Dare You To Move

I fall in love with ideas.

Recently, I've been loving this analogy of tension that my friend laid out for me. He explained it like we should always be in a state of tension in one way or another. If there's nothing wrong in our lives, then the issue is that we're blind to our own shortcomings. We should always be trying to better ourselves in one way or another: faith, pride, love, trust, patience... the list goes on. Tension can also be an issue, if it's allowed to be. The stress can get the best of people (after all, tension is a kind of stress).

The tension should be "between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it should be"

When I first woke up to the magnitude of what it means to follow Christ, along with joy came this sense of tension.

What will you do when faced with a decision to make in your life?

Will you blow it off to ease the tension? Do you really want to look back at your life and remember how you DIDN'T rise to the challenge of bettering yourself? I dare you to move.

or

Will you let it get the best of you? Will you let the stress overcome you and ultimately prevent you from succeeding? We have to start by realizing the need to change, but we must then understand that we aren't alone. Salvation is here.

or

Will you refuse to examine your life? Realizing, consciously or not, that if you take a look at yourself, you may not like what you find. You have have to make a choice.

I dare you to move

Vice Verses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1mVk5ZiEPc

This is the title track for the newly released album, and it's a beautiful song. He uses the ocean to describe the ups and downs of life and the duality of things. And like the ocean, this song is soothing, melodic, gentle, yet has a lot of power.

“You got your babies, I got my hearses

Every blessing comes with a set of curses”

One of the strangest and most interesting things in life is how many good things can end up being bad, or how bad things can end up doing good. Encountering obstacles in life is unanimously considered not preferable, yet through obstacles, we grow and become stronger people. And going through life with all the blessings in the world would seem to be a great thing, yet we all know the stereotype of the snobby rich person who complains when they don’t get something they want. Nobody likes that person, because they haven’t developed themselves through trials and obstacles in life.

“A little resurrection every time I fall”

It’s amazing that God uses shortcomings of ours to strengthen us. There’s that one verse about God being made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Cor 12:9), and that other verse somewhere in Romans about God working all things for the good of his glory (both verses were paraphrased of course). He delights to make us strong through our weaknesses, if we’ll let Him.

One thing I really love about this song, and music in general, is that it doesn’t have to offer the answer or the solution to anything. In this song:

“Where is God in the night sky?

Where is God in the city light?

Where is God in the earthquake?

Where is God in the genocide?”

These questions aren’t answered in the song, and the song isn’t about hope even. It’s an expression, an authentic collection of thoughts and emotions. I don’t think we always need to be given the solution or the answer. Sure I could say, “Well, genocide is a result of sin, which God can’t be a part of …” but I think sometimes we answer things too quickly. Even if you feel you know the answer to these types of questions, it’s beneficial to meditate on them, it leads to even more questions: “why does God let things like genocide happen? Why doesn’t God just get rid of all the super evil people out there? Is that God’s character?” Asking these questions leads to a deeper understanding than throwing a quick fix solution at it. Asking questions can often be more insightful than getting answers. Jesus knew that, Rob Bell knows that, the guy who wrote the book I’m reading (“Tactics”) knows that. There’s nothing wrong with not having all the answers. After all, what would God be doing if we knew everything?

As water rises and falls with the tides, so do our lives with the changing seasons we go through. It’s a give and take; it’s the tension that is crucial in life if you want to have any kind of personal or spiritual growth.

Wholeheartedly seeking God is hard, a lot harder than simply believing that your actions don’t have consequences. We need to ask ourselves the hard questions if we want to grow. We need to never be satisfied to the point of complacency. We need to keep challenging ourselves and our beliefs, even if money has long since been a problem for you, like Switchfoot.

On Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pskjyxykBiE

“But everything inside you knows there’s/More than what you’ve heard/There’s so much more than empty conversations/Filled with empty words”

I really don’t like summer/winter break. I love seeing my friends and family, but it always feels like this line of the song. The people here at home don’t get to see/experience how I’ve changed, and I don’t get to see how they’ve changed. And I won’t get to see how they’ve changed because I’ll be back at school soon anyways. Every break it’s the same “how’s college? You like it there?” I don’t blame anyone, there’s really nothing else to say. For me, breaks are like life on pause. I hate it because it always feels like my everything becomes numb from lack of exposure to deep relationships. I know there’s more, I just struggle to find it when I’m not moving anywhere.

I just got back from a missions trip to Taiwan. It’s amazing what can happen in a few weeks. “On fire” is a good two words to describe my trip. That’s one of my favorite things about God, when you serve others on His behalf, it doesn’t drain you spiritually. In fact, using your efforts and energies to serve others draws you and (hopefully) them closer to God. Sure I spent about a month lugging sound equipment all over (the northern part of) Taiwan, but all that serving others filled me with a spirit of love for other people and for God.

