I was going to reply to a comment left this afternoon, but I thought it would be better to put it up front. A reader posted the following to my earlier music post:

D.A. Carson makes a point that while the present-day church is making more articulate, better written, better performed, more theologically accurate (CCM) music, the focus - at least in America - is on special music (or what the more cynical refer to as “performance” music - music for a soloist). A start to changing the church’s music would be a renewed emphasis on hymnody. This is already beginning but needs to be developed more. Our congregations will continue to sing “In my heart there rings a melody” until someone replaces it with something that is theologically rich and biblically based but culturally relevant.

The Reformation had many battle cries; one of them was, “Let the people sing!” Here is another example of how the church of this century is quite different from historic Christianity. Some background…

In the “dark ages” (10:18a, April 12, 1002 - 3:46p, March 19, 1489), the Catholic church dominated the religious scene. Through no real fault of their own (not at first), the people gradually lost the ability to read their Bibles, since they gradually stopped learning to read Latin. The Church could have stepped in and translated the Bible into the vernacular, but for some reason they didn’t. Could have been a power issue - after all, you could tell the people that the Bible said anything you wanted it to say, and they’d have to believe you. This is what happened, and the Church, possibly redeemable at that time, forever slipped into the state it is in today - lip service to the Scriptures but no real adherance, especially not when it contradicts whatever the standing pope of the time wants to do. Anyway, I digress. Along comes John Huss (from Czechoslovakia, of all places…though it was called Bohemia at the time; much easier to spell, back then, too). He comes up with the crazy idea (you’re going to love this) of The Priesthood of the Believer. It’s not complicated. It’s simply an extension of I Timothy 2:5, which says that Christ is the only One between me and God. (You can back this up in Rev. 1:4-6, where we find that we are indeed priests as far as God is concerned.) So, we’re priests, capable of filling the OT role of a priest: going to God on behalf of ourselves and others. Translation: we can pray to God in our own words. Well, if singing is a prayer (St. Augustine said, “He who sings prays twice.”), and if we can pray to God in our own words, then shouldn’t we be allowed to sing to God in our own words? Boom - congregational singing was born, and hymnology students the world over groaned.

Somewhere along the line, the church drifted into this “must have special music” mode. It started out innocently enough - those who were a little more gifted in music had more opportunities to use their talents to God’s glory by giving testimony in song of what God has done for them or in their lives. But when it became a need rather than a cool extra, the music in the church as a whole suffered. Now, instead of giving the people more chances to sing to God from their own hearts, they have more chances to sit idly by and wonder about the pot roast while absently watching someone else give testimony (hopefully; even that isn’t assured anymore).

CCM comes into this loop, because it started out as a performance venue. But as the second generation of CCM artists moves onto the scene (anyone know what happened to Petra or Amy Grant?), the focus is shifting from whole groups and bands to individuals, which is opening the door for more creativity with the music. Now a person can sing a solo in church or sing that same song as a congregational song. And, as people realize that perhaps not the bulk, but at least a good share of CCM music being written is far more scriptural than some of the stuff in Soul-Stirring Songs and Hymns - after all, much of CCM lyrics are taken word-for-word from Scripture, and one can’t get any more accurate than that! - they’re going to start switching over because there’s a void in their souls.

The response can be one of three things…or perhaps any combination thereof. Choice “A” is going back to the old hymnody (which, BTW, is a great idea), the stuff that’s been around for 300 years and is jam-packed with theology. Choice “B” is to write new hymns in the fine-art style of the old hymns, with the same depth of feeling and insight (essentially creating a neo-reformation hymnody). Choice “C” is to go with the new stuff that’s both appealing and deep. I know of churches that are using a combination of all three in their services, and the results are amazing. Folks, the people at those churches actually are worshipping! Gasp! And in a worship service, too…of all the places! I also know of churches who go with “A” and “B” but not “C”, and things are working out great there, too.

In short, I don’t believe that a wholesale endorsement of CCM is a good thing. Frankly, I find very little (though I have found some) of that genre that is suitable for a church service. But, while not necessary, it can be beneficial, if handled correctly. I’ll leave it to the reader to determine the expedient ways of treating CCM.

(I shouldn’t put this in here, but I’m going to anyway. Please note that I have only spoken about church music, not personal standards. I leave that statement hanging, because I’ll certainly offend readers if I go either direction on that one. Suffice to say, double standards aren’t always bad things. I also remind you that you’re reading my thought process, which may or may not be accurate or a reflection upon anyone or any institution in my life. There, I think I’ve covered all my bases.)

Michigan employer’s total ban on smoking hits nerve

Here we have the story of a Michigan company’s decision to fire anyone who smokes. The company administers something like a drug test, and anyone testing positive for nicotine is fired. That means that not only can workers not smoke while at work, they can’t smoke when they’re at home.

The employer’s side is the fact that they hate covering the bill when the smoker comes down with a smoking-related illness, such as lung cancer. This is natural - after all, cancer treatments are quite costly, and the company winds up footing the bill somehow if the employee is covered under their insurance.

On the other hand, is it right to fire people for their personal off-hours habits? Worse, this turns into a slippery slope situation when you realize that the door could be wide open for people with all sorts of pre-existing (and even pre-existing self-inflicted) medical problems to be standing in the unemployment line. Worst-case scenario is that companies only hire healthy, fit middle-aged people.

Sooo…..we live in a free enterprise society, a society where the businesses are merely overseen by the government, not actually controlled. On paper, a company has the right to set limits on the people it will hire. In practice, “equal opportunity” means that companies have to hire within certain brackets. Not enough women or minorities? Pull them in off the street; doesn’t matter if they’re not qualified or if you’re skipping over a qualified person of whose ethnic origin you already have too many.

