A few days before Christmas an old friend of mine emailed me to say that God had put on his heart to send me one of those visa pre-paid credit cards.  He asked me to spend it on things related to making better music….actually he said music, I just added better.  Anyways, it was so kind and thoughtful, so I thought I might show you what I bought with it.  

*One note about these Books and CD’s.  While I do think that we can grow from books and CD’s that might have points of view that I disagree with, I always want to be careful to filter it through the lens of Scripture.  So a word of caution… I think that some of these have conclusions that might be dangerous to our hearts and minds if wisdom is not taken….)

1. Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns – I’ve only listened to it 4 or 5 times, but I can already tell this is going to be one of my all time favorite albums.

2. Greg Laswell – I don’t know much about this guy, but the album came highly recommended…and he seems to have a real knack for pop melodies.

3. Bruce Ware – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – I’ve been really convicted lately about how little I consider the doctrine of the Trinity in planning musical worship.  I’ve heard this is the best book around on the subject.  I hope it brings more conviction and change in me.

4. Joshua Radin – This guy is really dylanesq.  Not in a bad way.  But it’s all over his music.  He too has a some great melodies.  

So there it is…how I spent my songwriting money.  I know I have a ton to learn from these singers/writers.  Hopefully some ideas for some good tunes will come out of these resources.  

Thanks for reading.

From: A Long Obedience In The Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society 

By: Eugene Peterson

To: You

“Every day I put love on the line.  There  is nothing I am less good at than love.  I am far better in competition than in love.  I am far better at responding to my instincts and ambitions to get ahead and make my mark than I am at figuring out how to love another.  I am schooled and trained in acquisitive skills, in getting my own way.  And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily-open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.”

Yesterday morning I was able to get out of the house pretty early and spend some time at Starbucks reading.  I’m sure all of you parents will agree that reading time is hard to come by once there are kids around….so this was really nice. 

I’m reading a book right now called A Long Obedience In The Same Direction by Eugene Peterson…the guy that wrote the Message Bible.  I actually bought this book for my Dad a few months ago, and he has loved it so much that I thought I would start reading it myself.  So far it’s been really good. 

The book is a bunch of extended meditations of the Psalms of Assent…Psalm 121-134.

Here’s a quote from chapter 2 on Psalm 121. 

The only Serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with other is to conclude that God has gotten bored looking after us and has shifted his attentions to more exciting Christians, or that God has become disgusted with our meandering obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves for a while, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort our the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into.  That is the only serious mistake we can make.  It is the mistake that Psalm 121 prevents: the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature.

I love the part about fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East….isn’t that funny. 

Hope you all have a great day.  The college minisitry is going to a minor league baseball game tonight…I’ll try and get some good pics/video.

I’ve always been fascinated by ordinary people. Anytime I’m on an airplane, I love to ask people what they do and where they live (assuming they aren’t totally weirded out by me) . If the person lives overseas my fascination goes through the roof.

Memoirs are usually written by famous/important people. Lots of people want to hear what Bill Clinton has to say, because he was the President of the United States. You would think that not that many people want to hear about ordinary people. But, it seems like memoirs by not-so-famous people is a type of book that has peaked the interest of general readership recently. It’s crazy to me that these types of books have done so well…but I’m glad because I really enjoy them.

So far this year I’ve read two books that fit into this category…..Oh the Glory of it all by Sean Wilsey and Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander. A couple of things about these books – I think both are very interesting and helpful. I don’t know this for sure but I’m guessing that David Crowder has read Oh the Glory of it all per his song on Remedy….so if it’s good enough for Crowder it’s good enough for you…right? One other thing…I would probably use caution when reading either of these books – they could use some censoring. What makes them interesting is the fact that these guys are pretty messed up….and they’re pretty explicit about the details of their lives. Sometimes I’ll give books like these to Danielle to read first and she’ll take a sharpie to them or give them back with pages missing… she’s a good wife.

Anyways, do any of you know of memoirs by not-so-famous people? I guess Blue like Jazz would also be in this category. I’d love to find others.

We’re with a bunch of my family this week so I’m hoping to get a little bit of time to read. Not sure how much time I’ll have since we have a one week old….. but i have a few books that i’m pretty pumped about.

The first is What is the What, by Dave Eggers. It’s an autobiography of one of the lost boys, told by Dave Eggers….who is an amazing writer. I’m about halfway through this one and love it.

The other is a book by a guy i heard on NPR. I know that makes me pretty nerdy, but it sounded really interesting. It’s called Foreskin’s Lament (yes, it was awkward to ask the lady at Barnes and Noble where to find this book) by Shalom Auslander. It’s a memoir of a guy who grew up in a really legalistic Orthodox Jewish home. I’ve only read a few pages, but I already like how funny/witty he is.

Have any of you read either of these books? Did you like/dislike them?

Also, I’ve listened to Viva La Vida about 8-10 times now, and absolutley love it. I love CDs that are put together with themes. I like knowing that intentional musical and lyrical decisions were made in putting the whole thing together.

How about you? Any good book suggestions?

I was pretty sick yesterday, so I had some time to watch the movie version of The Kite Runner. I had forgotten how much I love this story. I read the Kite Runner about two years ago, and it was absolutely one of the best books that I’ve ever read. I was in Central Asia while I was reading it, so my surroundings probably amplified what I was reading…but, regardless, it’s a great book.

The picture of redemption is so vivid in the book… And even the movie does a great job portraying that. As always, they had to cut out some things from the book to make it work for a movie. But overall it felt true to what I had read years ago.

I’m not one of those people who makes a big deal about reading the book before you see the movie version. But I really would recommend doing that for The Kite Runner. There are tensions between the father and the son that I think make the book land with such potency. The tensions are still present in the movie…but not as much as in the book….I’ll shut up here, so I don’t ruin anything.

But, a word of warning: It’s a difficult book to read and movie to watch. A lot of terrible things happened when the Taliban had control in Afghanistan, and, although the book is fictional, Khaled Hosseini paints a picture of the injustices that happened during this time.

If you’ve read the book and seen the movie I’d love to know what you think about the two.

Enjoy.