In anticipation of our up-and-coming album entitled, “Negro Spirituals and Folk Classics”, I’ve posted Oh, My Soul on jonathan&brittany’s myspace. The recording consists of my brother, Joel, and I singing as a negro slave choir. Let us know what you think!
I don’t know if you’ve heard of this band yet, but they are awesome. They have a simple, grassroots sound and I think they do all the recording and mixing and everything from a mac, which is pretty cool.
They’re on myspace, so if you have a myspace, ADD EM!
one of the best parts is: they have the same names and me and my wife.
the absolute best part is: they ARE me and my wife! haha!
So, during church today (like a good Christian boy) I was attempting to blog this via cell phone. After about a half hour of cell blogging, I realized there was no “post” button and had to lose all my genius work! Here’s the gist of what you missed:
If Jesus chose to come to earth in the present day instead of early AD, and came to Akron, Ohio instead of Jerusalem, how would he do his minstry? Specifically with urban ministry (of which I am especially passionate), how would Jesus handle some of these incorrigible or “bad” kids (of which I am especially drawn to)? Would he yell at them for asking questions without raising their hand? Would he tell them they are not allowed to come to church? Would HE even be allowed in our nice, country-club buildings?
Sorry if I’m just complaining and whining, but I feel very frustrated and uncontent with the suburb-exclusivity that I feel with my church. How do you think Jesus would do uban ministry? And how should we, in light of that? Are our requirements higher than the King of kings? Are we better judges than God? How come we are doing ministry differently than Jesus?
I have just completed a blog-fast that lasted over a month. Not sure if you were disappointed, glad, didn’t notice, or just don’t exist. For the past month, I have done nothing spectacular. I did complete my associated in Biblical studies, though. My 2-year degree in only 5 short years! I know, I know, at least I have something now. Not sure what’s coming next. More Bible school? Change schools? Change majors? Change personality and passions? Who knows.
Another juicy tid-bit: Brittany and I got a dog! Tucker is a 6-year old West Highland Terrier that we rescued from a shelter. He is a well-behaved (for the most part) little guy. He was tentative at first and kind of snipped at us when we got too intrusive on his boundaries, but he is definitely warming up quickly and is a joy to have around. Anytime one of us sits on the couch, he jumps up and rests his head on our leg. aww! I’ll put some pictures up sometime.
Other than school and Tucker, everything else is about the same. I know this isn’t my online diary, but I’m sitting at Panera with Brittany while Tuck’s getting groomed, and I felt like blogging. Next time I have something that I deem worth sharing, I will return. Could be 2 hours. Could be 2 year. Probably somewhere in between though.
Love!
Recently, I have been noticing more and more how we love to distract ourselves. From what?? I’m glad you asked. We love to distract ourselves from life. Instead of living in reality, we watch reality TV. Instead of learning what we like/dislike, we ask Stacy and Clinton, or Oprah, or whoever else is, by the world’s standards, cool. [I just realized that I keep saying "we", when I should be saying "I"] I hate being uncomfortable, so I do everything possible to find that comfort. If I’m threatened with a difficult subject, I crack a joke or change the subject. Even if I feel like saying or doing something with my whole heart, I convince myself that, since no one would probably agree with me, I must be wrong. I distract myself from doing what I should.
I distract myself from avoiding what I should.
I’m pretty sure that there are enough natural distractions in life, so that we do not have to add stupid distractions on our own. I am tired of being distracted. From life, from obedience, from truth.
