I realize that while I am a pastor and my blog often revolves around 'spiritual' matters, not everyone who reads this is necessarily a Christian. You don't all necessarily attend church, and more than likely most of you are not a part of my particular faith tradition, which is Church of God (Anderson, IN).
But today I want to speak specifically to my faith tradition. It is a tradition that is steeped in a story of women in ministry. At one time their number was around a third of all vocational ministers. That number has drastically dropped in recent years. And our leaders have too often fallen into using male language when speaking of pastors. In addition, as my wife recently wrote about on her blog (http://unconventionalpastorswife.blogspot.com/2012/06/finding-conference-for-clergy-spouses.html ), too often we have spoken of pastor's wives and not only assumed that the spouse of a pastor must necessarily be a woman, but a girly woman at that.
I am going to take a few steps today and the first is with the concept of pastor's wives. If you were to read my wife's blog you would know that not all pastor's wives are cut from the same mold. To this end the first step I suggest is to stop treating pastor's wives as if they are all middle-aged and above, as more young pastors come onto the scene more young pastor's wives come along with them. Most of these young women are more professionally minded that my mother's or grandmother's generations were. Most of them are as post-modern as our culture, which means that we need to stop treating them as if they were our mom or grandma.
[we also need to mention that pastor's spouses, if they can even be considered as a whole, need to allow the possibility for the inclusion of pastor's husbands, or at the very least for the state and national assemblies to include pastor's husband retreats]
The second step is that we must refocus our language, our attitudes, and our actions in regards to women in ministry. Like it or not it falls on male leadership [along with organizations like Christian Women Connection and Qara] to lift up female leadership. It is my belief that this means we need to change our language. We need to stop using 'he' and start peppering in a few 'she', we need to say that young women can have the call of God on their lives to vocational ministry as much as our young men can. To this end we need to change our attitudes. We need to stop holding up two or three paragraphs that Paul wrote to particular settings at particular times not to everyone for all time. In addition we have tended to compartmentalize people into where they can and cannot serve. To all of our disadvantage and to some of us our dismay we have continued to allow women in ministry but too often only in the roles of children's pastor or worship pastor, and on a very rare occasion youth pastor [but they better be married]. To this end we need to change our actions. We need to throw out the rules and throe open the doors and begin to look at the resumes of women as well as men when searching for a lead pastor.
My next step comes out of a biases, I recognize this so you might as well also. Within our 'movement' exists a ministry called Christian Women Connection, it used to be called Women of the Church of God. It has been around, doing good work, for a long time. It is filled with our mothers and grandmothers, our sisters and wives, and for some of us our daughters. Whether the wider church likes it or not CWC is the engine that drives our church. Our strength lies in our women, the ones who force their sons and daughters to go to church until they feel they belong. The women who occasionally have to drag their stupid husbands to church, while the guy would rather sleep or play golf. The women who teach our Sunday Schools, who lead our VBS, who grow our future leaders for us. Isn't it time that we adequately recognize the work that these women already do, and the greater work they are capable of. They say that 'the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world' but what we need to realize is that the women who attends our church, raises our kids, and leads their families are the foundation of our churches and without them we would all flounder.
I married a beautiful, intelligent, creative, and strong woman because I didn't want a sheep to follow wherever I go, but rather a partner who would have at least as much insight into what our path should be as I do. We, as a church, already have women like my wife among us, isn't it time that we recognize them, their actions, and their potential. They do not need our permission to be who they are, they are simply in need of us to get out of their way.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Gotta, Gotta, Who Cares
"This is going to sound a little obsessive, this is going to sound a little bit strange."
With those words one of my favorite Everclear songs, 'Unemployed Boyfriend,' begins. It is a song about a guy coming up to a girl at the welfare office and telling her that she'll be 'the mother of my children someday.' The song is bracketed by a voicemail that the girl is leaving for her sister, about how this crazy thing happened, but that she is really excited about it. It is a fun song, but it is a little obsessive, it is a little bit strange. Because that's the way obsession is.
The other day I was having a conversation about the movie Brave and about animation in general. The girl I was talking to was telling me how her cousin or nephew or friend's kid [honestly I don't remember the relationship connection] kept having a new thing that they really liked to watch. For the little boy it was Handy Manny or Wow Wow Wubbzy or Spiderman or Diego or... And it got me thinking about how quickly we can become obsessive about something. You see most children have short attention spans for their obsessions, it is rare that a toddler will latch on to one thing and only love that one thing forever, and I am not talking about a blanket which some of us do latch onto for a long time, just like Linus. No, we go from one thing to the next thing loving dinosaurs today and firemen tomorrow and next week it is going to be superheroes [of which I believe firemen are real world ones]. This is not a problem for little kids, the problem is that obsession does not end once we start to go to school or college or get married or have children of our own.
In addition being obsessive is not necessarily a bad thing. I am obsessed with certain movies and certain bands and as long as I don't become a stalker or set aside my whole life in order to devote it to one of those things it is all well and good. The issue becomes when we do step over the boundaries that we should have in our lives and entertain thoughts and live out actions that we have no right to have in the first place. How many lives have been destroyed because we allowed ourselves to become obsessive about a relationship?
Just yesterday morning I was up in my home office when a car alarm started to go off. I looked out my window and saw someone standing next to a car outside. At first I wondered why they didn't shut it off, but then the guy pulled on and broke one of the back windows, strange, I thought, but maybe his keys were locked inside and he couldn't wait for someone to come and unlock the car. But then the guy went to the other side of the car and pulled the other back window until it broke as well, then he just started walking away. An hour or so later when I left, there were two cops outside, one talking to a lady and the other looking at the car, the cop by the car [which was parked next to mine] said that it was a domestic disturbance. What causes that kind of response to a problem, what causes that kind of obsession?
When our obsessions start to damage the things and people around us we have crossed that boundary that I was writing about a little bit ago. Some obsessions are all right, some can turn downright deadly, other can be positive. I wrote about the movie The Way in a blog a bit ago. That is one of the movies that I am currently obsessed with. It is a great story, about a guy walking a pilgrimage in order to atone for his actions with his son. Up until I watched the movie I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage that the man takes, but now that I have I am obsessed with it. I hope to one day be able to take that same pilgrimage, to walk where both believers and seekers have walked, in order to find something that maybe I miss in my day to day life. It won't be soon and it won't be cheap, it will take me years to save up the money and years to be able to find the time, but one day I hope to walk those steps, see those people, and find what is out there. [Come to think about it, maybe I should start a kickstarter campaign]
It's possible that I may never actually take that walk though. It's possible that much like other obsessions of mine, like climbing Everest or becoming Batman, it may just fade away given time. Because some obsessions do, usually to be taken over by the next one. The task then is not to try and forgo obsessions, but rather to find the ones that make you a better person instead of a worse one. May we all be able to tell the difference so we can make a difference.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
With those words one of my favorite Everclear songs, 'Unemployed Boyfriend,' begins. It is a song about a guy coming up to a girl at the welfare office and telling her that she'll be 'the mother of my children someday.' The song is bracketed by a voicemail that the girl is leaving for her sister, about how this crazy thing happened, but that she is really excited about it. It is a fun song, but it is a little obsessive, it is a little bit strange. Because that's the way obsession is.
The other day I was having a conversation about the movie Brave and about animation in general. The girl I was talking to was telling me how her cousin or nephew or friend's kid [honestly I don't remember the relationship connection] kept having a new thing that they really liked to watch. For the little boy it was Handy Manny or Wow Wow Wubbzy or Spiderman or Diego or... And it got me thinking about how quickly we can become obsessive about something. You see most children have short attention spans for their obsessions, it is rare that a toddler will latch on to one thing and only love that one thing forever, and I am not talking about a blanket which some of us do latch onto for a long time, just like Linus. No, we go from one thing to the next thing loving dinosaurs today and firemen tomorrow and next week it is going to be superheroes [of which I believe firemen are real world ones]. This is not a problem for little kids, the problem is that obsession does not end once we start to go to school or college or get married or have children of our own.
In addition being obsessive is not necessarily a bad thing. I am obsessed with certain movies and certain bands and as long as I don't become a stalker or set aside my whole life in order to devote it to one of those things it is all well and good. The issue becomes when we do step over the boundaries that we should have in our lives and entertain thoughts and live out actions that we have no right to have in the first place. How many lives have been destroyed because we allowed ourselves to become obsessive about a relationship?
Just yesterday morning I was up in my home office when a car alarm started to go off. I looked out my window and saw someone standing next to a car outside. At first I wondered why they didn't shut it off, but then the guy pulled on and broke one of the back windows, strange, I thought, but maybe his keys were locked inside and he couldn't wait for someone to come and unlock the car. But then the guy went to the other side of the car and pulled the other back window until it broke as well, then he just started walking away. An hour or so later when I left, there were two cops outside, one talking to a lady and the other looking at the car, the cop by the car [which was parked next to mine] said that it was a domestic disturbance. What causes that kind of response to a problem, what causes that kind of obsession?
When our obsessions start to damage the things and people around us we have crossed that boundary that I was writing about a little bit ago. Some obsessions are all right, some can turn downright deadly, other can be positive. I wrote about the movie The Way in a blog a bit ago. That is one of the movies that I am currently obsessed with. It is a great story, about a guy walking a pilgrimage in order to atone for his actions with his son. Up until I watched the movie I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage that the man takes, but now that I have I am obsessed with it. I hope to one day be able to take that same pilgrimage, to walk where both believers and seekers have walked, in order to find something that maybe I miss in my day to day life. It won't be soon and it won't be cheap, it will take me years to save up the money and years to be able to find the time, but one day I hope to walk those steps, see those people, and find what is out there. [Come to think about it, maybe I should start a kickstarter campaign]
It's possible that I may never actually take that walk though. It's possible that much like other obsessions of mine, like climbing Everest or becoming Batman, it may just fade away given time. Because some obsessions do, usually to be taken over by the next one. The task then is not to try and forgo obsessions, but rather to find the ones that make you a better person instead of a worse one. May we all be able to tell the difference so we can make a difference.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Friday, June 22, 2012
mistakes and punishment
Today I’d like to talk a little bit about anger. This comes after my hit and run post, but
really has nothing to do with it, it has been percolating in my head for days now,
and I hope that it is formed enough to flow well.
It all started last Saturday, I was at work [Family Video]
when a lady came in with a copy of Sherlock Holmes that froze on her. I cleaned the disc and then put it into our
DVD player to see if it fixed the issue, it did not, in fact it seemed to make
it a little worse that it was.
Unfortunately that was the only copy that we had, so I couldn’t give her
another one, the store across town also only had one and it was rented. She had rented both the first and second
Sherlock Holmes and so I asked me what she should do, I told her that if she
wanted to she could bring the second one back and I would credit it to her
account also, but I also said, ‘Just so you know, you don’t have to watch the
first to enjoy the second.’ I thought I
was being helpful, I have told many people the same thing about both Holmes as
well as many other movies that are sequels to the Character but not the story. I found out on Monday that this was not only
not helpful to her, but it made her angry.
To this end on her new customer survey she wrote ‘Retrain Kenny, he has
a bad attitude.’
Also on Monday another customer yelled at me because I was
[get this] being intimidating to her, a woman, because I said that the guy who
checked her out last time was me. We
were having a conversation about late fees, I told her I said one thing, she
told me I said something else, so I was being intimidating. I was going to take the late fees off and
even give her the current items for free but because I was intimidating she
said to just close her account and she would never come back to a place that
was intimidating to women.
I assume that most of you who are reading this know me and
know that I am not in the least bit intimidating, I am in fact the guy that
walks away when things don’t go my way, hardly ever complaining to the people
who do wrong to me [just ask Mary it infuriates her sometimes]. To this end I am pretty sure that this was
the first time that anyone has ever accused me of being intimidating. The fact of the matter is that I may have
actually been rude to her a little bit, I was angry that she was calling me a
liar, maybe she was angry that I was calling her one, which I suppose I
inadvertently was, only one of us could be telling the truth after all.
Then Monday night I was working with a coworker who came in
and said that I need to pick your brain as a pastor. This coworker proceeded to tell me that
something was about to happen that their family did not approve of, and one family
member told this coworker that if it happened God would punish them, and told a
story of God’s punishment. The family
member said that when he was younger he had moved in with his girlfriend and
that God gave this girlfriend cancer in order to punish him. My coworker asked me if God did punish people
like that.
