Luther on Music

i ran across this earlier today. i'm a big luther fan, and i really like what he says about music. i totally resonate with what he says here:

When man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

(Martin Luther, 1538, in his foreword to a collection of chorale motets)

*don't be a clodhopper.

wild goose chase II

so, i just finished mark batterson's second book, wild goose chase. i blogged about it back a few weeks ago when i had just started it (if you can remember back that far)... there were many victories within my experience of this book. it really came at a perfect time for me...

i'm a learner. i really dig getting into a book and bulldozing my way through it and then moving on to the next. this is alright in certain settings. however, when reading a book about spiritual formation or the things of God, this method is really detrimental to the overall experience and purpose! this thought had never occurred to me until recently. God revealed to me, through His word and some key conversations with my small group, that i was really getting nothing out of these books when i was reading them. they were really just another thing i was DOING to make myself feel better. that sucks. so, i committed to my small group that i was going to start taking my time reading through spiritual literature and the Bible. wild goose chase is the first major victory that i've experienced since God granted me this insight.

the more i really dove into the words of this book, the more God revealed to me his grace in my shortcomings. *this is kind of interesting, because God's grace is not an explicit topic in the book. however, batterson speaks much of how his failures have led him to the exact place that God wanted him and that without those failures (i.e. the failed church plant, giving up his basketball scholarship), he never would have gotten to where God was wanting him to go. THERE IS SO MUCH FREEDOM IN THAT.

many times, i look back on my life, and i just see failure after failure. missed opportunities. selfish goals. pride. but now, i think i'm really starting to understand that His strength is made perfect in my weakness. and that he chose to use the foolish things on this earth to shame the wise. *i want to be one of those foolish things.

so, let's chase after God really hard. and fail. and keep chasing. and fail again. God is using my every failure to get me to where He wants me, and more importantly, He is using everything to mold me into the man that he dreams of me becoming.

it took me an entire month to read this book. thank God for these small victories.

indescribable

here are two things that are making me laugh a lot right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4LbYhdmjG4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

they are both completely real. and horrifying.

b+ *but a great ending

i gotta say that i give today a solid b+. it started off pretty mundane with folding clothes at gap all morning, but the afternoon and evening really breathed new life into the day as a whole! after adam and i had our one on one meeting, we set up the stage for rehearsal (which was at 7pm instead of the normal 4, because we are using an adult volunteer band instead of a student band this week to give the students a break). i think it's going to be a really fun service!

after we set up the stage, i spent some alone time with my pedal board; tweaking each pedal to get the optimal tone from the ole fender deville amp. good times. sometimes, it's just really nice to sit alone and work on something you love--with no interuptions from phone calls, emails, meetings, etc. it really was a fun time! after working on my pedal board for about an hour, i went and grabbed some dinner and headed right back to the church for rehearsal. it went really well. even better than i was expecting!

after rehearsal, i headed to scott woods's house for small group and the season premiere of the office!!!!!!!!! i really love my small group! we're going through a book right now called sould revolution. it is incredible. i'll try to blog about it tomorrow. or saturday. small group was amazing. however, the most hilarious thing happened while we were watching the office season premiere...

scott's dog, wrigley, has been sick recently, and apparently this sickness has left her with an unquenchable urge to scratch the area right under her tail. yes, that area. so, she is constantly scooting her but across the carpet. which is really funny. but on this particular evening, the carpet was just not cutting it. so, while sitting in matt wentz's lap, she just started scooting her butt on his jeans. wow. can we just take a second to appreciate that moment? thanks. all of us started laughing so hard that we were rolling around on the ground. at this point, wrigley apparently got embarrased and went and layed down with a sad look on her face. *honestly one of the funniest moments i've ever experienced since i moved here. oh wow.

also, usc lost. so, uga is one step closer to the national championship if we just take care of business! great end to an ok day!!!!!!!!

bob dylan

today was pretty chill. i had an all staff meeting at big Willow (south barington), but other than that, my day was quite uneventful. i have to be honest...i'm pretty stoked about just being home for the evening with nothing to do. ahh. drink it in. ha.

