Back to Basics

You know, I started posting on this thing because I wanted a way to disemenate my life's news to my homies around the world. That was a noble and reasonable goal, I think. The fact, though, is that I just don't take the time necessary to keep you people in the loop on my world. That frustrates me.

I'll have to spit this out rather quickly, which is sad, but I'd rather do it that way than not at all:


I'm leaving tomorrow for Owerri, Nigeria. I'm going on a little trip with Mr. Peb and sons. We will be spending time in some church services over there, and we will also be going into villiages to talk and pray with people. I am expectant for healings and the kooky/miraculous. There has been a prophetic word that we will be led into what will seem like a dangerous detour, but will turn out to be a blessing. Money.

Nigeria, particularly Lagos, sounds like a nutty place as I read about it. Sounds severely unpredictable. This is cool with me. The fact that it's the hot/rainy season (incredibly humid, swarming disease-carrying mosquitoes) right now is less cool. I hear the food there is really very good, which is cool. I also hear that you can be mugged and even murdered INSIDE the airport. That is less cool.

As you can see, Nigeria is a land of contrasts. But I've been hanging out with some of my South African friends today, and they ALL tell me that I will leave Nigeria as a "devil-stomping, prophesying madman." Oyez. They tell me "the saints there are dramatic and full of faith. Their worship will energize you." Yum city.

See you tomorrow, colorful guy on a costumed horse!

I'm SO down with variety here.

I tried the thing where I post from a phone.

Failure. Their gathering system didn't work. At all.

I tried the thing where you comment into a voice mailbox.

Failure. You don't want to comment unless you can see what the others are saying, too. Fair enough.

Now I try this bit. It just breaks it up a bit, maybe. Let's see if you participate.

Today, I am full of desire

What I want is the LORD's PRESENCE. I want to FEEL his nearness and KNOW his friendship. I feel like Rick Joyner describes at the beginning of The Torch and The Sword: spending too much time on principles and strategies, and too little time teaching HIM. Ultimately, I have to admit to being a stranger to Him, a foreigner to his presence and ways. I want to be taught OF him, BY him. I almost wrote that I don't want to be taught ABOUT him, but even that is rare enough. In truth, I DO want to be taught about him. Where are those teachers? My main question, I think, is "how do I come by his presence?" Bible reading for its own sake, for instance, seems to me an endless pursuit of religious trivia. I want the scriptures only as gateways to more of his Spirit and presence. As has been said by others in numerous places, I am simply too easily satisfied. When I stop and consider it, I know that THIS is my honest desire--to be with him. The fatigue I've felt in my work lately is not disconnected to the fact that I just don't feel in step with the Spirit. I don't feel to be acting CONTRARY to the Spirit, but rather feel to have been going it alone. The weight of talking about God or going about "his work" without his presence is too much for anyone to bear. I am in need of an encounter with him, lest I become cynical, embittered, or despondent. Jesus is rightfully called the Hope of the Nations, and he is what I'm hoping in today.

Jesus said that if you don't receive the Kingdom like a little child, you won't get it. Today I want to receive it with a wide open mouth. And I'm painfully aware that Jesus IS the Kingdom--there's nothing outside of His person and presence worth spitting at.

RIP, Funny Letterman

Top 10 Expressions that Sound Dirty but Really Aren't (February 3, 1986)

10. "Frosting the pastry"
9. "Shooting hoops"
8. "Jumping the turnstile"
7. "Checking your oil"
6. "Tethering the blimp"
5. "Sending out for sushi"
4. "Picnic on the grass"
3. "Quarter-pounder at the Golden Arches"
2. "Shaking hands with Abraham Lincoln"
1. "Windsurfing on Mount Baldy"

Learning to Fly, Baby

3 weeks ago I was at the Air/Space Smithsonian in D.C. I saw, not a replica, but the ACTUAL PLANE that Mr.s Wright flew into the history books. It was overwhelming. I teared up. Last weekend I was at Kitty Hawk. I saw the ACTUAL FIELD where it all went down. I wanted to wait until I go see their home and shop in Dayton (completing the trifecta) to write this post, but I just can't wait any more. This is too good.


Here's what I learned about these guys:

1) There's no flying machines without these guys' relationship. They said that they were so closely related to one another that they thought the same. Together, they rejected the theories of flight of their day (!). Together, they screwed around at something they loved until they changed the way our world works. Relationship was the platform.

