April’s Band of the Month: Twenty One Pilots

In March, I was invited to see this month’s band in concert with a few friends. There was an extra ticket, so I jumped on the opportunity to freeload a concert. My friends wanted me there so they could convert me to actually enjoying the band. Though I did not see the light yet that night, it wasn’t long after that I was a believer in 21P’s infectious electro-pop. Below is a glance at what I experienced that night in Ft. Lauderdale.

As one might judge from the last two bands featured, Pilots is a bit of a diversion from  what I would typically consider enjoyable music. I generally lean towards more mellow sounds with acoustic textures, and it’s no stretch to say that the Ohioan’s sound is wholly opposite. Heavily influenced by white-boy suburban rap and dubstep, 21 Pilots sound is complex and varying, yet somehow their first major-label studio album “Vessel’, which I have consumed extensively, is remarkably fluid despite it’s range of moods and flavors.

Perhaps the most energizing thing about the music of 21 Pilots is the carefully fashioned and highly fashionable lyrics. Frontman Tyler Joseph frankly deals with the issues of loneliness, fear, depression, and even suicide in a way that instills hope and reason for living in a world of pain and sorrow. Joseph’s faith and reliance on the Lord comes out clear to those who are attuned to spiritual things and understand the Christian worldview, but is masterfully presented to the lost in a way that is both unashamed and uncorny.

It’s been said that of any genre, rap is best if one wants to clearly state communicate. Typical verse-chorus formatted rock, pop, and alternative are limited in the number of words and the amount of content, whereas rap and hip-hop give the artist the ability to share whole paragraphs. The most powerful and meaningful song on the album is great example of this idea.

I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire
Exhale desire
I know it’s dire
My time today

I have these thoughts
So often I ought
To replace that slot
With what I once bought
‘Cause somebody stole
My car radio
And now I just sit in silence

Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it
My pride is no longer inside
It’s on my sleeve
My skin will scream
Reminding me of
Who I killed inside my dream
I hate this car that I’m driving
There’s no hiding for me
I’m forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel

I have these thoughts
So often I ought
To replace that slot
With what I once bought
‘Cause somebody stole
My car radio
And now I just sit in silence

I ponder of something terrifying
‘Cause this time there’s no sound to hide behind
I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it’s that we’re all battling fear
Oh dear, I don’t know if we know why we’re here
Oh my,
Too deep
Please stop thinking
I liked it better when my car had sound

There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win
And fear will lose
There’s faith and there’s sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think

 

Parents might at first listen hear some things in Joseph’s lyrics that seem troubling. Multiple references to suicide and death in general could cause someone to make the judgement that 21 Pilots is like just any other pop act out there. However, after close inspection of the clearly stated values and message found within the lyrics, I would encourage parents of teens to use the Twenty One Pilots as an opportunity to deal with the issues found therein. Twenty One Pilots is a band that is talking about the issues and concerns of a very troubled generation in a way that speaks clearly to them, and that is why they are this month’s band.

On Creating Ourselves

If you work in vocational church ministry, Sundays are both your favorite and least favorite days. A blessing and curse. The blessing is that for most church workers, both paid and volunteer, Sunday is game day. A weeks worth of preparation is laid before God for His work in and through His people. You see progress. You see the reason for doing the things you do all week.

The curse is that for most, Sunday is a day of rest a relaxation. Now, I’m not complaining. And I still do get some downtime on Sunday afternoons. But most ministry workers don’t consider Sunday an off day. Instead, it’s the most physically, emotionally, and spiritually taxing day of all.

I just came back into the church building. Its quiet and ghostlike after the mornings festivities. Being in a church building when the Church is not there makes the truth that the church is the people not the building abundantly obvious. Without God’s people, the ‘church’ is lifeless. Dead. Cold. Eerie.

