i read an article about church music today at the crosstalk blog that got me thinking about church music choices. ironically, i read this right after searching through a bunch of old hymns. the strange thing about searching through old hymns is that a good number that one runs into are doctrinally inaccurate or at least tend that way. very many mission focused hymns end with a covenant theology perspective of the goal of missions. anyway, that is a different topic.
i posted a comment as follows on that article, please feel free to comment/discuss here.
“i am in partial agreement, but isn’t this slightly misdirected? shouldn’t the question be: why are we not turning to good music, both contemporary and traditional? maybe this wasn’t the intention of the article, but it seems to point to a principle of the older the better. don’t get me wrong i’m not embracing every swing of culture; i agree wholeheartedly with the fact that we should not base our singing entirely on feeling.
i think a greater problem is that our song leaders have become lazy. ( i don’t mean everyone, there are many who pour much effort into their ministry.) we do this in two ways. one way is that we sometimes just pick up a hymnal, as if it is inspired, and just glance through the index for familiar titles. we don’t look at any of the other songs. we don’t check out the songs we pick to see if they are doctrinally accurate. we just pick them.
the other way is more contemporary in nature, but relatively the same. we pick songs that are cutting edge because it makes everyone feel good. it is easy to pick “top 40″ songs, because you can find the music and lyrics anywhere. again, who cares about the doctrinal accuracy of the song.
there are good new songs out there, just as there are good old ones. the new ones are harder to find, because they are drown in a sea of shallowness. i would assert that there were many shallow songs in older times too, but those songs have long since vanished from use and memory. so the question i have (which semi-aligns with this article) is: why are our song leaders so lazy?”
what is meant by one who wishes they could push the reset button?
many seem indicate that wish to clear their memory of a certain action or decision making process that led to an action. what they fail to realize is that the word reset has no such definition. the only definition of reset one could naively manipulate to mean that is the 3rd definition in WordNet’s definition of reset:
“3. adjust again after an initial failure.”
even this does not exactly work, because it still implies a lesson that has been learned. along with that, it should be pointed out that the reset “button” is not on the object which has learned from the incident. rather, it is on an external object with, at least, artificial intelligence.
consider a computer. if the user resets the computer has the computer learned from the incident? is it any less prone to failing again? i would submit that in most cases the user has not even learned, let alone the computer. it would seem that when users reset computers they maintain one of two opinions of the computer. one opinion may be to believe that the computer is inherently good and it’s recent malfunction has been due to an external force that happened by sheer “chance.” this is the only logic that provides a hope that the future may be better without effort from the user.
the other opinion would be that of distrust, even if small, towards the computer knowing that the computer make malfunction in the same way in the future. this opinion requires action on the part of the user to prevent the malfunctions recurrance. realistically, this is the opinion that most computer users either hold or would hold if they went through the trouble of thinking about it. yet, when applying the logic of the reset button to themselves they seem to stick with the former opinion, that everything would be magically better.
a further flaw in this thinking can be shown since, even could one push a reset button they would be no better off. if one could erase the past to the point that the faulty line of thinking that led to incorrect action were gone, they would still be left with the state of mind where conception of the same was birthed. along with a tendency to incorrect action inherent in the human experience.
nay, the only way to fix current “malfunctions” is not by erasing events but by applying them to future thought processes.
obviously a Christian world view is inherent in this writing, though i have not chosen to appeal to it in this post.
as i walked about today there were a great many little things making their way towards the ground. rain is something that makes many feel dark and dreary. in fact, it gives a dismal, “well this is going to be a bad day,” feeling to many. i, however, cannot help but note the beauty of such days.
the even pitter patter has the most amazing calming effect. most of us shower or bathe on a semi-frequent basis, yet we seemed to be either scared or utterly displeased by the slightest dampness that rain offers.
this is currently the hardest semester of my college life. all of my classes are extremely interesting. i have learned many useful and useless facts. for instance:
- the amount of energy your body loses when running into a brick wall at 11 mi/hr is roughly 1% the amount of energy that a cup of tea loses when cooling from 95 degrees C to room temperature. who would have thought?
- the reason “perms” stink is that the chemicals are breaking and reforming disulfide bonds in your hair. (this temporarily converts them to thiols, the same type of chemicals that give rotten eggs their odor.)
