Listener

If I believed in New Years resolutions mine would be to talk less and listen more. The fulfilled human life is lived by listening; listening to others, listening to the music of creation, listening to the voice of the Creator. Wisdom is found in the act of listening. God himself said of Christ, "This is my son whom I love, listen to him." There is a band I've been listening to off and on these past few months that really encapsulates this idea of listening; they are called Listener. The genre is talk music, kind of a yelling/chanting of prophetic like poetry. To enjoy this kind of music, you actually need to listen to it, there is busy in the music, but you need to listen to the actual words, this is not music you can enjoy as background noise, you need to take a moment to appreciate it, just like life. There are still voices crying out in the desert, if only we take the time to listen to them. Enjoy here.

Memories of Home

I grew up in a small town that had some incredibly talented people living in it. The church I attended had some of the most talented musicians I have met to date and music was a huge part of my growing up. As a lad I took violin lessons from an old Ukrainian gentleman. I used to carpool to my lesson with a certain Chris Oakley, one of the most talented guitar players I've ever seen. The incredibly gifted friends that I had growing up shaped my love of music, taking me on an audio adventure through many different genres and good times. Chris Oakley, my talented carpool buddy, has had quite the performing career already, performing in such groups as, Silence Through Injustice, the Fortunate, and various other small folk bands. He has been recording some stuff of his own recently and I thought it would be nice to share. It instantly became my favorite song as soon as I heard it. Enjoy here!

Choirs

A choir is the iconic symbol of humankind. The different sections represent the diversity yet perfect unity that God intended in the creation of humanity. The 4 major sections, Bass, Tenor, Alto and Soprano combine together to paint a perfect audio picture of humanity. Sometimes the sections clash, sometimes they blend beautifully, sometimes they overlap and sometimes they do their own thing, sometimes they sing unison, sometimes they sing their own parts; just as humanity interacts with itself.

(2010/2011 Providence Chamber Singers)

Choral music represents the most complete, perfect way to pray that humanity can possibly accomplish. Starting with the foundation of the Bass section, one hears the deep earthiness that is reminiscent of the gritty lowness of our human condition. Next come the Tenor and Alto parts, playfully intertwining with each other, sometimes carrying the main theme but always adding color and variety to the song. Finally the Soprano's high angelic voices fly above the rest of the song to reach up to the very throne room of God, carrying the rest of the sections up and presenting this outcry of praise and emotion to the composer and conductor of the songprayer. The prayer that flows from the lips of each member of a choir completely captures every aspect of human existence; conflict and unity, force and peace, love and hate, life and death. I can only imagine that when God hears the notes of choir rising into his throne room he leans back and with a smile says, "It is very good".

Priorities; a lesson from Daniel and The Holy Men.

Some friends of mine have a wonderful little band called The Holy Men and the majority of their songs are drawn right from the book of Daniel. Daniel is a very interesting book, I haven't studied it in depth yet but from what I know, Christians consider it a book of prophecy, the Jews considered it as part of the Writings rather than prophecy. The genre of the book is apocalyptic so it uses some wonderful symbolism and crazy mythological beasts in the story telling. The thing that gets me excited about this book however is the main characters that can be safely classified as Holy Men. Now, I don't think my friends realized how apt a name their band has, especially considering their source material, but I'll chalk it up to the Spirit and leave it at that.

The setting of the book is in Babylon, basically, at least for Jews, the most worldly, profane (redundant I know) place ever (like, this place ranked right up there with Egypt on the Jewish no-fly zone list). A little background, the people of Israel had been given the Torah that told them how to live in covenant with Yahweh, basically it said, if you want to be my people act like this, not like all these other pagan nations. The Israelites liked the pagan ways however, hey, they were more fun, and everyone was doing it, so Yahweh gave them over (after repeated attempts to get them on the straight and narrow) to the desires of their hearts. He sent them to Babylon, the place where all the lusts of the sinful nature could be satisfied in full. This place had it all, money, great food, women, awesome architecture, power, prestige, etc etc. The Scriptures speak often of the remnant of the faithful, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and posit that there were quite a few Jews who enjoyed this new found "freedom" from the Torah and went to town on their lusts (I hate proof-texters but here I go, Daniel 1:3-5, 15).