It’s that counter-intuitiveness that I love about God. And I think that’s why the song repeatedly uses the word “mysteries”. Part of the beauty of everything God does, I think, is that we don’t always understand it. Watching a sunset is awesome. Watching a sunset is less cool if you’re thinking about how we’re just a giant chunk of dirt spiraling a burning chunk of gas that emits light of various wavelengths and only appears red because the red light wavelengths are longer than the blue and therefore can travel better to our eyes when looking along the horizon.

“Everything inside me looks like/Everything I hate/You are the hope I have for change/You are the only chance I’ll take”

This single-minded attitude of desiring God to change you from the inside out is what brings people to a place of being on fire for God. And even though declaring that God is “the only chance I’ll take” is lyrically cool sounding and probably not theologically the best way of putting, it captures the idea of trusting in God alone. Trusting in this world can’t and won’t always help or even be able to change you for the better. Trusting in this world and not God is a great way to put out Godly fires.

Incomplete and Company Car

As I grow older, I realize how much learning is done by just living. Yet, while I grow and learn more each day, I’ve also noticed how much we fake it. We fake our knowledge, our coolness, our whatever. It’s in the little things we say to the big things we do. Ever taken a test with a question you don’t completely know the answer to? What do you do? You write what you do know and act like you own the subject. You may even fluff it up or take a stab in the dark and hope you’re right. In an interview, would you ever say, “I don’t know”? Or would you just start talking like a politician and suffer the minor loss of respect you just got from not answering their question? It’s like we’re being taught that saying “I don’t know” is unacceptable and means that you’re dumb. But in and of ourselves, we’re all incomplete, imperfect, and a bit lost. Like many things in life, I think acknowledging that we’re not always right, perfect, or complete is the first step in fixing the problem.

This is exactly what the song Incomplete is addressing. And the story unfolds a bit more when we look at Company Car. In this catchy, upbeat song, a man goes through a realization that he’s not what he’d hoped he’d be. He’s got what the world considers great, but it’s not what he wants. “I’ve become one with the ones that I’ve never believed in”. “I’ve got hotels on park place and boardwalk. For 200 bucks I’ll pass go, but oh, life’s taken its toll. Have I won monopoly, but forfeit my song?” I truly believe that everything in this world is not enough to fully satisfy for your entire life. You can get by when things change though. Like if you own a country, it may become not enough for you, so you go on a power trip and take over a neighboring country. In the end though, that country won’t be enough either. James Bond knew this (The World is not Enough).

So then what is it to become someone? I believe it is to lose yourself. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39). The best someone you can be is someone who is letting Christ take charge of his or her life. Some of the best things that have happened to me have happened because I trusted that things will work out and that Christ will be with me always (see the last (ish?) verse of Matthew). While my parents and the logical part of my brain told me to try and get an internship this summer so I’ll have a better professional career, I decided to go on a missions trip for the first half of this coming summer. So instead of relaxing this semester and then making money over the summer, I’ve spent this semester raising money knowing that I won’t be able to make money this summer (because my previous internship wanted a full summer intern so I couldn’t go back there). Not only has my trust in God that everything will go over well paid off amazingly in my fundraising, but also in my hopes to invest in a future career. The internship I previously had told me that due to a special circumstance, they could use an extra hand for about a month of the summer (during the time I’m home). When you give things to God, whether time, money, etc, He blesses you so abundantly. This includes your life.

One more point I want to bring up… THIS INCLUDES YOUR LIFE

The Setting Sun

I chose to do something different this time. In attempting to describe what the song means to me I realized that the words Jon used do a better job than the words I use. So I decided to rearrange the lyrics to this song in a poem ish manner that I think describes the song well.

I’ve got a wound that doesn’t heal

My wound goes deeper than the skin

My hope runs underneath it all

They’re selling shares of me again

I’m not sure which of me is real

My hope runs underneath it all

Let the weak say I am strong

Let the right say I was wrong

Let us find where we belong

It won’t be long, I belong somewhere past the setting sun. Finally free, finally strong, somewhere back where I belong

My hope runs underneath it all, the day that I’ll be home

It won’t be long, I belong somewhere past the setting sun

As the words unfold, the emotion is expressed via guitars, drums, and some subtle effects. In describing his current state, the author uses phrases like, “I’ve got a wound that doesn’t heal”. So powerful. It’s a state of incompleteness and longing. And the contemplative guitars describe this state about as good as the words. But with hope, the author takes solace in the life that is to come. It’s a life of completeness and beauty, like a setting sun that is beautiful and completes the day.

