My Soul Longs For (You)...

My top albums of all time…for now.

1. Would It Kill You? -Hellogoodbye
2. Mean Everything to Nothing -Manchester Orchestra
3. Momento Mori -Flyleaf
4. Parachutes -Coldplay
5. The Black Parade -My Chemical Romance
6. Church Music -David Crowder* Band
7. Emotionalism -The Avett Brothers
8. Hello Hurricane -Switchfoot
9. Bon Iver -Bon Iver
10. Useless Creatures -Andrew Bird

Eager

When we arrive at eternity’s shore, where death is just a memory and tears are no more, we’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring. Your bride will come together and we’ll sing, “You’re beautiful”

-You’re Beautiful by Phil Wickham

My heart literally beats faster when I hear this. I get excited and tears fill my eyes. I’m eagerly waiting and longing for the day Jesus takes me home.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…

-Philippians 3:20

7 things. Non-negotiable.

1. We believe in the Trinity.
2. We believe that God came down in human form: Jesus Christ.
3. We believe in the spiritual lostness of the human race.
4. We believe in the substitutionary atonement and resurrection of Jesus.
5. We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
6. We believe in the physical return of Jesus Christ.
7. We believe in the authority and inerrancy of Scripture.

7 things. Non-negotiable. End of story.

Words of Beauty from Dave Grohl

“Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin’ with Lil’ Wayne…meeting Cyndi Lauper’s adorable mother…the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet…..much too much to recap. It’s really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there’s one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance…and then saying this:

“To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey……I’m a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil’ ode to analog recording has. OK….maybe Kanye has me on this one, but….Imma let you finish….just wanted to clarify something…

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5…..I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician’s personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and…..human. 

That’s exactly what I was referring to. The “human element”. That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became “bad” things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily “fixed”. The end result? I my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell…I’m not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really f***ing hard so that I don’t have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that’s what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I f***ing love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the “craft” is equally as important, I’m sure. I mean…..if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don’t give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape. 

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn. 

Stay frosty. 
Davemau5”

The Coward In The Corner

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

-Genesis 1:3

The very beginning of the Bible, Genesis. These are the first words quoted of God in the Bible. What is he doing? Creating. He is making something. Move on a little bit further.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

-Genesis 2:18-22

After every time God has created something before this, he has looked at it and said it is good. This is the first time we see God noticing something and saying, “This is not good.” It is not that God made something that is not good, everything he does is good, but he takes note of something that is not good for his creation. It is not good for man to be alone. What is God’s response? Fix it. He makes a wife for the man so that he is not alone. God doesn’t just sit and complain about all the things that’s bad about the man being alone. He changes it. 

I’m learning a lot about how to grow as a man of God and what that means. What I’m learning now is that it means to not just sit around complain about problems like a coward in the corner but to instead follow the example of my Creator and change things! 1 Corinthians 11:7 says that man is the image and the glory of God. God is a creator and a cultivator. If I’m the image of God then I’m going to follow in his example and create the change I want to see and cultivate it for his glory.

Let’s grow up, guys. Stop being a coward in the corner. You’re not being a man. You’re being a boy. I’m tired of being a boy. I want to be a man. Let’s change this. Pray for God to create a new attitude of godly manhood in you and let’s cultivate it for his glory. Let’s stop complaining about the state of the church and do something about it. Discuss with each and confront each other in love, if necessary, about the things we can do differently to further advance the kingdom of God and then GO DO those things! Create and cultivate genuine relationships that lead people to Christ for the glory of God.

Writing for words…

I’m very scatterbrained. I think of things randomly and forget them the next second. I’ve started writing things down in a nice trendy journal. It makes me feel more artistic than I am. But I don’t normally let people look in my nice trendy journal. Because I’m paranoid? Probably. Because they wouldn’t understand it? Definitely. I don’t say this as a “I’m on a different thought pattern than the rest of you people” kind of thing. I say it because I usually write the way I think, in fragments. Lots and lots of them. My ideas never go down on the page fully formed. I just write them down so I don’t forget them. If you were to open up my nice trendy journal, you’d be confused. Because the words aren’t the reason I don’t want to forget the words. The words aren’t the reason I write down the words. The words are written because they are a thought that has come into my brain and triggered an emotion. And I want to remember that emotion. The way those words made me felt. So, more than likely, if you look in my nice trendy journal, you’d see words. Not emotions. That’s where the music comes in.

The reason music appeals to so many people is because it connects on an emotional level. In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest mysteries in all of creation. The way a song can make you soar with happiness or long in desperation can change with a simple chord. This is why music should be written. It’s an expression. Sadly, it’s become more of a business and a popularity contest in mainstream culture. I write words down in a nice trendy journal so that when I sit in my room and pick up my guitar, I can start searching. I search for that perfect chord or that perfect progression of notes that most accurately conveys the emotion that I had when writing those words. Sometimes, I’ll find it rather quickly, as I had the chord in my head upon writing the words down. Sometimes, it’ll take months. I still have words that don’t have music to complete them, but they’re still there waiting. In my nice trendy journal.

Anyone who writes music and somehow stumbled upon this mess of a blog, don’t write music just for lots of people to listen to. Write music to tell a story. To share a feeling. Don’t limit yourself to writing a song that you want to feel this way. Don’t set out to write a song to sound like someone else. Search your heart. Find the things that play your heartstrings and stir up your emotions. Even if in your lifetime you only write one song that really conveys what you’re feeling and have a nice trendy journal full of unfinished words and lyrics, write for that one feeling. Write from your heart. It’s an expression. Not a business. Not a popularity contest.

It seems Tebow might help himself and the kingdom by getting off his knees, taking the verses off of his face, and being faithful to Christ without the public acts like all the other Christians in the NFL have done for decades. 

-Anthony Bradley, associate professor of theology and ethics at The Kings College.

Now, I’m not big into football or anything but I’ve been saddened to hear some of the things being said about Tebow. The above statement shocked me.

1. The Gospel isn’t about helping yourself. It’s about dying to yourself everyday.
2. The Gospel isn’t about looking towards other Christians for our example of how to live. We look to Christ and God’s Word.
3. I can guarantee that in light of Tebow’s eagerness to profess that He knows God, Jesus Christ our Lord is always eager to say that He knows Tebow. What greater prize is there? Tebow has won the only thing worth winning: Knowing Jesus Christ.