Is this company in the right? The precedent for not allowing employees to smoke while working is set already - it’s legal in 50 states. Is this just the next logical step to insuring a company has a healthy environment and workforce (not to mention stays in the black), or has this employer gone a little too far?

–mounty’s corner - we report, you decide.

This question is probably asked a thousand times a day from all fifty states as children hope their parents will quit being so old-fashioned while the parents hope their children won’t be so eager to embrace every new thing that comes down the pike.

Tonight I want to ask a similar question, though not with the defensive tone usually present with the asking of this question. My generation, the people that are old enough to be just starting a family, if not already in the process, is unique in its church music in that we come from a transitional period. The up-and-coming generation, those people who are five years behind us, are even more in that transition that we were. The music that the people in their teens through mid twenties are listening to now is going to be the music of the universal church in fifteen years as we assume leadership roles. I don’t see it being that much different in fifteen years, but the potential for drastic changes in the next three decades is startling. So, I ask the question, “What’s wrong with our music?” and hope for a thoughtful answer.

The choice in my parents’ era was simple - there were two types of music, the stuff played on the beach, and the stuff played in church; and ne’er the twain shall meet. If a Christian teen was listening to the contemporary music of his day and being absolutely unrepentant about it, that was indicative of a heart problem, and the solution was easy to come to, if not to implement. Nowadays, though, we have teens who are otherwise godly, with vibrant Christian lives and strong testimonies among their peers…except they listen to contemporary-sounding Christian music. In some circles, the natural tendancy would be to brand them as living in sin, despite all the other evidence to the contrary. Having spent a lot of time with people that fall under this category, I am less and less convinced that their lives can be written off so quickly. But the question in my mind is, what’s wrong with the music that I listen to, in their eyes? Why did they make a different choice?

Time doesn’t permit me to go into extensive detail about the history of music in the church. It is a subject that I have given a great deal of thought to, especially since I have completed one course in hymnology and am in the process of studying it in greater detail on the graduate level. Suffice to say that history shows that the church has almost always used the music of its culture as a basis for its own music. The controversy between cultural “folk” music and specifically-composed “church” music started in the 1500s. Martin Luther believed that society was still, at its heart, a Christian society; therefore its music could be redeemed and used in the church. Other reformers of the day, such as Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, felt that society was too corrupted to chance using its music. Thus the debate began - and history won out. Thus the church continued to use popular folk and classical music of its day as one basis (of many) for its music. Open your hymnal and find “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” or “Be Still, My Soul.” You may be surprised to learn that the first is a direct translation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, while the second is a hymn made from adding words to a nationalistic classical orchestra work composed by Jean Sibelius.

As a slight aside, it’s remarkable to me as I study church history to see just how much of an anomaly this century has been for our church. For some reason, all the things the church has done for the last 1,800 years is suddenly wrong. It’s now wrong to use a translation of the Scriptures that doesn’t meet someone else’s standards. It’s now wrong to be a Calvinist. It’s now wrong to have a hymnal that contains only words (or, by extension, to show the words on a screen for the congregation), because that’s too “neo-evangelical.” It’s now wrong to sing the Psalms in church because it’s too “high church.” All of these things are documented deviations from the past two millenia of church history. The church, until 1950 or so, has always prided itself on being able to use the best translation of the Scriptures in the common tongue; it’s what got the whole Protestant Reformation underway. Remember William Tyndale and John Wycliffe, the guys who felt the people should read the Scriptures in their own common language? Suddenly it’s wrong to read the Bible in common English; it has to be written in some obscure English dialect that hasn’t been spoken for 400 years because “it’s more majestic.” There was a time, as late as 1900, that pretty much all Baptists were Calvinists, strict Five-Point Calvinists, too. Now Calvinism is some sort of heresy. It used to be that a publisher putting out a hymnal or psalter with songs in it was scorned because the printing of music was both unnecessary (everyone knew the tunes already) and distracting; those times ended in the late 1800s here in America. The earliest Christian songs were the Psalms and canticles. Now they’re considered too snooty for the average church.

All this thanks to the Second Great Awakening at the beginning of the 1800s. Christianity used to be made up of a lot more thinkers than it is now. Christianity was a religion embraced by the educated, cultured people…until the revivals of the early 1800s. Don’t get me wrong - anytime God sends revival it’s a good thing. But I’m not sure, looking back on it, that the leaders handled their end of things well. After the masses of salvations, Christian work became of necessity quick and rushed. Music started entering the church, music that was not composed by people with formal musical training. True to form, Christianity started to pick up the folk music of its largest constituents, which in this case was rustic mountain-type music. The children of those saved from those revivals were the church leaders when the Sunday School system broke onto the scene; and like their parents, they jumped in too quick. The result, musically, was a collection of songs that were little more than bad copies of the pop music of the day. We know this genre today collectively as the “gospel song.” These songs were made intentionally inflated, fluffy, and otherwise devoid of any really deep theology. After all, what do kids understand?

We sowed the wind, and we reaped the whirlwind, because while the adults were singing good hymns, the kids were singing songs like “Coming Again” and “Love Lifted Me” - songs with shallow meaning and even shallower music (I shudder at the prospect of “Father Abraham” being sung in a morning worship service in 50 years). They grew up, and kept their music from Sunday School with them. Now we’re around the 1930s or so, and the Gospel Song is at its peak. A few years later, we have the traveling Evangelist/Musician going around, like Homer Rodeheaver and George Beverly Shea. I believe the church’s music has been on a downhill slide ever since, and it can be traced back to the “I may not have any formal education, but bless God I’m gonna preach!” mentality that appeared with the revivals. The music from that era was written to appeal to the masses because it required little thought and lots of energy, kinda like some of the preaching then (now?); given the choice, your average Joe from then would rather sing his heart out with catchy tunes and rhythms than think. In essence, the church of that day created a new type of pop music for their generation…and that probably would have been fine if it had stayed there. But now we import it in and call it good music, while the music it supplanted has been reduced to “highbrow.”

