Jesus listens to Techno music.

I am a big fan of the artist Andy Hunter. Yes my allegiance dates back to his first album Exodus back in 2002. I have a lot of friends and family who scoff at the thought of “Christian techno music” and by most accounts I agree. But today I ran across this interview with Andy Hunter and I thought what he had to say about his faith and how that impacts his music was really good.

SSv: “Technicolour” is stellar club music. Where did the inspiration for that song come from?

Hunter: “Technicolour” is really about a relationship, and for me it’s about my faith and my relationship with God, you know, something that really pours into the black and white areas of my life. And I really wanted that to shine through and thank God for just coming in and making everything Technicolor. You know, this whole theme of thinking back to the early days when you had black and white TVs and [Affecting his best TV announcer voice] “Now in Technicolor,” kind of came along and what an experience that would be to suddenly see black and white TV turn into color. It would just be quite an incredible experience.

And I was thinking as well about sound and music and how we used to have mono recordings and then all of a sudden you’ve got stereo, [Announcer voice again.] “Now in stereo!” So I was thinking a lot on those sort of lines of how I feel that my faith has really made my life “in stereo” and “now in Technicolor,” and really tried to capture those particular feelings in my music.

I can really identify with his way of thinking. Yesterday I got a bit emo but I think what Andy has said here is a great summary to the question of where are you headed. I want to live a life that can be played back in stereo or even better 7.1 surround with a high-definition image. Every detail beautiful in it’s own right. Every sound reflective of what is going on. Life in a full experience. Thanks Andy for your words and for sharing your talents in a way that helps me better understand myself and the world I live in.

What artists impact you? What imagery do you use to think about life?

Blog Bloated

I’m guessing that for some folks blogging, if not done with the proper motives, very quickly degenerates into a futile exercise. There is no doubt in my mind that for me blogging means a lot. I learn so much from the postings of others, regardless of whether or not the material is original or not. Probably the most exciting thing for me when it comes to blogging is the online community. I have the opportunity to converse, hang out with, talk, dream, learn, observe, meet, etc…from a bunch of people that under other circumstances I would not.

Today it really began to hit me. I became blog bloated. There are so many insightful and fascinating blogs with information that is both practical and entertaining. And well, honestly, I have always wanted to fit in with the cool kids. With the blogging community online, I have come about as close as I have ever been. (Man, this is turning into a sad commentary about my life.) But today I felt lost and hopeless.

The real issue here is that I have deep within me this burning desire to be recognized for who I am and what I do. I know that John Eldridge (whom I have actually met) would say that is part of being a man. But sometimes I feel so overwhelmed and conflicted about it. On one hand it has driven me to take risks and to see the possibilities in my life. On the other hand it comes with an ego, and not just a small ego. A big fat voice that screams at the top of its lungs….HEY! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT WHAT I DID! AREN’T I COOL?

Look I’m not beating myself up. I know that I have gifts and abilities and I want to use them to really make a difference in this world by the grace of God. But my ego. So deeply flawed and broken. So consistently focused on me.

So let me ask you: Where are you headed in life? and Why?

Nothing.

Yup. I’ve got nothing for you today. I hate to dissapoint, but what’s on your mind?

Getting smart with kung fu panda’s.

 

Saturday night my wife and I did something we have never done together. (No not that…) We went here and thanks to this person we got to go in her topless Jeep. (I know this post is getting really risque.) It was a perfect night and when you go to the Admiral Twin it is always a double feature so we saw Get Smart followed by Kung Fu Panda. They were both pretty funny. I’m a big Steve Carrell and Jack Black fan so I was yucking it up til the wee hours in the morning.

The whole night was perfect. The moon came up as we were watching the movies. I saw a shooting star. The temperature was set just right. My wife and I had a wonderful time together.

