I have officially seen it all! This video that my friend from Regent sent me takes the cake on cheesy videos. If you know the lyrics to the song, it only makes it that much worse. I was really hoping that this guy wasn't for real, but I found out that he has a website. Please forgive me for putting something so off the charts ridiculous on my blog, but it almost serves a good warning for Christians in the music industry! And as always, enjoy!
Baby Got Book
Monday, March 21, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
.: crazier things have happened :.
Maybe I am the last to find this out, but I heard this weekend (and confirmed this morning) that the guitarist for Korn just recently rededicated his life to Christ. I continue to be amazed at how God is at work in the lives of even those whom we would figure to have absolutely no real feelings about Christ outside of total cynicism. We so often hear such stories, and many all around me tend to discount such "spotlight conversions", but I hope that this story continues to offer such hope to those of us who see none for those who serve in the limelight.
Friday, March 18, 2005
.: the luckiest person in the world :.
You are officially looking... errr... listening... to the luckiest person in the entire world! Yesterday, my best friend Dan Franklin emailed me the greatest (personal) news of 2005 so far...
I HAVE A TICKET TO THE U2 SHOW IN PORTLAND!!!
Now, before you start trying to track down my phone number in Canada to congradulate me, the show isn't until December 19th. But you won't hear me complaining! This literally feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. Most people only dream of going to see a band so great (yes, Mr. Mueller, there is in fact a band as great - if not greater - than the Beatles!). And in Portland... IN PORTLAND! Okay, so maybe Portland isn't the greatest aspect of the concert (outside of the fact that it will be the last stop of their world tour, which means that they are going to give it everything they've got)... but I cannot believe that I am going to have the opportunity to see the single greatest band of my generation (are they even a part of my generation? Joshua Tree tour was around 88, when I was 11. Sure, I guess so!) with my best friend. This may in fact make up for how Dan and I missed out on seeing the Counting Crows at the Gorge a couple years back. This whole thing was truly death of a vision as we had been planning to get tickets for the Seattle venue... which sold out in a matter of minutes (darn U2 members!). But lo and behold, I am part of the mass that has been blessed by this recently noted concert towards the end of their Vertigo tour. I am freaking out, just thinking of how many memories I am going to have from this show. I love music... I love concerts... and I absolutely love U2! So I already know that this is going to be one for the (personal) history books.
I HAVE A TICKET TO THE U2 SHOW IN PORTLAND!!!
Now, before you start trying to track down my phone number in Canada to congradulate me, the show isn't until December 19th. But you won't hear me complaining! This literally feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. Most people only dream of going to see a band so great (yes, Mr. Mueller, there is in fact a band as great - if not greater - than the Beatles!). And in Portland... IN PORTLAND! Okay, so maybe Portland isn't the greatest aspect of the concert (outside of the fact that it will be the last stop of their world tour, which means that they are going to give it everything they've got)... but I cannot believe that I am going to have the opportunity to see the single greatest band of my generation (are they even a part of my generation? Joshua Tree tour was around 88, when I was 11. Sure, I guess so!) with my best friend. This may in fact make up for how Dan and I missed out on seeing the Counting Crows at the Gorge a couple years back. This whole thing was truly death of a vision as we had been planning to get tickets for the Seattle venue... which sold out in a matter of minutes (darn U2 members!). But lo and behold, I am part of the mass that has been blessed by this recently noted concert towards the end of their Vertigo tour. I am freaking out, just thinking of how many memories I am going to have from this show. I love music... I love concerts... and I absolutely love U2! So I already know that this is going to be one for the (personal) history books.
Monday, March 14, 2005
.: the big two-eight :.
Today is my day! The day that I celebrate my 28th birthday. Dang, I am getting old. (I really just said that to make you truly "older" people shake your head and feel worse... LOL!) I had an brief discussion with my mother this morning about how birthdays from here on out (actually even as far back as my 25th) only get more depressing and anti-climactic. I am experiencing a touch of that today. About the only things that I have done so far exciting are that I went for a walk around my old neighborhood with my parents, ate dessert for breakfast, and received serenades from various relatives. There are nice meals in store for me today, but no real parties (outside of the one I had yesterday with the Mueller's). I have yet to receive a gift but I guess they will all appear tonight at our fancy dinner in Bellingham.
What does it feel like to be 28? Exciting... because I still have so much life to live (granted I do in fact live to be old, I mean really old). A mystery... because I have no idea where I will be a year from now (which for the most part is full of expectation and freedom to blaze new paths, or enter into different journeys through unexpected situations). Thought-provoking... because the large parties I used to throw on these days have officially become a thing of the past. The friends that I used to celebrate with are scattered and silent. To be honest, I am one of those people who longs for this day to come... only to, when the day finally arrives, flop down in a chair and turn on the TV in the middle of the afternoon, wondering what I could do to celebrate by myself (everyone is either busy, at work, or away, so my options are limited). I mean, after all, how many places still give away free stuff on birthdays? Really, only restaurants... and a brotha can only eat so much grub on his one day in order to scam the food industry!