I don’t understand the belief that God is some kind of kid
with a magnifying glass and we are the ants that occasionally piss him
off. I mean do you really think that God
works that way? And even if he did why
wouldn’t he give the guy the cancer, I mean it’s pretty twisted to cause the
girlfriend to have cancer just so the guy could hurt. In addition, don’t you think that if that was
the way that God was we would almost all be in punishment constanly? Wouldn’t Earth be Hell then? Wouldn’t he just start zapping people left
and right every time they said ‘Jesus Christ’ in the not nice way? If it really worked that way we wouldn’t
need police or jails or even a justice
system because God would just single handedly take care of it all.
After all if living together is worth cancer what is
thievery or murder worth? Should they
just be cast with boils or leprosy or ebola or something pretty bad? Or maybe God does work that way but instead of
the guilty being hurt he just goes for their loved ones, I mean why else would
kids get cancer? It must be the case of
their parents sin, or their siblings, or maybe just a close family friend who
would be sad that they are hurting. I
mean get real, where does it end?
Wouldn’t God be punishing us every second of every day for every time we
sin against him? I’m a pastor and I’m
not perfect, I still screw up, why isn’t God punishing me more severely? Or is
it coming?
I gotta tell you that I do not live in fear of my God,
because my God sent Jesus who by his journey, his life, his words, his actions,
his death, and his resurrection have convinced me that God is in the love and
forgiveness business, not the fear and punishment one.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Hit and Run
The most annoying thing happened today. While Mary and I were eating lunch someone
decided to hit my car. I now have a
really big dent in my drivers’ side passenger door. I don’t understand people sometimes, if you
hit my car, fine, if I’m not around fine, but why can’t you leave a note? Do you just not have insurance? Are you that awful of a driver that one more
accident and you would lose it? If so do
us all a favor and just stop driving all together. It was between 11:30 and 12:30 so unless you
are an alcoholic you were probably sober.
But it was at Ponderosa, a decidedly older eschewing restaurant so maybe
you were just so old that you didn’t even realize that you did, but if you
couldn’t hear the crunch and screech I suggest getting a better hearing aid.
Sometimes I just wonder what people are thinking, sometimes I wonder how people can be so inconsiderate, but then there are also times when I am floored by the goodness of people also. I shared a group of pictures on facebook yesterday that showed how great people are capable of being. In the beginning of the pictures I had a tear or two but by the end I was streaming tears, because sometimes people are so good that it just breaks my heart. A girl who cared more about a competitor than an award, a group of Christians who realized the damage that the greater church has done to the people we are called to love apologizing for years of hatred, a bookstore owner who cares more about people reading than about how much they pay for the book.
I can’t tell you how many sermons I have heard that decried humanity, that suggested that because of one person eating some kind of fruit along time ago we are so baseless that we are incapable of doing good. A man who has been hated embracing those who have hated tells me that just isn’t true. A guy who jumps into a river to save a dog tells me that just isn’t true. Being a Christian should help me to be more loving, but being a human being makes me capable of doing it also. Way back when God created this world [in 7 days or 700 I don’t care] and created people from the Earth [which we often treat like garbage, but that’s another post] and call it and us good, one bad decision doesn’t change that. At base we are at least equally capable as good as evil, it is our everyday choices that decide which we are going to be, J.K. Rowling in the guise of Prof Dumbledore knows this, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” [Chamber of Secrets pg. 333]
To that end, person who hit my car I am not happy about it, but I forgive you whoever you are, I just wish you had put your info down so you would know my forgiveness and it could take away your guilt, if you have any.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Sometimes I just wonder what people are thinking, sometimes I wonder how people can be so inconsiderate, but then there are also times when I am floored by the goodness of people also. I shared a group of pictures on facebook yesterday that showed how great people are capable of being. In the beginning of the pictures I had a tear or two but by the end I was streaming tears, because sometimes people are so good that it just breaks my heart. A girl who cared more about a competitor than an award, a group of Christians who realized the damage that the greater church has done to the people we are called to love apologizing for years of hatred, a bookstore owner who cares more about people reading than about how much they pay for the book.
I can’t tell you how many sermons I have heard that decried humanity, that suggested that because of one person eating some kind of fruit along time ago we are so baseless that we are incapable of doing good. A man who has been hated embracing those who have hated tells me that just isn’t true. A guy who jumps into a river to save a dog tells me that just isn’t true. Being a Christian should help me to be more loving, but being a human being makes me capable of doing it also. Way back when God created this world [in 7 days or 700 I don’t care] and created people from the Earth [which we often treat like garbage, but that’s another post] and call it and us good, one bad decision doesn’t change that. At base we are at least equally capable as good as evil, it is our everyday choices that decide which we are going to be, J.K. Rowling in the guise of Prof Dumbledore knows this, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” [Chamber of Secrets pg. 333]
To that end, person who hit my car I am not happy about it, but I forgive you whoever you are, I just wish you had put your info down so you would know my forgiveness and it could take away your guilt, if you have any.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Saturday, June 16, 2012
A Giant
For those who don't know my dad died when I was five, at some point I will write a post about that, but today is not that day. But it is father's day and I should definitely honor someone, so this father's day I want to share with you something I wrote for my grandfather's funeral a couple year ago.
My grandfather was
a giant, so was my dad, at least to my five and under brain, back then
importance was so linked to the height of a person. Even later in life I find myself judging the
importance of someone based on how tall they are, of course my own height has
changed a bit since then. But back to my
Grandpa. I have a lot of memories of my
Grandpa, most of which take place in a dark, crowded basement where he spent a
lot of his time when I was younger. I am
not sure if it was where Grandpa was comfortable, or if its just where he went
because Grandma ordered him to go, today, as much as when I was younger when
Grandma speaks you do what she says, this might bother some people, but a lot
of times when I think of the commanding voice of God, I think that it might
sound a little like my Grandma’s. But
whether he was there because that was his spot or he was there because Grandma
made him, that’s where he was, in the dark basement, oftentimes surrounded by
the aroma of a freshly smoked cigar, I assume that Grandpa smoked these cigars,
but I only seem to have memories of a cigar butt resting in the ashtray, never
in his lips.
For a little kid
the basement almost bordered on being in another world, sometimes the T.V. was
on, sometimes the police scanner was on, and some times both were on at the
same time. Then during the holiday
season the tree and trains were added, and then occasionally the T.V. would be
on and the police scanner would be on and the tree would be playing its jingle
bells and away in the manger and the trains would be going. It was a wonderful world indeed. The basement, being so directly connected to the driveway was usually the
first and last place you were, so oftentimes Grandpa was the first and last
person that you would see, it was nice knowing that would be the case, because
I would get the chance to gaze at all of Grandpa’s toys at least twice in a
visit.
Speaking of
Grandpa’s toys, when I was around 7 or eight I received a Cabbage Patch Doll, a
boy, dressed in a New York Yankee uniform and wearing a hard plastic batting
helmet, and I can clearly remember my Grandma telling my mom that boys should
not have dolls, and I remember my Grandpa telling me that boys should not have
dolls, and I remember about a year or two later my Grandpa got a My Buddy. I am not sure if you remember My Buddy’s, but
they were a doll, a boy about two feet tall dressed in overalls a shirt and a
ballcap, so my Grandpa who told a little boy he shouldn’t have dolls, got one
for himself, I can only imagine that it was because he was jealous that I had
one and that he did not.
The other memories
of my Grandpa from childhood occurred on a swing on a porch in the backyard of
my grandparents house. On this swing I
would sit with my grandparents and watch the birds eat the birdfeed, enjoy a
nice spring or summer afternoon and drink stuff, my grandparents drank tea that
set out in the sun and tasted so awful to my young tongue, I would drink
something else, sometimes pop, sometimes water, sometimes crystal light, which
was always kept in the cupboard directly across from the door to the basement.
To Grandma I want
to say thank you for loving me, and for loving Grandpa. And to Grandpa I want to say that I miss you,
that I’ll always love you and that I still sit down sometimes and remember
those younger days that were fun and carefree and went by oh so fast. There were times when life brought us
together and times that life took us apart, but I will always remember a
basement that allowed a little boy’s imagination to roam free, from dreaming of
space in the form of a little landing pod, or being on a train steaming through
a town celebrating Christmas, or living in a land of Giants. My Grandfather is a giant.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Thursday, June 14, 2012
A Letter to my Unborn Child
Dear son or daughter,
Here I am, sitting here a few weeks before we are going to find out if you are going to be a boy or a girl, about 5 months before we welcome you into the world, and I want to tell you a few things. I know, I know I should wait til I know what you're going to be, so I might be able to give you some advice of a more personal nature, but I have never been a girl so my specific knowledge might not be helpful in some cases, so I think it is better if I do this in the blind.
The first thing that I want you to know is that no matter who you are or what you do I will always love you, and I am pretty sure that your mom would say the same. No mater what you do in this world, no matter what good or bad decisions that you may make, I will always be in your corner. Sometimes I may put you in a timeout, sometimes I may ground you, you won't get everything that you want the exact minute you want it, and all of that will disappoint you, may even make you angry, but I want you to know that I am always on your side.
I also want to let you know that I believe in a God that loves you as well. I believe that this God sent Jesus, his child, to this world in order to show us how to live, love, and die, I know that since you are entering into this world I have a slightly better understanding of what God must have gone through in order to allow that to happen, and while I love God I am not sure I would ever be able to pull an Abraham [ask me about that when you are a teen], but I appreciate that God did it for me.
In addition I want you to know that I am sorry for any bad thing that you may inherit from me. I have asthma, which kind of sucks, it makes it difficult to breathe sometimes. I have a few allergies, but hopefully they will pass you by. My family does have a history of diabetes, but I pray that it never touches you, so far it hasn't touched me. Also, you may inherit my temper, which I inherited from my dad [if that is something you actually inherit, I'm not sure]. I want you to know, that while it is difficult to control that it shows that you have passion within you, and if you can harness it for good and for God it can be a tool.
I do realize that my decisions will effect you from the very beginning. One of those decisions is me following the call of God and entering ministry, which mean that you will be a PK, a pastor's kid. Now, I want you to know that there are a lot of stories out there of PKs that are screwed up, they rebel hard sometimes. The first thing I want you to know is that I will try my best not to come down to hard morally on you, I will attempt to allow you to make your own decisions when it comes to your faith so that you won't feel that it hinders you in this life, but instead that it allows you to be the best you that you can be. But, if you do end up walking down that path of rebellion, like most people do [including myself] I will reiterate what I said earlier, I will always love you and be in your corner, no matter what.
I want to end this letter with a list of advice that I wrote for your cousin Landon on his first birthday, its been almost 7 years since I wrote them, but they are as true today as they were then. Some of these I stole from other people, all of them have been said by others, and will be said again. I pray that they bring you some knowledge, comfort and hope.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K aka Dad
Here I am, sitting here a few weeks before we are going to find out if you are going to be a boy or a girl, about 5 months before we welcome you into the world, and I want to tell you a few things. I know, I know I should wait til I know what you're going to be, so I might be able to give you some advice of a more personal nature, but I have never been a girl so my specific knowledge might not be helpful in some cases, so I think it is better if I do this in the blind.
The first thing that I want you to know is that no matter who you are or what you do I will always love you, and I am pretty sure that your mom would say the same. No mater what you do in this world, no matter what good or bad decisions that you may make, I will always be in your corner. Sometimes I may put you in a timeout, sometimes I may ground you, you won't get everything that you want the exact minute you want it, and all of that will disappoint you, may even make you angry, but I want you to know that I am always on your side.
I also want to let you know that I believe in a God that loves you as well. I believe that this God sent Jesus, his child, to this world in order to show us how to live, love, and die, I know that since you are entering into this world I have a slightly better understanding of what God must have gone through in order to allow that to happen, and while I love God I am not sure I would ever be able to pull an Abraham [ask me about that when you are a teen], but I appreciate that God did it for me.
