Category Archives: Music

Rich Mullins

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I’m listening to some Rich Mullins music on Napster that was either re-released after his death or was compiled from studio recordings.Â? It’s interesting to listen to him teach songs and to banter with the people.Â? I only really know of him from his music (which describes my faith in ways that nobody else does) and because of his work with the Native American community.Â? He’s been dead for almost 10 years and he left behind an amazing body of work that continues to flourish as if he was still with us.

The most interesting piece is him doing “Praise Ye the Lord” with the audience and telling them that they “sound like Lutherans” when they were being kind of stiff and formal.Â? As much as I hate to admit it, Lutherans can be like that when singing praise songs.Â? I remember my friend Laura and I getting the clapping and hand motions started during Synod Assembly last year — t’was fun and for a moment, it really didn’t matter that people were staring at us like we were crazy.

Hopefully, I have another experience like that again this year.

Double Standard for Free Speech (II)

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Quoth TulipGirl on my Double Standard for Free Speech post:

And then there is another double standardâ????that in which other entertainers (comedians and rappers come to mind readily) say racist and degrading things regularly, and are rewarded with record contracts and adoring fans and not held accountable. As they should be, and as Imus was.

I agree most heartily.

While lying awake last night listening to CNN Headline News, I heard about some in the music industry defending the use of racial and gender-based slurs toward women in music, saying that they should be standing with Imus instead of going against him. According to Russell Simmons, “hiphop is a phenomena that transcends race…” Ummm… no.

What makes it right for rappers and hiphop stars to use the N-word, call women “ho’s”, and have scantily clad women making suggestive movements in their videos, yet at the same time call for Imus to be fired for the comments he made about the Rutgers women’s basketball team? Either words are simply words or we have a serious double standard here that needs to be rectified.

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Easter Joy!

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Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that Heâ????d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
–LBW 148

Culture Meme of Sorts

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Tagged by Pisco…

  1. Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies. What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey
  2. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music. “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Bach — one of the first pieces of music where I felt a spiritual connection
  3. Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue. I’m not a film person so I really don’t have one. I don’t even Tivo movies I like. (I know… I’m weird.)
  4. Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief. There really isn’t one.
  5. Name a work of art youâ????d like to live with. El Greco’s View of Toledo
  6. Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
  7. Name a punch line that always makes you laugh. Can’t think of one.

Tagged: Whoever wants to do this…

Who Am I?

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Ever since I read this, I’ve had the following song in my head:

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wondering heart.

Not because of who I am.
But because of what you’ve done.
Not because of what I’ve done.
But because of who you are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I’m calling,
Lord you catch me when I’m falling,
And you told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again
Who am I?
That the voice that calm the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am.
But because what of youve done.
Not because of what I’ve done.
But because of who you are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I’m calling,
Lord you catch me when I’m falling,
And you told me who I am.
I am yours.

Not because of who I am.
But because of what you’ve done.
Not because of what I’ve done.
But because of who you are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I’m calling,
Lord you catch me when I’m falling,
You told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
‘Cuz I am yours.
I am yours.
—Casting Crowns

I remember hearing this song on Praise FM when I was in Minnesota and liking it.Â? Then someone sang it in church a few months ago.Â? It’s a good reminder when I’m going through as much junk as I am right now that I am a beloved child of God.

The Ups and Downs of Being Jen Right Now

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Up: I got to judge a speech meet on Saturday.
Down: I was doing it on 5 hours of sleep (at best).
Up: I’m getting all my Christmas cards and stuff mailed tomorrow (well… except for one thing that I have to finish.)
Down: My freaking ankle keeps re-injuring and it’s at the point where I’m in pain in the evenings.
Up: I get to judge the meet being held next weekend.
Down: I have the beginnings of a sinus infection.Â? (Jen has a sinus infection?Â? Isn’t that like saying “the sky is blue”.)
Up: Singing along to the Messiah on Napster.
Up: It’s Advent which is my favorite season in the church other than Lent.Â? (I know… I’m strange.)