I personally have been on a personal quest to investigate historical Christianity, not this weird stuff that has been going on this century, and investigate its worth and see how it can be applied to my life today. I’ve already made a few decisions - I have all but given up on the King James Version of the Bible, choosing instead the more readable and more accurate English Standard Version. I have rejected the relatively new notion that Calvinism is a disease and have instead found several (though not all) of its historical tenants accurate. I have taken a renewed interest in the hymns of old - the music of the German, Genevan, and English Reformations - and have started phasing out any particular like for most of the hoppity gospel songs (goodbye, Al Smith and John R. Rice!) - after all, why would I listen to 50-year-old pop music? Who still honestly enjoys Frank Sinatra?

But there’s one thing I’m still thinking about, and it’s something about which I’ve had extended conversations with several knowledgable church musicians, and that is the place of folk music in the church. The historical precedent is there; why else is there a Christmas carol based on the old English folktune “Greensleeves”? Why is there a hymn based on “Oh Danny Boy”? So what is today’s folk music but the pop music of 20-30 years ago? And so we have Christian music based on that kind of music (called generically “CCM”) that is, honestly, its own brand of music. Ten years ago, the warhorse argument from Fundamentalists against CCM was, “If it sounds like the music of the world, don’t listen to it!” Good advice; I still follow it. But after an honest appraisal that consisted of a CD of “today’s best Christian music” and a quick scan of the radio channels, I have to come to the conclusion that CCM no longer sounds like the pop music of today. Right or wrong? The jury’s still out; but I’m quite certain that it has its own unique sound. The rhythms are different (not as driving or senseless); the chords and melodic/harmonic line structures are different; the whole feel of the composition is just different, and I’m not sure I can quite explain it. Even the age-old argument that it uses techniques found in the world’s music don’t stand much scrutiny - your classical music and, heaven forbid, some of your Gospel Songs use the very same technique…only you don’t think about it that way. But syncopation is syncopation, whether Bach, Al Smith, or Selah uses it.

What’s wrong with our music? In short, most of it is outdated; we’ve forgotten the good stuff; and we’re stuck trying to figure out if historical Christianity was simply unenlightened these past two millenia or if it’s really okay to use a little beat and spice in our worship music. So what do I think? Well, those that know me know my thoughts on the issue. Our music needs to change, one way or another. Perhaps we should look for some more exciting music, while making sure that it is theological and God-honoring. Or maybe the historical church really was a pack of morons.

[Listening to: An American in Paris - Leith - Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls (16:35)]

I just now read this article about Firefox’s rapid takeover of the internet browser field. Just a sampling of my visitors’ preferences:

Mozilla product users (includes Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, and Thunderbird): 2,755 - 74%
Microsoft product users: 915 - 24.5%
Other (Opera, Safari [Mac], Lynx [text-only], Konqueror [Linux]): 50 - 1.3%

The results are in - Firefox is the browser of choice for mounty’s clientele!

[Listening to: Andante cantabile - Leonard Bernstein - Wiener Philharmoniker - Symphonien No. 35 Haffner & No. 41 Jupiter (09:12)]

…is why the South, for all the ice they get in the winter, don’t own any equipment to clear anything away. I mean, the capital cities do; Columbia is relatively ice-free at the moment thanks to the salt trucks, but everywhere else in the state is covered. Why? The problem is that they don’t have vehicles or knowledge of how to deal with it. The philosophy of winter weather is “clear it once it’s here,” not “don’t let it accumulate in the first place.” In PA, the trucks are out as much as 24 hours before a storm is forecasted to hit, spreading salt and cinders on road surfaces. Lately they’ve been turning to warm brine water, throwing down a liquid defense on the road shortly before a storm arrives so that the surfaces are too warm to support frozen precipitation. Here, though, they wait until the storm is over to spread sand on the roads and sit it out. Sand?

I noticed in my short time on the road this afternoon that it’s actually safer to drive (and walk) on surfaces that they ignored, rather than the “treated” surfaces. Walking to dinner, I was fine walking on the inch of ice that was on the ground, but the moment I walked onto the Dining Common plaza where they had chopped the ice and thrown down a little salt, I nearly killed myself slipping. If ice and snow removal aren’t done correctly down here, it’s more dangerous to be on the treated surfaces than the untreated surfaces.

I still don’t understand why they’re never prepared for winter storms. I mean, we get sizable ice accumulations every winter. Why doesn’t anyone down here stock up on rock salt and a few spreader trucks? Why is everyone surprised at the storms? “Whoa! It’s sleeting and accumulating, just like it’s done every winter since the Truman administration! I certainly wasn’t expecting it to happen again!”

I just got back from a very fun thing to do on a Friday night - a choral symposium 100 miles away. Concert Choir went down to the state’s capital, Columbia, for a concert sponsored by the SC chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA). We were there along with choirs from Clemson, USC, College of Charleston, Charleston Southern University, and Winthrop University. It wasn’t a competition; I’ll just get that out there right away. Even so, we won. Somehow Concert Choir has the ability to rise to the occasion the moment it hits (which usually gives the director a heart attack two hours before as he thinks we’re not ready), and we did tonight. Tone, pitch, blend, everything was dead on, and you could see in Dr. Gilliam’s face that he was not expecting us to be so responsive.