I came in to export the MP3 files from the sound computer so that I could upload them to the Grace Church website. I was thinking about how much I enjoyed having these tasks to do. I have been serving in the Church in some capacity for years, and that involvement to serve has grown to include more and more responsibilities and privileges. There has been a lot of growth happening in my life over the past year. I started preaching. I moved to Sebring. I got engaged. I started serving Grace Church by shooting and editing video, and continue to build a team to accomplish that. I started two part-time jobs. I thought for a second that I am really happy with how my life is going. I like who I am becoming, and who I am making myself to be. But wait. That’s not right.

Every single one of these amazing opportunities I never sought out (with the  exception of the jobs). These were all things God laid on my heart, or presented as open doors. I’m not making me. God is making me. There is a plan at work, and I’m glad of that fact, because if I had to map the way, things would be much less interesting and fulfilling.

 

I found this video last week, and it interested me for many reasons. Hank talks in it about the idea that all people are creators, which is a presupposition that I share, though our philosophical reasoning as to why that is true likely differ. God created man and women in His image, and we share the desire of our Father to create and cultivate both things and relationships. The reason creating is so very terrifying for most of us is, in my understanding of the world, because of this fact. Our soul is hardwired by our Creator to long to create, and it’s such a huge part of us and therefore of extreme value and importance to us because it’s one of the key characteristics of our Creator.

 

But its the end of the video that popped back into my train of thought earlier, when I temporarily took credit for God’s shaping of my life. I’m not denying the free will and I’m not saying that I don’t have the ability to rebel against God and His plan for my life. But I’m pretty sure that one of the most important marks of a surrendered life is the ability to see God making us into someone we were not. In a way, that’s a great definition for sanctification. Sanctification is the theological idea that God is constantly working on us, making us sanctified, or holy.

 

Ultimately, this thought process made the second half of Hank’s video make the most sense to me. Why is so incredibly terrifying to make the creation of the self? Because that is job that we stole from the Creator. We aren’t supposed to make ourself something other than God’s son or daughter. We were made to serve Him in a perfect relationship and communion with Him, our awe-inspiring, all-powerful Creator. He designed us to be designed by Him. Living outside that intended order is just like jail breaking your iPhone. It feels like freedom, but in reality you broke something intricately designed to protect you from harming yourself.

 

The Kings (and Queen) of Sibling Day

Whoever makes a living by coming up with new “Insert-reason-for-to-celebrate Day” holidays has been served well by the Internet. Pi Day is a great example of these ‘holidays’ that aren’t all that holy. The most recent of which is Siblings Day, which happens to be today. I feel personally offended that I did not receive a notice, since I have more siblings than any one of  my Facebook friends. Yeah, that’s right. I call dibs on this whole day. Me and the rest of the Sprouts should be officially the royalty of this new holiday. I feel like we have earned the honor fair and square.

 

Seriously though, being part of a family of ten is a unique experience in our day and age. My siblings and I have been given the blessing of learning a number of lessons that many should feel cheated for not receiving.

 

1. Life is not about you. There are other people who matter as much as you do on, and the sooner you learn to be patient and caring the sooner you will get ahead in this life.

 

2. Life isn’t that fun by yourself. People are a pain in the neck, but it’s best to learn to get along with people, because it’s really hard to play tackle football with yourself. Unless you are Jonathan. He’s pretty much a boss at football by himself.

 

3. You can’t get away with doing wrong. Seriously. Try. It’s much better to learn this lesson at home than to have a criminal record. It’s hard to sway the judge when there are three eye witness accounts of your hitting so-and-so with the matchbox car. Also, did that knot just appear on so-and-so’s head? Crap. You’re busted, but you learned a life lesson.

 

4. Work is what God made you for. And it’s the only way to get anywhere in life if you like things like, I dunno, food and shelter. I have brothers who have known how to make an omelet since 10. I have been able to operate a vacuum cleaner since I was tall enough to move one. Work is rewarding and necessary, and you’ll be better person for starting young.