In addition I want you to know that I am sorry for any bad thing that you may inherit from me. I have asthma, which kind of sucks, it makes it difficult to breathe sometimes. I have a few allergies, but hopefully they will pass you by. My family does have a history of diabetes, but I pray that it never touches you, so far it hasn't touched me. Also, you may inherit my temper, which I inherited from my dad [if that is something you actually inherit, I'm not sure]. I want you to know, that while it is difficult to control that it shows that you have passion within you, and if you can harness it for good and for God it can be a tool.
I do realize that my decisions will effect you from the very beginning. One of those decisions is me following the call of God and entering ministry, which mean that you will be a PK, a pastor's kid. Now, I want you to know that there are a lot of stories out there of PKs that are screwed up, they rebel hard sometimes. The first thing I want you to know is that I will try my best not to come down to hard morally on you, I will attempt to allow you to make your own decisions when it comes to your faith so that you won't feel that it hinders you in this life, but instead that it allows you to be the best you that you can be. But, if you do end up walking down that path of rebellion, like most people do [including myself] I will reiterate what I said earlier, I will always love you and be in your corner, no matter what.
I want to end this letter with a list of advice that I wrote for your cousin Landon on his first birthday, its been almost 7 years since I wrote them, but they are as true today as they were then. Some of these I stole from other people, all of them have been said by others, and will be said again. I pray that they bring you some knowledge, comfort and hope.
1) You will love and be loved; you will hurt and be hurt
2) You impact the people that impact you; you change the
people who change you
3) You will be wrong more than you are right but you will
think you're right more than you think you're wrong, so will everybody else
4) You will have good days and bad days
5) Every bad thing will pass, so will every good one
6) God is love, you are never closer to God then when you
love, so love often
7) No grounding lasts forever
8) Every heartbreak is survivable, even your first
9) Good follows good, bad follows bad, choose your path
carefully
10) Do not fear the future, it will come even if you do
11) Do not fear indecisiveness, most decisions should not be
rushed
12) No one was ever hurt by being patient
13) When you can, work it out, when you must, walk away
14) Laughter cures most pains
15) Strive for your dreams, it is possible no one else will
16) Don't be afraid to disappoint those who love you, if
they do they still will after you have
17) Blood is thicker than water, but Love is thicker than
anything
18) When all else fails, pray, when all else succeeds, pray
19) Always hope for a brighter tomorrow, and work to make it
so
20) Don't wait to follow others, lead them where you need to
be
21) Don't be in a hurry to grow up, Don't be afraid to grow
old, Don't forget to grow
22) No one has all the answers, Don't forget to forgive
yourself
23) Don't give away what you may one day need, Don't hold on
to something you never will
24) Don't go to bed angry, afraid, or worried, you sleep
better when you aren't
25) In order to be open to being loved you must be opened to
being hurt
26) Those closest to you can hurt you the most, be close to
people anyway
27) Forgive those who deserve to be forgiven for their sake,
forgive everyone else for yours
28) Ask forgiveness when you are wrong
29) Do not be afraid to tell someone you love them
30) Tears do not make you weak, they show your strength
31) The grass is not always greener on the other side, but
check to make sure
32) Laugh too loud, when people look at you, laugh LOUDER
33) Do not be afraid to think out of the box, even when
people tell you not to
34) Ask questions, it is the only way to learn
35) Read more than you watch T.V., you will be better off
because of it
36) When in doubt ask advice, take it if it is good
37) Love music, it allows you to express yourself in so many
ways
38) You are never alone, unless you let yourself be
39) Hate is not the opposite of love, indifference is
40) Wise men say wise things, but in the end, follow your
heart
Peace and Love,
Pastor K aka Dad
Nothing and Something
How do you talk about something while not talking about it at all? I feel that would be a question to ask the cast of Seinfeld, I mean how often did they talk about nothing and everything at the same time. To the people who like Seinfeld this will come as no surprise, but to those that don't it seems to me that the true genius of Seinfeld is that it claimed to be a show about nothing, yada yada yada and all that, but commented on friendship, relationships, and family in insightful ways while remaining highly hilarious.
I wish I knew how to do that. Then I could talk about some controversial things without talking about them at all. Or I could talk about movies, like Prometheus, without giving away the plot points to those who have yet to watch it. So I guess, without saying anything about anything the question I have is, what would you ask God if you could? If you were guaranteed a response what would your question be? And at the same time how disappointed would you be if you asked the question only to find a God that couldn't or wouldn't answer you? What would that do to you?
What if like Alanis Morisette in Dogma God's voice isn't fit for human ears, if the mere utterance of sound would cause even angels to die? What if it needed interpretation and we just didn't have the knowledge needed to understand? What if we didn't like the answers that we received? There's a song by Andrew Peterson called the silence of God and it goes like this.
It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God
It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God
And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
'Cause we all get lost sometimes...
There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone
And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not, maybe that is why our questions aren't always answered, not because they are bad questions, and not that we are bad people, but the sad truth is that this life is filled with sorrow, this life is filled with pain. And the truth is that answers aren't as helpful as we think they might be, my father died because the cancer that ate away his bones took away his life. But that answer, that truth, doesn't take away the pain. In just about 5 months I am going to be a father and mine isn't around to ask questions to, and no matter how much truth I find that will remain the same.
I always say that the only question I have for God is 'why poop? it's smelly and disgusting, couldn't you have figured out another way for us to expunge things from our body?' but that is not true at all, my questions for God mount up almost everyday, but I imagine that when I finally encounter my creator, redeemer, and friend I won't much care about the answers to the questions, not even the poop one. For on that day I will no longer hear the silence but rather I will feel the embrace.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
I wish I knew how to do that. Then I could talk about some controversial things without talking about them at all. Or I could talk about movies, like Prometheus, without giving away the plot points to those who have yet to watch it. So I guess, without saying anything about anything the question I have is, what would you ask God if you could? If you were guaranteed a response what would your question be? And at the same time how disappointed would you be if you asked the question only to find a God that couldn't or wouldn't answer you? What would that do to you?
What if like Alanis Morisette in Dogma God's voice isn't fit for human ears, if the mere utterance of sound would cause even angels to die? What if it needed interpretation and we just didn't have the knowledge needed to understand? What if we didn't like the answers that we received? There's a song by Andrew Peterson called the silence of God and it goes like this.
It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God
It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God
And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
'Cause we all get lost sometimes...
There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone
And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not, maybe that is why our questions aren't always answered, not because they are bad questions, and not that we are bad people, but the sad truth is that this life is filled with sorrow, this life is filled with pain. And the truth is that answers aren't as helpful as we think they might be, my father died because the cancer that ate away his bones took away his life. But that answer, that truth, doesn't take away the pain. In just about 5 months I am going to be a father and mine isn't around to ask questions to, and no matter how much truth I find that will remain the same.
I always say that the only question I have for God is 'why poop? it's smelly and disgusting, couldn't you have figured out another way for us to expunge things from our body?' but that is not true at all, my questions for God mount up almost everyday, but I imagine that when I finally encounter my creator, redeemer, and friend I won't much care about the answers to the questions, not even the poop one. For on that day I will no longer hear the silence but rather I will feel the embrace.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Re-post if you're a Christian or love Jesus or want to get to heaven or believe in pudding
So, I am sitting in my office at church, after the two hour drive, and I should be working on Sunday's worship service, or my sermon outline, or be going over today's Bible Study lesson, but instead here I am about to write a blog. The reason I am writing a blog instead of doing 'church' stuff is because I just checked facebook and it made me angry. It often does, I will read something and just be set off, it could be someone being mean, it could be someone doing stupid things, but the number one thing that ticks me off about facebook are the posts from fellow Christians that say if you love Jesus you'll re-post this, or if you are scared to take a stand with God you will re-post this, and then usually it says something like "If you deny me among your friends I will deny you to my heavenly father."
GET REAL!!!!!
I can't imagine that Jesus was talking about facebook when he made that statement. In addition just because I do or do not post something has nothing to do with my love for Jesus, my commitment to the church, or my ability to click my mouse button, maybe it just has to do with the fact that when I share my faith I want to do it in conversations and relationships not in soundbites or quirky pictures. I wonder how many people that actually post those things still talk about people behind their backs, still treat their kids like possessions, still lie and cheat and destroy the people in their lives. I wonder what their real witness is like, not their facebook witness.
I don't have definitive statistics about how many people get saved because of a facebook post or a tract in a library card or a strangers knock on the door, but I have to assume that it would be a low number. I have to assume that most people who believe in and follow Jesus out there in the world do so because someone made him real to them, that in their moment of need perhaps a friend was there for them and they wondered why, perhaps their friend by just being a loving friend earned the right to talk to them about faith in God.
I do not deny my God, not on facebook or on this blog or in my life, but how many bumperstickers you have on your car is not equal to how much you love Jesus. How many email or facebook forwards you do that say 'Christiany' things does not show how much you love the people that Jesus commands you to love. Nor does how many Bible passages you have memorized, how long your prayers are, or how much you attend church...there is always someone who knows more, prays better, and goes more...none of that matters as much as showing people that you love them and by the by how much God loves them.
Thus endeth the sermon
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
GET REAL!!!!!
I can't imagine that Jesus was talking about facebook when he made that statement. In addition just because I do or do not post something has nothing to do with my love for Jesus, my commitment to the church, or my ability to click my mouse button, maybe it just has to do with the fact that when I share my faith I want to do it in conversations and relationships not in soundbites or quirky pictures. I wonder how many people that actually post those things still talk about people behind their backs, still treat their kids like possessions, still lie and cheat and destroy the people in their lives. I wonder what their real witness is like, not their facebook witness.
I don't have definitive statistics about how many people get saved because of a facebook post or a tract in a library card or a strangers knock on the door, but I have to assume that it would be a low number. I have to assume that most people who believe in and follow Jesus out there in the world do so because someone made him real to them, that in their moment of need perhaps a friend was there for them and they wondered why, perhaps their friend by just being a loving friend earned the right to talk to them about faith in God.
I do not deny my God, not on facebook or on this blog or in my life, but how many bumperstickers you have on your car is not equal to how much you love Jesus. How many email or facebook forwards you do that say 'Christiany' things does not show how much you love the people that Jesus commands you to love. Nor does how many Bible passages you have memorized, how long your prayers are, or how much you attend church...there is always someone who knows more, prays better, and goes more...none of that matters as much as showing people that you love them and by the by how much God loves them.
Thus endeth the sermon
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Monday, June 11, 2012
Once and Again...and a request
So, I was tempted to post an old paper that I wrote for a theology class in seminary, but it is 9 pages long and I don't know how dedicated my audience is yet, maybe someday I can have a post that long, but I don't think I am there yet. So, I am not exactly sure what this post is even going to be about, just felt the need to do something and writing is as good a 'something' as anything else.
After a few minutes I have a thought, what if you guys and gals, whoever it is that is actually reading these blogs, tell me what you would like to hear about? Just post ideas in the comment section, or facebook, or email, and I will write on whatever you guys would like. Until then, how about them 80's?
I was watching Teen Wolf earlier, the movie not that newfangled TV show on MTV [speaking of which didn't they used to show music videos?]. And it made me realize a few things, first what is the point of wearing a jacket if you are just going to push the sleeves up, at least in Back to the Future Michael J Fox just wore his vest jacket [which I know has a real name but for the life of me I can't think what it is and the internet is not being very helpful]. I don't remember ever doing that, but I was only 11 by the end of the 80's so maybe I just wasn't old enough to fall into the category, or perhaps I wasn't cool enough [which is quite possible]. Also, how ludicrous is it that when Scott turned into a werewolf during the basketball game for the first time absolutely nothing happened, the game just continued, what's up with that?
Anyway, speaking of fads [rolled up jacket sleeves] I do remember loving hammer pants in the 90's. For those who know me nowadays this might seem out of character, which to be honest is true, at least to my public persona, but ask Mary and maybe it still isn't out of my private character, after all just the other day I was dumb dancing [ask the Fresh Prince about that] to Rihanna's Umbrella song, so... I really loved MC Hammer back in the day, I bought his CDs, I watched the cartoon show, I sang along to the end credits of the Adams Family, and I even had the hand motions down for Too Legit Too Quit [I still do the movements when I listen to the song to this day]. I had a few different pairs of hammer paints, I remember this one pair was black and had florescent paint splatters on them, I had another pair that were a blue and green mix.