So it was fun, good times, all that. Nothing wrong with enjoying oneself on these things. But as I drove back to campus I started pondering on what had happened. Six choirs, only one a Christian school, met at a Baptist church to sing mostly spiritual songs. Any idiot can do something with excellence, but not everyone can perform with understanding and a genuine thankfulness for the truth of the songs. There are always believers in the other schools’ choirs. I met one after the concert - Carrie (sp?), a girl from Charleston Southern University. She asked me if I was from BJ (wonder what gave it away?) and told me that she was thankful that Christ was glorified by our faces and our earnest singing of His praise. First thing. Not “thank you for your wonderful singing,” not “you guys sounded awesome,” but “thank you for glorifying Christ.” When we go on trips like this, we of course enjoy ourselves (a friend in Chorale told me that any choir activity off-campus is a definite good time spent), but our purposes are really two-fold: uphold the testimony of the school (which we did, I think), and more importantly, uphold the testimony of our Lord; and if the comments I heard and that others received were any indication, I think we did what we were supposed to.

So tomorrow (today, now that I think of it) is supposed to be messy. 2-4 inches of snow with a layer of ice on top. Even money says the “freezing” rain turns out to be just rain because the ground’s so warm, and that it’ll wash away the snow by nightfall. I’m so cynical…

I saw a stranger yestereen;
I put food in the eating place,
    Drink in the drinking place,
    Music in the listening place;
And in the sacred names of the Triune
He blessed me and my house,
    My cattle and my dear ones.
And the lark said in her song:
    Often, often, often,
Goes the Chrst in the stranger’s guise:
    Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.

—Gaelic text

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:31-46, ESV [+/-] "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.").

I’ve just taken the plunge. After making sure all my files were off, I decided to move my laptop, little beast of burden that it is (P2 366 with 256mb ram) to Linux, specifically SuSE 9.2. So far I’m impressed. The little graphical extras don’t seem to take up a whole lot of overhead, though the interface, while somewhat familiar, is still pretty foreign. I’ll keep playing with it and maybe even post updates.

[Listening to: 26. Air (Elijah) - ‘It Is Enough, O Lord’ - Robert Shaw - Elijah Disc 2 (05:07)]

Tonight, BJU Sports presented a grudge match of epic proportions - the clash of two unbeaten teams, one of which had a decidedly better unbeaten streak. Beta Gamma, winners of the first three games this season, went head-to-head with Zeta Chi, winners of their past 16 games, including postseason play where Z beat Beta for the school championship. Beta nursed a grudge - the championship game last year had been close and was won in the final minutes by outstanding play by Z. Z, on the other hand, was looking to extend its winning streak to 17 games, a streak likely unmatched in BJU Sports lore. The game was back and forth, close all the way down to the last minute of play with Z leading by five. Brian Blazosky had just finished a streak of incredible steals and points, and momentum was in Z’s favor. Beta started fouling, but they fouled the wrong man - Steven Leeper suddenly found his game and started putting all the shots in. Final score? Well, I think it was something like 75-64…Z won by around 10 or so.

Sorry for the epic letdown - I was caught up in the moment of being 17-0! Here’s to Z…soon-to-be two-time champions of the court!

Hey, Maroon!
Hey, Chartreuse!
Hey, Heliotrope!
Hey, Epsilon Zeta Chi!
First place only!
Hey, let’s fight tonight,
That’s right,
Let’s do it!

Hooooooo Z!!

[Listening to: Overture - Robert Shaw - Elijah Disc 1 (03:30)]

Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/23/2005 | Bill Lyon | At last, a return to Super Bowl

Bill Lyon has a way with words. This column is an excellent literary adventure; it also correctly shows the “we’ll love and insult them in the same breath” mentality that characterizes Philly fans the world over.

E-A-G-L-E-S

EAGLES!!!!!!

Just browsing some of my search logs - how people find my site from search engines. Here are some samples:

• hundai accent tests 2005    [huh?]
• free download is there a code, I can install by typing that will stop my roommate from blogging
• “black hand of death” preacher    [someone introduce him to me, huh?]
• caffeine motion sickness
• free cartoons tsumani money    [I hope I didn’t misspell “tsunami” like this person did]
• usairways theme composer
• Davinci Syrups    [new for your coffee - Davinci syrups!]
• download song “payton manning” 18 bob tom    [it’s the latest hit song by Peyton Manning, “18 bob tom”! Sounds like a play to me…]
• education is a right not a prevailer    [this makes absolutely no sense to me]
• spanking and canes in amsterdam    [this might be a legitimate topic…]
• horse talking mounty robert    [I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know]

One final net note - I did a bunch of harvesting spam domain names from my referral logs and gave them the “deny from” trick in my .htaccess file. If for some very strange reason you tried getting on and were blocked, and you moved to another computer and read this, comment to me with your problem and I’ll fix you up.

After four years, the curse is finally over. Philly beat Atlanta 27-10 to break the string of NFC championship losses and earn a trip to the Big Dance, Super Bowl XXXIX (39) in Jacksonville, Florida in two weeks. The opponent is to be determined this evening, and I’ll be eyeing that game when it comes on in fifteen minutes. It was a blisteringly cold day in Philly - the crews could only remove the foot of snow that had fallen earlier, but they could do nothing about the fact that it was 16 degrees with winds blowing at 20-25 mph, bringing the wind chill down to -2. The fans didn’t seem to care, as the entire stadium was hopping. Good effort by all involved.

Props to T.J. Adams today during Vespers - he hooked me up with the NFL GameCast of the game so me and another stage guy could follow our home team. T.J., you da man!

Another shoutout goes to T.J. for alerting me to the fact that CNN is desparately slow. The press release detailing the retirement of Dr. Bob Jones III as president of BJU came out this past Thursday in chapel; it took 21 hours for CNN to pick up on it, while everyone else got it that day. Feeds can be found at the following locations:

CNN
USA Today
FoxNews
ABC News

Not that big of a deal, I suppose - no policy changes have been announced, but I imagine a few are on the horizon.

Anyway, props to the Eagles for finally doing it and restoring my (admittedly) wavering faith in their playoff abilities. I just have to say that Andy Reid is probably still shivering from that Gatorade bath. Yikes!