 

5. Figure stuff out rather than waiting for someone to hold your hand through everything. Bike riding is fun, but bikes are a constant source of frustration, since they like break and stuff. We quickly learned how to set a chain that jumped. This also lead to me understanding on a commonsense level how cars, trains, and planes all work. It was either that or wait for Dad to get home, which meant no more riding today. My brother Josh was the ultimate bike mechanic; he even taught himself how to make chopper/lowrider bikes. That he painted gold. Pretty pimpin’.

 

A lot of people bemoan the fact that they didn’t grow up in the olden days of Huck Finn, but in many ways I did. We ran barefoot. We played in the stream. We had the best sledding hill in the township right off the back porch. I wouldn’t trade those days of trampolining and for anything. And they would not have been nearly as much fun without my siblings. Happy Sibling Day.

Don’t The Gospels Contradict Each Other?

I have the privilege of working at Grace Church of Sebring alongside Dr. Randall Smith. I have been spending two days a week shooting him as he leads a group of  young people through the Bible chronologically. This is a snippet from one such day, as Pastor Randy debunks a common misunderstanding concerning the Gospel accounts of Jesus life and ministry.

My Mom and the Body of Christ

I love my mother. She was wed to my father at just 19, and by 20 I came around. Eighteen months later my sister joined us. Then, not long after, my folks were surprised to find out that they weren’t just having another, but instead the arrows in the quiver would double. With the arrival of my twin brothers, my loving mother had brought four little ones to this green earth, just months before her own 25th birthday. Though the rest would not arrive at quite the same pace, my mom and dad continued to build a small army, until finally there were ten. That’s a good even number.

 

I’ve done a lot of thinking about my mom in the few months. Having moved from home, I have built a new group of friends, a few of which are young women that around about my mother’s age when she was just starting the journey of becoming mommy of ten. My fiancé is 20 years old. I didn’t know it then, I was too concerned with my own needs to see how very young my mother was. It’s odd to think that beautiful woman who fed me, cuddled with me, the one I saw as a rock and safe place, was young enough to be in my current peer group. She sure was courageous.

 

One thing that being a career mommy lends itself to is a lot of multitasking. I very clearly remember marveling at my mom’s ability to reply to emails, talk on the phone, and solve civil disputes between toddlers, and nurse a newborn simultaneously. Often the multitasking was not in the office or in the bedroom that served as Russelltown Grand Central Station (a phrase adapted from something I heard my mom say sarcastically before I ever knew what Grand Central Station was) but in the kitchen. Meals don’t make themselves, and though my mother learned over the years to save time by cooking enough food for two Russell families so a meal could be microwaved later, there was a lot of food preparation in my moms job description. All this added up to my mother gaining a reputation for lacerating her phalanges. This was a source of cruel humor for the older kids and my father, who would often take advantage of the situation and demand that someone else cut the veggies of use the potato slicer. The truth is that my mom didn’t cut and burn herself so much because she was inept; simple probability explains the phenomenon.

 

Because of my moms well-earned reputation for bleeding all over the kitchen, anytime someone cuts themselves cooking or otherwise I think of her, and I expect that to continue all my days. It happened again last night, when I cut myself in an unlikely manner at work. Leave it to the firstborn of Kristin M. Russell to find a way to cut himself on a cafe pastry case. But I did. As I used paper towels to attempt to stop the bleeding from the gaping hole where half a dimes worth of skin had been removed from my middle finger, I started to understand more clearly than ever the depth of the word picture of the Body of Christ.

 

1. When one person is hurt, the whole body feels it

It’s funny how your body reacts to wounds. First there is the adrenaline rush. Ouch… Ooo… That’s a lot of blood… Run… Paper towel… Look again… Gah, that’s deep. Things are in slow motion. Then the initial reaction dies and the stinging pain sets in. This is when the 8-year-old starts screaming like he has lost his right leg. A cut separating two small flaps of skin ignites a neuro-reaction that sends pain from your finger up your limbs. It’s hard to focus on anything but how much it hurts. You start to play games with yourself in your head, blaming yourself for being so careless. Sounds like church conflict to me.