so, i turned on the tele (hoping that there would be something halfway worthwhile to watch *but willing to settle for anything remotely entertaining). thankfully, i stumbled upon a great documentary on bob dylan. i love learning about where great music actually comes from. what were the circumstances surrounding the composition, etc.? love it. one thing that really caught my attention was the way that everyone described "bobby." countless times, people referred to bob as the voice of a generation. wow. what a title? what a responsibility? *this got me thinking.

who is the voice of our generation? but perhaps even more, what is the voice of our generation saying? i couldn't come to a true objective opinion of who this voice would be. however, i think that the voice may be that of bono. don't judge yet. let me explain. i hear the voice of our generation (having more [materially] than any other generation) screaming out at the top of our lungs in an arena BUT I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR!!!!!!

this feels sad. but it rings so true. we have tried everything but we still haven't found what we're looking for, and how could we unless someone shows us the way?! this is where we come in (you know the light of the world. the city on a hill. the light shining brightly in the darkness). if we're the light, but we're not shining, how are they to know, or even attempt to find, the truth?

our generation is crying out for a group of people to burn with passion for something that satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts: to be in loving relationship and community with our very Creator.

let's burn. let's shine. brighter*

what a day!

so, it is 11:37pm, and this is the first time i've been able to get online all day! sometimes, you plan out your days, and the day comes and goes exactly as you expected. other times that does not happen. this was one of those days.

i woke up at 9:26. 9:26 you may say is a perfect time to wake up. and i may agree with you on many other days. however, 9:26 is a completely inappropriate time to wake up when you have an 8 o'clock meeting and have to be at work at 9:30 (especially since work is 20 minutes away). thus, my day started quite inappropriately. ugh. i thought to myself, "self, i know i set my alarm." and i must add that i was quite right with this assertion. however, what i (in all my wisdom) forgot to do was set my alarm for 7am instead of 7pm. apparently, there are to 7 o'clocks each day. i chose the wrong one...

this put me in quite the funk all day. i was so mad at myself for being irresponsible. i hadn't done that in years. ugh. but then, i realized that i was simply the only person that really cared about what had happened. my boss was very cool about it. no big deal. the meeting went on without me. done. however, i let it affect me most of the day. kind of sad when you think about it.

i wonder what kind of opportunities i missed today. conversations. kind words that i could offer. i got pretty convicted about that this afternoon as i was listening to the second part of the influence series (from last week at willow). bill was talking about being continually praying for the redemption of people that we know that are far from God and our tendency to stray from that mode of thinking. i missed it today. but i won't miss it tomorrow.

a shepherd lost 1 sheep. he left the 99 to go after the one.

*let there be an urgency in our hearts, our minds, and our mouths to give an explanation for the hope that we have.

7 day experiment

i love to write. songs. poetry. short non-fiction. possibly even micro-fiction. however, i have a really hard time actually taking the time to sit down and do it. the thing is that i really do find out a little bit more about myself every time i take out the pen (or the keyboard as the case may be). i need to write more...

my friend, lauren, and i had a discussion recently that revealed so much to me about my blogophobia (yes, i just made up that word). lauren said that she has a really hard time writing in her moleskine, because every time she wants to, she then talks herself out of it, because she feels that her thoughts are not profound enough to be preserved. i have a similar problem.

i have a hard time blogging. there's so much pressure. *this better be good. if this isn't the most profound thought ever, then people will think my blog is lame. so, in order to get past this, i am committing to blog everyday for the next week. i am not claiming that there will be something extremely profound everyday. but there will be something everyday!

wish me luck.

i dare each of you to do the same.

the (definitive) movie list

here's what i've come up with:

1. braveheart (every man dies, but not every man truly lives)
2. saving private ryan (my favorite war movie. tom hanks is incredible.)
3. dumb and dumber (the movie that birthed a passion for quoting movies in my life. ha)
4. anchorman (the best will ferrell movie ever. filled with one-liners that still make me double over laughing)
5. fight club (life-changing. well written. well produced. ed norton, you are the man.)
6. orange county (the most underrated of all jack black movies. ridiculously funny.)
7. once (this is a new one for me, but it is probably one of the most significant films that i've ever seen. amazing.)
8. the patriot (an incredible story of character and honor in the most trying times. love it.)
9. the matrix (this changed every perception i had about film when it came out. set the bar high for special effects in films.)
10. napoleon dynamite (i saw this movie 5 times in the theatre. it was totally different than any film i had ever seen. tina, you fat lard, come get your dinner.)

