Every so often there are songs that just grab you for some reason or another. Sometimes the instrumentation is what sticks out (I remember being part of a high school theatre production and the opening music was so beautiful that my friends and I fed off that music to get us into the performance). Other times a lyric will pull you in, and you wrestle with it for days, months, years. The best is when you get some pairing of these two. I have been a fan of Audrey Assad's music for a number of years, but the song "I Shall Not Want" from her latest album Fortunate Fall is probably my favorite song she has ever released. The music perfectly fits the emotion of the lyrics, somber and meditative while still remaining hopeful.
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I have had the privilege of performing in the play "The Curious Savage" three times in my life. If you ever have the chance to see it, you should. It's a witty, hilarious story that will move you to tears by the end. One of my favorite parts of the play is when the character Hannibal is helping pick up playing cards that have been scattered around the stage. He remarks, "Man was made all wrong. His stomach should be in the back; when he bends, it gets in the way. And when he kneels, his legs buckle out instead of folding neatly behind him. And why should his nose be in the front? It only gets in the way when he kisses.... I guess God was in a hurry," he jokes quickly, while avoiding an invitation to kiss from one of the other characters. No doubt by now you've heard about the major controversy surrounding the Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson. Whether you actually heard the story or have just seen the massive backlash from it, I'm sure you know something regarding the whole scenario. As the story goes, Robertson was doing an interview with GQ Magazine and made some rather coarse remarks that were deemed homophobic by the interviewer. As a result of that interview, A&E has indefinitely suspended Robertson from appearing on the show that features his family and the business he helped create. Since A&E's announcement, there has been an uproar in the social media universe against their decision. Backed primarily by Christians, people all over the country are calling for A&E to rescind their decision. It's a phrase that we hear all the time in Christian circles. We are always striving to live "in the world but not of the world." While not taken directly out of Scripture, it's a consolidation of a portion of Jesus' prayer in John 17: "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:14-16). This phrase is a good one, but has been used to the point of cliche. But do we really understand the full weight of what we say we are pursuing? Often my roommate and I have high aspirations of getting to bed early, and more often than not we fail miserably. Usually it's because we're on Skype or FaceTime with our respective girlfriends (who both happen to reside in California currently), but last night we were up talking with each other about a recent blog post from an artist I used to admire. I have to confess that the end of our conversation began to degrade into poking fun at the artist's blog, as well as some of his recent music. Unfortunately, I also have to admit that I found this artist's stance in his blog post to be on the verge of laughable. The issue at hand was the current status of the Christian music industry and the no-so-fine line between sacred and secular music. Aside from the book of Leviticus, no Biblical passages are less desirable to read these days than the genealogies. At best most people skim over all the hard-to-pronounce names, and at worst people will ignore them altogether. I was once in a Bible study going through the book of Nehemiah, and one week we studied a chapter that was almost entirely a list of all the men who had returned to Judah and helped rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Needless to say we had an invigorating discussion after we slogged through all the difficult names. (Who names their child something like Nephushesim anyway?) Thanks to the influence of my father, I grew up listening to artists such as Paul Simon and Jackson Browne, musicians I probably would've never discovered if left to my own devices. These men, while not professing Christians, have written their fair share of music with a "spiritual" theme. (Just listen to Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What album and you'll know what I mean.) As we head into the Christmas season, one of these songs has been stuck in my head. It's a Christmas song by Jackson Browne entitled "The Rebel Jesus." In the song, Browne identifies himself as "a heathen and a pagan on the side of the rebel Jesus." I love this song, and I love its message, but I don't think Browne fully understands what it means to be "on the side of the rebel Jesus." Normally I try to stay far away from Black Friday. My parents and I went one year to wait in line at a Walmart, but we've never done anything since. This year, however, I couldn't escape the chaos, seeing as how I was working in it. I had a shift at American Eagle (in the Mall of America) starting at 3 am on Friday morning. While I have to say that the morning was overall enjoyable (most of the truly nasty Black Friday shoppers stick to electronics and the like), I have to say that I was still very discouraged by the whole thing. Last night as I was heading to bed, I was watching a music video from one of my favorite artists. I personally enjoy this video, and the song it accompanies. The song is all about defending the Christian faith in the midst of a secular world. It's really resonated with me lately since I'm about to start working in a very secular environment at American Eagle Outfitters. After watching the music video, I scrolled down on the web page to see what other people thought of the video/song. Big mistake.
Exactly one month after I wrote a blog about how I was going to be moving to Minnesota, I officially arrived in the Twin Cities after three rather grueling days of travel. That was this past Wednesday. The day after that, my mom (who traveled out with me) and I unloaded my car and moved me into my new home, an apartment in Roseville. Yesterday we shopped around for some furniture and other stuff I didn't have or couldn't fit in my car, as well as started looking for some part-time job opportunities to go along with my position at Beacon of Hope Church. We had just traveled through nine different states and weren't taking a break. I have to say, it's been nice to have some time to just relax and write this blog today. :P |
AuthorA simple servant of the Master. Archives
February 2016
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