I also remember slap bracelets with some fondness, although they seem to be back and I don't think that was needed. Now that I mention it, a lot of things seem to be coming back, and to be honest most of those fads should be allowed to rest in peace. But on the off chance that Hammer pants come back from the fashion graveyard let me know, I might still have space in my closet for a pair.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Don't forget to let me know some blog thoughts!!!
After a few minutes I have a thought, what if you guys and gals, whoever it is that is actually reading these blogs, tell me what you would like to hear about? Just post ideas in the comment section, or facebook, or email, and I will write on whatever you guys would like. Until then, how about them 80's?
I was watching Teen Wolf earlier, the movie not that newfangled TV show on MTV [speaking of which didn't they used to show music videos?]. And it made me realize a few things, first what is the point of wearing a jacket if you are just going to push the sleeves up, at least in Back to the Future Michael J Fox just wore his vest jacket [which I know has a real name but for the life of me I can't think what it is and the internet is not being very helpful]. I don't remember ever doing that, but I was only 11 by the end of the 80's so maybe I just wasn't old enough to fall into the category, or perhaps I wasn't cool enough [which is quite possible]. Also, how ludicrous is it that when Scott turned into a werewolf during the basketball game for the first time absolutely nothing happened, the game just continued, what's up with that?
Anyway, speaking of fads [rolled up jacket sleeves] I do remember loving hammer pants in the 90's. For those who know me nowadays this might seem out of character, which to be honest is true, at least to my public persona, but ask Mary and maybe it still isn't out of my private character, after all just the other day I was dumb dancing [ask the Fresh Prince about that] to Rihanna's Umbrella song, so... I really loved MC Hammer back in the day, I bought his CDs, I watched the cartoon show, I sang along to the end credits of the Adams Family, and I even had the hand motions down for Too Legit Too Quit [I still do the movements when I listen to the song to this day]. I had a few different pairs of hammer paints, I remember this one pair was black and had florescent paint splatters on them, I had another pair that were a blue and green mix.
I also remember slap bracelets with some fondness, although they seem to be back and I don't think that was needed. Now that I mention it, a lot of things seem to be coming back, and to be honest most of those fads should be allowed to rest in peace. But on the off chance that Hammer pants come back from the fashion graveyard let me know, I might still have space in my closet for a pair.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Don't forget to let me know some blog thoughts!!!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
those twenty or so minutes toward the end
So, the sermon. As a pastor it is my most important part of church, the time where I try to hack through the time gap between the present and the past and bring freshness to words that are at least 1900 years old. It is a time that I both treasure and dread, because it is where I find out if the work I did in the week in between mattered. It's where I see if I am connecting on any level with the 30 or so people who show up to my church every week. It is the time where I see if this is the week that I will totally fail, looking like a complete idiot and people will still tell me that it was a great message.
Take this morning's sermon for instance, I will freely admit that it wasn't one of my greatest, which means that more than anything else it is a learning experience. But I tried to preach on faith and/or works, and I started by talking about Martin Luther's 95 theses, let me tell you, as my wife said after the sermon, Martin Luther is a hard thing to preach. I was floundering badly, I read the quote from Martin Luther and it just sounded like a bunch of gobbledygook, then I moved into my main scripture (Titus 3:3-8) and talked about how there needs to be a movement in our lives from being bad humans to being humans that are meant to do good. I talked about how faith alone doesn't really accomplish anything except getting ourselves into heaven, and that is not our job. Our job is to get everyone into heaven, as I was preparing for the sermon this week I came across a saying that says, "If when we die we go to the pearly gates alone, Saint Peter will ask, where are the others?" [come to think about it, I should have used that in my sermon]
And let me tell you, it sound a lot better in that previous paragraph than it did when I was up there speaking it. I moved on to James 2 and talked about Saint Francis' quote "Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words." [which incidentally there is no concrete evidence to prove he ever actually said that] and then I was done, with no place to go and no way to end, luckily while I was sitting listening to one of my people sing a song I realized that I should talk about another member who is our greeter and wasn't there this morning because of a family reunion. I talked about how he welcomes us all to church because he is genuinely glad that each person is there, about how if he didn't do that he could still get to heaven, but that our experiences would be the worse for not having him.
Until I started talking about James I would say that my sermon totally and utterly sucked, luckily James saved me, even when he wasn't there. Which just goes to show that sometimes the point of a sermon is to help the congregation be better people, but sometimes, just sometimes, the people make the sermon better by being the people that God meant them to be.
It's been a little over a month since I started preaching by outline as opposed to by manuscript, I would say that by and large it has been a positive experience for me, and hopefully for my congregation as well. But it does mean that I am having to rely on faith a little more, both in God and in myself. My sermons are sometimes good, occasionally great, and sometimes less than, I am not Billy Graham or Rob Bell, which is fine, I'm just trying to remember to be me, and that will be enough if God has called me to be where I am when I am and how I am.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Take this morning's sermon for instance, I will freely admit that it wasn't one of my greatest, which means that more than anything else it is a learning experience. But I tried to preach on faith and/or works, and I started by talking about Martin Luther's 95 theses, let me tell you, as my wife said after the sermon, Martin Luther is a hard thing to preach. I was floundering badly, I read the quote from Martin Luther and it just sounded like a bunch of gobbledygook, then I moved into my main scripture (Titus 3:3-8) and talked about how there needs to be a movement in our lives from being bad humans to being humans that are meant to do good. I talked about how faith alone doesn't really accomplish anything except getting ourselves into heaven, and that is not our job. Our job is to get everyone into heaven, as I was preparing for the sermon this week I came across a saying that says, "If when we die we go to the pearly gates alone, Saint Peter will ask, where are the others?" [come to think about it, I should have used that in my sermon]
And let me tell you, it sound a lot better in that previous paragraph than it did when I was up there speaking it. I moved on to James 2 and talked about Saint Francis' quote "Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words." [which incidentally there is no concrete evidence to prove he ever actually said that] and then I was done, with no place to go and no way to end, luckily while I was sitting listening to one of my people sing a song I realized that I should talk about another member who is our greeter and wasn't there this morning because of a family reunion. I talked about how he welcomes us all to church because he is genuinely glad that each person is there, about how if he didn't do that he could still get to heaven, but that our experiences would be the worse for not having him.
Until I started talking about James I would say that my sermon totally and utterly sucked, luckily James saved me, even when he wasn't there. Which just goes to show that sometimes the point of a sermon is to help the congregation be better people, but sometimes, just sometimes, the people make the sermon better by being the people that God meant them to be.
It's been a little over a month since I started preaching by outline as opposed to by manuscript, I would say that by and large it has been a positive experience for me, and hopefully for my congregation as well. But it does mean that I am having to rely on faith a little more, both in God and in myself. My sermons are sometimes good, occasionally great, and sometimes less than, I am not Billy Graham or Rob Bell, which is fine, I'm just trying to remember to be me, and that will be enough if God has called me to be where I am when I am and how I am.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Friday, June 8, 2012
Gems for a Friday night
Besides being a Pastor I also work at a video rental store, and Friday night we are usually pretty busy. People always come in looking for the movies that came out that week and they are hardly ever in, so they end up leaving disappointed or just picking something else up. To that end I thought I might help you out, tonight if you go looking for a new movie and can't get it, may I suggest these five titles, they a little older, sometimes a few months, mainly a few years, some more than that, so they should be in. They are my favorite movies that no one knows about.
(in alphabetical order)
Bottle Shock (2008) starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, and Freddy Rodriguez directed by Randall Miller.
Bottle Shock is the true story of the beginning of the California wine country, at least the moment when it reaches a world stage as opposed to a local one. Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier who in 1976 goes to California to find wines that are good enough to go against French wines in a blind taste test. There he meets Jim Barrett (Pullman) whose vineyard is overly mortgaged while he tries to perfect his chardonnay. Along the way we meet Bo (Pine), Jim's son who is at odds with his father, and Gustavo (Rodriquez), the foreman who is making his own wine on the side. As the movie moves along Jim is reluctant to enter because his chardonnay stays cloudy, but Bo realizes it is their only chance. It is a smart, occasionally funny, drama of perseverance.
the Children of Huang Shi (2008) starring Jonathan Rhys Myers, Chow Yun-Fat, Radha Mitchell and Michelle Yeoh, directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
The Children of Huang Shi is another true story, this one following George Hogg (Myers). Hogg is a war corespondent that goes to China during the Japanese occupation of 1937. Along the way he meets several people including a nurse (Mitchell), the leader of some resistance fighters (Yun-Fat) and an aristocrat (Yeoh). Leaving the relatively safe confines of Beijing in order to see the real war Hogg ends up at a boys orphanage. First taking control of the orphanage and then later realizing that it is no longer safe Hogg, the nurse, and the boys set off on a 500 mile journey to safety. Heroes are not mutants or avengers or men in capes, they are the ones who see injustice and decide to do something about it, this movie is the story of one such hero.
the Way (2011) starring Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Yorick van Wageningen and Emilio Estevez, directed by Emilio Estevez.
Tom (Sheen) is a California eye doctor whose son has left on a trip to see the world. His son dies on his first day walking El Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage through France and Spain to the resting place of Saint James. Tom goes to France in order to pick up his son and decides to walk the camino. Along the way he encounters three pilgrims (Unger, Nesbitt and Wageningen) who become companions along the way. Walking the pilgrimage Tom begins to move from a closed man into becoming a more open one. The Way is a tale of life flowing from death, a tale of grace and redemption. It has become one of my favorite movies of all time, if you only watch one of these movies make it the Way, you will be ever so glad you did.
Wide Awake (1998) starring Joseph Cross, Dana Delany, Rosie O'Donnell, Denis Leary, Robert Loggia, and Julia Stiles, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Yes you read that right, M. Night Shyamalan, before Signs our the Village or even the Sixth Sense, this was his first movie and what a movie it is. Joseph Cross (later of Jack Frost and Running with Scissors) plays Josh, a 10 year old boy who has lost his grandfather (Robert Loggia) to cancer. Devastated by the loss Josh decides to spend a year looking for God so that he will know that his grandfather is okay. His parents (Leary and Delany) at first go with it, then question it, then worry about it. His sister (Stiles) seems to think that it is all for naught, but is still there for him at a very important time. Rosie O'Donnell plays a nun who teaches at Josh's Catholic school. At times funny at times emotional Wide Awake is a story of determination and of only having to look correctly to find what we have been searching for.
White Squall (1996) starring Jeff Bridges, Scott Wolfe, Ethan Embry, Ryan Phillippe and Jeremy Sisto, directed by Sir Ridley Scott.
White Squall is, once again, a true story (I kinda like reality, just not reality TV), in the vein of Dead Poets Society. Jeff Bridges runs a school at sea program for young men. White Squall is the story of a group of boys becoming a group of men through danger and death. The acting is superb, the story is bittersweet, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
(in alphabetical order)
Bottle Shock (2008) starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, and Freddy Rodriguez directed by Randall Miller.
Bottle Shock is the true story of the beginning of the California wine country, at least the moment when it reaches a world stage as opposed to a local one. Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier who in 1976 goes to California to find wines that are good enough to go against French wines in a blind taste test. There he meets Jim Barrett (Pullman) whose vineyard is overly mortgaged while he tries to perfect his chardonnay. Along the way we meet Bo (Pine), Jim's son who is at odds with his father, and Gustavo (Rodriquez), the foreman who is making his own wine on the side. As the movie moves along Jim is reluctant to enter because his chardonnay stays cloudy, but Bo realizes it is their only chance. It is a smart, occasionally funny, drama of perseverance.
the Children of Huang Shi (2008) starring Jonathan Rhys Myers, Chow Yun-Fat, Radha Mitchell and Michelle Yeoh, directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
The Children of Huang Shi is another true story, this one following George Hogg (Myers). Hogg is a war corespondent that goes to China during the Japanese occupation of 1937. Along the way he meets several people including a nurse (Mitchell), the leader of some resistance fighters (Yun-Fat) and an aristocrat (Yeoh). Leaving the relatively safe confines of Beijing in order to see the real war Hogg ends up at a boys orphanage. First taking control of the orphanage and then later realizing that it is no longer safe Hogg, the nurse, and the boys set off on a 500 mile journey to safety. Heroes are not mutants or avengers or men in capes, they are the ones who see injustice and decide to do something about it, this movie is the story of one such hero.
the Way (2011) starring Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Yorick van Wageningen and Emilio Estevez, directed by Emilio Estevez.
