Well, just a quick update on life; the SOL band is done recording, and now it's time to lay down vocal tracks. I'm sure that will put me in the studio some time this week. Later today is going to be a busy day for me. I have a lot of obligations and responsibilities to see to, and not a whole lot of time in which to do it. The good thing is that most of my obligations are to friends, and that's a good reason to be inconvenienced and pressed for time; when you're doing something for friends. Anyways, that's my quick update.

Now to leave you with some thoughts from Erwin McManus' book "The Barbarian Way", which I started on Friday.

"Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus' association with Christianity. Christianity has become docile, domesticated, civilized. We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God."

"In its primitive state the good news could never be separated from the invitation of Jesus to 'come, follow Me'. He never lied about the danger or cost associated with becoming His follower. He told them up front, 'I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves'. (Matthew 10:16). One danger of civilized faith is that we become so domesticated, we begin to live as shrewd as the dove. We are blind to the spiritual nature of life and the unseen reality in which we reside. Another danger is that we become as innocent as snakes. For far too long, sincere followers of Christ have had to live with the consequences of those who use religion to manipulate others and to camouflage hypocrisy."

"Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God's optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. Yet Jesus' death wasn't to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death. Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live."

"Is it possible that the transforming power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to step into the comfort, safety, and security of Jesus Christ? We've created a religious culture in which-even though we're the most blessed society in the history of the planet-our best-selling literature still focuses on how we can be more blessed. Maybe we need to step way back to the beginning of this movement. The original call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: 'Follow Me'"

"In the civilized view of discipleship, everything and everyone moves toward the center. Discipleship is translated into standardizing everyone into the same pattern. We have equated the promise that we would be conformed into the image of Christ with a belief that all of us will be the same. Discipleship has become the mechanism for uniformity rather than uniqueness... God steers us in the direction of His kingdom, His purpose, His passions. His desire is not to conform us, but to transform us. Not to make us compliant, but to make us creative. His intent is never to domesticate us, but to liberate us."

"Confronted by John (the Baptist) we have to stop and ask ourselves: 'If this is what the person looked like who prepared the way for Jesus, then what should a disciple of Christ look like who comes after Jesus? How is it possible that, for many of us, being a good Christian is really nothing more than being a good person?' The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate, rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed faith."

Sure is something to think about. I wish my life were a consistent example of unhindered belief in the God of Israel, in Yahweh, the Creator God, who calls me out of the safety and comfort and familiarity of my all-too-often routine and indifferent life, and into the brutal, unknown, but ultimately beautiful path of a life lived in complete and utter surrender to His ways and His plans. Unfortunately, much more often than I would like to admit, this is not so. God help my unbelief. And enable me to follow You.

Slow me down

Things I'm trying to remember over the next 5 days;

1. This too, shall pass...
2. That I always have a choice about how I am going to react in every situation
3. People sometimes act mean, nasty, unkind, and hurtful, and there's nothing I can do about it, except remember items # 1 & 2...
4. Family is more important than almost everything else in life
5. Relationships are more important than almost everything else in life
6. Good rest keeps me from being a cranky, over-sensitive jerk
7. Generally, I should listen at least twice as much as I speak
8. God is in control (not the Twila Paris song) and He has lined up events to take place this way for a reason that I know nothing about
9. God is good, and He orchestrates all of life's happenings to work toward the ultimate good of the ones that He loves (and that love Him)
10. Too much fast food will lead to an early death

Someone just lit off firecrackers outside my door. I'm going to go investigate.

February should only have 13 days

Thanks to Kaleb Baker for that thought. Well, yesterday was Valentines Day, as most everyone is aware of. I suppose it's the day that secret attractions are revealed, when the nervous guy finally gets up the gumption to tell the beautiful (hopefully single) girl that he likes her a lot, and wants to know if she would like to get all dressed up and go some place nice and be treated like a queen for an evening. Of course she accepts (whether she likes him or not; I mean, how can you turn down the royal treatment?) and the poor sap thinks that she actually enjoys his company and that he might have a chance at romancing her and winning her heart, when you and I both know she's just in it for the Outback (or fast food Japanese, if you're cheap like me).

I guess it's really not as bad as the picture I just painted, but Valentines Day does make me think about what love is really supposed to look like. It has crossed my mind (and I have no way to substantiate this claim) that maybe, just maybe, some people go through the whole infernal flirting/attraction/dating/obsession process because they're lonely. I mean, I sure do catch myself in that state every now and then. I guess it's human tendency to want to fill a void in our heart with relationships. Some of us even go so far as to use a relationship to anesthetize the pain and hurt of past relationships gone wrong, or to validate us when we need assurance of what we're worth. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that kind of motivation is misguided and selfish, and that almost every one of us has been guilty of this in the past (or maybe in the present). Unfortunately most of us are blinded to ourselves when we're in this kind of state; we are so enamored with the feelings that romance brings that we don't take the time to step back and see how self-centered our intentions are in dating (Somewhere, someone wise said that love is not self-seeking...).