It had been a real long time since I’d been to a drive in movie. I don’t know if you have ever been, but man people come really prepared. A lot of the vehicles were pick ups that would back in and people would sit in the bed. Some had gotten really elaborate with chairs and pillows and we even saw some folks with a couple of cots. (Not sure how much of the movies they actually saw.) But it felt like one of those spontaneous communities that just erupts from out of nowhere. It was definitely a lot of fun to just sit and watch people.

As the Mission Pastor at The Heart I feel like I am always talking about community. As if I keep talking about it somehow its just going to magically show up and happen. Obviously, everyone at the drive in was there for the same purpose: to watch a couple of movies. But yet there was a lot of mingling and sharing and hanging out going on as well. The owners of the theater weren’t up front spewing out a bunch of programming notes about cool new services that they were offering to encourage community. It just happened.

What can a church learn from this? Do we sometimes get so excited about creating community that we actually hinder it? What have been some good examples of community for you?

BOLD

Ran across this article at wikiHow. How to be bold.

The first step, according to the article; “pretend that you are already bold.”

I find that a bit interesting. If you are not bold, then would you even know how to start pretending? Shouldn’t you first learn what it means to be bold before you begin “acting bold”?

Then I thought about faith. Is is ridiculous for me to ask someone to just have faith, especially if they don’t know what faith is? Ninjawords defines faith as:

“mental acceptance of and confidence in a claim as truth without proof supporting the claim”

Obviously, at some point in the journey of faith one is faced with the descision do I accept this as truth or fiction and live my life accordingly. So can one pretend their way to faith? Maybe in some instances for a while. I’m reminded of Matthew 13:1-23.  So if you struggle with being bold, learn what it means to be bold AND then start acting bold. If you struggle with faith, learn what faith is and then live in the knowledge that you have.

P.S. As a Christian I would never assume or suggest that as humans we can obtain all the answers to all the questions. I know plenty of very intelligent and moral people who do not have faith that there is a God let alone a way to know God personally.

A New Hope.

Yeah, I like Star Wars, but I’m not a nerd.

Yesterday I met with Tony and Miss Mabel. They are the actual physical manifestation of the North Tulsa Heritage Foundation. Their purpose is to educate the community about our heritage particularly as it applies to north Tulsa. Now I don’t live in north Tulsa but as I confessed I’ve been spending a lot of time up there lately. I have begun to feel that for me personally the heritage of north Tulsa is important to us as a city, a state, a nation and as a people of God.

All this week I’ve been depressing you with stories of injustice and violence. Today I want you to know that Tony and Miss Mabel represent the hope of this important issue. I felt very comfortable in the upstairs office of the Mabel B. Little Heritage House. Miss Mackey and Tony shared with me their vision for educating more people about the Tulsa race riot. Their objective is not to shame us into guilt or fear, but to create an opportunity for people to think about how they relate to each other particularly as different races. They are especially passionate about reaching children because children have the tendency to be brutally honest and they don’t carry with them the same prejudices that jade us as adults.

I’ll be honest with you, I still struggle with the idea of reconciling races. It seems so utopian and unobtainable. But after my meeting yesterday I began to feel as though there is hope. Tony made a statement that really helped me to see where we as a society can begin to turn the tide and move toward more racial harmony.

“You can redirect your thinking through education.”

I like that. I think its a great place to start.

So what do you need to learn?

June 1, 1921

As the mob grew in size and intensity things began to deteriorate. Yesterday I ran across a great time line summary of the actual events here. All throughout the night armed blacks and whites skirmish throughout north Tulsa taking causalities on both sides. Things seemed to quit down a bit between midnight and 2am with intermittent gunfire. Then at 5am three whistle blasts are heard and whites begin their final assault on “Little Africa”.

Over 30 square blocks of houses and businesses are burned to the ground. Officially only 39 were killed, 13 of them white. But according to a Red Cross estimate at the time 300 were actually killed. This would make the riot the most deadly race related incident in American history. 10,000 were left homeless as a result of the looting and burning. At the time over $1.8 million in property damages. Eventually a large number of the black population in Tulsa were rounded up and placed in internment camps mostly at the Fairgrounds. And in the coming months many of the black victims would sue for property damage and loss. All of the cases were dismissed and culpability at the time was placed squarely upon the shoulders of the black community. Perhaps most importantly much of the history of this event was forgotten about. Not until 1997 did the state of Oklahoma officially commission a group to research and rebuild the history of the event and what actually occurred.

