Recently I've been asking the Lord kind of a strange question: "God, what do I like to do?"
I realize that might sound a little bit crazy, but the fact of the matter is that I've spent a lot of time worrying about what everyone else thinks and what they like me to do and be. So much, in fact, that I had actually lost sight of what I myself actually like to do. I know I talked a bit about this in a previous entry, but I've been trying to figure out what I actually care about as part of discovering my identity.
See, what I'm guessing is that the things I care really deeply about are things that God has placed in me for a reason, things he wants me to do something with. The part I'm still learning about is slicing through the fallen brokenness on top of all those things in order to find what's underneath.
Anyway, one of the things God has shown me that I really like to do and care about is music. That is a pretty broad category, but I still think that's the best way for me to put it. I love listening to almost all music, and I also like making music in any possible way. I have a song in my head constantly (although I unfortunately have no control over which one it is at any given moment), and I'm always humming, whistling, singing, playing or making a beat to something! So, I think God has given me this passion to glorify him.
The most obvious expression of that passion in action would be worship, which is a great way that I can use music for God's glory. I don't think worship is limited to my own singing or playing, though, which got me thinking about my music collection. I've noticed for awhile now that the idea of streetlights is a theme in the music I like to listen to, so I started looking through my library for any song that has to do with that. I found more than I was even expecting! Therefore, I'm pleased to announce and share with you my Streetlights playlist. All these songs either talk directly about streetlights (i.e. use that specific word) or otherwise remind me of Ephesians 5:8-14, my theme verse for this blog (and life in general really-- see first entry). Here it is:
1. Work: Jars of Clay
2. Sleeping In: Nevertheless
3. Illuminate: Project 86
4. Far & Gone: Day of Fire
5. Serial Sleepers: House of Heroes
6. Oh! Gravity: Switchfoot
7. Turn On the Lights: Sanctus Real
8. Shine With Me: P.O.D.
9. Sandbox Praise: Pax217
10. Burn For You: TobyMac (feat. Double Dutch)
11. Murexa: Falling Up
12. Shine: Newsboys
13. Sleeper: Everyday Sunday
14. I Need Love: Sixpence None the Richer
15. In the Light: dc Talk
16. Broken: Lifehouse
17. Light Up Ahead: Further Seems Forever
18. This Love: Stavesacre
I'm actually listening to this playlist as I write this, and it really encourages me, so I hope it can do the same for you. As it turns out, this playlist is almost exactly one 70 minute CD worth of fantastic music. If anyone is interested in hearing it, I would be glad to burn you a CD (which, by the way, is actually legal if it has no more than one song from any album. Record labels see it as free advertising rather than a copyright violation! And trust me, once you hear this music, you'll be interested in buying more of these artists' stuff). Also, I'm sure many of these songs can be viewed/listened to on Youtube, so check some of them out!
I'll finish with one more verse that has to do with the streetlight call. This verse seems to run through all the songs here as well, and it has inspired me for many years, since even before I thought about the idea of streetlights. Matthew 5:14-16-- "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
So it all comes back to worship in the end. Really, that right there is who I am, and who you are. Let that be my song.
Showing posts with label Stavesacre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stavesacre. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Bubble
These are some of Jesus' words on the challenge of being a light in the darkness, which he prayed to his Father for us in anticipation of the problems his streetlights would face:
Have you ever noticed how Christians have their own little set of catchphrases that we throw around like so many theological frisbees? You know, those little buzzwords that we've used so much that we don't even quite think about their meaning anymore but just assume that other Christians will understand? The ones that make people who aren't Christians go "I'm sorry, what now?" Well, This passage is probably the origin of the Christianese saying that we should be "in the world, but not of it."
But, before I go any further, I henceforth move that people who are trying to be streetlights avoid speaking Christianese at all costs, because of two main problems with it:
1.) It makes non-Christians, the very people we want to serve, love and share truth with the most, think we're crazy and want nothing to do with us and our elitist lingo.
2.) These trite little sayings dramatically minimize the true power and worth of the Bible, and also of our calling. This passage is a prime example of that.
Take a look at it: our little catch phrase version of this passage can only tell us that we find ourselves in this place that we don't really belong, so we should live here without letting the sins and customs of the world stain us and hinder our purposes. Not only does this shallowness not even begin to cover the heart of the passage, it also perpetuates what is probably the single biggest shortcoming of the Christian church today, a phenomenon I like to call the Christian Bubble.
