He Places The Lonely In Families...

I think the greatest benefit of being a Christian here on earth is the beauty of belonging to the world's biggest family. I can go anywhere in the world and find a group of Christians, and the chances are pretty good that we will begin to connect very quickly.

This phenomenon is axiomatic for Christians. It bridges culture, language, race, and even denomination. In fact, I would probably go as far as to say that if this doesn't occur, one of the parties is likely not a Christian.

Now I know that there are people who aren't the easiest people to love - even within the church. ESPECIALLY within the church! But even with EGR people (Extra Grace Required) there are moments of commonality that make being a Christian one of the sweetest things I know.

I was able to experience the sweetness of belonging to the family of God tonight. Ever since StillWaters was euthanised, the music team has continued to meet on our usual practice night. The meetings have changed a little bit, though. Since we don't have the pressure of getting a 5-8 song worship set together we have been exploring some of the other aspects of what having church is really all about.

As a result, we have begun enjoying a meal together, working on some music, spending a little time in the Word (the Bible), and some time in prayer. At times this transition has been a little clumsy, but we have found some wonderful life in it.

Tonight turned out a little different. Three of the families that usually join us weren't able to come for various reasons. So tonight's group boiled down to only the musicians. I prepared my Shepherd's Pie, Sara made a salad and some brownies, and we were set.

What was funny about tonight was that we hardly did any of the religious stuff. We did pray over the meal, but that was the extent of our "churchiness." The rest of the evening, we talked about the future, played some jazz (we didn't even PLAY any "churchy" music!) and listened to some jazz. It was a precious, precious evening.

Can you imagine what Heaven will be like? Can you imagine what life will be like in the New Jerusalem in the presence of Christ Himself? If our fellowship is this sweet in a fallen world with our flawed flesh, what will it be like when our sinful nature is totally removed? It makes me tear up with joy to just think about how wonderful that will be.

I swiped the picture above from a USA Today article that I found using a Google Image search. I really miss having church with a group like that. When I attended Immanuel Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC as a child and later attended King's Park International Church in Durham, NC and Piedmont International Church in Greensboro, NC after college that was my reality. Every race that you could imagine was present, worshiping God. We got along just fine. I so miss that.

Unfortunately, things aren't quite as integrated here in my area. It's sad really. I hope that God will move here soon to break down the racial barriers that exist.

This correction seems to be something that is on the Lord's heart for Salisbury. A couple of years ago a very significant event occurred that I believe was prophetic in nature. The city council decided to make a breach in the stone wall between the Old English Cemetery and the Freedman's Cemetery (a cemetery for free black people.)

Of course there was some outcry that a section of the old stone wall was torn down between the cemeteries, but the council did it intentionally to signify a breaking down of the wall between the races. Praise God! I guess every once in a while the government does end up doing the right thing! (If you look closely you can see the spire of the First Presbyterian Church through the breach. I thought that it was cool that it was there in the picture.)

But I digress...

The article in USA Today talked about how the generation begun right after Generation X is much more open to the different races than those from Generation X and before. I think that is fantastic. That is so much more encouraging than the racism being displayed in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

I truly hope that we can get beyond the hatred and the nonsense between the races. I would truly love to see that in my lifetime. It won't happen while The Church is used to promote racism, though.

I hate that I was removed from the environment that I knew my first couple years in elementary school. I was in a VERY integrated school and church. I feel certain that such an influence, had it remained, would have been positive.

I guess all of this just goes to say that there is nothing like being a member of the family of God. I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING. It is so wonderful to be able to go anywhere in the world and find BROTHERS and SISTERS, MOTHERS and FATHERS.

Alone and need a family? Come to Jesus, and get plugged in! There's always room for one more!

A Long Day Can Lead To Random Thoughts

It has been a pretty long day. I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I went ahead and got up. It kind of reminds me of that old Army commercial that ran back in the 80's I think. The slogan said something like "Army. We get more done before 7:00 than most people do all day." Of course there is a reason for this - they got up a lot earlier than anyone else too!

I think that I have probably mentioned that I am helping with a church plant here in Salisbury. We got some negative news yesterday at church. One of our oversight committees has recommended that we pack up and call it quits. Fortunately I already knew about this before I got to church yesterday morning. Last night the majority of our core group met at the Pastor's house for a meal and to discuss the morning's news. I was very pleased that to a person everyone wanted to keep going. No one felt like we had finished our course here in this area.

Another committee was meeting tonight to discuss the recommendation of the first. The big difference is that this committee has the authority to act on their recommendation. One of the things that I did this morning was write a letter to the committee to let them know how I feel about the situation. Hopefully, we will have a positive outcome. I still haven't heard yet.