 

When someone is hurting in your community of believers, those around them are directly effected, regardless of whether or not the wound was caused by someone in the Body or not. The pain reverberates through the members, and rubs everyone raw. We’ve all been around someone who is in a bad mood. Even if the pain is small and seems insignificant, it still is easily noticed by the rest of the body.

 

2. Dealing with the issue hurts more than ignoring it, but is absolutely necessary

It’s a weird phenomenon, and maybe I’m just a wimp, but looking at a my cut last night, even hours after the fact, sent new waves of stinging through my finger. I remember this a child too. My brothers would scrape a knee in a bike wreck, or get stung by a yellow jacket, and there would be screams heard round the neighborhood. It always went down the same way. Sting. Then screaming. Then a pause to check the damages. The glance at the white, swelling spot left by the nasty fiend, then an even louder, more prolonged scream. 

 

Dealing with conflict and wounds between believers isn’t easy. We sometimes act like conflict management should be easy and will fix the hurt immediately. That’s flatly false, but also shouldn’t prevent us from dealing with the problem head on. Pulling the stinger or the pouring the peroxide hurts like hades, but if we just ignore the problem, infection sets in. Then there is real trouble that might never heal.

 

3. If you are truly a part of the body, your job is vitally important

I never realized the importance of one little appendage until last night. After my inconvenient injury, I had to perform all the tasks of a barista without a functional right hand, since I was applying pressure to the afflicted finger, which was reluctant to cease its bleeding. I don’t know if you have ever watched a barista work, but it’s definitely a hands-on job. As I twisted and contorted myself to reach the mop around the corner close, I realized it. Take out one part, and the whole game changes. Everyone else has to pick up the slack, and things don’t ever go the way they were intended to.

 

God gave you the gifts and abilities you have for a reason; to serve Him in the context of a church. If you are trying to serve outside a church, your about as effective as a dismembered foot, and a church somewhere is without its foot. This means that if you could leave your church and no one would have to pick up your slack, you’re not really a part of the body. Get involved and find what God made you to do.

 

4. Healing is as natural as breathing

It always has fascinated me how quickly our bodies respond to crises. In just a few short hours, my body sewed together a temporary patch created by the flow of blood I worked so hard to stop. Overnight, I left it the area exposed. This led to some rude awakenings during the night, as my sleeping self quickly forgot to not grab stuff while missing part of my finger. But by the morning what was very tender flesh was a layer of nastiness that was already facilitating the regrowth and healing process. The only way for my middle finger to not heal would be for me to simply chop it off and remove it.

 

Sadly, this is what happens in churches most of the time. Rather than dealing with the pain, and letting the Body do what God created it to do, (heal) we perform a grotesque and life-altering amputation. Those who have been a part of the Body for any amount of time have likely seen this happen at least once, and understand how painful and counter-productive these things are. Don’t leave because it hurts. God made the Body to heal with time, just like He made my middle finger to fix itself.

 

 

1 Samuel 8: Being a faithful failure

Samuel was a man who served God, his family, and his people faithfully from childhood to the grave. His job wasn’t easy. The Israelites were far from the nation God intended them to be. Yet he patiently and humbly served and lead. 1 Samuel 8 tells us the story of his replacing himself. It’s a hard story, but it teaches an important truth: Success as a servant of the Most High is not measured by how things work out, but by our obedience and faithfulness to our Lord. 

 

1. Faithful leaders can’t make their kids be godly

And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba. 3 His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 

Samuel grew up in the tabernacle, and was mentored by Eli, who was taken out of leadership by God because of his inability to manage his household and raise his sons to be godly leaders to replace him. When it came time for Samuel to replace himself, his sons were not unlike Hophni and Phineas. What made Eli and Samuel different? One was a faithful leader and servant of God, one was lackadaisical and unrepentant. We are called to steward the opportunity to train up our children to the best of our ability, but we are not in the control of how our kids turn out.

 

2. Faithful leaders respond in prayer rather than react in anger

6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

 

In 1 Samuel we have consistently seen God’s people presented with a problem, and observed how they respond and or react. Samuel has faithfully turned to God in prayer during these times of testing. People who have a daily walk with God naturally turn to Him for direction in times of trouble.