- going from advanced classes back to basic classes is much harder than one would expect. it is like temporarily unlearning information so that you can replace it with something you know to be oversimplified, and, therefore, partially untrue.
but above all, i have learned that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
physics currently has me beat. isaac newton may well have been a genius, but i certainly am not.
physics teaches us that in an isolated system one can only move in relation to the rest of his parts, but not actually change the direction in which his system his heading. however, change can be accomplished if one’s system is acted on by an outside force. this means that no matter how hard i try, without God, i cannot produce real change in my life. only He can separate me from my downfalls. with God’s help the potential energy of any problem on my existence is zero as the distance between me and it is pushed into infinity by the mercy and grace of God’s working. the gravitational pull of my human nature cannot affect anything with God deflecting it.
where is the root of the matter? what causes my fear? my fear of trusting in the grace of God. no amount of human punishment can repay such i crime.
what is trust? trust must be active, assertive, brave. it must not be afraid to stand up to “ten thousand charms.” where can this trust be found? only in God. so then it is an ascending spiral. initiated with and through God, in whom we hope to praise by said trust. thus, we have a responsibility: one mandated by the scriptures. trust.
there is a certain tranquility that comes in summer school. it seems that the main stressors are over. finals for the spring semester have just been completed, and the realization has been made that for the most part: they did not require that much stress. then, summer school.
my class is a boring one, but, nonetheless, worthy of two weeks of lecture. overview of nursing is the course name. it includes much history of how nursing has arrived at its present state. i digress.
maybe this tranquility is coming from another source. the past few weeks have truly been amazing. they have been filled with failures, yes, but enough times of triumphs of my God to fill a book. God has shown Himself faithful in so many ways.
a few weeks ago i was given the news that i was $500 dollars short in my missions trip account. it was due by friday. i visited the office of mr. brian trainer on wednesday asking what would happen if the money did not come in. he told me that he would stray from his usual policy of cutting off fingers knuckle by knuckle [one knuckle for every $100 ]. since, my trip is the last to leave for the summer, he stated that some leeway would be fine.
i then checked my mail to find $200. at church that night i was given an additional $13 [only $277 left!]. that sunday i was given another $120. followed 2 days later by $150 dollars from family and $1 from a college friend. in less than a week God had raised $484. i was ecstatic with this. my parents agreed to pay the last $16. i had not expected God to bless so much.
alas, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. today i recieved an email letting me know that $200 more came in! i can only praise God for his blessing. this is only a taste of the many blessings He has bestowed on me in the past few weeks. i stand in awe of the amazing God.
one day i went on a field trip; i went on a field trip one day. my mom said, “rusty, go an a field trip,” and i was on my way. when i arrived at school that day, the sun was shining bright. innocent smiling faces helped our field trip day ignite. the bus was packed like a sardine an as we started our adventure. i wore an aussie hat and, “to what purpose?” p-ror conjectured.
arriving at the parking lot brought pleasure, mirth and joy. for out of the bus piled happy children and with them various toys. a fast-paced frisbee game started here, a physical “500″ game started there. while all the while the high school girls sat primping up their hair. i am almost out of things to say, so with this i will stop. like the fast then slower, then even slower, slower spinning top. like this top my story winds ’til it comes to a close. and within five minutes you will find me deep within repose.
thoughts; what are thoughts? thoughts are thousands of tiny pieces of useless information that are arranged in a line. each piece of information is about the same subject or at least similar ones. concurringly, opinions are thousands of thoughts arranged in a specific pattern. different patterns form different opinions: some logical, some illogical.
friendships are made up of many things. from tiny bits of information to thoughts to opinions, all play their respective roles. this arrangement makes a solid one except when division arises. ill will towards very close friends corrupts the mind. while one’s heart and soul may still love one’s friend immensely, the brain becomes focused on dividing the relationship so completely that reconciliation is possible only in rare occasions.
this division starts slowly: a bad piece of information in one area may start the problem. the brain tweaks the smallest of minutia in the memory banks so that one’s heart won’t even notice.
this slight change, however, affects the whole point of thought. it rearranges opinions and works its way to destroy friendships. one picture retained in one’s mind, bent ever so ever slightly, could render the best of friends as ancient history.
“beware of this my request.”
to you, i do so plead
or one day when friends do wrong
your mind will plant a seed.
this seed will grow into your brain
’til no more you can see
a single way to weed it out,
and a “friend-less” you will be.
]. since, my trip is the last to leave for the summer, he stated that some leeway would be fine.