I had the melody and little bits of lyrics rattling around in my head for a while so I dusted off the ol’ microphone and laid down a few tracks in honor of Easter.

Sarah, on the other hand, went to watch Titanic 3D. Look who’s spiritual now.

Music is both relaxing and meaningful to me because the rules are few, it’s very subjective, but it can also be such a powerful tool to share emotions and ideas. You just turn on the mic and create a moment…

So here’s a little guitar, classical guitar, djembe, and Irish whistle…

an easter song

Jesus came
Born a babe
Empty of all but love.
Bethlehem
In God’s good plan
Joyed the earth at the Savior’s birth.

In a moment, in an instant
The Christ child is born
And the cold night of sin
By the dawn
Starts to warm
As a grateful world kneels and the angels all sing
Jesus is born for a sinner like me.

Jesus came
To seek and to save
All those lost and gone astray.
The way he showed
The truth he spoke
The life he gave
The world to save.

In a moment, in an instant
Was light first beheld
By eyes that sickness and sin once had veiled.
In a moment, in an instant
A dark heart believed
Jesus came that I might see.

Jesus came
Bore my shame
Shed his blood to bring me to God.
My sin he wore
My shame he bore
Up that hill where sinners where killed.

In a moment, in an instant
The cross raised to the sky
And the arms of my savior were nailed open wide.
Bought with blood sealed with love
This gift that he gives
Jesus died that I might live.

Three long days
The world awaits
What long foretold we soon would hold.
Death’s dungeon bars
At the cross set ajar
And now the King will come, life to bring.

In a moment, in an instant
light flashed through the tomb
And triumph took form from the shadows and the gloom.
In a moment, in an instant
For all the world to see
Jesus arose that I might be free.

Alleluia will be the song of all the redeemed
Alleluia throughout all eternity.

———————

RANDOM FUN BONUS:

click to enlarge

The image to the right is called a stereogram. A stereogram is a set of at least two separate images that are taken at slightly different angles. When you know how to look at it properly, a stereogram creates a 3D image. In this case, you’ll see a 3D picture of my recording setup!

To view a stereogram, look at the image then slowly let your eyes unfocus until you see a third “ghost” image appear between the two pictures. It’s like seeing double at first, but then your brain aligns the two images to make a new one appear. Cool!

It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty awesome.

Need more instructions? This article is a very handy resource!

I do not judge a person based on race. I do not judge a person based on economic status, gender, nationality, or religion. I judge a person based on one factor and one factor only: Interestingness.

If you’re not unique, engaging, original, experienced, reflective, charming, or witty — if you’re not interesting — I have no time for you. It’s that simple.

Lest you think it is cruel to pass such judgement, I must remind you that lack of interestingness is a choice.

The Great Equalizer

Interestingness is not limited to the rich, famous, or intellectual. Interestingness is not dependent on age or ideology. Everyone has an equal chance to be interesting, to be fascinating, to be one-of-a-kind. You can be an interesting king, cab driver, or accountant.

Interestingness is the great equalizer.

True, the measure of who is interesting and who is not is entirely subjective. Wonderfully subjective. It’s a subjectivity that puts you to the test in every conversation and every situation. Interaction becomes more than an exchange of information. Or a chance to vent your emotions. Or a place to kill time with shallow small talk.

When you are an interesting person, every exchange is an opportunity: To inspire, engage, overwhelm, and imprint. To sketch a picture of the world and color it with your hard-earned perspective.  It’s an opportunity to be unselfish. It’s an opportunity to hold another mind’s attention, to make another heart beat faster, to stir another action or reaction. It’s a chance to go off-script, off auto-pilot, and off the beaten path.

In other words, to be interesting.

Never Too Late

So, you’re not interesting? That’s ok. Being interesting doesn’t take much more time than you’re expending now but it will require your thought and attention.  It’s never too late to start.

Read something other than the back of a cereal box. Avoid identifying with any group of people because you are too lazy to form your own opinions. Lean less on labels and stereotypes. Ask more questions.

Talk about yourself less. Listen more than you speak. Watch the news channel that you don’t agree with. Stop eating lunch alone. Take a walk and notice the details you’ve never seen.

Keep a journal. Volunteer. Take a different way to work. Explain what you believe to someone who doesn’t. Take a class, a trip, or a ride. Face a fear. Become an expert. Laugh at the unexpected. 

In other words, become interesting.

I can’t wait.

It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

Eugene Peterson, “The Contemplative Pastor”

Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.”

You don’t have to hang out with me very long to know that I almost always have a notebook within reach.

It’s a habit I’ve had since I was about 13. That’s when I finally realized that I forget almost everything that I don’t write down. When I fill up a notebook, I put it on the shelf, and start another.

Funny thing about these notebooks is how my relationship with them changes over time. My current notebook is like a bank. I deposit ideas, thoughts, and doodles for safe keeping — and hope for future…um…”interest.”

