Great Big Sea

So, recently - when I was in Canada, I picked up a copy of the new Great Big Sea CD/DVD combo, called Courage & Patience & Grit. I've said it many times before, but there is no other band that comes close to Great Big Sea when it comes to energy and getting the crowd involved.

Maybe it has something to do with their audiences being made up of primarily Newfies who are far from home and desperate for a little Newfoundland anything. If you're a fan, pick up the album. It's pretty incredible.

The DVD is about 2 hours long . . . .the whole concert and has much better audio quality than their first DVD.

Granted, it makes me very homesick . . . but that doesn't take much anyway.

Grace,

Desmond

P.S. Check out these lyrics and let me know what you think:

Shines Right Through Me
Released February 2004
(written by McCann/Mahoney/Doyle)

These days I feel a change, All the patterns rearranged
Though I can‘t explain, I know I’m not afraid
Now I realize all good things can be supplied
And they come from you

Chorus
It‘s all brand new, and it shines right through
Shines Right Through Me
I look at you and you, and it shines right through
Shines Right Through Me

This feeling that I‘ve found, like sleeping on a cloud
Smiling at the sky, Not even knowing why
Strange how things work out, I know without a doubt
That it comes from you

Break me out of emptiness, Lead me to your light
Anything worth having is worth some sacrifice
Laid too long in lonliness, This world was made to change
Half an hour of sunshine is worth a week of rain

Air is flowing free, it‘s a little easier to breathe
This soul unbound, was lost and found
No reason left to hide, I feel a light inside and it comes from you

Pride & Glory, Truth & Beauty

I've had the opportunity to work with Phil Laeger on at least one music project, and on several other things too. If you're reading this blog, you may remember his first album "All I Held Onto" (which is available at iTunes, among other places - just follow this link). Today, Phil has released his second EP, Pride & Glory, Truth & Beauty and has made it available as a free download from his website, PhilLaeger.com. It's got four great acoustic tunes that speak volumes of Phil's love for his Creator and Savior, and the great gift for songwriting that God has blessed Phil with.

So, go get it. Listen to it. Be inspired by it. Click the image above to go directly to his site.

Grace,

Des

Welcome to My World.

As part of my Photoshop assignments this week, we had to create a surreal, fantasy image using some of the techniques we've learned thus far. The instructor seemed to stress the idea of having some "foreign" objects in the image - he mentioned whales on the moon, dinosaurs on a subway, etc.

So I came up with this pretty cool planet-scape image and then added some hideous green killer squirrels (e.g. R.O.U.S.). I've put both the images here, just so you can see both and let me know what you think.

Grace,

Des

Fill in the blanks for extra credit:

"What about the R.O.U.S.es?"

"______________________? I don't think they exist. Arrgghhhhh!"

Post comments if you know the answer!

Bitter, are we?

As you may have read here a few days ago, I've been reading and listening to a lot of things about hell lately, and particularly about our (i.e. Christians') various views of what hell is, what hell means, how hell came about, etc, etc. There are some great books and more that I want to add to my reading list.

There's one thing, one thought that came to me whilst reading all this, that I haven't been able to shake. We have to make a lot of assumptions . . . but hypothetically, if at the end of time, what would happen if God was, in fact, a universalist in His view of hell - aka, everyone gets in because of God's grace - whether they lived their lives in a "worthy" way or not? Would we be bitter? Would we be "happy" for the "sinners" or would be put out they they actually got shown God's incredible love in that way?

We get bitter at a lot of things. It doesn't take much - I remember one instance where a friend of mine got bitter because privileges were extended to our peers that hadn't been extended to us in the past - when we were at that "lower" position. Completely not a big deal (and I'm deliberately staying cryptic here).

But I think this reflects some of our thoughts on heaven and hell. It's almost as though we are, at best, indifferent about them being sent to hell (are they expendible because they're going there anyway?) and we would be upset if we lived our lives to get into heaven and then God had to ruin it and let everyone in.

I relate to the pseudo-fictional Chip from The Last Word, and the Word After That who says that there are two sets of questions depending on your view of life, the universe, and everything:

In my way of telling the gospel, what [is called] the modern Western way, there were always two key questions:

1. If you were to die tonight, do you konw for certain that you'd go to be with God in heaven?
2. If Jesus returned today, would you be ready to meet God?

Jesus is important because he paid for your sins when he died on the cross, so if you die tonight, or if Jesus returns today, you'll be forgiven and you can enter heaven.

But in this new understanding of the gospel, two very different questions come to mind:

1. If you were to live for another 50 years, what kind of person would you like to become - and how will you become that kind of person?
2. If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand or ten million years, what kind of world do we want to create?

Here Jesus is important because he leads you and forms you to become a better and better person, and the kind of people who truly follow his way will create a good and beautiful world.

The first set of questions, which used to satisfy me, don't anymore, at least not on their own. I'm realizing that both sets of questions have validity, and the second may be more important.

I, too, am realizing that the second set of questions are vastly more important than the first. I'm less like Chip in that I've never subscribed to the first set of questions to the same degree as he describes.