This bubble mentality comes, as far as I can tell, from a line of thinking something like this: Well, we aren't supposed to be of the world, but we can't get out of it. So, maybe the best way to do that is to insulate ourselves from it. We'll form a protective shell around ourselves made out of catchphrases and exclusively "Christian" products so that no one else can relate to us. That way, we can interact only with other Christians and not be somehow tainted by the affairs of the world.
As my sarcasm should surely indicate, I think this way of living is ridiculous and completely unscriptural (although, unfortunately, all too easy to fall into). Look again and see what the scripture above actually says for us to do. Jesus could easily have prayed for God to actually take Christians out of the world, but he specifically did NOT do that. He wants us here. Why? Because of the message of good news we're supposed to be bringing (which it says two verses later than where I stopped quoting in that passage above).
Further, who is supposed to be protecting us from the world? Not us, with our walls and insulatory bubble. Jesus prays that God the Father would do the protecting! Why fear being tainted? If we go with the right heart, the protection is already provided. I don't know exactly why Christians treat people who don't believe in Jesus like they're carrying some kind of deadly contagion, but it has to stop. How can we love people if we're afraid of them?
Speaking of love, how does that passage say that we are sent? Exactly like the Father sent Jesus! First off, that's really encouraging, that we're privileged to share his message. But, it's also quite the challenge, because how did Jesus relate with the world? If you're thinking he loved it and served it, you're right because Jesus loved to get in the middle of people's lives with his radical kindness and relate to them right where they were. Still, that doesn't quite cover it. To really be sent into the world like Jesus was, as this verse commands, means we lay down our lives for it in order to bring people to God. Jesus was completely spent on this mission, and that is our call as well. Sounds a little different than just "in, not of," no?
Side tangent: Unfortunately what the Christian community has been doing instead of spending itself in love and pursuit of the people God calls them to reach is insulating itself. Heaven forbid that we listen to and like the same music as people "of the world." Why do that when we can make a lower quality, dumbed down version of the same product and then market it only to ourselves, since there's so many of us? And why stop at music! We can do this with movies, books, toys, t-shirts, etc. etc.... the possibilities are endless. Why would we need to be conversant with the mainstream culture that is all people we need to love will know?
Funny thing about that way of thinking and marketing is, it takes the world's stuff, then modifies it (usually making it worse) and takes it away to its own little protected zone. That's being of the world, but not in it, the exact opposite of what the strategy is supposed to be doing!
This is the Christian Bubble. And as it relates to Cleveland specifically, its line of thinking continues by saying, "why live in the city where the actual problems are, when we can settle in the suburbs and fence ourselves into a gated community?" See how the insulation works? Now, I'm not saying everyone has to live within the city limits to serve God, just that suburbia provides a perfect layer of insulation from the world for people looking for one. In reality, the suburbs have plenty of problems that Christians living there could address too if they were living like Jesus sent them to live. I mean, where do you think city drug dealers make their biggest sales? (If you don't know, the answer is to rich kids from the suburbs.) The suburbs just hide their problems better.
Anyway, all of that was kind of an extended sidebar to the main point. I don't mean to be a downer, even though I am a touch cynical and angry about all this. The truth is, Jesus has promised us the most fulfilling life imaginable in taking his message to the world, not in avoiding it.
Incidentally, that's the reason I like Stavesacre, my favorite band in the world (http://www.stavesacre.com/). All the members of the band are Christians, but they rebel against the Christian bubble and take their music to secular locations and just rock it out. They make a quality product that offends some Christians, but they don't seem to care. They're calling people to more than the bubble. Their song "It's Beautiful Once You're Out Here" (video available on Youtube) is about this, as is another older song, "Sundown Motel." I'll quote from that one to finish off this entry:
Turns out that the call of the streetlight is for Christians and non-Christians alike: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." I mean, a streetlight, by definition, brings light where? Not in some little protective covering placed around it, but in the streets.
We've been in a bubble far too long. But some of us are starting to break out...
"I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." (John 17:14-18)
Have you ever noticed how Christians have their own little set of catchphrases that we throw around like so many theological frisbees? You know, those little buzzwords that we've used so much that we don't even quite think about their meaning anymore but just assume that other Christians will understand? The ones that make people who aren't Christians go "I'm sorry, what now?" Well, This passage is probably the origin of the Christianese saying that we should be "in the world, but not of it."
But, before I go any further, I henceforth move that people who are trying to be streetlights avoid speaking Christianese at all costs, because of two main problems with it:
1.) It makes non-Christians, the very people we want to serve, love and share truth with the most, think we're crazy and want nothing to do with us and our elitist lingo.
2.) These trite little sayings dramatically minimize the true power and worth of the Bible, and also of our calling. This passage is a prime example of that.
