Risky Business

Sadly, I debated with myself about posting this blog. It seems risky. Will I be perceived as pro-Chick-fil-a or against Chick-fil-a (assuming you know about the recent hoopla over Chick-fil-a versus the homosexuals). I have many Christian friends, some pro some con and some simply understanding when it comes to the gay issue. Some want them kicked out of church, some want them cured and taught better, some are simply tolerant, and a few Christians, I've heard, believe that God sanctions loving, monogamous, gay couples. I am glad to say that I no longer associate with anyone who would like them stoned. All homo-debate aside, it is risky business to lift scriptures out, isolate them, and promote things Jesus taught against, i.e. hatred, prejudice, cruelty. Jesus' message is kindness, grace, understanding, and above all, love. So is Paul's. The greater point I find in this article is not about gays, but about how scripture is used, or abused. Maybe its the scripture that's risky. I'm reading Deuteronomy right now, and more than once Moses has told the people that God told him to tell them to kill every foreigner, women and children included, if they continued to serve false gods. How is this not a kill the infidel plan? It rattles me. I'm against war and death. Jesus, however, disagreed with his own Torah. He said, "You've heard it said an eye for an eye, a life for a life, but I'm telling you a new thing - love your enemies." (Matthew 5:38-48). He was quoting and disagreeing with Deuteronomy, by the way. Of course, Dr. Laura speaks from her Jewish perspective, and I am speaking from my Christian one. Any respectable protestant Christian would cross-reference the New Testament, right? So, the reason I say it is sad that I debated posting this, is my fear that many in my devout Christian community, a community that I truly love, will not allow honest open-minded dialogue on this topic. It saddens me that a community that teaches me about Christ's love, often slams the door shut without really thinking things through. Wherever you stand on the issue of homosexuality, I hope you appreciate the humor in this piece, and the real point, that we need to be careful how we throw around scripture like a grenade. Here's the article: In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant. Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.  The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, written by a US man, and posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative: Dear Dr. Laura, Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can.  When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.  1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both maleand female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations.  A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadian?  2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctionedin Exodus 21:7.  In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?  3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she isin her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24.  The problem is how do I tell?  I have tried asking, but most women take offense. 4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9.  The problem is my neighbors.  They claim the odor is not pleasing to them.  Should I smite them?  5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death.  Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it? 6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.  I don't agree.  Can you settle this?  Are there 'degrees' of abomination? 7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight.  I have to admit that I wear reading glasses.  Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here? 8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27.  How should they die? 9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? 10. My uncle has a farm.  He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend).  He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot.  Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging. Your adoring fan. James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia PS (It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian)

Da Vinci DiVersity

     When did the world get so hung up on the word “specialist?” I understand the merit of focus, but the idea that a person can only do one thing with expertise is malarkey. The Renaissance man or woman is out of vogue. Leonardo Da Vinci, where’d you go? He is best known as one of the greatest artists of all time, but he was also an architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer (map maker), and writer. He’d never make it today, would he? Some lazybones executive would tell him he couldn’t possibly be good at all of those things, that he would be viewed as a jack of all trades and master of none. And Da Vinci would, in turn, call them a jack of something, too, and go about his multifaceted business.

     But these days we get talked into micro-dreams. You get this one thing. Master it. Be the best at it; but, of course, once you reach the “best” status, the criteria will change, and the next true genius will walk in and rightfully take your place. It is not, however, the artists vying for positions, it is industry insisting that there can only be one winner.

     The truth is that if we all shine our brightest, all those candle’s flames will light up the world.

     Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the importance of mastery, and I know the time and concentration it takes. My “thing” has been songwriting. I live it, eat it, drink it, dream it. I read everything I can that will make me better. When I study theology, I think of how it will translate into song. When I study psychology, I think of the next insight that will sing into a line and help someone’s heart. When I study science I think about the mystery of melody and the interaction of harmonic notes and how the sonic soul of the universe is in tune to mine. All roads have led to, and stemmed from songwriting for me. I sing because I write. I produce because I write. I eat because I write.

     “Mastery,” wrote Daniel Pink, “is a mindset: It requires the capacity to see your abilities not as finite, but as infinitely improvable. Mastery is a pain: It demands effort, grit, and deliberate practice. And mastery is an asymptote: It’s impossible to fully realize, which makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring.” (from his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us)

     I get that. He’s right. It’s the journey that I love, and if I ever “arrive” I think I’ll die.

