Filed under: Politics
I’m not trying to be inflammatory, I just don’t understand why he didn’t mention this in the lead up to the second invasion of Iraq.
1. This American Life
2. Mars Hill Bible Church (The other Mars Hill)
3. TEDtalks (Video)
4. Flight of the Conchords
5. Best of YouTube (Video)
(To get Podcasts: download iTunes=>click on “Podcasts” on the left=>click on “Podcast directory” in the bottom right corner)
I just updated my Virb page with six tracks of songs i’ve written. They were recorded at the SPU studios a few months back with Ron Haight and Graham Crozier. They are rough mixes for sure, recorded in a few hours and meant more for ideas than the ears of the general public but since many of you have asked, I thought I’d oblige.
When I come up with the funds, I’ll get the band together and do these songs right, but for now enjoy the rough drafts, and please do let me know what you think.
Give em a listen here.
Filed under: Politics
The latest Newsweek has a really interesting (and informative) article on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden (the guy actually responsible for 9/11). It’s long, but definitely worth the time. I’ve linked to it here.
I was leading worship at my brother’s church in Portland today, and this elderly lady came up to me after the service and said,”I just loved the music this morning, you play the guitar real nice, but could you tell that lady playing the organ to turn it down a notch?!”
Earlier in the week, I wrote about the new Robbie Seay Band album. I’ve been listening to it in the car and one song “Love Wins” has been dominating my head space. (Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was in there previously and was driving me crazy. Ella, Ella, Ella, eh, eh, eh) Anyway, this song really represents my heart lately. Give it a whirl and I’ll meet you at the bottom of the page…
It’s a big world, We are hoping
For a big change, We are broken
In the fading light of a dying sun, we cry for redemption
There is hope, There is hope, There is hope
That everyone who’s lost will be coming home
And everything that hurts will be whole again
And love will be the last thing standing
We can’t stop, we can’t stop the seasons
But don’t stop, don’t stop believing
Keep on dreaming of the day when it all will change
Believe in the end that loves wins
If you’re waiting for the time when the sun will shine
Oh Look above cause love wins
If it hurts you, Just breath in
When it pains you, Just believe in
The radiant light of the morning sun
We can find our redemption
Love is strong, Love is strong, Love is strong
It’s been there holding you all along
Everything thrown away will be new again
And love will be the last thing standing
We can’t stop, we can’t stop the seasons
But don’t stop, don’t stop believing
Keep on dreaming of the day when it all will change
Believe in the end that loves wins
If you’re waiting for the time when the sun will shine
Oh Look above cause love wins
There is hope, there is hope for my lonely soul
There is hope, there is hope to be made whole
There is life, there is life to be set free
There is life, there is life surrounding me
There is hope, there is hope for my broken heart
There is hope, there is hope for my brand new start
There is life, there is life give me eyes to see
There is life, there is life you have captured me
And we’re back…I know it’s not the same without the melody, but don’t those words inspire? “Keep on dreaming of the day when it all will change, believe in the end that love wins“. How would our lives be different if we really understood and believed that “love will be the last thing standing”?
I think about hope a lot. Aware of many despairing situations in the world, I want to hope in better days. But if we’re honest, hope sucks. We don’t want to hope, because hope hurts. When the Bible talks about hope, it uses words and phrases like “inward groaning”, “longing” and “expectation”. Hope is hard because it forces us to deal with the reality that what we want to be true isn’t so. But our faith is all about hope! And if hope isn’t hard for us, I think we have to take a close look at the worthiness of what we’re hoping for.
Our generation is known for their idealism and at the same time, their pessimism. There are a million forces at work in our world, bent on killing our hope. We want a government and a political system that can act quickly to do good and bless the world, but the reality doesn’t match up to our ideal and so we disengage and become bitter.
We want to be given responsibility and opportunity in our jobs, we want to be valued and to make a contribution to something that matters, but the marketplace offers us a cubicle and wants us to work our a$$es off (as if we live to sell their product). We risk wasting our potential and ending up falling in line working for the evenings and weekends when we can rot in front of XBox live and our new 40” TVs.
But this isn’t what we envisioned, is it? Don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with cubicles, Xbox and TV, but how does the status quo in our world affect our hope and ability to dream? Our dying hope turns to pessimism and ultimately, indifference.
We have dreams for the world, and so does God, and hope leads us to act to make them a reality, but our hope is very much in danger when we lose sight of the larger story God has placed us in. When we are able to surround ourselves with every thing we think we need, it is easy to lose sight of redemption and the fact that we are not who we were created to be.