Take a look at it: our little catch phrase version of this passage can only tell us that we find ourselves in this place that we don't really belong, so we should live here without letting the sins and customs of the world stain us and hinder our purposes. Not only does this shallowness not even begin to cover the heart of the passage, it also perpetuates what is probably the single biggest shortcoming of the Christian church today, a phenomenon I like to call the Christian Bubble.
This bubble mentality comes, as far as I can tell, from a line of thinking something like this: Well, we aren't supposed to be of the world, but we can't get out of it. So, maybe the best way to do that is to insulate ourselves from it. We'll form a protective shell around ourselves made out of catchphrases and exclusively "Christian" products so that no one else can relate to us. That way, we can interact only with other Christians and not be somehow tainted by the affairs of the world.
As my sarcasm should surely indicate, I think this way of living is ridiculous and completely unscriptural (although, unfortunately, all too easy to fall into). Look again and see what the scripture above actually says for us to do. Jesus could easily have prayed for God to actually take Christians out of the world, but he specifically did NOT do that. He wants us here. Why? Because of the message of good news we're supposed to be bringing (which it says two verses later than where I stopped quoting in that passage above).
Further, who is supposed to be protecting us from the world? Not us, with our walls and insulatory bubble. Jesus prays that God the Father would do the protecting! Why fear being tainted? If we go with the right heart, the protection is already provided. I don't know exactly why Christians treat people who don't believe in Jesus like they're carrying some kind of deadly contagion, but it has to stop. How can we love people if we're afraid of them?
Speaking of love, how does that passage say that we are sent? Exactly like the Father sent Jesus! First off, that's really encouraging, that we're privileged to share his message. But, it's also quite the challenge, because how did Jesus relate with the world? If you're thinking he loved it and served it, you're right because Jesus loved to get in the middle of people's lives with his radical kindness and relate to them right where they were. Still, that doesn't quite cover it. To really be sent into the world like Jesus was, as this verse commands, means we lay down our lives for it in order to bring people to God. Jesus was completely spent on this mission, and that is our call as well. Sounds a little different than just "in, not of," no?
Side tangent: Unfortunately what the Christian community has been doing instead of spending itself in love and pursuit of the people God calls them to reach is insulating itself. Heaven forbid that we listen to and like the same music as people "of the world." Why do that when we can make a lower quality, dumbed down version of the same product and then market it only to ourselves, since there's so many of us? And why stop at music! We can do this with movies, books, toys, t-shirts, etc. etc.... the possibilities are endless. Why would we need to be conversant with the mainstream culture that is all people we need to love will know?
Funny thing about that way of thinking and marketing is, it takes the world's stuff, then modifies it (usually making it worse) and takes it away to its own little protected zone. That's being of the world, but not in it, the exact opposite of what the strategy is supposed to be doing!
This is the Christian Bubble. And as it relates to Cleveland specifically, its line of thinking continues by saying, "why live in the city where the actual problems are, when we can settle in the suburbs and fence ourselves into a gated community?" See how the insulation works? Now, I'm not saying everyone has to live within the city limits to serve God, just that suburbia provides a perfect layer of insulation from the world for people looking for one. In reality, the suburbs have plenty of problems that Christians living there could address too if they were living like Jesus sent them to live. I mean, where do you think city drug dealers make their biggest sales? (If you don't know, the answer is to rich kids from the suburbs.) The suburbs just hide their problems better.
Anyway, all of that was kind of an extended sidebar to the main point. I don't mean to be a downer, even though I am a touch cynical and angry about all this. The truth is, Jesus has promised us the most fulfilling life imaginable in taking his message to the world, not in avoiding it.
Incidentally, that's the reason I like Stavesacre, my favorite band in the world (http://www.stavesacre.com/). All the members of the band are Christians, but they rebel against the Christian bubble and take their music to secular locations and just rock it out. They make a quality product that offends some Christians, but they don't seem to care. They're calling people to more than the bubble. Their song "It's Beautiful Once You're Out Here" (video available on Youtube) is about this, as is another older song, "Sundown Motel." I'll quote from that one to finish off this entry:
I don't believe this is what God ever intended, so I think it's time to go... The sun is going down, I say we follow it out of town, We've been here for far too long... and in the morning, when it rises, maybe it will shine for us...
Turns out that the call of the streetlight is for Christians and non-Christians alike: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." I mean, a streetlight, by definition, brings light where? Not in some little protective covering placed around it, but in the streets.
We've been in a bubble far too long. But some of us are starting to break out...
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