have the time to encourage others. Every marriage is different. We felt like sharing a little glimpse of ours is exactly what this record called for.

This is the truest look into Cody and Ashile as a husband and wife.


UNDER THE MOON

verse 1
this is a song just for you
for only your ears and mine too
years like the days of this seventh december
I want to be sure I remember

chorus
how we danced for the first time under the moon
kissed before sunset on that afternoon
you whispered you loved me and then said I do
I couldn’t love anyone but you

verse 2
you ’ve sweat and you've cried on each shoulder
I’m honored to be your heart holder
Let’s give each day its own chance to make
new ways to know how we got through

bridge
and of the lights I see you are as bright as can be
drying the tears I cry when we have to say goodbye
holding my hand through all the times that I took the fall
choosing to love me when I fell and failed you again
your shadow in the candle light I made my mind up that night


Download the new album BREAKING FREE on iTunes or order a CD at the Cody Collier Store.

My new record BREAKING FREE (available now) is a wide open look into me. There are a many allusions to some very personal moments in my life, faith, and relationships. Here are the stories behind the songs:

Track 1. SING GLORY:

It was my 12th birthday. I was in a doctor’s office. I was diagnosed with a walnut sized tumor in my brain. Yeah, I was pretty shocked. Thing was, back then, I didn't know Jesus. I wasn't from a church going family and my knowledge about faith was very little if not nonexistent. I went through that whole ordeal without the security of knowing that I had a loving God who was going lead me though the toughest trial of my young little life. 

I didn't know how to pray, I didn't know what to do. I have a very vivid memory of checking into the hospital one day, my mom was answering questions about our family from the check-in desk. One of the questions was, "Religion?" The only thing I could think of was, "Oh great, they want to know what kind of minister to call in to comfort you when I die." I wasn’t very encouraged, and I had little to draw real hope from. It was all very draining. And as you can tell from my reaction to that question, it was very deflating.  I was just watching my life fast forward though MRI scans, a biopsy, a removal surgery, a long surgery recovery, and even after all of that, the tumor re-grew. It was then I saw how God was going to work; how He was going to use my story to transform me, my family, and use my voice as instrument of ministry and revival. 


The tumor's second appearance was miraculously healed. Over the next two years, it shrunk until it eventually vanished completely.  I was declared "cured" at age 17. I had a lot of people praying me through that I continue to meet for the first time. It's not rare that I come across someone from my hometown and they say, "I remember when you were going though all that... our whole family was praying for you." I sincerely hope those reminders never stop coming. 


I've always wanted to write a song to commemorate this life altering span of my life, but nothing ever seemed good enough... until one night it all came spilling out on my guitar. What started out as a slow, sad, story song turned into a joyous declaration of God's glory and promise. This is the last song I wrote for this record. After trying for years to write something that truly described how I wanted to paint the picture of this story, It turns out that all I really wanted to communicate was my thankfulness, and my understanding of how God has provided a platform for me to share His glory with others.  I hope "Sing Glory" sings to you too.

SING GLORY

verse 1
when I was blind and my heart erased
your unfailing love led me through
but like a flood your amazing grace
kept nothing from out-shining you
so I praise, oh I praise

chorus
sing glory glory, sing glory glory
the good news and story, hallelujah
sing glory glory, sing glory glory amen

verse 2
driving out on this open road
believing in all that I breathe
with my windows down and my life in tow
Your goodness is all that I need
so I praise, oh I praise
and ask for a thousand more ways

verse 3
no regrets of this time or place
without 'em I'd never learn
now reflecting back is a wiser face
with stories about every turn
so I praise, oh I praise
and ask for ten thousand more days.


Download the new album BREAKING FREE on iTunes or order a CD at the Cody Collier Store.