2) To this day, the engineers and aeronautics gurus tell us that their most valuable contribution was NOT being the first men to fly. Watch this: it was that they DISCOVERED THE FOUNDATIONS of flight. The simplest bases of flight were introduced to the planet by these guys (who'd failed 1,000+ times), and that's what changed it all. Didi and I learned that ALL modern planes contain ONLY the elements of flying that are present in their Model A. There has been nothing new discovered since about the way to put weight on the wings of the wind. This blows your mind.

I could leave you to make the appropriate spiritual application, but I enjoy saying it too much to pass up: in the world system, those who perform the 'crowning achievement' are honored. Not so much the innovators, but the ones who bring the innovation to the masses. Those who package it right and, maybe with the aid of steroids, break long-standing records, if you get my drift. Not so in the kindgom. In the kingdom, those with authority are those who lay foundations, who 'go low' and do the small thing with a pure heart. These will be, as Jesus called them, The Greatest in the Kingdom. The Slaves of Everyone. God says, "Don't sweat the brass ring. You be about discovering and laying FOUNDATIONS, m'boy. Stay low and be saved." Try to discover what's beneath everything. Then plow there.


3) I love to imagine the anonymity (sp?) of that first flight. About 5 dudes trying to get 750 lbs of spruce and linen and aluminum off the ground. 12 seconds... 120 feet... then thud. Onto the sand. And there it is, folks. The town around them was unaware of what was happening. The world media was ignorant. But I bet those brothers winked at each other. Jackpot.

Zech 4:10 "Who despises the day of small things?" Hey human guy: Do you have ambitions for some degree of notariety? Respect from men? Respectability, perhaps? A "certain standard of living"? Do you entertain any notions about a style of righteousness that you could call your own? Hmmm? ... HMMMM?

Well, in the name of God, lay all that offal aside. See the greatness in the small, unapplauded thing. That conversation over the phone with your mom MATTERS. The email you've been putting off may well be a HIGHLY REGARDED ACTIVITY in the eyes of God. Raking the neighbors' yard might be the most important thing you do all year. Who despises the day of small things? Things that change the world happen in mosquito-infested sand dunes in view of nobody. "But your heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." OOOOOOOHHHHHH SNAP.

PS- I nominate this as Most Inspiring Photograph Ever.

Truth In Unexpected Places

I love it when I find God content outside those who say they're talking about God. It's like the proverb that tells us to study an ant to learn about God. That's Bible telling me to look outside the Bible to learn about God. Psalm 19 kind of stuff.

My Chemical Romance is a band I would typically dismiss out-of-hand. They're high style and low substance, from a True Truth perspective. But, like the Arcade Fire Angry Guy, I wonder if these people are having dreams from God and don't know what they're seeing, or what. But you can't deny the power of this sort of thing. And the truth! My goodness, the truth! So here I publicize it for your benefit.



My Chemical Romance
"Black Parade"

My father took me into the city to see a marching band.
He said, "Son when you grow up, will you be the saviour of the broken,
The beaten and the damned?"
He said, "Will you defeat them, your demons, and all the non believers,
the plans that they have made?" Because one day I will leave you
A Phantom to lead you in the summer, to join the black parade."

...And we will send you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all
So paint it black and take it back
Lets shout it loud and clear
Do you fight it to the end?
We hear the call to carry on

And on we carry through the fears, disappointed faces of your peers
Take a look at me cause I could not care at all
Do or die, you'll never make me
Cause the world, will never take my heart
You can try, you'll never break me
Want it all? I'm gonna play this part
Wont explain or say i'm sorry
I'm not ashamed, I'm gonna show my scar
You're the chair, for all the broken
Listen here, because it's only..
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
Just a boy, who's meant to sing this song

History Makers!

These guys dream it up like nobody ever has before. They go out there and do things we have NEVER IMAGINED. They created NBA history last year with their decisive, take-no-prisoners,instead-BE-the-prisoners style of play in the finals, declaring with incredible will that they WOULD lose the championship. Who saw that coming?

"Nobody believed we could lose", said team captain Jason Terry, after the Mavs' monumental dismantling of their own game plan. "Sometimes you have to prove the skeptics wrong. We like to think that we put ourselves in an 'impossible to lose' situation, then we came out and did just that. Don't EVER tell us what our destiny is. We make our own destiny."

True to form, this year's never-say-die-and-definitely-don't-say-live bunch wants to make history again. An eigth-seeded team has never beaten a number one seed since the NBA (short-sightedly) made the first round of playoffs a best-of-seven series.

