songs of the week

so hopefully every so often i'll get around to posting up a few songs that i've been listening too.  alot of the bands will probably be repeats as i listen to bands over and over once i get them in my head.  these songs will mostly be alternative/rock/acoustic in genre also since that's most of what i listen to but there will be a few random songs that come out of nowhere too.  anyway...

the first list goes as follows

the airborne toxic event- somewhere around midnight

kings of leon- sex on fire(probably my favorite song right now)

copeland- grey man

between the trees- story of a boy

the veronicas- untouched(really, this song annoys me for the most part but the strings part is really good so i guess it gets on the list)

matt wertz- the day forever died

anberlin- feel good drag

"When you do things right, people will wonder if you've ever done anything at all"

ok, i know this is a really weird place to find inspiration but i just got done watching an episode of futurama where bender(the robot character) meets God.  the ending of the episode had a conversation between God and bender and them talking about how hard it is to be God.  God tells bender that it's hard finding a balance to what you do, b/c "when you're God, if you do too much people get dependant, if you don't do enough, people lose hope. when you do things right, people will wonder if you've even done anything at all"  this reminds me of the exodus with the israelites complaining about how God doesn't take care of them, and then when He does, they expect more and more.

it makes you think about how you think about God, at least it makes me think.  i know that i have moments where i doubt God and if i really am doing what God wants me to be doing.  i don't claim to have everything figured out and have it all together.  i just try to do the best w/ what i have.

i think this line applies to everything.  at a job it seemed like the more i did the more they wanted me to do and when i didn't do as much they thought that i was just lazy.  when i was doing what i was supposed to do, nothing more yet nothing less i would get asked if i had done my job, which i had.  could it be a no-win situation in life as far as getting credit where credit is due.

anyway, it just blows my mind that something like futurama can spark a thought process like that.  

Six word memoir

One of my favorite musicians/writers/whatever is a guy named stephen christian of anberlin fame.  i first heard of him through anberlin who quickly became one of my favorite bands and has been for a while.  he has a blog that i read quite a bit and he wrote a book called "the orphaned anythings" which i think is AMAZING.  anyway, one of his blog posts was titled "six word memoir" which i really enjoyed.  you should read through that post quick before you continue on w/ my post 

http://modesty.blogspot.com/2008/10/six-word-memoir.html

anyway, i've been trying to figure out what mine would be.  i've sat here watching tv/being lazy and i'm still stumped.  some that have come to mind that didn't really stick are:

still trying to find that thing

entering the uncharted sea of life

done disappointing the self imposed standards

intentionally crossing the line for entertainment

yea, those seemed to sum up what i feel people would say about me.  i like those but none seem to hit the spot.  i know that i'm going to wake up in the middle of the night and it's going to come to me magically but for now i'm just stumped.  

Drawing worship "boundaries"

One topic that has come up a lot in my devotional and "professional" life is this question: where is the line drawn between what is worship and what is not? I have personally come to almost butting heads with others on this topic. The “Worship for Lutherans” class this semester recently discussed this topic and it has had direct implications to my devotional life.

To me, as long as there is Gospel and the activities are directed towards Christ then there is no limit to what can go on. One of the main areas in this topic is the subject of music in worship. I know that at my field work church there is a big discrepancy between the people who agree and disagree with contemporary music’s place in worship, but if the music brings praise and glory to God then what is the difference between a traditional hymn and a hardcore rock song? I feel that there are as many different ways to worship God as there are people in the world. This is why we need to have different types of worship to accommodate different people.

My question though is where does the line need to be drawn that separates worship from just people getting together?

the first few

So these first few entries are actually old blogs that i posted from a year ago in my leadership class.  we were supposed to blog on our thoughts on "christian leadership" and the differences it has from just "leadership"  

this blog was about the emery concert i went to and my experiences and thoughts on that

ok, i know that my first post was about different types of worship, both in music and in form. this post centers around messages that can be in music. this video is of a song that i saw the band perform a few weeks ago. the song is titled "party song" and the band is called emery. 

 

i got a chance to talk to the bassist(Devin) for emery after the show and talk to him about their music. aside from being genuinely cool guys, they were open about their Christian beliefs. i asked Devin if they wrote their music from a Christian point of view towards the world or from a common morality view. his response made me proud to be a fan of his music; he told me that "if we are Christians, then our beliefs as Christians should be our morals and our actions should show that" i thought that this was right on. he understood the importance and responsibility that comes with being a Christian in a visible leadership position. Devin also said that as a musician, he's not in the position like a pastor or youth leader to be that prime Christian example, but he still can play a part of the faith journey by playing that temporary leadership position. he told me that the song i posted was about more than just people acting bad like the lyrics suggest, but it's about how we all fall short of what we were meant to be but instead of wallowing in our sorrow we should admit our faults and strive to become better. i loved how devin was so open to my questions about his music and hopefully i can meet more musicians in the future who share his passion for music and spreading the message of Christ. anyway, my point to this post is this: many times we downplay the role of music because it doesn't have the right sound to it or the person who wrote it doesn't have the credentials of Michael W. Smith or someone like that. but as Devin pointed out, we can have a huge impact on the people we come into contact with in those short times, much like camp or a vbs. i hope that i can take Devin's words and bring them into my ministry that i do.