     And so I practice, and learn, and grow, and know that I will never be “the best,” but I will work as though I can be. I want to be MY best. I want to be God’s best for me. No limitations. And so the day has finally come when God’s best calls me to broaden my horizons.

     When I die, I imagine the thing they’ll say about me is that I was a songwriter, and hopefully it will be that my songs touched lives and expressed something of the soul of God and humanity. (As opposed to “award winning songwriter”) But I do hope that the speaking I do, the Bible lessons I teach, the books I write, the broadcasting I do, the performances I give, and the hands I have held in prayer because someone was hurting, will be in the color scheme of the portrait of me.

     So, I’m curious – did you take a moment to look up the word “asymptote?” Here, I’ll save you the time: “ASYMPTOTE: a line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance.”  (Webster’s)  It’s the dangling carrot you are compelled to grasp but never can.  Ain’t life grand?!

     Write on!!

Old Rugged Hymns

I’m hearing a lot of talk lately about the theological integrity of worship lyrics. It’s a reasonable concern. Many churches are complete with songwriters who provide original material specific to the church’s worship and theological needs. Just think of the possibilities. Just think about all the money that will be saved. Who needs the music industry, anyway?

It’s a little scary, though, don’t you think? I mean, for all the foibles and flaws of the business, it provides a good training ground for writers to learn the craft. Unfortunately, industry standards are, indeed, more about the craft than the theology. Craft. Let’s see. That can be code for “Will radio love it?” Nothing wrong with a little commercial appeal. No more of those old stodgy hymns like The Old Rugged Cross that go on for ten minutes.

Have you sung all the stanzas to The Old Rugged Cross lately? It tells quite a story. It’s not easy to get that much information into the few lines and short phrases of a worship tune. You can’t, really. What to do, what to do? I wish we could keep writing traditional sounding hymns for the church to keep the format alive and fresh, (instead of merely changing the tunes and forcing the old hymns into new molds), but the money would be an issue. If you can’t play it on radio, how will it go mainstream for all the churches to sing? The delivery system and flow of money disintegrates. Let’s write them anyway, along with the worship songs.

Getting back to the songwriting worship team trend, maybe this is a good thing. Creative forces are exploding everywhere. What if writers write for the church instead of for the publishers? Of course, I thought that was what I was doing, or more specifically, I thought I was writing for the Lord, and my publisher was simply a stepping-stone on the way to the people, the aggregator and collector of the material and the money, a necessary facilitator. I always assumed that Christian publishers were, hopefully, called to what they do, concerned about the message first, the money second. I’ve always been a little naïve.

Still the question lingers: where’s the accountability? Without a publisher acting as editor to critique and guide, without a standard raised by the pros at every corner of the professional music maze, how will we have quality and theology control?

On the other hand, change is good. It’s the fertile ground of creativity. In some sense, change IS creativity. New. Exciting if you let it be. We may be uncomfortable for a season, but it will all shake out okay.

It’s not exactly new for God to shake things up. I am reminded of Hebrews 12:27-29 where it speaks of the “removal of things that are shaken” so that “the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” He says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Whatever may happen, the good news message of God’s unfailing love is not going away, and neither is music. So, we’ll work it out. What a beautiful creative playground, all these songwriting worship leaders everywhere. We may just have to trust the Spirit to lead, again.

Creative Frenzy

I didn’t get much response to my blog about Connecting the Dots, but that’s okay; I managed to get me thinking to the point that I’ve gone 180 and counter-pointed myself. (It’s exhausting being inside my head sometimes). In that blog, I suggested that America is, indeed, losing it’s creative spark, and that this is connected with the sad rumor that our Christian light has dimmed, or is hidden under the proverbial bushel. I don’t exactly disagree with myself, mind you, but I have noticed another angle. I wrote from this new perspective in a column for Power Source magazine that will be coming out in the September issue. This article does not address the religious aspect, only the creative one, but I thought it was worth sharing with you. I love hearing your responses. Thanks for conversing.

 Creative Frenzy

(From the column “UNCOMMON SENSE: God’s Gift of Creativity” )

    I’ve heard that creativity is on the decline in this country. Some say we have been lulled into a sleepy slumber, sold out to a commercialized, force fed, cookie cutter mentality, motivated and perpetuated by gross consumerism. I hear generalized statements about people. “People don’t want to think too hard.”  “People are basically shallow, not deep or poetic.” “People are gullible to whatever the market sells them.” No, no, no, no, no. I say, “People have hearts, people need art.”