"Sure, nobody's ever done it", said MVP candidate Dirk Nowitski, "but we've heard that before. This teams loves being in a situation that everybody says is over before it starts. We love overturning expectations, shaking up people's perceptions. Lots of teams come from behind to surprise you. How many teams have come from AHEAD to surprise you? More than anything else, that's what we're about."

Hard to question the German 7-footer. He's not only making audacious claims with his startlingly ineffective play, he's backing it up with the kind of rubber-spined apathy required to do the unthinkable. So get out the record books, sports fans, and get ready to erase ANOTHER record: the 2006-2007 Mavericks are in the house.

In Praise of Wife

Today I want to brag on the old ball and chain. The old lady. The 'trouble and strife', as the Cockneys call them. Unfitting monikers, all of them. Maybe The Glorious Telescope would be better. I look through my wife and I see the expanse:

See, my wife, she is receiving, more and more, the love of the God Who Made Her Up. She is becoming convinced that she is well and truly Doted Upon by the Master of the Heavens. She is losing her taste for fashion and money, though she traffics in that world as a job. She sleeps more soundly. She's simplifying! Aha! She is becoming lighter and stronger at the same time.

When I met my wife, she was kind of TOUGH. It took some work to be trusted enough to see her laugh in an unguarded way. She came across as DRIVEN or IN CONTROL. She intimidated guys. And liked it that way.

She is now more of a dancer around the house. She makes up doo-dad songs impromptu. She is reading more, reading the scriptures to me and soaking on them. She is taking authority in our house. She is exercising her authority in the Spirit. She is doling out both grace and justice to the many women who instictively look to her. She is growing light and strong at the same time.

We are laughing more together than ever before. People who hardly know her are being priveleged to see the silly girl that it took me years to see. Her wacky, childlike sense of humor is sticking out all over the place. She's also more discerning about the enemy's movements and tactics. She's far less likely to let a lie sit, unaddressed. She corrects me with grace and love. She is laughing at the future. She's growing lighter and stronger at the same time.

I have been married to this woman for nearly 5 years now. I am learning a thing or two about God along the way.

Hallelujah.

He speaks to those he loves

God talks to you because he loves you. He’s trying to draw you in. Every message, every picture and gift from God is about drawing you closer to himself. You think God needs you to do the stuff he instructs you to do? He doesn’t (Isaiah 66--“Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me?” Translation: Do you really think you can do me a favor?). He doesn't NEED you; he WANTS you. Ps 18:19 says "you rescued me BECAUSE YOU DELIGHTED IN ME."

I got the bad idea growing up that God saved me because I could do some really good stuff for God and I need to get after it, trying to do the stuff I was saved to do. Basically, I need to validate God's choosing me. I need to perform for him. I have to put out.

Sickening.

What I know now is that God's directions to me, even w/regards to 'ministering' to others, are just further invitations from him into greater intimacy. God expresses his gifts in us because he’s trying to romance us. He says, “Billy, this is what I’m like. I bring people back from the dead. That’s what I’m doing with you—bringing you back from the dead. I want you to understand me more. I want you get a glimpse of MY heart and MY power, and how easy it is for me. Go lay your hands on that boy and I’ll show you what I mean...” See, God isn’t looking for servants (he has a lot of angels who do a really great job); he’s looking for a Bride. He wants a Woman with whom he can share secrets. He wants a Bride who wants him for who he is, not for his money (or ability to save them from hell). He’s not trying to “use you to do his work”. He can do his own work much better, thank you very much. He’s trying to reach YOU.

I am not a fan of Veggie Tales, and I'll tell you why. It's too self-knowing, too wry, too clever. It's a great product for teenagers (and I really mean that), but as of today, I don't really want my youngsters brought up seeing it. I don't want them growing up savvy or clever or streetwise. Just don't. (If you show this to your kids, I love you, don't judge you, etc. Just telling everybody where my heart is today.) I want them to be pure more than any of those things. Moreover, that's what I want in ME... purity. I once thought being gullible was a terrible terrible thing (gullibility is always demonized in the world. Not being hep to the jive is a cardinal sin, as you're all painfully aware. We all felt that barb from one time to another, whether in jr high or yesterday. "You haven't seen EXPLODER!? WHAT!?!?" "Don't you know My Chemical Romance? You are OUT OF IT!" "Of course, slim cut jeans are where it's at! You didn't know that?"), but I now see that "love...believes all things." I want to be a sap. An un-clever, not-too-sopisticated man who really BELIEVES and really LOVES. Unsuspicious. Open. Not ignorant (that's never affirmed in the scriptures), but innocent of evil. Undefiled. I hope I'm describing this well. I want to be more passionate about the cleanliness of my conscience than being able to share in the funny moment from the Office that everybody's reliving (and I don't judge the watching of that show, either...). Violent films and sensuous television and gorging on Don Pablo's is just really falling out of my acceptable zone, that's what I'm saying. I have a picture of purity, and I think my Dad wants me walking toward it.