The long-awaited night has finally arrived. Chanticleer came on campus and put on a bang-up program. Looking back, I’m glad I took my roommate’s suggestion to go solo to this one, because unless I could have found a girl that was as into this type of music as I was, she would have thought I was completely nuts. This evening showed that music of any variety, whether early Renaissance or contemporary folk song arranged by a jazz legend, has the power to move the listener. Here was the program:

The Angel Cried Out by Vasily Tirov (1650-1715; Russian Baroque)
As Vesta Was by Thomas Weelkes (1575-1623; English Renaissance) - this is one on of their CDs (Wondrous Love, available from Amazon.com); excellently done - it was great to hear a song I know and love performed live!
Nicolette by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937; French Impressionism)
Sestina (Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro dell’amata by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643; Italian Late Renaissance/Early Baroque) - another one I’ve heard and love, performed live. Ahhhhh…
Lay a Garland by Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795-1856; English Romantic) - absolutely moving and powerful. Beautiful harmonies in this piece - he wrote Romantic chords in a Renaissance line structure, which is an absolutely stunning combination. I almost wept for the beauty of it. Seriously.
Song for Athene by Sir John Tavener (b. 1944; English 20th Century) - Some of Tavener’s stuff is a little odd, but this is absolutely beautiful. Chanticleer’s got good basses, and they delivered a “drone” - a held note for the entire length of the song, as is typical of Byzantine chant. If the name looks familiar, it was the same song that was performed at the funeral of Princess Diana. I sat back in my seat, closed my eyes, and basked in the absolutely haunting and eerie yet gorgeous “Alleluia” (pronounced in five syllables: al-le-lu-i-a) that concludes each verse. You could feel the silence after that piece as we all just sat there lost in the music.

After the intermission, we heard some decidedly lighter folk music:

With a Poet’s Eye by Cary John Franklin (b. 1954) - short but funny. I can’t explain it any other way.
Purple Syllables by Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) - based on bird-related poems of Emily Dickinson (bird, “Chanticleer” being the rooster from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales…get the connection?). Purely 20th century harmonies, and if you’ve not studied 20th century composition techniques you couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the genre. I’m no scholar, but I understand the basic operation of the chord systems, and take my word for it - it may sound foreign to people in our circles, but the harmonies and structures were very intelligent and enjoyable.
She Walks in Beauty (Lord Byron) by Eric William Barnum (b. 1979) - the man is 25 years old and already a composer-in-residence. He wrote a beautiful setting of a poem by Lord Byron that again nearly brought a tear to me eye…
I Love My Love - Cornish folk song arranged by Gustav Holst
O-Dol-Tto-gi, Mong-Gum-Po Taryung, and Jindo Arirang - three Korean folk songs arranged by a Korean composer-in-residence, Jeeyoung Kim (b. 1965)
Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair and Nelly Bly by Stephen Foster (1826-1864; American Romantic) - two well-done American folk songs, the first of which was arranged by jazz composer Gene Puerling (it showed, but not too much).

For the encore (after two curtain calls) they performed There is a Balm in Gilead, which can be heard on their latest CD of spirituals, How Sweet the Sound, which I really do have to recommend, even if the “spiritual style” may be a bit more…shall we say “Southern” than my Northern circle of friends is used to. (If there’s one thing I can stand, it’s a negro spiritual sung as if it’s Bach. People: move something other than your mouth when you sing spirituals! It’s really okay to clap and, dare I say, sway in that genre! I’ve done it! Lightning didn’t strike me dead!) Further incriminating me as a liberal southerner is the admission that, if the song had gone on any longer, one or both hands might have been in the air. Now I’m a new-evangelical. It doens’t feel too much different…

Afterwards, they did something that is new to me after four and a half years - they came back from backstage and hung around with the students. It took almost 45 minutes, but I collected all 12 signatures on my program (which had a massive blank patch on the cover; wonder why?) and actually talked to several of the guys, more than just “Hi, how are you doing?” I got some tips on how to handle a tired voice from an alto, ideas on how to switch between choral and solo voice from a tenor, and an explanation of how hard it is to switch genres (from Palestrina to Percy Grainger, for instance) from a soprano. With one exception, they’re pretty much normal guys. I have to say, Eric Alatorre, a bass, has the coolest handlebar moustache. I think he might even wax them. There are only certain people that could do that and get away with it; he’s one of those people.

It was a wonderful evening of music (all a capella, too). I remember making a big deal about this being a prime dating thing and all, but looking back on it, I’m almost glad I decided against calling the one girl I had in mind. Not that I didn’t want to hang out with her at all; it’s just that I really enjoyed this one in my own way without worrying about the person next to me thinking I’m a weirdo and this is the last thing she’s ever doing with me. The Prague Symphony Orchestra is coming in a few weeks; that’ll be something to hook up for. This was one to enjoy by myself and just bask in the music of 12 professional gifted musicians.

[Listening to: Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel - Moses Hogan Chorale - Circle of Life (02:40)]

Life is so much different now. Uninterrupted evenings to study (or play NHL 2005, whichever strikes me as more important at the time; with the lockout in effect well into next season, why not?), 24×7 access to the dorm…life is good. This evening I was asked to sing in the wedding of two good friends from back home, so that’ll be a little vacation time I expect. (He told me he originally was going to have me usher, but with his tenor away from school this semester and unable to practice with the group, I’m his backup. Thanks for telling me now…) I’m excited - I’ve known them both since coming to school, and it’ll be great to be a part of their wedding. I found out that I’m now an “official representative of the University,” so choir tour turns into paid vacation for me - they pay for 28 hours of hourly work, just like a regular working week for a GA, and the week doesn’t count against my vacation time.