All of creation awaits a new beginning, it hopes for it. So we need to ask, what do we hope for and in what or whom is that hope found? And may we know, in the fullest sense; that there is hope, there is redemption, there is love. And love wins.
Filed under: Entertainment
Think your parents (and grandparents) only had sex once for each child they have? A new study by the New England Journal of Medicine suggests otherwise. (That new “Viva Viagra” commercial has to be directed at somebody, right?)
Check it out here.
Filed under: Music
The folks over at Relevant Magazine have partnered with the Robbie Seay Band to give away their new album FREE until friday.
This is an incredible band that you are sure to like, check em out here and download the new album here.
All you have to do is sign up for a few periodic email newsletters and the tracks are yours.
Let me know what you think…
This is incredible. How do ideas like this get off the ground? Ten bucks says it sells out. (I would totally go)
Check it out: http://mayercraftcarrier.com/
I thought I would pass along some books I have read over the last several months, along with a list of long-time favorites. If you read any of these books, and are not stretched, comforted, moved, or pissed as H$%!, you can take advantage of my “Full-Money-Back-Guarantee”. Just send me the book along with why you didn’t like it and why you are cheap, and I’ll take care of you. On to the lists…
Recent Reads:
An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (Pagitt, Jones) Buy it Here.
The Myth of A Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church (Boyd) Buy it Here.
SexGod: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality (Bell) Buy it Here.
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (Hipps) Buy it Here.
All-Time Favorites:
Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven (Smith) Buy it Here.
Bono: In Conversation (Assayas) Buy it Here.
Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel (McLaren, Campolo) Buy it Here.
Searching For God Knows What (Miller) Buy it Here.
I care a lot about politics and think everyone else should. Why? Because as much as they suck, are slow, and are often dirty, they are the way things tend to get done (and undone) in the world we live in.
Lately I’ve heard a lot of people say they couldn’t care less about politics, and when I ask why, I often hear that they are “pointless”, that politicians “can’t be trusted”, and that there are “more important things”. I understand those feelings, but I think we have to be careful not to let the drama of the political process lead us to disengagement.
All citizens of a society should care about its governance, but followers of Jesus should care all the more about the politics of their country. This doesn’t mean we need to run for president (In fact, I tend to think many Christian’s quests for political power have done a lot of harm to our political process, not to mention the Church) but as “the people” we have say in the actions of our governments (even when it doesn’t seem like it) and we must do our part. Why? Because people’s lives depend on it and from the beginning God has tasked us with caring for all his creation, particularly the least among us.
Governments, the US Government in particular, have the power to act on large scales, and unfortunately the power to ignore large-scale problems (Remember New Orleans?). Enter the people. It took government action to dramatically decrease institutional racism and segregation in America, but it wouldn’t have happened if people didn’t march. And why do you think our government continues to increase its aid to Africa and other regions affected by disease and lack of basic needs? Because ordinary citizens are asking for it. When we neglect issues, our government neglects them, and when we truly care, our leaders have no choice but to act on our behalf.
I understand that this could sound incredibly idealistic and be too simple a picture. But I am idealistic (I like to think of it as hopeful), and it’s simpler than we often think! Shouldn’t we work for a better world instead of throwing in the towel at the first sign of opposition? We need vision, vision of a better way to live, and we need to hope for our vision coming to fruition and then work to make it happen. Hoping is not wishing, it is active. Hope hurts because we long for whatever it is we are hoping for, and we have to deal with the fact that things aren’t the way we wish they were. Hope begins in the dark-in the dirt, and it slowly sprouts, bringing new life.
The vision and hope I am talking about, are not just about a better America. (I’m not John Edwards talking about the “two Americas”) Rather, I’m thinking about a Kingdom of God vision, not just bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots, but bridging the gap between love and indifference. We need a revolution of love in our world today, and while it starts at the grassroots level, it can spread to affect the decisions and actions of our leaders and have large-scale effects on our world.
Part of this has to do with our theology and what we believe about the “end times” and the fate of humanity. Too many of us have been taught that Jesus is going to come back and take us somewhere and destroy the Earth, replacing it with a new one. And so, what happens here doesn’t matter. We just need to watch and wait and pray, because this world belongs to the Devil and is rotten to the core.