Now, I happen to: 1) really like the ethic that Paul Frank has developed around his work, and 2) be strangely attracted to this song. I know that the combination of these forces may come across as creepy, but I implore you to not go there. See simplicity and lightness in this. It's good for me to think on this.

Local Boy Makes Good

My pal Todd built this website on creativity called The Accidental Creative and you can click the title if you want to see it. Anyhow, he just got his big fat face in U.S. News and World Report! Come on! The story's at http://www.usnews.com/sections/business/index.html Way to go Todd! Kick their newsy butts!


Not sure what I mean by that.

Imparting follows Receiving

IMPARTING seems to be something that we can give, almost assign, to someone else.

Proverbs 29:15
The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

It has to be something that WE HAVE. You can’t give away what you don’t possess yourself. What seems to happen is that we impart who we are to the people we’re around even if we aren’t trying sometimes. It just what’s IN US, and it gets on the people around us, just like evil stuff (bitterness, pride, etc.) will do as well. None of us lives in a bubble. This is why the scriptures are very directive about the way we’re to choose close "inner circle" relationships (Prov 12:26- A righteous man is cautious in friendship; Prov 22:24- Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man...; . Things are imparted, good or bad, all the time around us. The people we spend time with and open our hearts to ABSOLUTELY change who we are.

Ecclesiastes 12:9
Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.

As we grow in this, we want to get more to where Paul was. He moved with intentionality to impart things to the people around him. He knew that he had gifts to give the church, and that he himself WAS a gift. Knowing this, he interjected himself into the situations he saw around him. THAT’s where we want to go (I Cor 11:23- "I received from the LORD what I passed on to you..."). “Somebody needs faith? Wait, that’s in me! I’ll impart MY faith to THEM! Let me get my hands on them and believe that God will take from me and give it to them (I can always get more from God)...”

Romans 1:11
I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—

Not This Again

Eye roll.

Me, Droopy, and Sam + Neat Band = Mathtime Fun!

As I've mentioned in the past, I have a little theater about a half-mile from my front door. It has amazed me with its uncanny ability to get Gabe Dixon, David Mead, Harry Connick Jr., Patty Griffin, Branford Marsalis, etc. The 20th Century is a seemingly insignificant place, but it's been good to me.

Imagine with me, fair reader, my delight in having a couple of friends join me at my front door for a walk on a warm spring evening. It led down to that selfsame 20th Century because of a band I'd heard and read about. It ended inside, staring at these four young men for about 90 minutes. It was one of the best live shows I e'er seed. Their name, collectively, which they share among themslves but not separately, is Mute Math.

I know what you're thinking. "That's a dumb name for a band unless they do exlusively Devo/Kraftwerk mash-ups, in which case it's not a dumb name, it's just uninteresting music." I know that. But we're not here to debate their name. Well, I guess we COULD debate the name. But let's not. Outside of this paragraph. And the comments section; you could do it in the comments box if you want to.

Let my review of the show be summarized by what Jiff pointed out (he saw the same show 3 weeks later in CO): the evening starts with the drummer coming out and gaff-taping his headphones around and around his head. One thinks, "well THIS will be interesting." The band then launches into deconstruct-o rock, playing (sometimes) hooky music with a palpably unstable feel. The drums in their set were ALL OVER THE PLACE: that guy's arms have to be made solely of tendons. The lead singer played some percussion. The bassist often played the Cannon Drum, a boomingly mic'ed sucker that sat behind the drummer's head (the headphones came in handy there, I'm guessing). The guitarist played his delay pedal on a couple of numbers (that is to say, he laid his guitar down and just jacked with the effects on an endless loop). The lead singer played a gloriously un-cool Keytar (!), then some kind of homemade screech/scratch effect instrument that he then dismantled and let the audience play (with low levels of success). The bassist pulled out an electrified cello for a couple of numbers. It was wobbly, unpredictable, constantly-evolving excitement. And suffice it to say, this was the greatest small-venue light show I've ever seen. On the tiny 20th century stage, MM brought in, I believe, 12 MAC2000 spots (those are the ultra-controllable badass lights that all the stars use. They look like this:)