And there are a lot of other things going on in my head as well. Things about church, about faith, and worship that the established faith community are not fulfilling. I'm neither benefiting nor being a benefit in the current arrangement.

In anycase, one final quote:

To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world, do not believe in God.

Christians believe in the "end of the world," they expect the final catastrophe, the punishment of others.

Athiests in their turn . . . refuse to believe in God because Christians believe in him and take no interest in the world . . .

Which is the more culpable ignorance?

. . . I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God that believes in the salvation of the world? god seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough so that he could send them into the world to save it.

Louis Evely, In the Christian Spirit (Image, 1975)

That's it. More to come.

Grace,

Des

Those-People.org

Quick Note:

We're getting ready to add some features to Those-People.org. It's live now - there's not a LOT there, but I'll be adding stuff pretty regularly (as I can, at least) and there should be a considerable pick-up in blogging activity.

Just thought you may be interested.

Grace,

Des

Disco.app

I'm late in reporting this, but I have a new toy on my mac. I've downloaded Disco, which is a great new disc-burning utility. There are some interesting reviews out there - some great, some not-so-great - but I think it's a great little app. And it's got some great mac eye-candy to boot.

When you start burning stuff, the app actually starts to smoke - just like you can see in the picture. It'll do all kinds of formats and media (CDs and DVDs - plus they've committed to being ready for when Apple adopts either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD or both). You can change the smoke to different styles (like fire and goo, among others). They've even taken the time to make the smoke interactive. So, if you run your mouse cursor through the smoke, it blows around, in response to the movement. Very slick.

The UI is great too - nice and animated . . . very mac-ish. It's a different style - it's all black and gray . . . as opposed to the red, yellow, and green window buttons for example. It's a nice change.

I'm a geek - and I enjoy how things work - but I'm also a sucker for eye-candy.

Grace,

Des

What about Hell?

I'm amazed, as I read more and study more and listen more, at how many different interpretations about hell there among members of the Christian faith. It is absolutely mind-blowingly incredible to hear that people throughout the ages have had so many different thoughts about hell: about whether or not it is a real place, about what Jesus meant when he said this or that, about what happens when we die.

I'm beginning to think that we as Christians need to re-evaluate our concept of hell, which may or may not lead to a revision of doctrines relating to hell. What does that mean for the church? I think great things. I know that for as long as I can remember I've thought that becoming a Christian because of fear of going to hell just didn't cut it. I mean, I guess it cut it. Well, then, maybe it's not for me to decide if it cuts it.

Either way, it seems as though, through centuries that hell has become more about winning than anything else. There must be someone going to hell, or how else are those going to heaven differentiated. When Jesus talked about what we call (read: translate as) hell, more often than not it seems as though he was referring to a real place (namely Gehenna, the town dump of Jerusalem). It was a place where the fire never went out (because of the need to burn garbage), where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth (as the wild dogs would whimper, cry, and fight each other for prized food items), and where it was just generally a not-nice place to be.

And the gates of Hades . . . that was a real place too. There were gates and they were at a place called Hades.

There's a great sermon that talks about hell (Rob Bell's Jesus Wants to Save Christians III - from http://www.mhbcmi.org), and the book The Last Word and the Word After That both deal with these things fantastically.

I'm not saying there isn't a hell, or anything like. I'm saying that I really believe that we have a screwed up idea of what it is, and what it means, and that we need to review it for ourselves and not just take what we're fed.

Anyway, this will probably be controversial, and I probably haven't explained myself very well. But I will. I'm still thinking about this pretty intensely.

Grace,

Des

I Like This

I like this.

Grace,

Des

Closure

Isn't it great when you settle on something? You may have been wrestling with an issue for a long time - going back and forth on what you should or shouldn't do . . . and eventually you reach a decision. It's a fantastic feeling. It's liberating. It's eye-opening. It's empowering.

I feel good.

Grace,

Des

Rule of Thumb

A very interesting tidbit from the latest Rob Bell sermon (number 07 in his series "Jesus Wants to Save Christians") - and I quote:

If people who are really desperate and broken and screwed-up LOVE to be around you, and people who are very uptight and self-righteous find you disturbing, then you're probably being like Jesus. Just basic rule of thumb. If really, really, really screwed up people who are way outside . . . un-, non-, . . . LOVE to be around you, seek you out, tell you their secrets - and people who are very sure they're "in" and everyone else isn't are disturbed by you and find you a bit offensive and maybe right letters to the editor or say things about you and slander, then like, maybe there is always the chance . . .

If you're part of a group of people where atheists, and prostitutes, and drug-addicts, and people who are barely hanging on, if you're part of a community where they feel love and accepted, and people who have nice neat brick walls and have dotted all their i's and t's find you very disturbing, there's always the chance that it could be because you're being like Jesus.

Very interesting. His latest sermon talked about the narrow gate. I can't describe it, just go listen. Download from the link: http://www.mhbcmi.org/listen/index.php.

Grace,

Des

No Post for You

I guess the title of this post is a lie.

Because I'm posting right now.

And now, I have to stop.

Grace,

Des