     Art has a new cyberspace playground these days. It’s exciting. Remember Captain Kirk’s handle: Space, the final frontier? Well, it’s not. For the visionary, there are worlds beyond the worlds beyond this one, and they’re all God’s. God has a way of turning sure finality into promising eternity. These are exciting times for innovative minds. If we’ve ever been in an age when everything is “new every morning,” as the writer of Lamentations so eloquently penned, it is now. Can you see God’s blessing in these changing times?

     Of course, for the organic artist, the potter molding the clay, the painter brushing the canvas, or the songwriter crafting a melody, some things never change. The qualities that make a song great, for example, are timeless, whether that song is rendered digitally or on an old phonograph with a little white dog with a black eye watching it spin.

     From Bach to the Kings of Leon, what keeps a melody interesting is movement, and contour, the dynamics of high and lows, and the variation of intervals and note values. From Handel to Gaither, a great lyric communicates the universal heart of humanity, is honest, and is constructed carefully to make every word count.

     These days, everything is faster, easier, allegedly time saving, that is, until your battery dies and you can’t find your charger. But sometimes I think we miss the point of all this efficiency. Creating more time means you can create more. It means you can sit still long enough to get that book written, or get that second verse exactly right.

      I use to hate writing second verses. By then, the lightning bolt impulse had waned, and it actually became work to make sure the payoff was exactly right. By then, there was a temptation, not to make every word count, but to make every word functional and hope no one was listening closely enough to know that it could be better. Guess what? They are always listening.

     The fun part of God’s gift of creativity is the inspiration, the paying attention, the cupping of the hands while the Holy Spirit pours out the epiphany. The not so fun part is the waiting, and the moment when God seems to be whispering, “I don’t know, what do you think?” Co-writing with God, which is the only way to go, is a fearful and wonderful process.  With God, every word counts. He’s a great lyricist. Just think of the power of those four little words, “Let there be light.” Even if you didn’t know the Judeo-Christian story behind that phrase, you would be compelled to wonder who has the authority to make such a command, why, and what was there before light? Sometimes we can say more with fewer words. For the lyricist, fewer words means more work. I’ve spent entire afternoons on long walks or biking just to get away and find the one right word or image for a line or a chorus. If you finish a song and your lyric sheet looks like a short story, you may have been too wordy. Ah but it’s so easy to ramble on…

     No doubt life is fast paced, and schedules monitored to the millisecond. I say if this crazy world’s gone manic, let’s turn all that hyperactivity into a creative frenzy.

Creative Frenzy

I didn’t get much response to my blog about Connecting the Dots, but that’s okay; I managed to get me thinking to the point that I’ve gone 180 and counter-pointed myself. (It’s exhausting being inside my head sometimes). In that blog, I suggested that America is, indeed, losing it’s creative spark, and that this is connected with the sad rumor that our Christian light has dimmed, or is hidden under the proverbial bushel. I don’t exactly disagree with myself, mind you, but I have noticed another angle. I wrote from this new perspective in a column for Power Source magazine that will be coming out in the September issue. This article does not address the religious aspect, only the creative one, but I thought it was worth sharing with you. I love hearing your responses. Thanks for conversing.

 Creative Frenzy

(From the column “UNCOMMON SENSE: God’s Gift of Creativity” )

    I’ve heard that creativity is on the decline in this country. Some say we have been lulled into a sleepy slumber, sold out to a commercialized, force fed, cookie cutter mentality, motivated and perpetuated by gross consumerism. I hear generalized statements about people. “People don’t want to think too hard.”  “People are basically shallow, not deep or poetic.” “People are gullible to whatever the market sells them.” No, no, no, no, no. I say, “People have hearts, people need art.”

     Art has a new cyberspace playground these days. It’s exciting. Remember Captain Kirk’s handle: Space, the final frontier? Well, it’s not. For the visionary, there are worlds beyond the worlds beyond this one, and they’re all God’s. God has a way of turning sure finality into promising eternity. These are exciting times for innovative minds. If we’ve ever been in an age when everything is “new every morning,” as the writer of Lamentations so eloquently penned, it is now. Can you see God’s blessing in these changing times?

     Of course, for the organic artist, the potter molding the clay, the painter brushing the canvas, or the songwriter crafting a melody, some things never change. The qualities that make a song great, for example, are timeless, whether that song is rendered digitally or on an old phonograph with a little white dog with a black eye watching it spin.