It’s worth noting that it says that ‘the thing was displeasing’ to Sam. You have to realize the possibility for personal emotion response to the Israelites words. From an Earthly perspective, the Israelites are in effect calling Samuel a failure in his life’s work. Rather than reacting emotionally, he responded prayerfully.

 

3. Faithful leaders shouldn’t take failure personally

7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.

 

The conversation between Sam and His God is a beautiful one. God recognizes the emotional pain in the leader and corrects his fallen perspective. The Israelites state of mind and lack of wisdom is not his fault: he has done all God asked of him faithfully. They aren’t rejecting Sam, they are rejecting God.

Just like the situation with parenting we saw before, leaders can’t tie their worth in life to the lives of those they lead. Leaders are called to do the work God asked them to the best of their ability and leave the results to God. This means that leaders need to have incredible emotional stability that can only come from a walk with God and the transformation that comes from the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.

4. Faithful leaders communicate God’s words, not their opinions

9 Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.” 10 So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. 11 He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. 18 Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

 

God graciously gives Samuel direction, telling him to give the people what they want, but to give them a ‘solemn warning’ about the consequences of their rejection of God as their Sovereign Lord. Samuel didn’t come up with the warning on his own. It comes right from Deuteronomy 17. God already knew that the Israelites would want to be ruled by a king, and that a king would be prone to work for his own good and not for the good of the people:

 

14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16 Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

 Samuel had studied the Word and understood what was at stake. He had discernment that can only come from a life of faith, seeing things the way God sees them. Faithful leaders don’t get stumped when troublesome issues arise. They already know the wise response and can give Godly counsel.

 

5. Faithful leaders deal patiently with obstinate people

19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing. 22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and appoint them a king.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

 

Samuel was faithful to God and the Israelites in everything. He led them faithfully, teaching and judging them all his life. Here at this cross roads, He sought the will of the Lord in prayer and responded with God’s Word and Godly counsel. After all his hard work, the Israelites still rejected God’s plan for them to be ruled directly by Him. They demanded a King. Imagine the frustration and hurt in the voice of Samuel as he dismisses the men to their homes. He looks like a failure, and he most definitely feels like one.

Samuel’s story is a great reminder. We may live our whole lives in service to our God and His people, and be obedient through and through and still not see results. What we do know is that God used Samuel greatly to teach us what it looks like to honor God in tough circumstances. We also know that ultimately no earthly success will fill our heart like the reward we get in eternity.

 

March’s Band of the Month: Ray LaMontagne

 

Everyone knows the power of music to evoke feelings of reminiscence. If you are anything like me, any of the albums in your ‘collection’ remind you of a time and a place. The Fleet Foxes take me to Berkley Springs, WV, on Rte. 522, driving to or from Meredith’s parents home in Williamsburg. The Decemberists remind me of the countless rides in the GCBI van on Lakeview last winter. Needtobreathe makes me think about Jeremy Harkins. This months artist of the month takes me to such a specific spot in the timeline of my life as well.

 

A good friend of mine had a record player, and another a fresh vinyl record he got for Christmas from his brother. None of the three of us ever had heard of Ray What-his-name, even though (collectively at least) we consider ourselves fairly knowledgeable in good music. We put that thick slab of vinyl on that half-living record machine, and we’re instantly transported to New Orleans. For the next few months, we would periodically return to the same spot in the common room, Nate in his chair, Kelsey on the floor cross-legged with drawing tools all about as usual, and we would indulge ourselves on what we felt was one of the purest expressions of musical artistry we’d ever heard.

The album’s name was Gossip in the Grain, the New England natives third of four full length efforts. To this day, I have not listened to any of LaMontagne’s other three albums, and I don’t if I ever will. Gossip is complete album, consistent in sound while exploring several nuanced variants of the same feel. The piece fills a very specific place in my music rotation. It’s mellow flavor lends itself perfectly to lazy Sunday afternoons, or Saturdays that are more rainy than most. If I lived in a state where this was a likely occurrence, I would also frequently play this record when snowed in.

