Many times when I am writing music, I ask myself: do I really have something to say? Or perhaps: what do I have to say?
And I ask myself that same question here.
The question applies to all of life, really. I see many people (and sometimes myself) moving through life, but not really sure of where they are going. At this point in history, it's easy to find plenty to distract us from a problem which becomes much more pressing as we near our end: what does it all mean?
What does it all mean? What have I been living for? Is there something worth living for, aiming for, striving for, working for? Do I have a mission, a cause, a reason to stand up for something? And does it matter? When I die, will all my striving simply dissipate in the wind like sand, or will it mean something more than my lifespan can hold?
Friday, August 24, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
We are the rich.
Pastor Dan's sermon this morning sort of bowled me over.
It was a sermon about money, but not a sermon in which the preacher was asking for money (for himself or the church). It was a sermon about how greed is a form of impurity in our hearts just like sexual impurity.
I've spent so much time on eBay and other sites, looking for things which for some reason I really really want. Often, these things will, I think, help me fulfill God's calling on my life as a musician. And yet, the desire for these things sometimes takes over my heart and my time way more than it should.
Pastor Dan gave us statistics that I'd heard before about how we really are the world's richest people, but this time it hit me more than ever before. There really are millions of people in the world who don't even have clean water or a place to sleep. As he said, if they were standing in front of us telling us their story, we would probably empty our pockets and give what we could to help them.
Toward the end of the sermon, he brought up the question posed to Jesus in Luke chapter 5 verse 29: "And who is my neighbor?"
Then Pastor Dan had us do something really unusual. We we to pair up and check the tag on our partner's shirt to see where the shirt was made. He the asked us to, as much as possible, shout out one at a time where our shirts were made. The list was astounding. We heard places like:
"Vietnam!"
"Laos!"
"Alabama!"
"Brunei!"
"Asia!"
"Hong Kong!"
My shirt was made in Honduras.
And then Pastor Dan ended his sermon with: "The person who made your shirt is your neighbor." And during the final prayer, he asked us all to say a silent prayer for the person who made our shirt.
In this country, in the Western world even, we have so much of the wealth of the world. And we--and I--spend so much of it on ourselves...on myself. We have got to do something about this greed in our hearts.
To get an idea of how rich you are, visit www.globalrichlist.com (if you are from the USA, be careful to change the currency from pounds to dollars). To hear the entire amazing sermon, check out Calvary's website at www.calvarysc.org or click here to go straight to the sermon audio page and listen to the sermon for February 18.
It was a sermon about money, but not a sermon in which the preacher was asking for money (for himself or the church). It was a sermon about how greed is a form of impurity in our hearts just like sexual impurity.
I've spent so much time on eBay and other sites, looking for things which for some reason I really really want. Often, these things will, I think, help me fulfill God's calling on my life as a musician. And yet, the desire for these things sometimes takes over my heart and my time way more than it should.
Pastor Dan gave us statistics that I'd heard before about how we really are the world's richest people, but this time it hit me more than ever before. There really are millions of people in the world who don't even have clean water or a place to sleep. As he said, if they were standing in front of us telling us their story, we would probably empty our pockets and give what we could to help them.
Toward the end of the sermon, he brought up the question posed to Jesus in Luke chapter 5 verse 29: "And who is my neighbor?"
Then Pastor Dan had us do something really unusual. We we to pair up and check the tag on our partner's shirt to see where the shirt was made. He the asked us to, as much as possible, shout out one at a time where our shirts were made. The list was astounding. We heard places like:
"Vietnam!"
"Laos!"
"Alabama!"
"Brunei!"
"Asia!"
"Hong Kong!"
My shirt was made in Honduras.
And then Pastor Dan ended his sermon with: "The person who made your shirt is your neighbor." And during the final prayer, he asked us all to say a silent prayer for the person who made our shirt.
In this country, in the Western world even, we have so much of the wealth of the world. And we--and I--spend so much of it on ourselves...on myself. We have got to do something about this greed in our hearts.
To get an idea of how rich you are, visit www.globalrichlist.com (if you are from the USA, be careful to change the currency from pounds to dollars). To hear the entire amazing sermon, check out Calvary's website at www.calvarysc.org or click here to go straight to the sermon audio page and listen to the sermon for February 18.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
The First Christmas, Part 2
Time in Bethlehem was growing long.
The first moments after the baby's birth were like magic, only deeper. Like drinking fresh water...only a new kind of water, as if there was an entirely different kind of water more pure and refreshing than any water that had ever been before.
Some time later three men appeared. Foreigners. Mary and Joseph were so overcome that they could hardly be frightened. Nothing could be as wonderfully foreign as the child whose gaze must be more wonderful than that experienced by any other new parent before or since. And yet, these three men and their small but impressive entourage were from lands Mary and Joseph knew little about. And these three men, men of such obvious wealth and wisdom, had come to see their son. This baby too young to speak already brought such joy and wonder to the eyes of shepherds and kings.
But now the days grew long.
Seeing an angel in a dream felt almost normal by comparison, and as Joseph and Mary soberly absorbed his warning to flee to Egypt, reality began to set in. Such a responsibility--to care for the son of God. And already Herod wanted to kill him.
Joseph felt old, not for the first time, but in a new way. He saw a hard road ahead, paved with years of hard work and not a small amount of worry and difficulty. And he felt purpose like never before. He saw an unclear future guided by the crystal-clear wisdom of the Most High--a wisdom he would have to trust through faith. He didn't even know if there were trees for carpentry in Egypt, much less how he would work or feed his family. But after the arrival of this baby boy whom he could barely dare to call his own...now, to Joseph of Nazareth, nothing seemed impossible with God.
The first moments after the baby's birth were like magic, only deeper. Like drinking fresh water...only a new kind of water, as if there was an entirely different kind of water more pure and refreshing than any water that had ever been before.
Some time later three men appeared. Foreigners. Mary and Joseph were so overcome that they could hardly be frightened. Nothing could be as wonderfully foreign as the child whose gaze must be more wonderful than that experienced by any other new parent before or since. And yet, these three men and their small but impressive entourage were from lands Mary and Joseph knew little about. And these three men, men of such obvious wealth and wisdom, had come to see their son. This baby too young to speak already brought such joy and wonder to the eyes of shepherds and kings.
But now the days grew long.
Seeing an angel in a dream felt almost normal by comparison, and as Joseph and Mary soberly absorbed his warning to flee to Egypt, reality began to set in. Such a responsibility--to care for the son of God. And already Herod wanted to kill him.
Joseph felt old, not for the first time, but in a new way. He saw a hard road ahead, paved with years of hard work and not a small amount of worry and difficulty. And he felt purpose like never before. He saw an unclear future guided by the crystal-clear wisdom of the Most High--a wisdom he would have to trust through faith. He didn't even know if there were trees for carpentry in Egypt, much less how he would work or feed his family. But after the arrival of this baby boy whom he could barely dare to call his own...now, to Joseph of Nazareth, nothing seemed impossible with God.
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