Filed under: Essentials Blue
In my readings and postings for school this week, I realized that there isn’t much silence in my life; and it starts in the morning with my alarm. My day is filled with noise: the car radio, the non-stop ringing of the phone at work, the car radio again, the television, iTunes, a sound machine while I sleep, and up until recently, Facebook.
I have a one-track mind, which can be good and bad. I can intensely focus on what needs to be done, and then do it. But I’ve realized all the white noise in my life keeps me from thinking, wondering, pondering, and most importantly…listening.
So I now have a plan to minimize as much of the white noise as I can. I deleted my facebook. I silenced my Blackberry. I turned off the car radio. I’m trying to create more space; to listen. We’ll see how it goes; hopefully God will speak and hopefully I’ll start thinking about what’s most important again.
N.T. Wright writes about a “Hidden Spring” in his book, Simply Christian. It is about a community that has paved its water sources over with think concrete to better control it…but it’s only a matter of time before the pressure explodes with volcanic force and the springs break free again. I think that I’ve been mixing concrete with noise for a long time. And I think it’s time for a change.
Filed under: Prayer
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the words which
we have heard this day with our outward ears, may, through
thy grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may
bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honor and
praise of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Filed under: Essentials Blue
Getting ready to start taking classes again, so…back to blogging and posting. It couldn’t have come at a busier week. Get ready.
Filed under: Prayer
Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory
and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the
earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service
of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in
truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of
him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Filed under: C.S. Lewis
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.
That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.”
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
Filed under: Essentials Green
A friend of mine recently gave up talk radio for Lent. He started listening to Hip Hop, and pointed out something interesting…On Sunday mornings, a few Hip Hop radio stations play gospel music. So, the programming will go from a song about booty to worship, and eventually back to booties again. Other radio stations do something similar on Sunday’s too.
In fact, I did something similar without realizing it. On the way to church this past Sunday, my wife and were listening to some reggae music on Album 88.5′s Easy Fyah radio show. Then we heard some worship on Victory 91.5, which lasted for one song. Then the dial went straight to 99X for some 90′s alternative.
It got me thinking. I thought it funny at first, then I got a little holy about it. Then came the convicting realization…
My life is a lot like that Booty-Worship-Booty that my friend listened to. I may have a tough, busy 7AM to 8PM work day like yesterday. The morning is busy and crazy. Then my lunch break has a few chapters in the Bible read with some symphonic music, then it’s back to the grind, then I might think about God and pray before I retire.
I think all of our lives have this in some form or fashion. The goal would then be to create more space for worship to happen in our daily lives, so that Sunday isn’t the only time that a life of worship shows up in the sandwich.
-B
Filed under: Prayer
O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of
refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our
leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our
spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Filed under: Prayer
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.
- The Common Book of Prayer
“Contemporary worship music of other ages has been injected into the life of the Communion time and time again throughout our passage on earth. A contemporary worship has always imposed itself on the life of the church – no matter how hard the organized Church sought to stem the tide of popular worship expression. St. Francis, Martin Luther, the Wesley brothers, Isaac Watts and many others have ruffled the feathers of Church traditionalists in their quest to invoke the common voice of the culture in their crafting of fresh, new worship music. “ 1)
While working on my second week’s assignments for my Essentials Green course, I came across this article and it sparked my curiosity. In Martin Luther’s day, he didn’t have iTunes and the common person didn’t have hundreds of music genres to choose from.
So, I went straight to Billboard and iTunes to see what’s relevant and if I could hear any flavors of our church worship expression. Out of the top 50, there were only 3 songs that weren’t Hip Hop: Ms. Miley Cyrus at #22, then Taylor Swift at #31, and finally John Mayer at #39.
Not only do we not have Hip Hop on Sunday mornings, but you can tell someone invested $$$$$ in every song on the charts. So should we use a sampler and T-Pain autotune in worship?
The real question is: How do you make the worship experience of next week relevant, diverse, and accessible when popular genres are so diverse?
1) Dan Wilt, Inside Worship, Exploring Our Roots: The Contemporary Worship Movement, 2008
2) Chart taken from Billboard Music
“O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen”
-The Common Book of Prayer