 

Having only listened to this singular work, I cannot truthfully describe the scope of LaMontagne’s sound. But if the rest of his works are at all similar, it would go without saying that his music is very carefully and skillfully crafted to be the perfect backdrop to his unique but powerful vocal style. Ray’s range lies in the tenor section, but one (namely myself) would at first fail to surmise as such. I’ve often put my mind to finding a vocalist to compare to such a pleasing dichotomy of throaty grit and full vibrato, but alas. You’ll have trouble deciding whether such altogether different singing makes you want to sleep, dance, or be more productive and finally finish that paper.

The instrumentation that so well accentuates the aforementioned vocals in as varied as the moods displayed throughout Gossip in the Grain.  Most tracks are strings driven, most often acoustic guitar delivered well by the frontman and song writ. The percussion section is very jazz/Motown influenced, a style feature that is occasionally filled out with a vibrant horn section that takes the more upbeat moments of Gossip in an even more interesting direction, particularly in the opening song You Are The Best Thing. There is also appearances from the slide guitar, steel guitar, banjo, and even piano, though it only appears on the hit-single track Let It Be Me.

 

The albums does a great job of keeping your full attention, taking the listener from high to low frequently. The texture of the album is a soft and thick one, each track a very uniquely crafted soundscape. However, at the end of a listen one can clearly hear that Gossip in the Grain is not a collection of works, but a completely complementary masterpiece that proves the abilities and showcases the strengths of this obscure and unnoticed artist. Even the playfully creepy track Meg White, written for and dedicated to The White Stripes drummer of the same name, fits well into the unit of the album with it’s percussive tone, as LaMontagne politely asks White if she would like to take a walk with him, or maybe ride bikes with him, down by the sea. I’m pretty sure that White’s are no longer a couple, so perhaps Ray is in luck.

The album’s lyrics are poetic and tell of the authors creativity and education. No filled words here. The content of Gossip is also very PG, the only questionable content being the exclamation ‘thrown his a** in jail’. That is unless I missed something because I was too busy enjoying the sound.

 

Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Life: “I Like What I’ve Done”

I know that God is real because He speaks to me. He doesn’t speak to me with His own voice, though I’m sure He has one. He’s talked to lots of people, I know. A few of those people wrote down what He told them, and that’s probably the most common way He speaks to me.

Sometimes God surprises me. He speaks to me in ways I don’t expect. These moments I cherish most because they catch me off guard. Like an unexpected visit from an old friend, or a thoughtful but surprising sign of affection from a lover.

I was just trying to waste some time, surfing Vimeo for some neat indie short-film. As a budding videographer, telling stories and sharing thoughts through film is something of interest to me. I was stumbling through the editor’s picks on the frontpage when I found this.

Bottled History from Smith Journal on Vimeo.

God is a Creator who made us to be creators. He has stamped His trademark on our hands and on our hearts. Creator. Cultivator. Artist. Doer. Go-getter. Achiever. Every man and every woman is a born with an innate desire to create something worthwhile, beautiful, unique, and valuable. It isn’t just a result of evolution and it’s not evidence for survival of the fittest. It’s the very fingerprint of the God that made everything we see and everything we are, looked at it satisfied and said “I like what I’ve done”.

Living in a Mobile World: A New World (Part One)

I currently reside on the peninsular sandbar known as the state of Florida. It’s a strange place when examined through the lens of history. Florida was discovered by Europeans in 1513 bySpaniard Juan Ponce de Leon. It was among the first places that European pioneers landed, which makes logical sense, since the state has more coastline than any other state in the lower forty-eight. Florida’s warm climate made it a tourism hotspot starting in the 20th century, as Americans from more chilly sections of the States ventured to escape cold winters. This was made possible by the proliferation of the automobile industry, the development of the interstate highway system, and economy stability that allowed families the luxury of vacation time. Florida’s largest economic sector is tourism, which is a strange idea, since it has only been recently that such a reality was made possible.