There were some men however (and yes ladies, I'm sure there were some women, they just don't get mentioned in Daniel; Esther for example, although that comes a bit later after the Persians take over...) who loved Yahweh and desired to continue to be faithful to his ways. Here is where I finally get to the point of my post, these Holy Men, made Yahweh a PRIORITY in their lives. In fact, he came first before all else, including jobs, social status, wealth etc. A couple of famous stories are of course Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and their fiery exploits, and Daniel and the Den of Lions. These men in these stories decided to put Yahweh first when there very lives were on the line, they were offered the world but chose the Lord and obedience to Him over that.

Today, even among Christians, we are taught to attain security first then figure out God stuff wherever we can fit it in. Get a good paying job, a house, a car, a family and then take it all to church and Christianize it. How contrary to pretty much everything the Bible teaches, and especially in light of this little excursion into the Book of Daniel. I am as guilty of this as the next person, even this summer I have turned down different opportunities because "I need to make money for school". This really hit home the other day in the tractor as I was trying to organize a Bible Study, something my friends and I have been trying to get going since we got home from school in May... (yes I know it's mid-July) And yet again, everyone was busy. Now I'm not condemning anyone for being busy, I'm just as guilty, but I think we need a major paradigm shift. Christ comes first in all that we do, and I mean that in the most literal way possible. Praying, reading our Bibles, tithing, serving, worshiping, ministering, all of these things need to take the highest positions in our lives, for Christ did say "Seek ye first the Kingdom and all these things shall be added to you as well" which means all of those issues of financial security, food, clothing, shelter, will be dealt with quite handily. Look at Daniel, he prayed every day, it became illegal to do so, he continued, he was thrown to the lions, God rescued him and raised him up to an exalted position in the empire. Notice the difference, Daniel didn't throw himself into his career and ask God for some help up along the way, he threw himself after God and was sustained through the bad times and blessed in the good times.

Now I don't have any suggestions for what that shift in priorities is going to look like for you readers, I know what changes I need to make, but putting God first is that subtle shift that is a necessary requirement to becoming Holy Men (and Women).

Awesome Tunes

It turns out that there are some musicians out there who simply love music and aren't just in it for the money. In fact they believe that music doesn't belong to anyone, it is a God given gift that needs to be shared. I'd like to feature two such musicians.

Anthony Sweet, a wonderfully mellow folk artist who played at Providence a couple times this past year. He has now moved to Quebec but thankfully he makes all of his beautiful music available for free online here.

Another wonderful musician is a guy named Peter Hochstedler. I've been listening to his stuff a lot this summer and the verbal imagery he uses is absolutely genius. His music is also available for free online here.

I hope you enjoy these tunes and may they bless you as they have me!

Epiphany

Last night I attended my friend's grad recital. He is a music student majoring in composition and has been busy writing music like a fiend for the past year. Not going to lie, I was a little skeptical when I showed up because I'm not a huge fan of 20th Century style composition and I knew that the musicians had not had a whole lot of time to practice the pieces, as they had only been finished only weeks before. However, I was in for an amazing treat, there were some comical parts, some beautiful parts, and just some overall good times. The real treat however, came at the end of the concert when his thesis piece was played.

My friend had a lot of difficulty writing this piece, it caused him a ton of stress and frustration. It started playing, and I thought somebody was sitting there describing my friend to me. This piece was a perfect auditory portrait of my friend. It switched between two major themes; one theme was pretty chaotic and discordant and the other part was beautiful and soothing, the violin carried the melody above the clouds of confusion and pain and made my spirits soar like an eagle.

All of a sudden I had an epiphany, a sort of revelation if you will. A chill ran down my spine, and I felt as though the Holy Spirit was almost speaking audible words to me through this song. The song was called "Prone to Wander" and it told the classic tale of humankind. At times we go along in our lives trying to do it all on our own and descending further and further into madness and discord. Finally when we realize we cannot continue on our own we return to the Father and he lifts us above the mess of our sinful human nature and frees us to become Children of the Promise. All of a sudden my eyes were re-opened to the fact that we are all God's children, that he loves all of us, and yes, we are all messed up, ugly and hideous of ourselves, but He takes us and makes us so much more. We are reborn in Christ and made pure. Instantly I realized once again, how much worth each and every one of us has. The most beautiful thing is that our worth is not an intrinsic quality, not one of us can claim to be more worthy than another based on certain attributes. No, our worth comes from God and the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, and the work of the Spirit in our lives.

This song gave me a new hope for humanity, and that hope is realized in Jesus Christ, my Lord.