All in all, things are pretty good, excepting one rather unfortunate personal/private situation this afternoon. On that note, I had a scary thought this evening. It’s actual a scary comparison; you decide what to call it. The thought ran through my head as I was coming back from getting Blenheim ginger ale, “I’m not sure which is scarier - that the only girl in my life at the moment is my car, or that my car is a girl.” Following the grand tradition of all ship masters throughout the years, my personal conveyance has assumed a feminine personality. Yes, to get my sister off my back, I gave it a name - It - but it’s more of a she, especially when I’m involved in some act of care (like filling the gas tank, changing the oil, going easy on the clutch when it’s 15 degrees out and the fluids are the consistency of jelly, etc.). I suppose the “she” references to the car are pretty normal, but the fact that It is the only “she” at the moment is kind of a drag. No pun intended. What’ll be scary is if I ever give the car a real name. Gotta resist the urge to do that…

[Listening to: BWV 4 - Duet (verse 7, soprano, tenor): So feiern wir das hohe Lied - Johann Sebastian Bach - Das Kantatenwerk, Vol.1, CD 2 (02:07)]

Seen on a desk plaque:

To be is to do (I. Kant)
To do is to be (A. Sartre)
Do-be-do-be-do (F. Sinatra)

The weekend saw a number of excellent NFL games, and a few not-quite-so-hot games. Here’s mounty’s take on the weekend of the pigskin:

The not-quite-so-hot games:

• Pittsburgh 20, NY Jets 17, OT
  Here we have a really (s)crappy game by Pittsburgh. Scrappy in that they hung on to win in OT, but crappy in that they had to go to OT to do it. The Jets? Yeah, I know, big comeback Cinderella story blah blah blah. But for a team that finished the regular season 15-1 to almost lose punch-for-punch to the Jets is pretty bad.
• Atlanta 47, St. Louis 17
  Tell me how Atlanta was allowed to score nine separate times? Oh wait, that’s right - the NFC is so weak that 9-7 teams can make it to the semi-finals. STL had no business being in the playoffs, and Michael Vick & Co. made sure the Rams knew that before the night was over.

The excellent games:

• Philadelphia 27, Minnesota 14
  It wasn’t as close as the score suggests, if the score suggests it was close. Randy Moss (3 catches for a whoppin’ 51 yards) was nowhere to be found, and Culpepper chucked two interceptions to offset the otherwise wonderful 316 yards passing. But MIN going 3-and-out on their first two drives was just bad form. The Vikes limped into the playoffs and were promptly devoured by a team that included starters who hadn’t started in a month. Wow.
• New England 20, Indianapolis 3
  Some would say this wasn’t a good game, but I disagree. The pre-game hype was electric. Yes, the Pats have pwned the Colts in recent memory, but that was before Peyton decided to turn on the juice and shred secondaries all over the place. So, would Tom Brady, a less-dangerous QB with a stifiling defense to back him up, lead his team to victory, or would Manning get the Patriot monkey off the Colts’ back and show up in usual form against the Pats? You didn’t really know until the 4th. The score again doesn’t show just how close the game was. Remember, it was only 6-3 at the half, and with one minute to go in the 3rd, NE got the first TD of the game. Certainly not the explosive defense I was expecting from either team. But, it was still a good game.

So now there are four. The NFC decides first who goes to the big dance in Jacksonville when Atlanta travels to frigid Philly at 3p for what should hopefully be the end of the NFC Championship Choke-a-thon after three stinky defeats. Tune in to Fox to watch that go down. Then, at 6:30p, head over to CBS (actually, set your TiVo to head over to CBS while you head out to church…right?) to see NE vs. Pittsburgh in what will either be a deathmatch or a really boring game decided by a field goal. Predictions for next Sunday:

Philly over Atlanta 21-7 because the Falcons will be shivering their tail feathers off on the road, which is never a good thing (of course, that’s what everyone said about Tampa Bay two years ago).
Pittsburgh over NE 7-3 on the strength of their running game getting in just once.

[Listening to: Soprano Solo & Chorus - Let All the Winged Race with Joy - The Choir of New College Oxford - Music for Royal Occasions (02:40)]

In Christian circles, the topic of the Internet brings a lot of varied opinions. On the one hand, you have people like me who whole-heartedly embrace the power of global communications for the purposes of study and/or entertainment. On the other extreme, there are people (generally those who hole themselves up in the Badlands of Montana for fear of government officials in trench coats packing P90s) who think that the Internet is just one more step in paving the way for the Antichrist’s rule on earth. (Did we mention that the image of the beast spoken about in Revelation is probably being broadcasted over the internet? No? Well, it was supposed to be TV a few years back, but now that broadband and whatnot is here…) If the sarcasm isn’t plainly obvious at this point, please forgive me for not being clear. (The P90’s a pretty cool toy, BTW. The official site is here, but for you on-campus BJU people let me save you some trouble and point you here instead. Trust me.) Anyway, I digress. The important thing is that the internet’s a tool; and like most tools, it can be both very beneficial and very dangerous at the same time. But, like any tool, one should not discard it just because it has dangerous aspects. (When’s the last time you decided that the danger of chopping your fingers off in the blender outweighed the need to chop carrots for the stew?)

This will not turn into a discussion of “The Dark Side of the Internet” (insert scary music here). While those dangers are real, that is not the scope of this article. This is meant to be a explanation of some of the tools that people in the ministry can tap into when considering the internet and their ministry.