     From Bach to the Kings of Leon, what keeps a melody interesting is movement, and contour, the dynamics of high and lows, and the variation of intervals and note values. From Handle to Gloria Gaither, a great lyric communicates the universal heart of humanity, is honest, and is constructed carefully to make every word count.

     These days, everything is faster, easier, allegedly time saving, that is, until your battery dies and you can’t find your charger. But sometimes I think we miss the point of all this efficiency. Creating more time means you can create more. It means you can sit still long enough to get that book written, or get that second verse exactly right.

      I use to hate writing second verses. By then, the lightning bolt impulse had waned, and it actually became work to make sure the payoff was exactly right. By then, there was a temptation, not to make every word count, but to make every word functional and hope no one was listening closely enough to know that it could be better. Guess what? They are always listening.

     The fun part of God’s gift of creativity is the inspiration, the paying attention, the cupping of the hands while the Holy Spirit pours out the epiphany. The not so fun part is the waiting, and the moment when God seems to be whispering, “I don’t know, what do you think?” Co-writing with God, which is the only way to go, is a fearful and wonderful process.  With God, every word counts. He’s a great lyricist. Just think of the power of those four little words, “Let there be light.” Even if you didn’t know the Judeo-Christian story behind that phrase, you would be compelled to wonder who has the authority to make such a command, why, and what was there before light? Sometimes we can say more with fewer words. For the lyricist, fewer words means more work. I’ve spent entire afternoons on long walks or biking just to get away and find the one right word or image for a line or a chorus. If you finish a song and your lyric sheet looks like a short story, you may have been too wordy. Ah but it’s so easy to ramble on…

     No doubt life is fast paced, and schedules monitored to the millisecond. I say if this crazy world’s gone manic, let’s turn all that hyperactivity into a creative frenzy.

CONNECTING THE DOTS: The Decline of Creativity and Christianity in America

Dot # 1: They say that creativity is on the decline in America. There was an interesting article in Newsweek about it recently. I don’t doubt it. I’d noticed this long ago. At first I thought it was me, that I was being the usual social misfit, never fitting in, always being left of center. Even in a place where creativity thrives, the creatives are going to be in the minority.

I suspect that God, in God’s infinite wisdom, knew that if everyone had the creative jones, then civilization would be a disaster, or maybe even impossible. There would be plenty of ideas, inventions, and soul food, without a way to make any of it useful or available to anyone. It’s not that we’re impractical; it’s that once you create something out of nothing, you have to do something with it. The mad scientist has to comb his hair back into place, step back out of the real world, the one he sees that nobody else does, and make a convincing presentation. Then someone has to build a platform, a stage, or a business.

I have a sad tendency to run back into my cave before I can get to the presentation part. I have, however, peeked my nose around that virtual corner enough times, shaking in my shoes, and found acceptance and appreciation. But you know what I find even more? I find people who are inspired by my courage to create, who want to find their voice, too. There may be a decline in creativity, a sleepy trance cast by the glare of gigabytes and the phenomenon of incommunicable communication, but there is no decline in the need for creativity. Hearts don’t change.

They’ve placed some of the blame for our diminished afflatus (divine creative impulse) upon video games. I’m not sure why. I don’t play video games, but from what I can see they are one of the more creative aspects of our daily chillax time these days. It’s certainly no worse than the couch potato syndrome so popular among the baby boomers. At least now there’s a reasonably healthy aspect of tactility. You can’t snarf down as many chips when your hands are occupied on a keypad.

What exactly is creativity, anyway? The dictionary calls it “the use of the imagination or original ideas.” The thesaurus names it synonymously with “inventiveness, imagination, innovation, originality, individuality, artistry, inspiration, vision, and initiative.” No wonder we need it. Creativity registers a culture’s vital signs.

According to the Newsweek article, the gravest concern regarding creativity’s decline is for the very young and what will become of them, and of future generations. There is a breakdown in the educational systems. Art is secondary. This misplaced priority is taking quite a toll. It is the soul of humanity that concerns them. A reasonable concern for any generation, wouldn’t you say?

Dot # 2: There’s a connection I see in all this. They say (they have a lot to say, don’t they?) that Christianity is on the decline in America, too. Newsweek did an article on that last year, as well. It almost made me tremble, and then I just cried. The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said there is a  “post-Christian narrative animating large portions of this society.” My heart is racing at the thought of this, racing as though a monster is waiting around the corner to grab me; or maybe it’s a red tailed long horned devil. (A little Southern superstition lingers in my imagination and mingles with my faith). Yet, I don’t think the “post-Christian narrative” is animating anything. Numbing society, perhaps, turning hearts to stone.