I find this principle at work in my own life. Something small and insignificant blows up into a big deal. Once I deal with the issue (personal character flaws, grudges, etc…) I try and forget the past. But it seems to me that a balanced view of the past and the future keep me on track. Is it really necessary for us as a society to dig into our past and re-encounter these horrific emotional events that only seem to encourage more questions and more discomfort in the way we live? Is it a good exercise to reopen the past only to discover a really bad part of ourselves? Is is important for us to “set the record straight” and issue a final judgement as to fault? Is is even possible?

What do you think?

Greenwood Tulsa, OK

Tulsa much like every other town across the United States during much of its early history and even up until the current times has been a racially divided town. Not just in spirit, but also physically. In Tulsa, that dividing line has been Archer Street and the Frisco railroad. Pretty much anyone living to the north was black and anyone to the south was white. It’s not quite that evident today, but you can tell. What is unique though about Tulsa is that the black population had experienced substantial prosperity. Tulsa of course was an oil boom town scratched out of the Oklahoma dust. As the wells went up so did everyones standard of living; blacks included. The Greenwood section of Tulsa at the intersection of Archer and Greenwood streets was the epicenter for this prosperity. Not only prosperous black-owned businesses, but lawyers, doctors, and just about every other service and profession imaginable. Many blacks from across the US would specifically move to Tulsa and the Greenwood district to escape local prejudices, threats and violence. All of them hoping to get in on a piece of the prosperity. As

Greenwood’s prosperity increased some have reported that the rest of the city was not so excited about it all. In fact the more prosperous Greenwood became it seemed the more suspicious and nervous some of the rest of Tulsa became. That is until May 30, 1921…

You know as I reflect on this part of the Greenwood legacy I wonder if perhaps this might be the best arrangement. Carve out a piece of the town and allow that minority group or ethnic group to basically live there as if they own it and are in charge of it. I know that there are many urban locations like this. Italian, Chinese, Irish, they all have carved out notorious bits of famous large cities. So what if we encouraged this practice particularly among black dominated communities? Encouraging black-owned businesses to locate in areas specifically targeted to blacks? A kind of economic segregation. Would this only set us back in terms of race relations? Or would this be a better approach? What do you think?

What’s so civil about a lack of rights?

I have a confession to make. I’ve been spending time in a part of town that I probably shouldn’t be in. Yup, I’ve been truckin’ myself to the “other side of the tracks” the last couple of weeks. In fact I’ll be over there again on Thursday. But I must say that I’ve learned alot.

I live in Tulsa, OK. It’s a great city and a great place to live. It really has a unique blend of culture and diversity that I haven’t experienced in other mid west towns and cities. Tulsa also has a very rich and unique history. A history that I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks that has a very disturbing and dark side to it.

This week I’m going to be posting some thoughts, reflections and issues related to the June 1921 Tulsa Race Riot (or as some have called it the Tulsa Race War). If you are unfamiliar with this event it’s ok. I was too up until a couple of weeks ago. And if you think its time that we just leave the past in the past, then I agree with you. Well, at least I would have agreed with you up until a couple of weeks ago. Stick with me this week cause I want to broach a subject that doesn’t really have an answer and I need your input, your perspective.

Are you with me?

P.S. If you want to do some background research here is a great start.

Update on Gary…

Well, I must say that I am a bit surprised, but really happy. Gary came by the office around 2 this afternoon. He sat in my office and we chatted about his situation and what all he has done to try and get out of his cycle of financial difficulty. I put a little gas in his tank so he could get around this week and told him that I would try and arrange a job interview for him at a local inbound call center. Pray for Gary. Pray for me.