The first, and probably most common, is email. Email is an integral part of the internet, and, in terms of common, everyday usage by Everyman, probably the most common, too. Many, maybe even most, people have email addresses today. Almost all companies provide email addresses to their employees for work-related communications. Same thing goes for universities. Just about every professional institution in the career world has email communication. The wonderful thing about email is that, for the moment, it’s free. (There was talk a few years ago about making all email services pay services [like buying a stamp for a letter], but that would have sparked riots all over the world.) Mail a letter, and it’ll cost around 40 cents or something. Email someone, and it’ll get there faster (which is why the written way is now called “snail mail”) and at no cost to you. This has definite benefits for missionaries, and almost all the ones I’ve met use it religiously (yes, that was intended as a joke). Why should a missionary in the jungles of Cambodia or some other postally challenged location drive to the post office and pay for an international letter to go out to his mission board? More likely than not, even if he’s working in another “advanced” country like England or Germany, the information will be out-of-date by the time his board receives it. Then you have to worry that the mission board copies and remails the letters to all his supporting churches…it’ll be two weeks at least before anyone has any “current” information. Email, though, is right there. Except in remote locations, a missionary can simply prepare his prayer letter, attach the document to a mail message, tote his laptop/disk/whatever to the nearest internet cafe, and in two minutes, tops, have an up-to-date prayer letter sitting in his supporting churches’ inboxes, ready to be printed and read the next service.

The next most common use of the internet is a website. There are different facets to this, too. Ministry organizations (like Urban Imperative) and churches (like ValleyView Baptist Church) can have a website where announcements, sermons, and other helpful links are posted for visitors to use. When we think of missionaries, the scene gets a little more complicated.

For the average missionary, having just a regular website is kind of a pain. If you want to update any information, you have to go in and edit a page in some $400 app like FrontPage or something. Okay, so it’s not that bad; but the fact is, you still have to go in and play with HTML code or at least have a program that’ll let you do that. And, given a few weeks, it’ll start to look pretty cluttered and un-professional. (That, BTW, is a pet peeve - preachers who preach excellence for Christ then go out and maintain a “site” on Geocities that has an absolutely eye-watering design and/or color scheme. For a grand total of $11 a year, which is what I’m paying now for my site, one can own his own website and enough space to do something with it.) The solution for missionaries is CMS, or Content Management Systems.

“CMS” is really just a fancy way of saying “blog,” like this site. With a blog, missionaries can post their prayer letters online, and attach a document form for those wanting to print it out. David Hosaflook, a Z alumni, is a missionary church planter in Albania, and he maintains such a site. With my site, I use a program called w.Bloggar to post new entries. It’s pretty much like Word - you type and format like you want, then click “Post & Publish” to get it on your site. The post is automatically stored in the site database, and it’s now accessible to anyone. No messing with HTML or PHP pages, no fiddling with your front page of the website to make new stuff appear. Just click and go, and your missionary letter is out there for all to read.

Another advantage to the CMS approach is the recent web fascination with XML or RSS documents. The document is stored on the website and can be accessed by any number of special programs called “aggregators.” Newsgator, which can be found on the sidebar, is one such aggregator for MS Outlook. The XML or RSS document on the server is constantly updated with the most recent posts, and the aggregator downloads the new posts to a user’s computer. This way, I don’t even have to go to zacfoo’s website to read his latest posts. It gets delivered to Outlook, and when I check my mail I see that he’s written something. Pastors don’t have to spend the time checking 15 different missionaries’ sites now - they simply check one program that tells them that so-and-so’s website was recently updated.

That’s just under the topic of keeping up with people. Some churches have set up sites where you can tithe online from your desk at work. (Crazy? Well, that’s what people said about churches having websites in the first place ten years ago.) So, if a missionary wants to allow people to support him from their own home… Or what about the possibility of putting up a 21st Century version of the 95 Theses online for debate and teaching? The power and potential of the internet is limited only by the imagination of the person using it. It’s a great tool for people in the ministry, assuming they get off the “new world order” kick first.

[Listening to: III. Domine Jesu Christe - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Symphony & Chorus - Fauré & Duruflé Requiem (07:55)]

Okay. I didn’t want to go into this much detail, but I’ll do it anyway. Some perhaps got the impression from my earlier post that God cares more for soul-less animals than He does for the souls of men. I don’t believe that, and my intention was not to compare the love of God for His animal creations and that for His human creations. My point was merely to say that the animals scramming early was not mere chance. But, now’s as good a time as ever to get into that, so here goes.

We know from Scripture that God cares both for man and beast:

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! (Luke 12:24, ESV [+/-] Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!)

The question is rhetorical - Christ wasn’t looking for a quantitative answer; His point was that human life was more precious to Him than that of the birds.

QUESTION: If God values human life more than animal life, then why did He create animals with the ability to somehow sense impending doom and leave the area? Doesn’t it seem backwards? More to-the-point, why did he spare animals and leave the more precious creations to die?

I believe the answer lies in the “innocence” factor. Animals can’t sin. Animals don’t commit adultery, or lie, or steal…. Okay, so they do - but it is not some sort of animal sin. Not having a soul, an animal cannot be eternally culpable for its actions. When it dies, that’s it - ashes to ashes, dust to dust, yada yada. Humans, on the other hand, have souls. Humans do commit adultery, lie, and steal. And they’re held responsible for their actions. To say that thousands of innocent people were senselessly killed in this disaster is more or less incorrect. First, they were not innocent. None of us are - no human beings except Christ and Adam and Eve were ever innocent, and only one ever stayed innocent - Christ. Second, they were not senselessly killed, unless you don’t have any eye for the eternal and greater picture.

Mankind was created for God’s purpose. Thoughout Paul’s letters this truth rings true - God is the potter, we are the clay. Why the Potter makes a clay pot is not for the pot to understand. As showed in Romans 9 [+/-] [9:1]I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls-- she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'" "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay." And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah." What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.",

Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? (Rom. 9:21, ESV [+/-] Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?)

Tragic? Yes. Do I mourn for the people killed and commiserate with the families who lost loved ones and all their earthly possessions? Absolutely. But do I see this as a senseless act? Not at all. If we were created for the sole purpose of bringing God glory, then we must accept that somehow, by this calamity, God’s name will be glorified. Why does Ezekiel prophesy about all the doom and gloom to befall Israel?

Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD–that I have spoken in my jealousy–when I spend my fury upon them. (Ezek. 5:11-13, ESV)

That was just one reason for the destruction God brought on His chosen nation of Israel. Why did He do it? So that the people would know that He was the Lord, and that there was no other.

I refuse to speculate on whether or not the people there “deserved it” or if God just decided to throw this natural disaster out there just to prove that He still held control over the weather and geology of Earth. I don’t know, and I don’t expect it’s important. But the hand of God was seen in an undeniable fashion - God clapped two plates of the Earth’s crust together and scooted a massive wall of water on-shore. Why did the animals leave? Pre-programmed sensitivity to subtle changes, or a divinely just and merciful warning? Not important. Either way, God was the author of the entire event, and you can bank on the fact that He did this ultimately to bring glory to Himself.

[Listening to: Suite Antique for Flute, Harpsichord and Strings: Prelude - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Distant Land: The Orchestra Collection (03:26)]

Tsunami Animals: A Sixth Sense?

I’ve heard a lot of these stories - elephants who were chained to poles breaking free and heading for the hills. All the animals disappearing before the quake and coming back afterwards. And it’s not just the recent tsunami incident - stories like these come around after every major natural disaster. The obvious question is raised - why? Why do animals flee for the hills before impending doom?

This will be a multi-facated rant. Part one: “psychic animals.” Before you go off thinking Fido is actually quite intelligent, realize that Fido has a better tuned sense of hearing and smell than you do. But I don’t think that’s the reason for this disaster. I don’t think the animals felt the ground tremble or heard the roar over that distance. I think it was the hand of God. We know from reading Scripture that God cares for His creations, whether bi- or quad-pedal. I imagine that anyone Christmas Eve that saw a herd of house pets running for higher ground was probably just as shocked as Noah’s neighbors were to see all those animals trooping towards the ark. The God who sends (or allows, if your theology is a little on the weaker side) disasters is the same God who isn’t willing to allow innocent creatures suffer. I’ll stop there at the risk of sounding too callous.

Rant number two - if you’re going to say that these animals have a better sense of doom than we do, let’s think scientifically about it. Let’s assume a few things for the moment:

• Due to variations in the gene pool and the occasional mutation, variations are added into the population of an animal species over time.
• Those variations that are beneficial to the survival of the animals with the variation give those animals a greater chance for survival.
• Over time, the population changes to favor those animals with favorable variations, to the exclusion of the animals without that variation.

This is nothing new - observation of “natural selection” in action are common. I invite you to think back to the industrial revolution in England. Turns out that the population of tree moths shifted from white tree moths (which blended in with the flowers of the trees on which they roosted) to black tree months (which blended in with the soot on the same trees), because birds could see the white moths better against a black tree and ate all the white ones. Now, you’d think the ability to be sensitive to the ground shaking or to hear an approaching tidal wave would give some members of a species a competitive edge against other members who don’t have those abilities, right? I mean, if all the animals with better hearing head for cover when an attacker comes through the brush, while the animals with worse hearing stick around and get slaughtered, it would seem that pretty soon that better hearing trait (if it is transmitable) would start to become quite common among that animal. So why, then, did this very favorable “sixth sense” die out? Shouldn’t we humans, with out thick, insensitive skin and our terrible hearing, have been wiped out somehow long ago? Or did we not “evolve” and therefore not get the desirable traits? Could it be that we were made like this, and dogs were made with better hearing, and so on? I wonder…

A few days ago I was flying back from Philly into Atlanta to start school. While in the air, a few devotional/inspirational thoughts came to me, and I thought I’d share them.

The weather in Philly was absolutely raw - upper 30s and on-and-off pouring rain. It was too warm for anything to be in danger of freezing, but on the other hand I felt very sorry for the ramp rats standing in the pelting rain guiding our Airbus A-319 into position at the gate. It was only a few seconds after take-off that we lost sight of land for the low rain clouds. And yet, after a few bumpy seconds, we passed above the clouds and into blue skies and sunlight.

The storm that just a few minutes before was now beneath us. That which we worried about so much (in one way or another) was past, and we could see it from a new angle. And you know what? From the new angle, what had looked so nasty and dreary really looked quite beautiful.

Those of you who have flown through storms know what I’m talking about. The clouds stretch beneath the aircraft like a sea of white fluff. Here and there ridges and plains in the cloudscape make it look like a landscape dotted with rolling hills and mountains. In short, it’s really something to see. (Don’t go spending money on a ticket just to see it, though.)

Not too much longer, we landed in Charlotte. The same clouds have moved in and were covering the airport. We descended below 2,000 ft., and there we were again - in the same murky rainy conditions that we were in before. But then we took off for Atlanta. Same thing - bumpy ride through the thick of the storm with an experienced pilot at the controls, leading us to (this time) a gorgeous sunset that turned the white clouds into shades of orange, pink, and purple. With the hum (more like annoying buzz) of the 737-300’s engines in the background (or foreground - I was sitting on the wing row) and the aerial landscape beneath me, I promptly fell into some semi-sleep state.

Here’s the point of all this - when you’re under the storm, things are certainly dark and gloomy.There’s no disputing that. But when you leave the clouds behind and get a new perspective, those same clouds suddenly look much, much different. Beautiful, almost, and you wonder how you ever thought the problem was really a problem. Sometimes, all that’s required to get out from under the gun is a change of perspective on your problem. Suddenly, you can see clearly. But, like flying, the only way to get that different perspective is to see things the way your Pilot sees them. Certainly God who not only created the storm but who cares for His own will guide His own through the troubles in their path. All that’s required is trust and obedience. Remember the kid’s song, “Trust and Obey”?

When we walk with the Lord,
   In the light of His way,
What a glory He sheds on our way;
While we do His good will,
   He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

At the risk of over-simplifying it, that’s all there is to it. Trust and Obey.