The rest of the day was spent pretty much working on tutorials and reading. There is so much information out there. I have all but finished the HTML tutorials and will be beginning CSS tutorials probably on Wednesday. After I have finished them I will take another swing at developing my website.

Tonight was Jazz Band practice. We were all off tonight. My guitar sounded pretty awful, but I am not sure if it was only because I was playing it. I think it needs a tension rod adjustment. It is really buzzy right now. I wish I knew a REALLY good luthier around here. When I used to live in Greensboro there was one who was very skilled and I was on his wait list, but never heard from him. (I have heard that one day he just shut things down, packed up, and moved out of town. Strange, but then that is the way those artistic types can be.) Still, I need to practice WAY more than I do right now - especially soloing.

I got to see a clip of one of Obama's speeches. That guy can speak - and he can work a crowd. Of course, so can John Edwards. The problem is that John Edwards is full of crap. Obama has bought into some pretty off-the-wall things like global warming. The thing is he is running this nice guy campaign. This is the same ploy that Edwards used to win the Senate seat in NC so long ago. It was just an act for him, and he used it to distract from his extreme left position on everything. I don't think that Obama is any different.

I have also moved deeper in Look Homeward, Angel. I am still of the opinion that Wolfe could write circles around Faulkner. There are some pretty tragic characters in the story. I always hate to watch a train wreck, but I am enjoying other elements of his style and his insights into Appalachian (Ap-puh-LATCH-un) culture. Though I have never lived there yet, that culture is very much a part of who I am. If I have anything to do with it I'll spend my last days there.

So there you go, the full gamut from religion to literature. Thanks for reading!

Soul Music

Bluegrass music is an amazing thing. Of all the music forms out there, bluegrass music is the only one that I have found that can consistently overcome a bad mood (for me). I can be contemplating the general rottenness of mankind after reading the daily news and be ready to take the place of Divine Avenger, and listen to some bluegrass music, and (for a while anyway) all is right with the world.

I am perplexed as to why this is. The lyrics to some of my favorite bluegrass songs are just plain tragic - I mean listen to Hank Williams music, drink yourself silly, and step out in front of a bus tragic - but somehow the overall effect is (to me) instead positive. This simply doesn't make sense to me. Other people would say that the twanginess of the singers ought to contribute to a general desire to leave this present life as quickly as possible, but it just doesn't work this way for me.

I have a couple of possible hypotheses as to why this is. One possibility is that there is something with the instrumentation or mode of the music that jangles the happy places in my psyche. Plato wrote about a discussion that Sophocles led regarding various modes of music. Perhaps he was on to something. This would explain why Pink Floyd's music (even some of their more upbeat, positive lyrical content) could take a good mood and throw me into a depressed tailspin. There is just something inherently joyful sounding about a mandolin and a banjo. There is something about the sound of a doghouse bass that resonates in my heart.

Another possibility is that I associate the music with a place that I love dearly - the Appalachian Mountains. (And I don't care how they say it where you come from! Around here we say it "Ap-puh-latch-an," and we are right so don't even try to convince me otherwise!) The mountains around Boone are the closest thing that I have found to Heaven on Earth and are the home to most of my fondest childhood memories. (We may be getting at something there.)

I must say, however, that there is another kind of music that really takes care of my soul. It isn't too surprising, though, that this form of music would have this effect, because the music of which I am speaking is hymns. Now, granted, I have seen people take a perfectly good hymn and kill it deader than a hammer. I'm not talking about that, but I can't tell you how many times I have taken an old hymnbook and flipped through the pages singing those songs to the Lord. I may cry. I may be encouraged. I may be strengthened. I may be emboldened. Whatever the emotional response, it is always the right one. Thank God for our hymn writers. I hope that it is a musical form that never ceases to grow and mature.

I think that it is sad that so many churches that are on fire and trying to seek God want to throw the hymns out. That is about as drastic as the destruction of some of the Christian architectural treasures during the Protestant Reformation. As I have grown older and seen different worship styles, I am beginning to discover that all of these forms can have life in them and shouldn’t be discarded as useless. I have experienced the presence of God in worship choruses, responsive reading, read prayers, hymns, liturgy, and a host of other practices throughout Christendom.

I think that a lot of people are going to be surprised when we all get to Heaven. There are going to be people there that we never expected to see, and we’ll do things that we never thought we would do. I look forward to experiencing that. How cool will it be to see the various traditions throughout the church melded together into a beautiful, unified body?! I can hardly wait!