But here’s the line I’m drawing from dot to dot. Is there a connection between loss of creativity and loss of Christianity? You see, for me, my religion is not an institution or a set of rules. My religion is an art form. I use the word “religion” synonymously with the word “faith,” but I know that is politically incorrect these days. I am comfortable without the mincing of words. I like the word “religion.” It is not my opiate, it is my heart-felt expression, like a song. I keep it in my private thesaurus synonymous with “spirituality,” “art,” and “faith.” My religion is a palette full of colors from which a canvas is filled with  a beautiful portrait of life and praise. My religion gives me a language, albeit limited, and a community, albeit flawed, where I can pour out my heart in gratitude and trust. My religion is a story and I am participating in it. It is only an expression of a deeper spirituality. It is not political, elitist, exclusive, or empty. It is both personal and corporate, a celebration of our individual uniqueness and our unified love for our Creator.

My faith plugs me into the source of my creativity. I co-create with God. This is why I cannot separate creativity and my faith.

But why Christianity? What if our country becomes Muslim? Or pluralistic? We’re already pluralistic, but it doesn’t seem to want to stay that way. We humans tend to take sides. Will this change our creative trend more? For the better or for the worse? I have only known a Christian United States of America, whether or not we were good Christians. Some things go without saying. “God bless America, land that I love” spoke to the Christian God, the One true and living thou shalt  have no other gods before me God.

If we lose our faith, we lose our creative spark.

I remember when the main proof we had that there is one true and living God who sent His son Jesus to save and bless the world, was the Bible. The Judeo-Christian Bible. Now, it only seems to hold weight in certain circles. To some it is nothing more than a cliquish bunch of narrow-minded backwoods jargon, or at best, something that used to mean something to somebody’s grandma.

I’m hoping the Bible will make a comeback. It was my first inspiration for my writing.

I read the Bible as a creative work first, never as a manual. Yes, I am guided by those life-giving words. I see a world in those texts more flamboyant than Harry Potter’s, more real than Brave Heart’s, and more mysterious than Narnia’s. The Bible is first and foremost, story. Vital, true, relevant, story.

I must admit, though, that I do not see so much creativity in the Christian church these days. Maybe stained-glass and statues don’t get us to God, but those Byzantium artists sure had a way with icons. Images throughout history that I have never even seen have spoken to my heart, such as Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel or his Pieta, which has inspired a song or two for me.

Christianity began to lose ground in this country when it got stupid and greedy. Greed is cold-hearted. People may respond to marketing plans and choreographed worship for a season, but whether they know it or not, they have a higher standard set for church. It is, indeed, a matter of the heart, of healing, of peace of mind, and of caring. Caring for every person. Christianity is about the Light of the World, not the spotlight.

 Christianity distracts itself with issues of politics and power around it’s self-imposed round table. It’s concave agendas alchemize it into something dark, something Jesus Himself disdained. Read the book of Matthew lately?

It isn’t just money and politics that has quenched the Spirit and brought decline to the faith of our fathers and mothers. It is also fear, too much worrying over who’s wearing the right thing or who’s keeping all the rules. But the answer is not Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops in the pulpits. It’s like Aunt Bea deciding to get a tattoo and some go-go boots and calling herself “hip.” If you’re “churchy,” be churchy; if you’re a hippie for Jesus, be a hippie. Just be real, and do it out of a sincere heart after God and love for His world and all the people in it.

Forcing Christian prayer out of schools was a bad step for this culture. Taking art out may have been even worse. Maybe the answer begins with being alarmed over both of these tragedies. Then, go buy a box of Crayolas and color the sky green and the grass blue. Open up your heart to new possibilities. Write a song. Doodle a prayer. Is there room in cyberspace for another Rembrandt, or Chopin, or Hemmingway? Is there room in the church for unabashed miracle working faith? Is there room in this nation for a little more faith and poetry, and the intangibles that keep laboring humanity alive?

Contexts may change, but hearts never do.

Life 101

Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer

Would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine.

And for the same reason.

When we turn away from meditation and prayer,

We likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions

Of vitally needed support.

As the body can fail its purpose

For lack of nourishment,

So can the soul.

We all need the light of God's reality,

The nourishment of His strength,

And the atmosphere of His grace.