Tom (Sheen) is a California eye doctor whose son has left on a trip to see the world. His son dies on his first day walking El Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage through France and Spain to the resting place of Saint James. Tom goes to France in order to pick up his son and decides to walk the camino. Along the way he encounters three pilgrims (Unger, Nesbitt and Wageningen) who become companions along the way. Walking the pilgrimage Tom begins to move from a closed man into becoming a more open one. The Way is a tale of life flowing from death, a tale of grace and redemption. It has become one of my favorite movies of all time, if you only watch one of these movies make it the Way, you will be ever so glad you did.
Wide Awake (1998) starring Joseph Cross, Dana Delany, Rosie O'Donnell, Denis Leary, Robert Loggia, and Julia Stiles, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Yes you read that right, M. Night Shyamalan, before Signs our the Village or even the Sixth Sense, this was his first movie and what a movie it is. Joseph Cross (later of Jack Frost and Running with Scissors) plays Josh, a 10 year old boy who has lost his grandfather (Robert Loggia) to cancer. Devastated by the loss Josh decides to spend a year looking for God so that he will know that his grandfather is okay. His parents (Leary and Delany) at first go with it, then question it, then worry about it. His sister (Stiles) seems to think that it is all for naught, but is still there for him at a very important time. Rosie O'Donnell plays a nun who teaches at Josh's Catholic school. At times funny at times emotional Wide Awake is a story of determination and of only having to look correctly to find what we have been searching for.
White Squall (1996) starring Jeff Bridges, Scott Wolfe, Ethan Embry, Ryan Phillippe and Jeremy Sisto, directed by Sir Ridley Scott.
White Squall is, once again, a true story (I kinda like reality, just not reality TV), in the vein of Dead Poets Society. Jeff Bridges runs a school at sea program for young men. White Squall is the story of a group of boys becoming a group of men through danger and death. The acting is superb, the story is bittersweet, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Thursday, June 7, 2012
What Tickles My Ear
So...Music is my favorite thing apart from God, Mary, and QP (our baby, stands for Quarter Puerto Rican, since that's what it'll be)
Today there is really nothing big on my mind, so I think I will talk about some of my favorite bands/singers. So these are my five favorite, why they mean something to me, and how I feel about their studio albums. So, no live albums (which Counting Crows has a bunch of), no instrumental albums (see Feedback by Derek Webb), no compilations (which almost all of my favorites have or appear on).
1. Counting Crows. The next four all have a lot of wiggle room, but there is really no question about #1. Way back in 1994 Mr. Jones showed up on my radio in Moundsville, WV, 100.1 WOMP FM to be exact, and I fell in love with Adam Duritz. Well, that's not exactly true, it took a little more than just the one song, but once I broke down and asked my mom for the money to buy it, I grew up without an allowance, I had found my band. Adam's lyrics speak to me at every moment of life, somehow his pain makes sense of my pain, his regret my regret, his love my love. Whatever is going on in my life it seems that somehow Adam has experienced, which is obviously not true at all. I am married and expecting my first child and Adam, while having a public relationship life has never been married to my knowledge, and has no children. But still...
August and Everything After (1st Album) is by far my favorite CD, to me its kinda like that first love that you never forget, and never get over, other loves may come later and be better but there is always the place in your heart that somehow is reserved for your first. Favorite Song: Raining in Baltimore
Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings (5th Album) comes second only becase August is that first love. From beginning to end SN,SM just makes me happy, the first half of the album is about the sin of Saturday Night, the second half about the redemption of Sunday Morning. I love that, the knowledge that redemption exists and is really only a matter of time from coming through. Favorite song: Le Ballet D'Or
Recovering the Satellites (2nd Album) took a little while to grow on me, I loved A Long December right away, but the rest of the album is a little harder, a little edgier than August and that took awhile to allow. Counting Crows, believe in change, which annoys some fans, but I love. So, after a bit I rallied my love for the album. Favorite Song: Have You Seen Me Lately?
Hard Candy (4th Album) is by far Counting Crows most 'pop' album. It was written in light of a conversation between Adam and Sir Paul McCartney about how songs are built on melodies. It is also what I would call CCs 'happy' album, Adam seems to have been in a better place during the writing of the album. Favorite Song: Up All Night (like Adam I have my bouts with insomnia)
Underwater Sunshine, or what we did on our summer vacation (6th and most recent album) is a cover album, it also has a distinctly Country feel to it, which has angered a lot of fans have raged against. I enjoy the album for what it is, a look at some of the bands that influenced my favorite band. Favorite Song: Hospital
This Desert Life (3rd Album) saying that This Desert Life is my least favorite CC album is still saying that I would prefer listening to it more than the vast majority of albums I own. I still like it a lot, just don't love it. When it came out I was in college and my roommate Scott and I would occasionally serenade people with Colorblind, and in truth sometimes we would just sing it together when we were alone, so obviously, Favorite Song: Colorblind
2. Derek Webb. I first found this amazing songwriter in the band Caedmon's Call. My friend R.W. Moody introduced me to them and I liked the band instantly, like Counting Crows they had a very folk feeling to them, no matter what genre they were doing on a particular song. I enjoyed the band in whole, they had three lead singers at the time, went to four, then back to three, but the songs that Derek wrote and sang spoke to me at a higher level, which was interesting since in the beginning while the band was Christian Derek's songs weren't expressly about Jesus. I followed Caedmon's but always hoped that one day I would be able to get a CD of just Derek, turns out he must have been thinking the same thing because after awhile he went solo (though after a time did continue working with Caedmon's also). To this point in time no Derek album is like the previous, he started out in acoustic folk, moved to atmospheric rock, then to acoustic rock, then beatlesque, then electronica, then instrumental, his next project is something called Sola-Mi, a concept band working on a soundtrack for a movie about ??? Derek wrote the music but it has a female vocalist, you can go to sola-mi.com and download it for free
Stockholm Syndrome (5th and most recent studio album) Derek has been a controversial 'Christian' artist since his first album, but went so far off the deep end (read used sh$# on my favorite song) that his record company decided to censor his album, so Derek did something crazy and let it out through a series of internet mysteries. This album has been his greatest departure from Caedmon's and She Must and Shall Go Free, having a strong electronic feel, since he and Josh Moore built it around sounds instead of straight up writing songs. Favorite Song: What Matters More
Mockingbird (3rd album) Derek's first foray into blatant political activism. As a liberal leaning Christian I can appreciate that a lot. Favorite Song: A King & A Kingdom
She Must and Shall Go Free (1st album) Derek started off on a very acoustic, very folk, very Christian road (although he did use whore and bastard (in the correct use) in his lyrics). The simple fact that Derek is willing to get into trouble for what he believes makes me love him a little more. Favorite Songs: A tie between Take to the World (a song of entering the world to save it) & Wedding Dress (a song about the church being whorish)
The Ringing Bell (4th Album) While Derek continued his political statements he moved from the acoustic sound of Mockingbird to a more Beatles influenced sound with this album. Favorite Song: This Too Shall Be Made Right (a song I have already used in two sermons)
I see things upside down (2nd album) Derek moved from the folk sound of She Must into an atmospheric sound reminiscent of some Radiohead. Favorite Song: T-Shirts (another DWebb song that I have used in a sermon)
3. Jars of Clay. When I first heard Flood, their first single, it was on a secular radio station and I had no clue that they were a Christian band until after I had purchased the album. To be honest Flood is not really like the album, so it took me a while to really embrace the band, but embrace them I did, then they had somewhat of a sophomore slump with Much Afraid, and my love affair with Jars didn't really start until their third album, If I Left the Zoo. While I was in college I worked at Reardon Auditorium and when Jars came to town I took them across town searching for marbles, it is one of my claims to fame.
the Long Fall Back to Earth (8th Album) is a great album, full of amazing song after amazing song, Dan, the lead singer keeps getting better and better as a vocalist. I have to mention my second favorite song on this album, Boys (Lesson One), which is a song to Dan's son, it is a beautiful and moving song, as a guy about to have his first child I love that song, but it still isn't as infectious as my favorite one. Favorite Song: Headphones
the Shelter (9th and most recent album) is a communal album about community. Jars invited several artists to help out with the Album, including Derek Webb, Burlap to Cashmere and Mac Powell (lead singer of Third Day), among others. It is a collection of songs for the church about the church, a new way to look at the collection of people with the four walls of a church and to spur them toward living out the command to be the body of Christ. I have used the song Shelter in a sermon that Mary and I preached during our time at Discover Church. Favorite Song: Small Rebellions
Good Monsters (7th Album) while I am a ginormous fan of music and a rather obsessive one at that, once I like an artist I will buy every album they ever make, Mary is nothing like that, she hardly ever gains a band and she will walk away content with liking only one album of theirs, this is that one album of Jars that I got Mary to like, so if you haven't tried Jars, maybe this could be your entry also. Favorite Song: Oh My God
Jars of Clay (1st Album), like I said it took me a bit to warm up to the album as a whole, because I expected it to be a more 'rock' album, which didn't come until the 11th hour. But once I realized what it was, a pop/rock album with singer/songwriter tendencies I loved it. Favorite Song: Worlds Apart
Who We Are Instead (5th Album) was a surprising album when it arrived, it was a little more acoustic, it was a little more folky, it has a decidedly 'hippee' fell to it at times, and I loved it right away. It was somehow more focused and universal at the same time. Favorite Song: Faith Enough
If I Left the Zoo (3rd Album) when this album came out I had an disagreement with my friend Dan about whether or not the lead singer was sounding better or worse, I thought better, Dan thought worse. While Much Afraid was a more mellow and introspective album If I Left the Zoo has a decidedly more fun and fancy free feel to it. For that reason I was probably a little biased for it, so maybe I gave Dan a harder time then I needed to, sorry bout that. Favorite Song: Famous Last Words
the Eleventh Hour (4th Album) is what I would call Jars first rock album, it has a more driving edge to it, it is also a more relational album as opposed to their previous three albums. Favorite Song: Something Beautiful
Redemption Songs (6th Album) is a hymns album, not much else to say about that, I like it. Favorite Song: They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love ('Nuff said)
Much Afraid (2nd Album) is Jars most mellow album, as such I was disappointed by it. It is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, it just wasn't what I wanted at the time. Favorite Song: Tea and Sympathy
4. Collective Soul. I had heard Shine on the radio, both Christian and secular radio at that, and I liked it, but I wasn't really looking for another band to follow at the time. I was reintroduced to them, by my best friend at the time John Depto, on the second album, which was their first self-titled album, it had World I Know, December, and Gel and I was blown away. Ed and Dean Roland, lead singer and rhythm guitarist respectively, were sons of a Baptist minister so Ed's lyrics have a spiritual undertones, which I always like in my music (not exclusively obviously by the list of artists at the bottom of this post). Like everyone else on this list Ed's lyrics speak to something inside of me, that is the real determination of a band that stays with me as opposed to those that I like a little but can live without. The one negative about Collective is that there is not much range in their CDs they each walk that line between pop/rock, some are a little harder, some a little lighter, but not much difference between their hardest album (Blender maybe) and their lightest album (hmm, Youth)
Collective Soul (2nd Album) like I said I was blown away by this CD, each and every song is great. Favorite Song: the World I Know
Dosage (4th Album) Favorite Song: She Said (a hidden track that appeared on the Scream 2 soundtrack)
Youth (6th Album) after a couple years in limbo Collective Soul reappeared on their own label and put out a really good CD. Favorite Song: Better Now
Afterwords (7th Album) Favorite Song: New Vibration
Blender (5th Album) is Collective Soul's last album with their original guitarist Ross Childress, who was really good. Favorite Song: Perfect Day
Collective Soul (Rabbit) (8th and most recent album) this is the only band I know that has multiple self-titled albums, this one is colloquially known as rabbit, because of the rabbit on the cover. Favorite Song: Staring Down
Disciplined Breakdown (3rd Album) Favorite Song: Crowded Head
Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid (1st album) the one thing I would say is that while I wasn't blown away with CD in the beginning or even later, there were a couple songs that did speak to me at different times in my life, including Wasting Time, a song about holding about telling someone to leave you alone, because they aren't going to get you to think the way they want you to. Favorite Song: Wasting Time
5. Joshua Kadison. So, the first time I heard Joshua on the radio I thought it was Elton John, in addition I thought that there was a line in his first single, Jessie, that I thought said 'we can go to Mexico Youth Academy' in reality it was 'we can go to Mexico, you, the cat, and me.' The reason I know that it was not correct was because he had lyrics in his liner notes, unlike a certain singer named Seal, I have no clue what the lyrics are for Kiss from a rose (on the brain, in the rain, across the grain...who knows? who?). Joshua was what a lot of people would call a two hit wonder, which is not true at all each CD of his are full of great music and great stories.