Though I currently live in Sebring, Florida, I was not born and raised here. I hail from the small town of Martinsburg, PA, nestled among the ridges of the Eastern edge of Pennsylvania’s stretch of the Allegheny mountains. The terrain and climate of my new home compared to my hometown could not be much different. Rock-infested yet fertile corn and hay fields cover a majority of the space surrounding my old house, while sandy scrub forest is the natural environment of Central Florida. One thing the two places have in common is cattle. Florida has long been home to a robust beef cow population, and there are many dozen mid-sized dairy farms in the Blair-Bedford county area where I grew up.

Sebring is 1,100 miles from Martinsburg. My fiancé, who understands being mobile to an even greater extent than I, plans to move to Sebring next summer following our long-awaited wedding. She will be 850 miles from her parents, who currently reside in Williamsburg, Virginia. In days gone by, us living such a long distance from family would mean both of our extended families could potentially never see us again, since travel was so time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. Now, we will still have the ability to visit family over holidays or during the summer, potentially multiple times a year, even though we will likely have an average income. Travel is no longer seen as a luxury in our view. Instead, it has become something of an entitlement.

According to the US Census Bureau website, 6.7 million Americans moved to a different state in the year 2010. Florida’s moving population caught me off guard when I moved here a year and a half ago. When you meet someone you don’t know in Sebring, you ask them where they are from originally. As a general rule, you are more likely to meet people who have moved to Highlands county from out-of-state, or at least from elsewhere in Florida, than someone who is born and raised here. This seemed odd, because it’s rare to run into anyone in my hometown you don’t already know, not to mention someone who has moved to Martinsburg from elsewhere. In Martinsburg we talk about the weather, not our place of origination. Small talk is a strange thing.

Florida is odd for many reasons, one being its general geographical isolation. Most of Florida’s population lives either along the Atlantic coast, in places like Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Daytona, Melbourne, West Palm Beach, and Miami, or in the outliers, Orlando and Tampa. The rest of the state is generally unpopulated. North of Tampa, there isn’t much but coastline and National parks up the Western Coast. Sebring lies on the edge of the population center of Central Florida. US Route 27 runs a north-to-south course from Haines City, just miles from Disney Land in Orlando, through the Everglades almost all the way to Miami. Sebring is pretty much the last stop of consequence before the long stretch of road to Miami. The only thing in Central Florida further south than Sebring is Okeechobee. Both Sebring and Okeechobee largely own their existence to 55-and-over retirees, who love Florida’s tropical climate but would rather avoid the manic tourism found in larger towns like Sarasota.

Life in Central Florida as it is known by myself and the nearly hundred-thousand others that call Highlands county home was impossible just one-hundred fifty years ago. Florida’s sandy ground isn’t good for growing much more than oranges and beef cows, so our food comes from hundreds of miles away. Also, it’s unlikely that I would have ever been to Sebring if it was not for the technologies of the modern transportation that allow me to live and work here, yet still have the opportunity to see loved ones.

We live in a truly fascinating and altogether different period of human history. The opportunities that I will have in my lifetime to see, experience, and change the world I live in are vastly more than any other generation prior. However, along with multiplied potential gains come multiplied potential risks. Living life in the modern age is more complicated, busy, and confusing than any other time period. It’s difficult to gain equilibrium, because the rules of engagement change constantly. Family has changed because of wavering social issues and relative morality. Community has changed because family has changed, and because people come and go from place to place faster and more frequently than ever before.

I hope to write a series of posts discussing the pros and cons of living in the age we live in, and also, since I am a person of faith, discuss specifically how our mobile world affects the life of Christians and the Church. Feel free to post comments and share your own experiences and thoughts.