Under this sort of theology, we can disengage, as many Christians have done, and wait for things to come. So we don’t need to tackle difficult problems in our world, because only Jesus can take care of that. But wasn’t Jesus message about the Kingdom of God telling us we should be a part of it now, working to create it now? Didn’t Jesus model reconciliation for us so we would seek it out in the places we find ourselves in? Aren’t we co-laborers with God in bringing about redemption and wholeness to our world? Of course we can’t fix every problem, I’m not advocating for a Utopia, but I am advocating for believers in Jesus caring about the problems in our world and showing that care by working to address them.
One way we can do that is through engagement in the political process. It doesn’t mean we have to get behind one candidate, and believe that if only they were elected all the problems would be fixed, but it at least means being informed. Take up an issue or two, maybe it’s Darfur, or maybe it’s the Environment, both need level-headed people engaged in the issues. Learn about them, talk about them, blog about them and think about them in light of your faith.
If our faith matters at all to us, so do the issues facing our world and the politics surrounding them, because our world is full of things God loves and wants to reconcile to Himself…
Thoughts?
I recently got word that a guy I used to lead worship with from time to time, Koti Hu, was in a car accident a few weeks ago. He was rear-ended while at a stop light. As a result, his neck was broken and he suffered damage to his spinal chord. He is now hard at work in physical therapy, focusing on the use of his arms and hands, but at this point has little to no feeling from the chest down. I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for Koti and his family.
Koti leads the Next Gen worship ministry at Westminster Chapel. For updates on his condition and ways to support him, you can go here.
Please be in prayer for Koti and his family. God is a God of healing and restoration and we should remember this truth as we pray!
I’ve been writing again lately. Here’s some words that came to me on tuesday morning as I thought about the road ahead, they may be the start to something. Either way, it felt good to get somewhere with pen and paper…
Think I’ll rest a while Stop and catch my breath Cause I’ve been running for too long now And there’s next to nothing left I’ve found myself unsettled Looking for direction The map I squint to read Is in need of some correction Where I’ve been isn’t where I’m going Where’s this road lead? It tests my faith not knowing But one things true, yes I’m telling you This end, this end is a beginningFor the past seven years, I have had the incredible privilege of being on staff at First Free Methodist Church in Seattle. My time there ended this week. I cleaned out my office on tuesday and turned in my keys. I resigned my position a few months ago, but leaving hasn’t felt real until now.
It’s thursday afternoon, right about the time I send out an email reminder to the volunteers helping in the week’s service, but no email will go out today, not from me at least. I won’t set up the sound system in the gym tomorrow; I won’t prepare the video presentation, I won’t create the order of service, I won’t choose songs, and when sunday comes, I won’t lead the congregation in worship. It’s the end of something; the church will go on, I will go on, but we won’t go on together, at least not in the way we have for the last several years. It’s feels like a break-up, we’re still friends, of course:), but it will never be the same.
As I write, I am deeply saddened and yet filled with hope. Sad because I love the people of First Free Methodist Church; they are my friends, my family, and have shaped me into who I am today, leaving them hurts and I’ve not expressed it, truly felt it, until now. But, there is hope in this ending because this ending is also a beginning.
I’ll be twenty-five next month, young enough to feel like I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, and old enough to know that my life will be filled with many beginnings and endings. This is the first time in my life where I’ve felt the burden of choices, because what I do matters, and I want to make it count. It feels like I grew up this week, and as I try and deal with what that feels like, I am reminded of my favorite question as a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I liked the question because I could answer it any way I wanted. When being a fireman seemed lame, I would give being a ninja a try (I really did want to be The Karate Kid for a while. Who isn’t inspired by Ralph Macchio?).
That I can be anything I want is still as true today as it was twenty years ago, the difference is, once I decide, I need to make it happen. Being a fireman, a ninja, a mortgage broker, a lawyer, they’re all great things, but when it comes down to it, they’re just jobs. My faith has taught me enough to know that my identity goes beyond what I do to pay the bills. I am a child of God, a co-laborer in the restoration of creation, and the hands and feet of Jesus to the world around me. What I do to pay the bills is important, and I must certainly serve God in that role, but it’s not who I am.
So, what do I want to be when I grow up? I want to be faithful. I want to know that what I spend my time doing matters for the Kingdom of God. I want to be a good husband, a good father, a good pastor, a good musician, a good friend, a good man in God’s image. So that’s what I’m gonna do, who I’m going to be. But in the meantime, I need a job so if anybody has any ideas give me a call!
May He find us faithful!