Painted Desert Serenade (1st Album) is Josh's only major hit, and for a long time it was the only CD of his I knew about, then one day at work a couple of years ago a customer told me that he liked his follow up more, so I went looking, and there were two others at the time, then a fourth became available. Favorite Song: Georgia Rain, a sequel to the hit Jessie.
the Complete Storyville Sessions (4th and most recent album) is Josh's most story oriented album, as you may have been able to tell by the title. The first time I listened to Paris I cried while driving home from Ohio, not the best time for that to happen. I have become a rather emotional guy as I age, I cry when I hear people tell stories, I cry at movies occasionally, but I have only cried at two songs, Seventeen by Mat Kearney and Paris by Joshua Kadison. Favorite Song: Paris
the Complete Venice Beach Sessions (3rd Album) is what I would call Josh's most spiritual album, over and over it has a feeling of love and a greater power/spirit. It is an extremely uplifting CD, a CD that calls us to love the people around us and leave the rest in grace's hands. To some extent it is a more 'Christian' album than most Christian albums, and he isn't even a Christian. Favorite Song: Do You Know How Beautiful You Are?
Delilah Blue (2nd Album) is a very gospel tinged CD, in truth it is the one I have listened to the least, not because it is bad, but because I absolutely love the other three. Favorite Song: The Gospel According to My Ol' Man
The next ones up (In Alphabetical Order): Andrew Osenga, Andrew Peterson, the Avett Brothers, Billy Joel, Blessid Union of Souls, B.O.B., Breaking Benjamin, Caedmon's Call, the Classic Crime, Coldplay, Creed, Darius Rucker, Dave Matthews Band, David Crowder Band, DC Talk, Death Cab for Cutie, Duncan Shiek, Edwin McCain, Eli, Eminem (yep, you read that right), Everclear, Five for Fighting, Fort Minor, the Fray, Garth Brooks, the Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, the Hawk in Paris, Hootie and the Blowfish, Jimmy Buffet, Jimmy Eat World, Jon Foreman, Kevin Max, Kutless, Lecrae, Leeland, Lifehouse, Linkin Park, Mat Kearney, Matchbox Twenty, MercyMe, Michael Jackson, Michael W. Smith, Mumford & Sons, Newsboys, Nine Days, the Normals, Owl City, Paul Colman, P.O.D., R. Kelly, RED, Relient K, Rob Thomas, Robbie Seay Band, the Rocket Summer, Santus Real, the Script, Sister Hazel, Steven Curtis Chapman, Sting, Switchfoot, Tait, Tim McGraw, TobyMac, Train, U2, Will Smith (including the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince years), 30 Second to Mars
As you may be able to tell if you actually read that list, a) I like a wide range of music, perhaps wider than any other pastor I know, b) I have a lot of music, 25.5 days worth according to itunes, and c) I buy too much music....ahhhh!!!
Today there is really nothing big on my mind, so I think I will talk about some of my favorite bands/singers. So these are my five favorite, why they mean something to me, and how I feel about their studio albums. So, no live albums (which Counting Crows has a bunch of), no instrumental albums (see Feedback by Derek Webb), no compilations (which almost all of my favorites have or appear on).
1. Counting Crows. The next four all have a lot of wiggle room, but there is really no question about #1. Way back in 1994 Mr. Jones showed up on my radio in Moundsville, WV, 100.1 WOMP FM to be exact, and I fell in love with Adam Duritz. Well, that's not exactly true, it took a little more than just the one song, but once I broke down and asked my mom for the money to buy it, I grew up without an allowance, I had found my band. Adam's lyrics speak to me at every moment of life, somehow his pain makes sense of my pain, his regret my regret, his love my love. Whatever is going on in my life it seems that somehow Adam has experienced, which is obviously not true at all. I am married and expecting my first child and Adam, while having a public relationship life has never been married to my knowledge, and has no children. But still...
August and Everything After (1st Album) is by far my favorite CD, to me its kinda like that first love that you never forget, and never get over, other loves may come later and be better but there is always the place in your heart that somehow is reserved for your first. Favorite Song: Raining in Baltimore
Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings (5th Album) comes second only becase August is that first love. From beginning to end SN,SM just makes me happy, the first half of the album is about the sin of Saturday Night, the second half about the redemption of Sunday Morning. I love that, the knowledge that redemption exists and is really only a matter of time from coming through. Favorite song: Le Ballet D'Or
Recovering the Satellites (2nd Album) took a little while to grow on me, I loved A Long December right away, but the rest of the album is a little harder, a little edgier than August and that took awhile to allow. Counting Crows, believe in change, which annoys some fans, but I love. So, after a bit I rallied my love for the album. Favorite Song: Have You Seen Me Lately?
Hard Candy (4th Album) is by far Counting Crows most 'pop' album. It was written in light of a conversation between Adam and Sir Paul McCartney about how songs are built on melodies. It is also what I would call CCs 'happy' album, Adam seems to have been in a better place during the writing of the album. Favorite Song: Up All Night (like Adam I have my bouts with insomnia)
Underwater Sunshine, or what we did on our summer vacation (6th and most recent album) is a cover album, it also has a distinctly Country feel to it, which has angered a lot of fans have raged against. I enjoy the album for what it is, a look at some of the bands that influenced my favorite band. Favorite Song: Hospital
This Desert Life (3rd Album) saying that This Desert Life is my least favorite CC album is still saying that I would prefer listening to it more than the vast majority of albums I own. I still like it a lot, just don't love it. When it came out I was in college and my roommate Scott and I would occasionally serenade people with Colorblind, and in truth sometimes we would just sing it together when we were alone, so obviously, Favorite Song: Colorblind
2. Derek Webb. I first found this amazing songwriter in the band Caedmon's Call. My friend R.W. Moody introduced me to them and I liked the band instantly, like Counting Crows they had a very folk feeling to them, no matter what genre they were doing on a particular song. I enjoyed the band in whole, they had three lead singers at the time, went to four, then back to three, but the songs that Derek wrote and sang spoke to me at a higher level, which was interesting since in the beginning while the band was Christian Derek's songs weren't expressly about Jesus. I followed Caedmon's but always hoped that one day I would be able to get a CD of just Derek, turns out he must have been thinking the same thing because after awhile he went solo (though after a time did continue working with Caedmon's also). To this point in time no Derek album is like the previous, he started out in acoustic folk, moved to atmospheric rock, then to acoustic rock, then beatlesque, then electronica, then instrumental, his next project is something called Sola-Mi, a concept band working on a soundtrack for a movie about ??? Derek wrote the music but it has a female vocalist, you can go to sola-mi.com and download it for free
Stockholm Syndrome (5th and most recent studio album) Derek has been a controversial 'Christian' artist since his first album, but went so far off the deep end (read used sh$# on my favorite song) that his record company decided to censor his album, so Derek did something crazy and let it out through a series of internet mysteries. This album has been his greatest departure from Caedmon's and She Must and Shall Go Free, having a strong electronic feel, since he and Josh Moore built it around sounds instead of straight up writing songs. Favorite Song: What Matters More
Mockingbird (3rd album) Derek's first foray into blatant political activism. As a liberal leaning Christian I can appreciate that a lot. Favorite Song: A King & A Kingdom
She Must and Shall Go Free (1st album) Derek started off on a very acoustic, very folk, very Christian road (although he did use whore and bastard (in the correct use) in his lyrics). The simple fact that Derek is willing to get into trouble for what he believes makes me love him a little more. Favorite Songs: A tie between Take to the World (a song of entering the world to save it) & Wedding Dress (a song about the church being whorish)
The Ringing Bell (4th Album) While Derek continued his political statements he moved from the acoustic sound of Mockingbird to a more Beatles influenced sound with this album. Favorite Song: This Too Shall Be Made Right (a song I have already used in two sermons)
I see things upside down (2nd album) Derek moved from the folk sound of She Must into an atmospheric sound reminiscent of some Radiohead. Favorite Song: T-Shirts (another DWebb song that I have used in a sermon)
3. Jars of Clay. When I first heard Flood, their first single, it was on a secular radio station and I had no clue that they were a Christian band until after I had purchased the album. To be honest Flood is not really like the album, so it took me a while to really embrace the band, but embrace them I did, then they had somewhat of a sophomore slump with Much Afraid, and my love affair with Jars didn't really start until their third album, If I Left the Zoo. While I was in college I worked at Reardon Auditorium and when Jars came to town I took them across town searching for marbles, it is one of my claims to fame.
the Long Fall Back to Earth (8th Album) is a great album, full of amazing song after amazing song, Dan, the lead singer keeps getting better and better as a vocalist. I have to mention my second favorite song on this album, Boys (Lesson One), which is a song to Dan's son, it is a beautiful and moving song, as a guy about to have his first child I love that song, but it still isn't as infectious as my favorite one. Favorite Song: Headphones
the Shelter (9th and most recent album) is a communal album about community. Jars invited several artists to help out with the Album, including Derek Webb, Burlap to Cashmere and Mac Powell (lead singer of Third Day), among others. It is a collection of songs for the church about the church, a new way to look at the collection of people with the four walls of a church and to spur them toward living out the command to be the body of Christ. I have used the song Shelter in a sermon that Mary and I preached during our time at Discover Church. Favorite Song: Small Rebellions
Good Monsters (7th Album) while I am a ginormous fan of music and a rather obsessive one at that, once I like an artist I will buy every album they ever make, Mary is nothing like that, she hardly ever gains a band and she will walk away content with liking only one album of theirs, this is that one album of Jars that I got Mary to like, so if you haven't tried Jars, maybe this could be your entry also. Favorite Song: Oh My God
Jars of Clay (1st Album), like I said it took me a bit to warm up to the album as a whole, because I expected it to be a more 'rock' album, which didn't come until the 11th hour. But once I realized what it was, a pop/rock album with singer/songwriter tendencies I loved it. Favorite Song: Worlds Apart
Who We Are Instead (5th Album) was a surprising album when it arrived, it was a little more acoustic, it was a little more folky, it has a decidedly 'hippee' fell to it at times, and I loved it right away. It was somehow more focused and universal at the same time. Favorite Song: Faith Enough
If I Left the Zoo (3rd Album) when this album came out I had an disagreement with my friend Dan about whether or not the lead singer was sounding better or worse, I thought better, Dan thought worse. While Much Afraid was a more mellow and introspective album If I Left the Zoo has a decidedly more fun and fancy free feel to it. For that reason I was probably a little biased for it, so maybe I gave Dan a harder time then I needed to, sorry bout that. Favorite Song: Famous Last Words
the Eleventh Hour (4th Album) is what I would call Jars first rock album, it has a more driving edge to it, it is also a more relational album as opposed to their previous three albums. Favorite Song: Something Beautiful
Redemption Songs (6th Album) is a hymns album, not much else to say about that, I like it. Favorite Song: They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love ('Nuff said)
Much Afraid (2nd Album) is Jars most mellow album, as such I was disappointed by it. It is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, it just wasn't what I wanted at the time. Favorite Song: Tea and Sympathy
4. Collective Soul. I had heard Shine on the radio, both Christian and secular radio at that, and I liked it, but I wasn't really looking for another band to follow at the time. I was reintroduced to them, by my best friend at the time John Depto, on the second album, which was their first self-titled album, it had World I Know, December, and Gel and I was blown away. Ed and Dean Roland, lead singer and rhythm guitarist respectively, were sons of a Baptist minister so Ed's lyrics have a spiritual undertones, which I always like in my music (not exclusively obviously by the list of artists at the bottom of this post). Like everyone else on this list Ed's lyrics speak to something inside of me, that is the real determination of a band that stays with me as opposed to those that I like a little but can live without. The one negative about Collective is that there is not much range in their CDs they each walk that line between pop/rock, some are a little harder, some a little lighter, but not much difference between their hardest album (Blender maybe) and their lightest album (hmm, Youth)
Collective Soul (2nd Album) like I said I was blown away by this CD, each and every song is great. Favorite Song: the World I Know
Dosage (4th Album) Favorite Song: She Said (a hidden track that appeared on the Scream 2 soundtrack)
Youth (6th Album) after a couple years in limbo Collective Soul reappeared on their own label and put out a really good CD. Favorite Song: Better Now
Afterwords (7th Album) Favorite Song: New Vibration
Blender (5th Album) is Collective Soul's last album with their original guitarist Ross Childress, who was really good. Favorite Song: Perfect Day
Collective Soul (Rabbit) (8th and most recent album) this is the only band I know that has multiple self-titled albums, this one is colloquially known as rabbit, because of the rabbit on the cover. Favorite Song: Staring Down
Disciplined Breakdown (3rd Album) Favorite Song: Crowded Head
Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid (1st album) the one thing I would say is that while I wasn't blown away with CD in the beginning or even later, there were a couple songs that did speak to me at different times in my life, including Wasting Time, a song about holding about telling someone to leave you alone, because they aren't going to get you to think the way they want you to. Favorite Song: Wasting Time
5. Joshua Kadison. So, the first time I heard Joshua on the radio I thought it was Elton John, in addition I thought that there was a line in his first single, Jessie, that I thought said 'we can go to Mexico Youth Academy' in reality it was 'we can go to Mexico, you, the cat, and me.' The reason I know that it was not correct was because he had lyrics in his liner notes, unlike a certain singer named Seal, I have no clue what the lyrics are for Kiss from a rose (on the brain, in the rain, across the grain...who knows? who?). Joshua was what a lot of people would call a two hit wonder, which is not true at all each CD of his are full of great music and great stories.
