Another good band

A friend recently told me about the band Neadtobreathe.
To be honest, I’m always getting recomendations from people about new music and bands I “should listen to.” Usually, I check out the leads, but don’t always get excited about what I find. These guys are different – their sound is clean and unique. I like them alot. They’re really good…of course that’s just my opinion. The song Stones Under Rushing Water [video] has struck a particular chord [excuse the pun] with me. What’s really nice is you can check out their Needtobreath website and listen to full length songs for free.

Keep it simple

The notion of simplicity keeps showing up in my life, work, reading, discussions, etc. By and large, it remains just that…an idea – because few things are simple these days. In an age where advancing technology and global communication is supposed to streamline and uncomplicate all the confusion and make things easier and faster to accomplish – in many ways it just makes matters worse.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. It seems people today are hungry for simplicity in life because the world around us has become so incredibly complex. Simple is not easy, but it sure sounds appealing to me.

Quotes on simplicity…

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. [Leonardo da Vinci]

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary can speak. [Hans Hoffman]

To be simple is to be great. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Out of complexity, find simplicity. When the solution is simple, God is answering. [Albert Einstein]

Got to get back to something simple just to save yourselves…keep it simple nowadays and that’s just that. [Van Morrison]

a god and godess are gone

Two cultural icons passed into eternity yesterday. Farrah Fawcett – a sex symbol from the 1970s whose appeal impacted a generation.  And Michael Jackson – the King of pop music.

The outcry of public grief has begun and will no doubt continue for a while. These celebrities were hugely popular. Once again we are reminded that death plays no favorites. Fame and fortune cannot rescue humanity from our mortality. Best to heed the ancient wisdom of The Teacher [Ecclesiastes] who doesn’t shy away from reality or offer shallow explainations to deep questions…

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”– before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred.

Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him–before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

The story

What is the real story? Who are we and why are we? Our world is filled with narratives that seek to explain it all. For me, the one that makes most sense can be summarized quite simply…

God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. [Genesis 1]

What is your story? I think the word’s of Brandi Carlile expresse it nicely – you and I were made by someone and for someone. 

Too quick to judge

Our tendency as human beings is to make snap judgements of people based on outward appearances. It is such a sad reality. Every now and then the old saying gets proved…“you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Have you heard the Susan Boyle story?

Too bad we all can’t move past the superficial and try to see the gifts and potential of everyone we meet no matter how they appear on the outside.  I guess that is just another one of our human limitations.

Fortunately, God doesn’t judge on externals. “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” [1 Samuel 16:7]

jersey boy

I’m not a big movie watcher neither am I a professional wrestling fan – so a movie about professional wrestling is nowhere on my radar UNLESS of course it’s about a New Jersey wrestler and The Boss does some of the music.

Ok…the truth is I haven’t seen the movie and probably won’t – but the song “The Wrestler” is at worth a listen. It is classic Springsteen – which some of you will love and others will hate. For me?  I like it.  Why? I guess you can take the boy out of Jersey but you can’t take the Jersey out of the boy.

divine poetic genius

I came across this reflection on Christmas describing the personal epiphany Bono had just after returning home, to Dublin, from a long tour with U2. On Christmas Eve he went to the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Jonathan Swift was dean. Apparently he was given a really poor seat, one obstructed by a pillar, making it even more difficult for him to keep his eyes open…but it was there that the Christmas story struck him like never before. He writes:

“The idea that God, if there is a force of Logic and Love in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in s**t and straw…a child… I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry … Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came streaming down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.”

The poetry and genius of Christmas – a narrative only God could truly imagine.

Here is Bono singing U2 Christmas..

worlds collide

What do you get when you combine a legend of Rock n Roll with a Bluegrass great? Here is the answer….

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Killing The Blues [from Raising Sand] How did I miss this so long? A friend of Margie told us about it. Thanks AT. FYI…I’m not a big country/bluegrass guy – but how can anything go wrong with Robert Plant? Seriously.

bailout song

In the midst of financial crisis and frenzy….keeping a sense of humor is invaluable. These guys get it.

60’s song, but culture’s same ole tune

The current financial cisis and our obsession with it reveals the truth.

 MONEY….it’s want I [we] our culture wants.

The abundance of a rich man, permits him no sleep.

-Ecclesiastes 5:12