I think I can sum up the problem with the majority of dating relationships in this one statement; most people are in a relationship for what they can get from someone, not for what they have to give to someone. Real love or affection or care for someone is manifested in selfless actions, commitment to their needs as being more important than your own. I think we confuse romance with love. You can manufacture the feelings and butterflies and weak knees of romance with practically anyone; one only has to know how to pack a good picnic lunch and compliment well. A book of good poetry doesn't hurt either. Love, on the other hand, requires a willingness to set aside the desire for the validation and attention we all crave at times, and to serve someone else, sometimes at the expense of our own feelings. As one of the great songwriters of our generation put it,

"Now love is not a feeling in your chest;
It is bending down to wash another's feet
It is faithful when the sun is in the west and in the east
It can hurt you as it holds you in its overwhelming flood
'Til only the unshakeable is left
'This new command I give you', he said 'Love as I have loved'
So brother, love her better than yourself, and give her your heart..."
-Andrew Peterson, "For The Love Of God"

The bottom line is, most of us are looking for the wrong thing. We are searching for our own fulfillment when we should be waiting for someone to come along whom we can pour our life and love out on. I'm trying to remember to look for someone who I will respect and appreciate, with whom I can find true companionship. Someone who will walk beside me as I try to keep up with Jesus, who will shoulder life's troubles and trudge along at a steady pace, with words of encouragement. Someone who will look at me and not pretend to see perfection (haha, not that anyone has or would, but you know what I'm driving at), instead seeing all my flaws in their ugliness and make up their mind to deal with them anyways. In the end, I guess I'm looking for the proverbial friend who loves at all times.

Still another problem exists. Momma always told me that life is like.......no, wait; that's not it =) (by the way, goofiness is one of the aforementioned qualities/imperfections my wife will either have to appreciate or get over). Momma always told me that I should focus on being the right person more than trying to find the right person. Most of us, even if our intentions in seeking out a relationship are noble, never step back and look at ourselves to see if we are worth being loved like we would want to be. I know this is excessively true in my own life. I am far too preoccupied with "sizing up" girls to even stop and consider whether I am the kind of man that the kind of woman I want to marry is going to need. We would all do ourselves a big favor just to step back and evaluate where we're at with this.

Okay, this has been preposterously long and cliche'. But it's been bugging me lately, and has been fanned to flame by a conversation with my buddy Taco this afternoon. I promise not everything on here will be this silly. Adios amigos.

Oh, to be a kid once more...

Well, here we go again, another busy week... Sounds of Liberty is recording a CD this semester, and Tuesday and Wednesday evening of this week have been set aside to track guitars, so Saleh (lead guitar) and myself will be spending most of the next couple of days hunched over our instruments, trying not to mess up too much. We will be recording in the studio at Thomas Road, and hopefully by Friday, the band (sans brass) will be done with our part of the album. After that, it's vocals for the next week or so, with a little bit of time allotted somewhere in the middle for the brass line to come in and work out their parts. I still have yet to figure out when I will be in to track vocals for Blessed Be Your Name. I'm still excited about the fact that it even made it on the album. All said and done, it should be engineered, mixed, mastered (?), duplicated and packaged in time for March tour, the 11th-18th. It's a lot to try and squeeze in a month. I have to admit, I'm excited and nervous at the same time to have my name included on such a big project. It's quite humbling to think about. On another note, my sister is getting married on Saturday, and I'm trying to work it out to where I can at least be there for the ceremony. I am really excited for her and Glenn, and I sure do hope I am able to get time off. It will be good to see Hunter and his "Grandparents" too. Well, that's the update on what's going on in the 'burg. I will try to post some pictures of us in the studio over the next week or so, and hopefully some pictures of the DeNapoli wedding too. And maybe a random thought or two. So long.

Already, the frustration is setting in...

Ok, I'm trying to keep from getting mad at the world of blogging. I'm already a little wary of the whole thing, and the fact that I just lost the post I've been working on for the past hour doesn't help things. I had a good post too, one that was going to make people think I am spiritual and deep and caring. Isn't that the point of having one of these? Just kidding folks. Well, tune back in for future updates on life in Lynchburg, and for tirades on things that make me mad, or musings on circumstances that have made me think. Adios, Ciao, and everything else that means goodbye.