My hope runs underneath it all, the day that I’ll be home

It won’t be long, I belong somewhere past the setting sun

Such is our hope in Christ

The Beautiful Letdown

“Easy living, please, come on and let me down”

Being a Christian can be (and sometimes is) viewed by people as a crutch, a way to make yourself feel good believing in a loving greater power somewhere out there. I can understand where that view comes from, but I think that not believing in something can be an even bigger crutch. To have a set of beliefs that you decided make sense mean that you can believe whatever you wish. Granted, the goal would be truth, but I don’t believe for a second that anyone can fully objectively figure out the meaning of life on their own (or with the help of other people’s ideas/beliefs/philosophies). Christianity on the other hand, while preaching a message of good news, also teaches some things that can be hard to swallow. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans something). Our society has this idea of being a good person. This idea varies from being a good person compared to the average person, being a good person compared to thieves and murderers, being a good person compared to your friends, etc. But the bible teaches that if you’ve looked at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery in your heart. I’ve never had sex… and while I’d love to use that to say that I’m a good person because of it, I’ve looked lustfully at women far too many times for that to be true. This can apply to many different sins. Our nature is to fail at living up to God’s standards. Focusing too much on this aspect of Christianity can and will cause a negative view of yourself.

On the flip side, there’s the good news! Yay! In spite of all our failures and shortcomings, God made a way for justice and love to prevail. Though the punishment for sin is death (Romans something else) we may live through the resurrection of Christ. Focusing only on the fact that God loves us can produce a distorted image of God, one that would lead to a style of living that causes others to view such a faith as a crutch. But alas, there is a healthy balance, a beautiful letdown.

I believe that achieving a true (or true enough, assuming we’ll never fully understand God while here on earth) understanding of God is beautiful. I’ve seen the transition happen in a few people during my lifetime. The transition from knowing about God to knowing God, and beautiful it is!

I absolutely love this song. The music does a fantastic job (like always) of describing the mood/state of mind. The lyrics don’t follow a standard song structure, but they reuse a couple lines a lot. It changes enough to be interesting and different, but the message is the same throughout. There isn’t really a story or a progression, just a deep point to be made with just a few words. The lyrics really are cool, and I encourage you to look at them.

We can spend forever striving to find the finite differences between right and wrong, between viewing God as love and nothing else or as someone who has standards that we fall short of, but we will never perfectly find the balance. As we already know, we aren’t perfect and we can’t be. We may get really good at being humble or something, but we’ll never be perfect. So while this balance of how to view God is definitely important and worth considering and applying to your life, don’t get hung up on it. Getting hung up on little things is how bad things begin (like the “God hate’s gay’s” heresy)

Remember, “life is still worth living”

Yesterdays

Recently I was watching a TV show where the people were asked to figure out what a love song looks like to them. They all came up with songs that weren’t anything special, all written about happy love (y’know, the sappy Hollywood version of love). So I began to think about what songs I know that bring love to mind whenever I listen to them. After some thought, I landed on Yesterdays (believe it or not, I wasn’t just looking at Switchfoot songs, it just happened to come to this one). This may be an unlikely choice for a love song, but I feel it has more to say about love than say that silly song from the Parent Trap when they spell out l.o.v.e. and assign mildly appropriate words to each letter.

           

Ever heard that talk is cheap? Well it is. The problem is when you actually believe the words coming out of your mouth; it’s hard to show your feelings because you could easily just be flapping your gums. Ever hear someone say, “I love you” and think to yourself, based on the way they said it, “that sounds like a formality”. They may truly love the person, but they could just be throwing it out there in the same way you’re supposed to quickly respond with “no” when asked by a woman if something makes them look fat (regardless of how they actually look). Talk is so cheap in fact, I’ll bet that there are a number of love songs out there that were written based on a simple, shallow crush. I’ll go further and say that some popular songs out there were probably just formulated and not actually felt at all. So what the heck separates the heartfelt love songs from the fake ones!?

           

The reason I feel this song embodies a love song is because it’s sad, it’s a lamentation. It’s easy to sing about happy love but when something goes wrong, “if it doesn’t break your heart it isn’t love” (Yet by Switchfoot). Sure Nsync’s Tearin up my heart has the line “It’s tearin up my heart when I’m with you. And when we are apart I feel it too”, but seriously? If you’ve ever heard that song, you know that it’s not really different from their other poppy songs. I love Yesterdays because it actually makes me feel (that’s a feat). It’s so passionate and heart wrenching. It’s about death, yet the only feeling that I can pick up on is love. “Every lament is a love song” (Yesterdays).

If the words don’t do it for you, the music should. The bass and guitar(s) work together beautifully in the verses to create a feeling of sadness, of loneliness, of drifting through life in a big grey blur. And in the bridge, everything cries out (especially the vocals) with so much feeling that simply can’t be held back. While it’s sad, it’s simple, clear love.

Don’t get me wrong, love has plenty of ups. If it didn’t I’d question if it’s worth it to love at all. But in the midst of all the phony love songs out there, to me, this one shines through. What does a love song look like to you? Does it sounds like, “baby, baby, baby, oh”, or does it sounds like, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound”? Think about it.