I had a great time with my hep friends Droopy and Sam. I was one of the oldest people in the joint. The show was also sponsored by those pose-kings, Scion, who were giving out blinking-light necklaces to really add to that RAVE vibe I so enjoy. I figured the best way for me to be in the moment was to turn mine on, and wear it around my neck all night, which I did. The cool kids were looking at me like "don't you know you're just advertising for the SPONSOR, man? It's not COOL to be a TOOL." My return look said "blinking lights are fun."

The 20th Century has disco balls and often, the young punks aimed their cell phones lights at them, so that we were all covered in shiny motion. I liked that.

So it was a great show and a great night. It has since returned to winter here in Cincinnata, but spring is threatening. Then we can expect summer to arrive about 4 days after that. Good times. Thanks Mute Math! Just work on that name before you get too big.

When it happens like this, it hurts

I DELIGHT (!) in musical artists I like gaining a wider audience. I love it. I will pimp Griffin House and Gabe Dixon as long as the sun shines. But OH does my heart drag when what I consider musical pablum gains ground in the cultural landscape. Ohmy.

Today's example comes to us from the moneymakers at iTunes, who're touting their Exclusive EP from... Matt Kearney. Holy sheesh.


His rising song is "Nothing Left to Lose". Me and Matt (and, presumably, very few others) were around in 1993 when 4NonBlondes, another terrorizing act that wiped up the MTV crowd, had their only (but huge) hit with "What's Up?" Matt's connection with What's Up? is that IT HAS THE EXACT SAME MELODY. Not derivative... SAME. This is... poor.

I will also state here shortly that I saw Matt at my little 20th Century Theater, and I felt SO BAD for this young man. I was genuinely embarrassed for him. I have no desire to get into a larger discussion about the rap genre, but for an acoustic guitar player (with a nice voice), his rhyme-talking made my mouth drop with incredulity. Many people enjoy this, it seems, but I do not. For me, this whole idea is unacceptable. But I am a songwriting snob, and I know that. I'm simply here to publicize what I'm thinking.

AND I generally don't want negativity on this page. I don't want to wax on about all the stuff I don't like. That gets us nowhere, and I'd much rather talk about the things I love and am FOR than the things I'm against. But this guy has come up in two conversations in the last week for me, so I thought I would just get it out there. Now I'm done. Good. Feel better.

PS- that same night, we saw Matt Wertz. Holy sheesh. I need to turn Gabe on again just to detox.

Another pointless post

This was too strange and random to pass up. I just happened across this guy who wants YOU to know how to make a homemade replica of a Stormtrooper's backpack... even though he admits it's not THAT close to the original. Bless him. Click the title.

Channel 23

The Networks are my shepherd, I shall not want the extended cable package.
It makes me to lie down on the sofa.
It leads me away from the scriptures.
It decays my soul.
it leads me in the paths of sexual insensitivity and violence for the sponsors' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will enjoy that evil, for blood and cleavages excite me.
Its endless channel options and TiVo-bility with the touch of a remote, they comfort me.
It prepares a hilarious commercial before me in the presence of my wife and children.
It anoints my head with humanism and sensuality.
My coveting and fashion sensibility runneth over.
Surely laziness and ignorance shall follow my family all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in our den, captive to Event Viewing, forever.

Oden Caught Smirking!

At least, that's what he said he was doing with this facial expression. According to reports, this is the face GregO makes when he hears a hilarious joke or some ribald tale.

Star Wars Nativity

I just had this idea today and somebody beat me to the punch. Whatever. I could make a better one. What's with the random sheep?

A free one for the kids

This is just lagniappe to make your day happier. This is a direct quote from an email I just received from Jiff, regarding his situation working for Old Staid Religious Institution, and a conversation that happened in a staff meeting about the 'young folks' he wrangles weekly. I think you will enjoy it.



...long discussion about whether or not it would be good for the people of North [the collective name of his 'alternative group'] to be involved in the big "Phase II" money-raising campaign.

I chimed in and said that I think our people are much more interested about sending money to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa than in building a building here in Boulder, for typical religious programs.

Our head guy (the "moderator") took affront to this and said, "I think the people of North need to realize that the world is a lot bigger than just Africa."

Thank you very much.