Painted Desert Serenade (1st Album) is Josh's only major hit, and for a long time it was the only CD of his I knew about, then one day at work a couple of years ago a customer told me that he liked his follow up more, so I went looking, and there were two others at the time, then a fourth became available. Favorite Song: Georgia Rain, a sequel to the hit Jessie.
the Complete Storyville Sessions (4th and most recent album) is Josh's most story oriented album, as you may have been able to tell by the title. The first time I listened to Paris I cried while driving home from Ohio, not the best time for that to happen. I have become a rather emotional guy as I age, I cry when I hear people tell stories, I cry at movies occasionally, but I have only cried at two songs, Seventeen by Mat Kearney and Paris by Joshua Kadison. Favorite Song: Paris
the Complete Venice Beach Sessions (3rd Album) is what I would call Josh's most spiritual album, over and over it has a feeling of love and a greater power/spirit. It is an extremely uplifting CD, a CD that calls us to love the people around us and leave the rest in grace's hands. To some extent it is a more 'Christian' album than most Christian albums, and he isn't even a Christian. Favorite Song: Do You Know How Beautiful You Are?
Delilah Blue (2nd Album) is a very gospel tinged CD, in truth it is the one I have listened to the least, not because it is bad, but because I absolutely love the other three. Favorite Song: The Gospel According to My Ol' Man
The next ones up (In Alphabetical Order): Andrew Osenga, Andrew Peterson, the Avett Brothers, Billy Joel, Blessid Union of Souls, B.O.B., Breaking Benjamin, Caedmon's Call, the Classic Crime, Coldplay, Creed, Darius Rucker, Dave Matthews Band, David Crowder Band, DC Talk, Death Cab for Cutie, Duncan Shiek, Edwin McCain, Eli, Eminem (yep, you read that right), Everclear, Five for Fighting, Fort Minor, the Fray, Garth Brooks, the Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, the Hawk in Paris, Hootie and the Blowfish, Jimmy Buffet, Jimmy Eat World, Jon Foreman, Kevin Max, Kutless, Lecrae, Leeland, Lifehouse, Linkin Park, Mat Kearney, Matchbox Twenty, MercyMe, Michael Jackson, Michael W. Smith, Mumford & Sons, Newsboys, Nine Days, the Normals, Owl City, Paul Colman, P.O.D., R. Kelly, RED, Relient K, Rob Thomas, Robbie Seay Band, the Rocket Summer, Santus Real, the Script, Sister Hazel, Steven Curtis Chapman, Sting, Switchfoot, Tait, Tim McGraw, TobyMac, Train, U2, Will Smith (including the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince years), 30 Second to Mars
As you may be able to tell if you actually read that list, a) I like a wide range of music, perhaps wider than any other pastor I know, b) I have a lot of music, 25.5 days worth according to itunes, and c) I buy too much music....ahhhh!!!
The church is sometimes like a lovelorn teenager
So...yesterday I came to a rather great insight, which I'll get to sometime later in this blog, but first let's talk about relationships.
I had my first boy/girl relationship at the age of three (I started early). She lived down the street and we would hang out together and play go fish and I don't know really what else we did, I don't remember making out, but you never know.
My first real girlfriend was B (names withheld on the off chance that people who read this blog might know any of them) in 2nd grade. We would play together during recess, we even got married in fourth grade, it was a serious long term relationship. There are three main moments in our relationship that come to my mind all these many years later. A) For Valentine's day in 4th grade she gave me a whole set of ALF cards; B) During a church Halloween party we went into my mother's car and had our first kiss and then 12 others, just pecks, hadn't graduated to french kissing yet; and C) towards the end of 4th grade we went through divorce proceedings because I had met a new girl on the bus and told her that if I wasn't with B I would be with her.
Then in 6th grade I dated T for two weeks, it was intense we confessed our love and then she broke up with me, oddly enough it would not be the last time that someone confessed how much I meant to them right before they broke up with me...but I did the same and worse, so there's that. In truth I wasn't really broken up about T leaving me, I had a crush on A anyway, but that never transpired.
I went through a dry spell in junior high, I liked a lot of girls but it was an awkward time so things didn't really work my way until E, then I got what I wanted and it couldn't haven't went much worse. My relationship with E started off physically and when we officially started dating it continued in that vein until chances were taken and mistakes were made.
Then in 11th grade I dated D and then later fell for J. My relationship with D was what love stories are made of, unrequited love then met, then I broke up with her on the day of her Birthday party...I suck. My time with J never moved past friends because I was scared of what could happen in that relationship. I was so torn up about that almost relationship that my mom used to think I made my mistake with J instead.
It is funny in a way, throughout middle school and high school I was what would be considered a geek and a dork and picked on by the cuter, bigger, more popular guys, but throughout that time almost every relationship I had ended because I wanted it to end, I was the heartbreaker, I bet most of those guys back then wouldn't have believed that.
But even though my actual relationships were "positive" experiences for me I still lived under a cloud of rejection, because while I had relationships there were a larger number of girls that I wanted to date but never had the nerve to ask them out, I was Charlie Brown with a multitude of Little Red Haired girls. I lived most of my time in the fear of being hurt, even though it hardly ever happened.
Then I went to college and I had relationships, but this time around I was broken up with as much or more than I broke up. One girl I dated broke up with me twice, but in the end I got back at her by breaking up with her the third and final time we ended our relationship.
So, what is the point of all of this? I suppose it looks a little like this, the other day I was having a conversation about church, about how sometimes people leave the church, sometimes on good terms, sometimes not, but the real issue is if/when those people come back. The person I was talking to conveyed that they found it hard to put aside the feelings that they had to deal with when encountering these people, especially in the times when they were coming back for help.
It seems to me that a lot of people in our churches, and even a lot of churches as a whole have a real problem with rejection. We fear that people may leave, so when they first come to us we don't always welcome them with open arms. If they do leave we are extremely reticent to allow them to come back for fear that they might leave again, maybe they are just using us. So, what do we do?
It seems that we have a few options. We can keep people at arms length, which in truth pretty much guarantees that they will leave at some point. Or we can welcome them in and if they leave we can hold it against them and never welcome them again. Or we can welcome people in and then if they ever come back we can welcome them in again, and again, and again. Andrew Osenga, while he was the lead singer of the Normals, once said, "It is about opening ourselves to being hurt, because only then do we open ourselves up to being loved." That is what it all seems to be about, as the Bride of Christ we are called to love people unconditionally, willing to step into their lives, willing to walk beside them, and if need be willing to stretch out our arms and die so that they might find life.
Like Andrew said, loving does not preclude being hurt, it in fact can open that possibility up even more so, the more vulnerable we are with people the greater chance they can reach in and rip out our hearts, but even if that happens at least we and they will know that we hearts.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
I had my first boy/girl relationship at the age of three (I started early). She lived down the street and we would hang out together and play go fish and I don't know really what else we did, I don't remember making out, but you never know.
My first real girlfriend was B (names withheld on the off chance that people who read this blog might know any of them) in 2nd grade. We would play together during recess, we even got married in fourth grade, it was a serious long term relationship. There are three main moments in our relationship that come to my mind all these many years later. A) For Valentine's day in 4th grade she gave me a whole set of ALF cards; B) During a church Halloween party we went into my mother's car and had our first kiss and then 12 others, just pecks, hadn't graduated to french kissing yet; and C) towards the end of 4th grade we went through divorce proceedings because I had met a new girl on the bus and told her that if I wasn't with B I would be with her.
Then in 6th grade I dated T for two weeks, it was intense we confessed our love and then she broke up with me, oddly enough it would not be the last time that someone confessed how much I meant to them right before they broke up with me...but I did the same and worse, so there's that. In truth I wasn't really broken up about T leaving me, I had a crush on A anyway, but that never transpired.
I went through a dry spell in junior high, I liked a lot of girls but it was an awkward time so things didn't really work my way until E, then I got what I wanted and it couldn't haven't went much worse. My relationship with E started off physically and when we officially started dating it continued in that vein until chances were taken and mistakes were made.
Then in 11th grade I dated D and then later fell for J. My relationship with D was what love stories are made of, unrequited love then met, then I broke up with her on the day of her Birthday party...I suck. My time with J never moved past friends because I was scared of what could happen in that relationship. I was so torn up about that almost relationship that my mom used to think I made my mistake with J instead.
It is funny in a way, throughout middle school and high school I was what would be considered a geek and a dork and picked on by the cuter, bigger, more popular guys, but throughout that time almost every relationship I had ended because I wanted it to end, I was the heartbreaker, I bet most of those guys back then wouldn't have believed that.
But even though my actual relationships were "positive" experiences for me I still lived under a cloud of rejection, because while I had relationships there were a larger number of girls that I wanted to date but never had the nerve to ask them out, I was Charlie Brown with a multitude of Little Red Haired girls. I lived most of my time in the fear of being hurt, even though it hardly ever happened.
Then I went to college and I had relationships, but this time around I was broken up with as much or more than I broke up. One girl I dated broke up with me twice, but in the end I got back at her by breaking up with her the third and final time we ended our relationship.
So, what is the point of all of this? I suppose it looks a little like this, the other day I was having a conversation about church, about how sometimes people leave the church, sometimes on good terms, sometimes not, but the real issue is if/when those people come back. The person I was talking to conveyed that they found it hard to put aside the feelings that they had to deal with when encountering these people, especially in the times when they were coming back for help.
It seems to me that a lot of people in our churches, and even a lot of churches as a whole have a real problem with rejection. We fear that people may leave, so when they first come to us we don't always welcome them with open arms. If they do leave we are extremely reticent to allow them to come back for fear that they might leave again, maybe they are just using us. So, what do we do?
It seems that we have a few options. We can keep people at arms length, which in truth pretty much guarantees that they will leave at some point. Or we can welcome them in and if they leave we can hold it against them and never welcome them again. Or we can welcome people in and then if they ever come back we can welcome them in again, and again, and again. Andrew Osenga, while he was the lead singer of the Normals, once said, "It is about opening ourselves to being hurt, because only then do we open ourselves up to being loved." That is what it all seems to be about, as the Bride of Christ we are called to love people unconditionally, willing to step into their lives, willing to walk beside them, and if need be willing to stretch out our arms and die so that they might find life.