When I thumb through previous notebooks, they’re less like banks and more like mirrors. I see my past reflections, a blurry image my former self, and that view shows me some of what I’m like today. How I’ve changed. How I’ve grown or slipped. What core passions link my present decisions with my past desires.

Sometimes the image in the mirror makes me smile or laugh out loud. Sometimes it’s sobering wake-up call to see what I was and what I’ve become.

garageband for ipad

I was itching to try out recording with my new (to me) guitar last week when I came across an old notebook. There were some quotes to remember, some books I wanted to read. And here and there were a few lines of verse and some chords.

So I fired up the ol’ iPad and gave it a whirl. I remember playing this song at my little country church a few weeks after Christmas about a dozen years ago. Refreshing myself on the picking pattern was like crawling inside the attic and finding boxes of old photos from high school. Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.

Life was simple. Dreams were big. Odds were long. Risks were easy.

I had a good heart back then.

We celebrated Thanksgiving simply, in a tiny, pinewood cabin. Sarah made food, because she is awesome. We were surrounded by what makes us happy. Things like: mountains, trees, warm fires, books, our crazy pup, and each other.

It was the perfect backdrop for gratitude.  Simplicity distilled our thanks.

Away from the conveniences of the city. Away from flickering screens and battery powered devices that chirp, buzz, blink, and click. Away from all those things, my mind was refreshed with the insight that I wasn’t really thankful for blessings. I am thankful because of blessings.

Remove all that makes my life easy, fun, and productive and I still have just as much cause for gratitude. Why?  Because I experience just as much grace from the One who gives.

Plus, Sarah and Lewis got in lots of nature walks.

Click the pic for  an interactive panorama of the cabin:

And here are some photos….

Let’s be honest. Most of the time, IMs are for impromptu movie references and swapping LOLs.

But, every once in a while, you actually have a deep, useful instant message exchange that gives you an idea or helps you see something in a new way. I had one of those conversations with two friends this week….

We started out poking a little fun at the typical “inspirational women’s ministry speaker.” We ended up with a sad and true observation about how we all love inspiring stories of grace…as long as they’re not in the present tense.

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They think it forms the walls and lid for our minds and souls. The box shelters us from evil. Creativity — thinking outside the box — represents some kind of disruptive assault on all that is right and good.

We Christians have a hard time knowing when to be orthodox and when to be groundbreaking. There’s not much room for creativity when it comes to theology. It’s a set system. And that’s ok. But, it’s harmful to let our fixed theology calcify our minds.

The easy and lazy path is to be conservative in everything and fight change of every kind.

If you’re the kind of person that is threatend by change, I’m not judging you. I’m just inviting you to consider that you’re predisposition to favor the status quo (to be conservative) may be the function of other factors — your personality, your past experiences, your personal preferences.

In other words, if you don’t like Jackson Pollock, it’s not God’s fault.

Using God to back up your own ideas warps our world’s understanding of what God is like. And,  it makes you look silly:

“Christians are not always viewed as creative people, either by ourselves or the secular world. We tend to limit ourselves and what we are able to do with the talents and gifts God has given.

For example, for years may magazines and Sunday school publications bought their Bible art from a lithograph service. The little line drawings were safe, predictable, and dull. Then one publication decided to try something different. A Jewish artist was hired to illustrate Bible stories. She did an unusual job. The pictures seemed to come alive on the page. But no sooner had Christians opened their first issue than they began to write protest letters. “These pictures look too Jewish,” the letters declared. “The don’t feel Christian, you know. Some of the people in them aren’t smiling.” The artist’s work went into storage and the conservative readers breathed a sigh of relief; modernism had been stopped.

“In the world of art, we have chosen religious propaganda over genuine creative work. Yes, we are interested in pointing people to Christ, but that noble goal gets rather downgraded when we thing the Holy Spirit can’t work through excellence.” [1]

This is talking specifically about art, but the underlying principle applies to Christian’s aversion to change across the board. Using theology as a box to shelter us from having to make decisions about life in the contemporary world would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

Some of the most deeply spiritual and meaningful contributors to our understanding about God were also among history’s most creative minds. They did not view theology as a box. They saw it more as the mind’s north star. A fixed reference point essential for keeping their explorations of creation on a healthy course.

Theology didn’t hold them back. Theology wasn’t a protective shield from the harsh realities of life. Theology was their map to adventure and their guarntee that, wherever they might roam — physically, intellectually, creatively — all they had to do was look up to get their bearings and find their way home.

So, before we close the lid on a creative effort let’s consider: Is this really theology at stake?  Or, is this my box talking?

God is big. He doesn’t need our box. Let’s be conservative only when necessary.

[1] From: Creative Teaching Methods, LeFever, 1990

“This life…is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road… — Martin Luther