There is a party with my Regent friends planned for this Wednesday (thanks to my good friend, Wendy) back up in Vancouver (I am home for this special weekend), so I am sure that will be closer to the sort of thing I was anticipating for today. But for the most part, this day is an internal rejoicing of how exciting it is to be alive, and an opportunity to be with close friends and family, as well as take in what it means to be at this age and be where I am today...
But decorated gifts and good food are always fun to take part in too!
What does it feel like to be 28? Exciting... because I still have so much life to live (granted I do in fact live to be old, I mean really old). A mystery... because I have no idea where I will be a year from now (which for the most part is full of expectation and freedom to blaze new paths, or enter into different journeys through unexpected situations). Thought-provoking... because the large parties I used to throw on these days have officially become a thing of the past. The friends that I used to celebrate with are scattered and silent. To be honest, I am one of those people who longs for this day to come... only to, when the day finally arrives, flop down in a chair and turn on the TV in the middle of the afternoon, wondering what I could do to celebrate by myself (everyone is either busy, at work, or away, so my options are limited). I mean, after all, how many places still give away free stuff on birthdays? Really, only restaurants... and a brotha can only eat so much grub on his one day in order to scam the food industry!
There is a party with my Regent friends planned for this Wednesday (thanks to my good friend, Wendy) back up in Vancouver (I am home for this special weekend), so I am sure that will be closer to the sort of thing I was anticipating for today. But for the most part, this day is an internal rejoicing of how exciting it is to be alive, and an opportunity to be with close friends and family, as well as take in what it means to be at this age and be where I am today...
But decorated gifts and good food are always fun to take part in too!
Sunday, March 13, 2005
.: a great loss :.
I received word from a pastor friend last night that Stanley Grenz died yesterday after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. Words cannot even begin to describe what a tremendous loss this is to his family, the schools he was involved in (Regent being one that heavily felt his influence), the Body of Christ, and the world at large. In my own world, I never had the opportunity to meet him, though he was a regular part of the background atmosphere at one of the pancake places I frequently ate at for the past year. He will no longer be a part of that, and in a little way, that place will not be the same without him. Regent College will not be the same without him. Vancouver will lose out on his continuing impact as he offered up until this weekend. We have lost a good man... who in turn is now receiving his reward for having served faithfully and demonstrated a love for Christ that was exemplary. May his legacy echo on as we follow the roads that he helped to blaze!
Monday, March 7, 2005
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
.: an open letter :.
This is an open letter to all involved:
To those of you who fit the mold...
I think we have come to a place where we need to make a change.
I think we have officially reached a place where our past thinking is proving faulty.
I think we have finally arrived at a place where we need to rethink our strategies.
(Just the fact that we consider them "strategies" leaves something to be desired and possibly realized.)
We just are not having the impact upon those whose lives we are attempting to speak into that we all had been subtly hoping for.
We are making some grave mistakes and they are costing us in some tragic ways.
This thinking that truth apart from love is an effective method has come to a point where more harm than good is coming about.
This thinking that we must confront people with the nature of their own lives is missing the point of what Christ truly called us to.
This thinking that we can get away with classifying people, with categorizing them and treating them in accordance with the way that we have been taught to do, is coming up severely short.
We have grown to become people who refuse to treat everyone - especially those of unlike belief - as real people... as members of shared humanity.
We have become the types of people who refuse conversations about life and force ourselves, and our agendas, into other people's lives in abrasive, confrontational ways...
...and it just is not working as well as we had all hoped.
We are losing our voice in our culture.
We are losing our voice in our communities.
We are losing our voice with those whom we once took part in life together with.
And we are losing our voice with those who need to hear the words that Christ longs to speak through us, simply because we feel the need to confront people with our judgment of them and label them as something less than fully human (and all that that entails).
Maybe we have already lost our voice all together.
So maybe now would be a good time to begin to see things for what they are... to see people as who they are... and maybe we need to draw a line and start all over again.
And if we are brave enough to do so, maybe we can begin by simply allowing love to play a significant part in our relationships with the rest of the world.
I know that so many of us equate the love of Christ with megaphones and pamphlets and fingers in other people's faces... but I fear that we are desperately missing the point of what it means to let God use us in the context of healthy relationships with others.
For where is any health to be found in severing all ties with someone when they refuse to see our side of things?
Where is health to be found in making their conversion as the primary goal, and refusing to barge from that objective to simply speak to other honest areas of life and love?
How healthy is it for us to draw sides and expel people from sharing anything common with us simply because their view of God is radically different from our own?
I know we have grown to associate Christianity with confrontation, and in a way this is an important role that we are to play in our darkening culture and society.
But we are sacrificing our ability to make a lasting impact upon others on the altar of being doctrinally right.
It is as if we are washing our hands in the bloody mess that we make of so many of our relationships in such a way as to imply innocence of their blood on account of our having told them as we see it to be in their lives.
Friends... this is just not working!