Like Andrew said, loving does not preclude being hurt, it in fact can open that possibility up even more so, the more vulnerable we are with people the greater chance they can reach in and rip out our hearts, but even if that happens at least we and they will know that we hearts.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Monday, June 4, 2012
God of Answers...and Mystery
So...yesterday was Trinity Sunday and after a turn of events I decided to actually preach on the Trinity. I can't speak for every pastor out there, nor would I want to if I could (like Derek Webb once sang, "I thank the Lord that the Truth is not dependent on me"), but for me it was a difficult assignment. Not that I don't believe in the Trinity, I do, but how God works is a little confusing. To that end I got up to preach and my sermon looked a little like this.
First I talked about the progression of the Trinity. In Gen1:27 there is some kind of our, some kind of community. So, in the beginning all three persons were in heaven. Secondly, starting with the indwelling of Jesus and continuing with the sending of the Spirit on Pentecost, one part of God was here on Earth, and the others were elsewhere. This continues to the present day, God and Jesus in heaven and the Spirit moving among us today. Unfortunately the Spirit is like a scent on the wind, filling your nostrils but sometimes hard to pin down its actual place. Finally, in Revelation 21-22 there is coming a day when the Godhead in all its fullness will dwell among the people in a New (Redeemed) Earth.
Following that I went into a history lesson of how the whole idea of a Trinity became a doctrine of the Trinity. Looking at Arius and Athanasius and their disagreements on the person of Christ, how that was decided at the Council of Nicaea. The looking further at the First Council of Constantinople and how they decided that both Jesus and God were equal with and one with the creator God. And the idea of the Trinity was born, or at least upheld roughly 350 years after Jesus hung on a cross.
Following my little history lesson I told a story of St. Augustine,
One day when St. Augustine was at his wits' end to understand and explain the Trinity, he went out for a walk. He kept turning over in his mind, "One God, but three Persons. Three Persons--not three Gods but one God. What does it mean? How can it be explained? How can my mind take it in?"
And so he was torturing his mind and beating his brains out, when he saw a little boy on the beach. He approached him to see what he was doing. The child had dug a small hole in the sand. With his hands he was carrying water from the ocean and was dumping it in the little hole. St. Augustine asked, "What are you doing, my child?"
The child replied, "I want to put all of the water of the ocean into this hole."
St. Augustine asked, "But is it possible for all of the water of this great ocean to be contained in this little hole?"
And then it dawned on Augustine, "If the water of the ocean cannot be contained in this little hole, then how can the Infinite Trinitarian God be contained in your mind?
First I talked about the progression of the Trinity. In Gen1:27 there is some kind of our, some kind of community. So, in the beginning all three persons were in heaven. Secondly, starting with the indwelling of Jesus and continuing with the sending of the Spirit on Pentecost, one part of God was here on Earth, and the others were elsewhere. This continues to the present day, God and Jesus in heaven and the Spirit moving among us today. Unfortunately the Spirit is like a scent on the wind, filling your nostrils but sometimes hard to pin down its actual place. Finally, in Revelation 21-22 there is coming a day when the Godhead in all its fullness will dwell among the people in a New (Redeemed) Earth.
Following that I went into a history lesson of how the whole idea of a Trinity became a doctrine of the Trinity. Looking at Arius and Athanasius and their disagreements on the person of Christ, how that was decided at the Council of Nicaea. The looking further at the First Council of Constantinople and how they decided that both Jesus and God were equal with and one with the creator God. And the idea of the Trinity was born, or at least upheld roughly 350 years after Jesus hung on a cross.
Following my little history lesson I told a story of St. Augustine,
One day when St. Augustine was at his wits' end to understand and explain the Trinity, he went out for a walk. He kept turning over in his mind, "One God, but three Persons. Three Persons--not three Gods but one God. What does it mean? How can it be explained? How can my mind take it in?"
And so he was torturing his mind and beating his brains out, when he saw a little boy on the beach. He approached him to see what he was doing. The child had dug a small hole in the sand. With his hands he was carrying water from the ocean and was dumping it in the little hole. St. Augustine asked, "What are you doing, my child?"
The child replied, "I want to put all of the water of the ocean into this hole."
St. Augustine asked, "But is it possible for all of the water of this great ocean to be contained in this little hole?"
And then it dawned on Augustine, "If the water of the ocean cannot be contained in this little hole, then how can the Infinite Trinitarian God be contained in your mind?
I finished up with the following...I can give you a multitude of analogies that may get you to
understand the Trinity, but none of them will really explain it, in the end it
is a mystery, maybe like Augustine said it is just too big for our finite minds
to grasp.
The truth of the matter is that even though I am a pastor I do not have all the answers, too many times I have an 'I don't know' for an answer. That is not always an easy answer to share, it is altogether easier to try to convince people that I do have all the answers. After all, that is what I thought about my pastors growing up, that they knew things that I didn't, which was and is true to an extent, but pastors, much like everyone else can only know so much. Past that point we have to merely rely on belief, on faith, on the knowledge that God doesn't require complete knowledge, just complete love.
Peace and love,
Pastor K
Friday, June 1, 2012
3
So...1 was about me and the blog. 2 about marriage. So, naturally 3 is about baby.
Last night we went and saw What To Expect When You Are Expecting with a couple who is also preparing for their first child. It was a much better movie than I was expecting, unlike a lot of recent comedies I have seen not every funny moment was in the trailer. The acting was decent, the story, while following a multitude of story-lines, wasn't as bloated as say Valentine's Day or New Years Eve, to me it was more manageble, like a Love Actually.
What it did show pretty well is that pregnancy is a many varied experience, no two women's seem to be the same. It seems like it is an almost daily occurrence when Mary tells me that someone has told her something about our baby because she is experiencing x like this person experienced x and therefore our baby will be a boy/girl, depending on what their child is. In addition it seems that most women seem to become pregnancy experts because they had a child, and while I am sure experiencing pregnancy, much like experiencing anything, makes you more knowledgeable about the subject, it does not necessarily make you an expert. The point is that my wife is allowed to experience what she experiences when she experiences it.
For those who have seen the movie I most identified with J Lo's husband, for most of the movie he was a little scared about having a kid, and for most of our marriage I was that guy. I have never been the type of person who desperately wanted kids, if they came fine, if they didn't even better. So, to be honest I entered into trying to have a child with a lot of trepidation. The whole time I was of two minds each time we found out we weren't pregnant, a little sad but a lot relived. This made me even more concerned about how I would feel if/when we ever were pregnant. A part of me always worried how I would react, if I would be able to not show my fright and worry if that day ever came.
Well, that day came a few months ago. Mary came home from work and said "I want to take a test." We had taken one just a few days before and nothing, so I didn't really see the point, but I said, "OK." She went up to take the test and then I heard her walking around in the bedroom, figuring it was a no I went upstairs to console her. I went into the bedroom and said, "No, huh?" And she told me that it needed a few minutes to work so she had left it in the bathroom. I decided to go check on it, fully expecting a 'not pregnant' instead I picked it up and it read 'pregnant.'
In that moment my world changed, not only were we going to have a baby, but I was really and truly happy about it, in that moment I was really looking forward to being a dad.
I can't explain how or why but seeing that one word changed me down to my very fibers, since about 25 I had become a constant worrier, I don't really know how that happened, when I was young I used to say that I didn't get stressed about anything. But somewhere along the way that all changed and I had the occasional panic attack, I would always see the dark clouds and miss the sun. But since that day when the test read 'pregnant' I worry a lot less, which is odd, shouldn't I worry more? Shouldn't the idea that I am going to have another mouth to feed, another person to clothe, a human being that is entirely reliant on Mary and I make me worry more? Maybe it should, but it doesn't, I can honestly say that I believe, no more than that, I know that no matter what obstacles come we will figure them out as a family.
I didn't see it coming, but I am so glad he's here...welcome Kenny, the family man. To that end I would like to share the lyrics to the song Family Man by Andrew Peterson.
I am a family man
I traded in my mustang for a minivan
This is not what I was headed for when I began
This was not my plan
I am a family man
But everything I had to lose
Came back a thousand times in you
And you fill me up with love
Fill me up with love
And you help me stand
'cause I am a family man
And life is good
That's something I always knew
But I just never understood
If you'd asked me then you know I'd say I never would
Settle down in a neighborhood
I never thought I could
But I don't remember anymore
Who I even was before
You filled me up with love
Filled me up with love
And you help me stand
So come on with the thunder clouds
Let the cold wind rail against us, let the rain come down
We can build a roof above us with the love we've found
We can stand our ground
So let the rain come down
Because love binds up what breaks in two
So keep my heart so close to you
And I'll fill you up with love
Fill you up with love
And I'll help you stand
'Cause I am a family man
I'm saving my vacation time
For Disneyland
This is not what I was headed for when I began
This was not my plan
It's so much better than
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Last night we went and saw What To Expect When You Are Expecting with a couple who is also preparing for their first child. It was a much better movie than I was expecting, unlike a lot of recent comedies I have seen not every funny moment was in the trailer. The acting was decent, the story, while following a multitude of story-lines, wasn't as bloated as say Valentine's Day or New Years Eve, to me it was more manageble, like a Love Actually.
What it did show pretty well is that pregnancy is a many varied experience, no two women's seem to be the same. It seems like it is an almost daily occurrence when Mary tells me that someone has told her something about our baby because she is experiencing x like this person experienced x and therefore our baby will be a boy/girl, depending on what their child is. In addition it seems that most women seem to become pregnancy experts because they had a child, and while I am sure experiencing pregnancy, much like experiencing anything, makes you more knowledgeable about the subject, it does not necessarily make you an expert. The point is that my wife is allowed to experience what she experiences when she experiences it.
For those who have seen the movie I most identified with J Lo's husband, for most of the movie he was a little scared about having a kid, and for most of our marriage I was that guy. I have never been the type of person who desperately wanted kids, if they came fine, if they didn't even better. So, to be honest I entered into trying to have a child with a lot of trepidation. The whole time I was of two minds each time we found out we weren't pregnant, a little sad but a lot relived. This made me even more concerned about how I would feel if/when we ever were pregnant. A part of me always worried how I would react, if I would be able to not show my fright and worry if that day ever came.
Well, that day came a few months ago. Mary came home from work and said "I want to take a test." We had taken one just a few days before and nothing, so I didn't really see the point, but I said, "OK." She went up to take the test and then I heard her walking around in the bedroom, figuring it was a no I went upstairs to console her. I went into the bedroom and said, "No, huh?" And she told me that it needed a few minutes to work so she had left it in the bathroom. I decided to go check on it, fully expecting a 'not pregnant' instead I picked it up and it read 'pregnant.'
In that moment my world changed, not only were we going to have a baby, but I was really and truly happy about it, in that moment I was really looking forward to being a dad.
I can't explain how or why but seeing that one word changed me down to my very fibers, since about 25 I had become a constant worrier, I don't really know how that happened, when I was young I used to say that I didn't get stressed about anything. But somewhere along the way that all changed and I had the occasional panic attack, I would always see the dark clouds and miss the sun. But since that day when the test read 'pregnant' I worry a lot less, which is odd, shouldn't I worry more? Shouldn't the idea that I am going to have another mouth to feed, another person to clothe, a human being that is entirely reliant on Mary and I make me worry more? Maybe it should, but it doesn't, I can honestly say that I believe, no more than that, I know that no matter what obstacles come we will figure them out as a family.
I didn't see it coming, but I am so glad he's here...welcome Kenny, the family man. To that end I would like to share the lyrics to the song Family Man by Andrew Peterson.
I am a family man
I traded in my mustang for a minivan
This is not what I was headed for when I began
This was not my plan
I am a family man
But everything I had to lose
Came back a thousand times in you
And you fill me up with love
Fill me up with love
And you help me stand
'cause I am a family man
And life is good
That's something I always knew
But I just never understood
If you'd asked me then you know I'd say I never would
Settle down in a neighborhood
I never thought I could
But I don't remember anymore
Who I even was before
You filled me up with love
Filled me up with love
And you help me stand
So come on with the thunder clouds
Let the cold wind rail against us, let the rain come down
We can build a roof above us with the love we've found
We can stand our ground
So let the rain come down
Because love binds up what breaks in two
So keep my heart so close to you
And I'll fill you up with love
Fill you up with love
And I'll help you stand
'Cause I am a family man
I'm saving my vacation time
For Disneyland
This is not what I was headed for when I began
This was not my plan
It's so much better than
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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