Good Music

Sorry for the blog silence. . .

I thought I would post some songs that have been really meaningful to me lately.

Here goes:


This song is how I feel about my beautiful wife, Jody. . . 'nuff said.





This Shane and Shane song will make you cry, get the hankies out. But, it's a great song, and these guys do a great job. I also like the fact that they haven't changed styles at all in their 10-12 years. You can expect solid, acoustic guitar driven rock with some of the most amazing vocals you'll hear. The "other" Shane sings amazing on this one (the Shane not playing guitar). What a powerful video. . .




So, I got all fired up about this Matt Redman song . . and then screwed it up on Celebration Sunday. :) Oh well, that doesn't detract from a great worship song, penned by one of the best. What an encouragement. Thanks Matt R.!

Crucial

If you've ever thought the band "how to" videos were a little pretentious . . .

("let me show you how awesome I am as I take you through the part I play on this hit song as if you were a 3rd grader, and my part is so easy a monkey could play it " )

. . .this video is awesome. I like Brett Younker, we play "All Things New" at Calvary. I like his tambourine player even more. :)



If you've ever played aux. percussion in any setting, . . you know where this guy is coming from.

C.S. Lewis and the devil

When asked about "his belief in the Devil," Lewis addressed the question in a thought-provoking way in his preface to a revised edition of "Screwtape" in 1960: "Now, if by 'the Devil' you mean a power opposite to God and, like God, self existent from all eternity, the answer is certainly No."

That is, Lewis did not believe in the false theology and caricatures of the devil that have developed over the centuries—whether through art, literature or even today's sports mascots (think Duke and Arizona State).

As Lewis explained, "There is no uncreated being except God. God has no opposite. . . . The proper question is whether I believe in devils. I do. That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by the abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God. . . . Satan, the leader or dictator of devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael."

HT: WSJ

J-No

Sad to hear about J-Lo and Marc Anthony. . . not because I was a huge fan or anything. . . but because divorce didn't have to happen, and there are small kids involved. Those things always get to me. Here's J-Lo's quote:

Jennifer Lopez says it took some time before she realized that she had to leave her relationship with husband Marc Anthony behind because she was “compromising” herself.

In the new issue of Vanity Fair, the singer and actress, 42, opens up about her recent divorce and why she finally realized after seven years of marriage that Anthony was not good for her.

“It’s not that I didn’t love myself before. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are compromising ourselves,” she says. “To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself—if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me. I love myself enough to walk away from that now.”

Um, "compromising myself". . . . welcome to marriage. See, this goes along with my post from last week; if we look at marriage, or any relationship, as a consumeristic/transaction based thing. . . it doesn't work, and we won't be satisfied. Compromise is non-negotiable. And, I might add, we all need to compromise some things that we hold dear. No one is without things that need to be moderated, and rough edges that need to be smoothed out.

If we think the highest good is to "love myself", than we will stop loving and sacrificing for our spouse very quickly.

I don't want anyone to think that I'm rigid/cold against folks who are in a tough marriage and that I think it's wrong to say that you have "needs", etc. . that the other person isn't meeting.

Those things may be true, and that's why we have the church/Christian community to help us walk along-side each other to help our relationships through hard times, and help us to communicate well.

I just think there's a fundamental difference in the way we approach other people that we can be full with the love and acceptance of Christ. . . . . or desperately looking to the other person to fulfill needs that only God can fulfill. Those two heart attitudes make a difference in the way we would approach talking about our "needs" and loving and sacrificing for another person. Here's another link to the piece from last week.

Dubious List

How is "Vocal Music Performance" not on the list of least paying college majors? Probably because all of those people have to go on to get other degrees :) Anyway, I'm skeptical of this list, but it's not a good one to be on, you know?

Dubious