February’s Band of the Month: The Lumineers

I was recently enjoying the company of some friends. In the background played Pandora Radio, which was serenading us with some classic tunes from the American legend, Johnny Cash. Ryan, a music enthusiast with little musical talent (this sounds mean, but he’d be the first to tell you that fact) asked, “This might sound stupid, but isn’t Cash’s stuff really simple?”. Ryan’s observation was dead on. “The Man in Black” had a sound that was incredibly stripped down and simplistic, yet he is revered as one of the pioneers of modern music. The lesson is this. People aren’t always looking for the complicated and majestic. Sometimes, it’s the simple that sells.

One of the premier up-and-coming artists in the music industry today is the Denver-based Americana-folk act The Lumineers. The newest act in a growing list of new folk acts, a movement that has been coming up through the indie scene for years and has only recently been brought under the radar of most by acts like Mumford and Sons, feature alternatively acoustic and percussive sound that is both lighthearted and reflective. With just one studio release, the band made its Grammy Award debut, and appear to be following the footsteps of the aforementioned Mumford, who became a household name because of a in-show performance at last years Grammy’s. Though either band failed to bring home a Grammy their first night, the growing popularity of The Lumineers self-titled release is illustrated in that fact that it is number 5 on iTunes “Popular Albums” category, the highest ranking of any Grammy-nominated artist.

The band is most recognized for its hit single, Ho Hey, which has only grown in popularity since arriving on Billboard charts in June of last year. The album, however, has much more to offer than the single. Opening with the romance-themed “Flowers in Your Hair”, “Classy Girl”, and “Dead Sea”, the album seems at first to be one-sided, with peppy melodies featuring the wide range of tones of Jersey-born front man Wesley Shultz. The album “Slow It Down” and “Stubborn Love” continue the lyrical theme of girls and relationships, but gives the listener some tonal variety, as they both showcase the cello work of Neyla Pekarek. The poetic focus of the band also takes a turn in latter songs of the relatively short release with “Charlie Boy”, a song about Shultz’s great-uncle, and “Big Parade”, a track that celebrates American life. “Flapper Girl” is a twenties-themed track, complete with antique sounding post production.

One of the most enjoyable things about the band’s music is its impressive lack of questionable content. Besides the choral line of track two “Classy girls don’t kiss in bars, you fool!”, there’s not anything in the rest of the album that would give it rating higher than PG. There’s not one expletive in the album’s entirety, and though the lyrics do occasionally contain ‘suggestive’ material, I appreciate their efforts to keep things tame, especially when one considers  the filth that gets aired on most mainstream radio stations.

The Lumineers are a great easy listen, perfect for listening to while studying or working, not to mention they make great road trip music. If there is any disappointment to be found, it’s the fact that the albums play time is a meager 42 minutes. Don’t worry. This issue is quickly remedied by playing it again. The musical concept of the album is a unique one, but there are comparisons to be made. The use of a cello in a folk rock band has been pioneered by the Carolina-based Avett Bros., though the sweeping tones delivered resemble more closely the classics than the high energy ones found on most Bros. tracks. Perhaps the most curious facet of their sound is a general lack of percussion, as Jeremiah Fraites strategically inserts tambourine and marching band bass drum, almost entirely ignoring the typical jazz drum set. Most tracks on the album are not heavily layered, particularly during the first verse. They often do build into more complicated pieces, featuring piano, guitar, cello, and drums. They also frequently use choir-esque groups singing oh’s, or simply yelling “Hey…. ho…. hey”.

When it’s all said and done, the Lumineers have successfully delivered a new look on some old musical ideas in an accessible and enjoyable way. I think there is something interesting to be said about the rebirth of old-thyme Americana music, not just in bands like the Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, or the Avett Brothers, but in the renewed interest in acts of old like Johnny Cash. I think modern music, and beyond that modern life, has gotten too noisy and too complicated. The Lumineers bring you back to a time you never saw, when we were still awed by the idea of a man on the moon. That’s why they are February’s Band of the Month.

In an effort to create more consist content, and to stretch my writing muscles beyond the realms of Bible teaching and sermon writing, I’ve decided to start a series called ‘Band of the Month’. At the end of each month, I will feature a new favorite artist of mine, introduce you to them in hopes you will enjoy their work as much as I have.