Category: misc

Hope for a Tree Cut Down :: Given

The Church of the Beloved is offering a new album available for free download. I’m really digging it this morning. A great sound and great lyrics.

From the church’s website ::

The book of Job is the oldest book of Scripture and it asks one of the oldest questions, ‘Is there hope?’

‘Is there hope for a tree cut down? …Yes. At the mere scent of water it will bud and grow green shoots.’

That is what we are discovering together at Church of the Beloved – a hope. Hope that something new is beginning that has very old roots. Hope that God is growing life out of our devastation, trust out of our cynicism, love out of our fear, community out of our isolation…. And that’s what this album is about – fumbling into God’s grace. It is a seismic and humble shift when our heart can hear the words that God has been saying to us for all our lives, ‘…nothing can separate you from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus’. These songs say ‘Yes’ to God’s claim upon your life that, ‘You are my Beloved.’”

Here are the lyrics to their song “Given”:

We may be little, insignificant in the eyes of this world,
but when we realize that God has sent us to the world as blessed
our lives will multiply and grow to fill the needs of others.
Our gift is not what we can do but who we are.

Who can we be for each other?
Who can we be for the world?
Who can we be for each other?
Lord, who can we be?

How different would our lives be if we believed every single gesture
every act of faith or love or joy or peace or word of forgiveness
would multiply as long as there are people to receive it.
Our gift is not what we can do but who we are.

We are given. We are given. We are given.
(We are given. Our gift is who we are. It’s who we are!)
Our gift is not what we can do but who we are.

Check out the album lyrics and download your own copy of the music :: http://belovedschurch.org/hope/

The Wanderer

Bono

Back in the early 1990’s my friends turned me on to the music of U2. It was right before the release of their album Achtung Baby. In fact the first CD I ever bought was U2’s One single, followed soon by the Achtung Baby album.

As I came to learn more and more about the band I was even more intrigued by the suggestions that they might be a “Christian band.” The continual argument against their “conversion” was the rock lifestyle they led and the fact that they wrote and sang lyrics that often talked just as much about doubting their faith as accepting what God was doing in the world around them.

I’ve come to see more and more that perhaps that’s also what attracts many people (and me more and more) to their music – they’re real, authentic and don’t claim to have it all figured out.

@U2 shared a list of U2’s Top 10 Spiritual Songs last month.

The list included ::

Tomorrow
Drowning Man
The Wanderer
Love Rescue Me
The Playboy Mansion
Wake Up Dead Man
Mercy
Yahweh
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

I’m glad they included “Wake Up Dead Man” on the list. The first time I heard that song I thought perhaps Bono and U2 had given up on any faith they might have had. But then I came to see it as real, raw, honest seeking of God.

@U2 writes ::

Bitter, enraged and at times desperate, the final song on the Pop album is a fierce antidote to any rose-tinted view of the spiritual life. Bono states his predicament bluntly and uncompromisingly in the first few lines, painting a grim picture of what is perhaps his boldest depiction of a life lived in isolation from both God and the wider world.

Crying out to a deity who may or may not have abandoned him, in “Wake Up Dead Man” (the lyrics of which were partly written by the Edge), Bono describes a bleak situation, one of being so consumed by naked anger with God that it makes hard listening for any believer. However, I’ve often found it the perfect sound track to those blackest of black moments, as the song almost perfectly articulates what it feels to have what Bono has called that “very valid” sense of outrage at a God who at times seems indifferent to the awfulness of the human condition.

The song goes to prove that sometimes we will feel lost, confused and alone in the world. And those times may leave us asking “God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet, the picture doesn’t remain bleak – as the next song U2 released was “Beautiful Day.” The song contrasts the previous one like Good Friday contrasts with Easter Sunday.

I’ve come to realize in my own life that it’s those deep, dark, lonely moments that make the moments of resurrection and reconciliation that much more beautiful.

What songs would you add to the list? Are there other songs, albums or movies that paint beautiful pictures of God’s reconciliation with you and the world around us? Are there other stories that you’ve heard that have brought about new understandings of God’s working in the world?

The church is a war room – not a waiting room


Kingdom Coming from Shaun Groves on Vimeo.

Thoughts? Many great things here.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Download Shaun’s free song :: www.shaungroves.com/freemusic

St. Peter’s Brewery :: 25k words

Don’t worry, this won’t be a 25,000 word post. I now know that would take 58 pages in a word document.

I have crossed the halfway mark for #nanowrimo on Nov 18! WOOT! (25,298 words to be exact as of 10:12 p.m.)

Now in all seriousness, the challenge is to reach 30k by tomorrow night at midnight. I’m doubtful that I’ll be able to get a 5,000 word streak going tomorrow, but if I keep punching out at least 2,100 words a day over the next 12 days – I’ll be done with time to spare.

So as a “teaser” for those who keep asking, and I keep shrugging off, here’s the rough synopsis of the book ::

A twenty-something moves to a small town to try and run from the troubles he’s had in his past. Along the way he meets up with a community of quirky friends who show him that real life is not life lived alone – but lived in community with others.

You knew it would have something to do with community now didn’t you?

So now the struggle begins. I’ve reached the halfway point. Have I put too much into the story so far that I won’t have enough storyline left to reach the end? Am I still still trying to squeeze too much into the storyline? Are my characters developed enough? Does it matter?

Time to stop thinking and worrying about it…..

As a side note – I’ve heard two different strategies on writing/publishing/selling books. One strategy says all you need to do is sell one book to one fan. The fan will take care of selling the rest (as he tells their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.) The other strategy says that if you can’t sell 100 books, you need a different book.

Which strategy to you subscribe to? Maybe I can get 100 people to say they’ll commit to buying the book for say — $12 (or less hopefully) — and then it won’t really matter will it 🙂