what do you guys think?

movie list?

so, upon the prompting of a couple of my homies, i am currently working on a top 10 movie list. this is much more difficult than it seems (a lot is at stake). however, i commit to having one up in the next few days. wirth, i expect you to come up with one too.

any suggestions?

wild goose chase

so, i have an addiction to good books. in that, i love to read things that change my perspective. one of the 3 books that i'm reading right now is mark batterson's new book, wild goose chase. it truly is rocking my world, and it really came at the PERFECT time in my life! *i love it when that happens. chalk it up to God's providence. ha.

i'm only about halfway through it at this point, but that in itself is a victory for me, because i've been reading through it for about three weeks now. typically, i read through books as fast as i can which tends to be detrimental to the overall growth process. i think.

the book is centered around the idea that the holy spirit is inviting each of us on an adventure/chase of sorts. many times this chase seems ridiculous and illogical to the outside world! never have i identified with this truth more than right now. i really do feel like i am on a really wild goose chase!!!!

so, my encouragement--maybe more appropriately--my dare to you guys is to do something crazy. follow the urging of the spirit. this may be something as simple as just walking across the room (a little inside humor for you creekers), or it could be as crazy as starting a non-profit. either way, what i am quickly finding out is that with each step of faith (and fear), God reveals just a bit more of who He is...

it is an incredibly exciting journey. i would love to hear your stories! and i will make sure to share mine as well...

city

monday, i got to spend the whole day in the city (chicago). a really cool friend of mine from college has been living there for 2 years, and we finally got a chance to hang out! we both tend to be really busy which makes this difficult, but after a month of failed attempts, we actually achieved the impossible. fantastic.

i haven't really gotten to spend that much time in the city since i moved to the fabulous state of illinois...so, this was a welcome deviation from the routine of my life in the burbs. the weather was perfect. well, it may have been a little warm. ok, it was hot, but i have promised myself that i will never complain about it being hot outside, because i know that it will only be a few short weeks until it won't be warm anymore. so, i don't want to waste the great weather complaining about it being too hot...

anyways, i got downtown at about noon, and after a short walk and a couple of phone calls, lauren and i finally met up! family reunion. ha. from there, we took the blue line out to bucktown and wicker park (which may be my new favorite neighborhoods ever). really cool/artsy district. we ate lunch and just walked around a bit before heading over to the beach at lake michigan. now, i have always had a problem with people referring to areas around lakes as beaches, because in my mind, the word "beach" denotes saltwater. however, i suspended this abhorrence for the sake of an incredible afternoon of people watching with lauren. it was so crowded. lauren and i found a cool place to sit on a concrete wall that jutted out into the water--perfect place to people watch and get splashed a bit by the occasional big wave.

from the beach, we walked over to the zoo in lincoln park and hung out with the primates for a bit and then on to wrigleyville. a really wonderful afternoon of just walking around and taking it all in. about two hours before i had to catch a train back out to the burbs, we went back to downtown, and sat at a fountain. a great close to the day. i share lauren's love for fountains. i guess i just like water shooting up in the air. ha.

i guess the most interesting thing to me about the whole day is that it wasn't the sights we saw that were really breathtaking. it wasn't the weather. truly, i can't really put my finger on it, but there was just something about being in the city that was exciting and new. the small intricacies of parking on the street, having a monthly bus/train pass, having no personal space, and being so close and so far away from the vast majority of the people you see everyday just really drew me in for some reason. perhaps, it's simply curiosity. a life different than my own.

i'm not really sure what it was that drew me in, but i do know that for most of the train ride home, i couldn't get my mind off of the city. maybe i'll live there someday. i can't help but think that it would really open my eyes to get out of suburbia sometime and wrestle with new ideas/challenges. just a thought.