We are turning the very people we are called to love away from Christ because we are demonstrating one characteristic we see of Christ in the Scriptures (that of confrontation) apart from others that are just as necessary (such as compassion, brokenness, grace, and transparency).
And I fear that we are choosing to do so because it is the one act that requires so little energy, wisdom, or discretion.
How easy is it for us to emphasize how wrong someone is in contrast to what we deem as "right"? (Pretty easy... for it requires little to no discretion or compassion.)
How much harder is it for us to enter into their lives with no hidden agendas, expect for the boldest of intentions to love them with honest, heart-felt compassion and desire (that being, the desire for them to be free and whole - not just to believe the "right things")?
Much harder... for it requires that we enter into the life of another in a powerful way.
But who of us were ever taught in our churches or at our Bible colleges to do something such as that?
(The answer to that may just lie at the heart of what I am trying to get at through these words.)
I doubt that many of us have ears to hear... and for the most part, we will continue on in the ways that we have been trained to think and act.
So that in the end, yes, we are proven right (in so far as we feel justified in our own hearts and minds for having stated our case with them)...
But no one chose to listen to us because of the way that we conducted ourselves in their lives...
Because of the ways that we dealt with their hearts and souls.
Just a thought... stirring deeply within my heart.
Dave Mc
To those of you who fit the mold...
I think we have come to a place where we need to make a change.
I think we have officially reached a place where our past thinking is proving faulty.
I think we have finally arrived at a place where we need to rethink our strategies.
(Just the fact that we consider them "strategies" leaves something to be desired and possibly realized.)
We just are not having the impact upon those whose lives we are attempting to speak into that we all had been subtly hoping for.
We are making some grave mistakes and they are costing us in some tragic ways.
This thinking that truth apart from love is an effective method has come to a point where more harm than good is coming about.
This thinking that we must confront people with the nature of their own lives is missing the point of what Christ truly called us to.
This thinking that we can get away with classifying people, with categorizing them and treating them in accordance with the way that we have been taught to do, is coming up severely short.
We have grown to become people who refuse to treat everyone - especially those of unlike belief - as real people... as members of shared humanity.
We have become the types of people who refuse conversations about life and force ourselves, and our agendas, into other people's lives in abrasive, confrontational ways...
...and it just is not working as well as we had all hoped.
We are losing our voice in our culture.
We are losing our voice in our communities.
We are losing our voice with those whom we once took part in life together with.
And we are losing our voice with those who need to hear the words that Christ longs to speak through us, simply because we feel the need to confront people with our judgment of them and label them as something less than fully human (and all that that entails).
Maybe we have already lost our voice all together.
So maybe now would be a good time to begin to see things for what they are... to see people as who they are... and maybe we need to draw a line and start all over again.
And if we are brave enough to do so, maybe we can begin by simply allowing love to play a significant part in our relationships with the rest of the world.
I know that so many of us equate the love of Christ with megaphones and pamphlets and fingers in other people's faces... but I fear that we are desperately missing the point of what it means to let God use us in the context of healthy relationships with others.
For where is any health to be found in severing all ties with someone when they refuse to see our side of things?
Where is health to be found in making their conversion as the primary goal, and refusing to barge from that objective to simply speak to other honest areas of life and love?
How healthy is it for us to draw sides and expel people from sharing anything common with us simply because their view of God is radically different from our own?
I know we have grown to associate Christianity with confrontation, and in a way this is an important role that we are to play in our darkening culture and society.
But we are sacrificing our ability to make a lasting impact upon others on the altar of being doctrinally right.
It is as if we are washing our hands in the bloody mess that we make of so many of our relationships in such a way as to imply innocence of their blood on account of our having told them as we see it to be in their lives.
Friends... this is just not working!
We are turning the very people we are called to love away from Christ because we are demonstrating one characteristic we see of Christ in the Scriptures (that of confrontation) apart from others that are just as necessary (such as compassion, brokenness, grace, and transparency).
And I fear that we are choosing to do so because it is the one act that requires so little energy, wisdom, or discretion.
How easy is it for us to emphasize how wrong someone is in contrast to what we deem as "right"? (Pretty easy... for it requires little to no discretion or compassion.)
How much harder is it for us to enter into their lives with no hidden agendas, expect for the boldest of intentions to love them with honest, heart-felt compassion and desire (that being, the desire for them to be free and whole - not just to believe the "right things")?
Much harder... for it requires that we enter into the life of another in a powerful way.
But who of us were ever taught in our churches or at our Bible colleges to do something such as that?
(The answer to that may just lie at the heart of what I am trying to get at through these words.)
I doubt that many of us have ears to hear... and for the most part, we will continue on in the ways that we have been trained to think and act.
So that in the end, yes, we are proven right (in so far as we feel justified in our own hearts and minds for having stated our case with them)...
But no one chose to listen to us because of the way that we conducted ourselves in their lives...
Because of the ways that we dealt with their hearts and souls.
Just a thought... stirring deeply within my heart.
Dave Mc
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