The Gospel According To Bob & Larry

Sometimes truth comes in the oddest places. Sometimes it’s something said by a college buddy you had long credited with a rather shallow understanding of life. Sometimes it comes from a book you picked up just to have something to read.

And sometimes it comes while you’re watching VeggieTales with your son.

That’s not to say that I don’t think VeggieTales values truth, in fact, one of the reasons I keep them on hand for my son is that they make Biblical truths so well understood.

But in a kid way. A 3-7 year old way.

So here I am watching VeggieTales “Star of Christmas”. And I’m crying.

Now, I won’t spoil the plot for those who haven’t seen it (and you really should), but a general synopsis is that Millward Phelps (Larry the Cucumber) and Cavis Appythart (Bob the Tomato) are playwrights looking to write a Christmas Eve story that will “teach London how to love”. The general premise isn’t a new one. Jesus is the reason for the season. Christ is the true “star of Christmas”. But what struck me was an ending that reminded me of why; that Jesus’ birth wasn’t a sweet and tender moment, but a glorious inbreaking. That Christ came into a rather sad and broken world that had long forgotten how to have faith or hope or love and gave it a reason and a way to have those things again.

December has begun and, for those who follow the Christian calendar, so has the season of Advent. Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year, the time that we spend in anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ, culminating on Christmas day.

It is tempting to make Advent a time that simply replaces the giddy excitement of Santa with a more subdued warmth of Jesus. It is tempting to replace “Jingle Bells” with “Joy To The World”, but retain the same surface level nostalgia that Christmas has always had. In other words, it is tempting to replace Claus with Christ and miss that we’ve still made Christmas all about us. Our desires. Our expectations. Our anticipation.

Oftentimes, during Advent, we try and pretend to live in anticipation of Christ’s first arrival. Not that it isn’t helpful to place ourselves in the sandals of those living over 2000 years ago, but we can’t do so simply as a warm and fuzzy imaginative exercise. While it is important that Advent stir in us our own longing for the Kingdom that is “now and not yet” it must also force us to consider those who are still waiting for Christ to arrive for the first time.

For too many who live among us, the love of Christ has yet to enter into their lives. While we sing “O Come O Come Immanuel” in anticipation of a second coming or with a nostalgic look back at the first, many of our friends and neighbors and co-workers are looking for “God with us” to be with us now, today, immediately. For those in prison and on the street, without homes and without hope, the request for Immanuel to come is not a plea of hopeful optimism, but a cry of desperation.

Knowing this, we cannot spend our Advent simply looking for a future that is promised, but dealing with a present that is precarious. We can’t just put on a show full of warm feelings and good cheer and call it a successful Christmas Eve. We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus, moving into a world that is lost and lonely. We must not simply put ourselves in the place of those 2000 years past, but those living in the here and now who are in need of Jesus’ arrival. We must be the second incarnation that we are called to be, we must carry with us the faith and hope and love that so many in this world are still waiting for. We must be bearers of Christ in our neighborhoods and workplaces and cities. We must be Immanuel. We must bring the promise of “God with us” to a world that so desperately needs for Him to be.

Best Books of 2007

The Yiddish Policeman's Union -Michael Chabon
What Is The What -Dave Eggers
The Year of Living Biblically -A.J. Jacobs
Brother, I'm Dying -Edwidge Danticat
Other Colors -Orhan Pamuk
Bowl of Cherries -Millard Kaufman
The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian -Sherman Alexie
The Abstinence Teacher -Tom Perrotta
Samedi The Deafness -Jesse Ball
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears -Dinaw Mengetsu

Something I've Learned In...

3 1/2 years. That's how long I've been blogging. 3 1/2 years. Not a long time, by most standards, but it seems like a small lifetime's worth of stuff has happened. It seems like even more than that has been learned.

3 1/2 years ago I was about to be married 6 years, now it has been over 9. Harry had yet to arrive (though he was making his presence known to his mother). I was working as a youth minister for an established church in North Carolina.

And I wrote my first blog. It was about the importance of making a lasting impression on our kids, of passing on a legacy of faith within our families. And, in writing it, I came across a statistic that stated the 5 things that parents desire most when it somes to their kids. They were:

1.They longed to understand their teenage children, and they longed to be understood by them.
2.They longed for a close family.
3.They strongly desired outside help.
4.They truly wanted to see their teenagers live a highly moral life.
5.They longed for their teens to have a solid faith.

In that blog, I very "knowingly" stated that these parents' priorities were out of whack. That their number 5 should be their number 1. That I, as a father-to-be with 6 years experience in youth ministry, knew a little something about raising kids.

So, here's what I've learned in 3 1/2 years. That while I still think that #5 informs #4, it is 1-3 that get you there. That, whether it's with dealing with our families or our friends, we can't begin a discussion of faith until we understand and are understood, until we develop a closeness between us, and we certainly can't explore faith without outside help.

Too often, those of us who are Christians forget to follow the model of Christ. To form relationships before we try to force faith. We skip over mutual understanding in the name of truth. We refuse to form faith in community because we're sure we've got it all figured out.

So make #5 a priority, but count on 1-3 to make that happen. And take the parenting advice of twentysomething youth ministers with no kids with a loving and patient grain of salt.

That's just one of the many things I've learned in 3 1/2 years of life and blogging. Keep reading along. And be patient with me. I'm still learning.

2007 Top 23

1. Arcade Fire -Neon Bible
2. Bruce Springsteen -Magic
3. Radiohead -In Rainbows
4. Dr. Dog -We All Belong

5. Wilco -Sky Blue Sky
6. Rock Plaza Central -Are We Not Horses?
7. Okkervil River -Stage Names
8. Bill Callahan -Woke On A Whaleheart
9. Iron & Wine -The Shepherd's Dog
10. The Shins -Wincing The Night Away
11. Ola Podrida -Ola Podrida
12. Zookeeper -Becoming All Things

13. The Good, The Bad & The Queen -The Good, The Bad & The Queen

14. Spoon -Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
15. Band of Horses -Cease To Begin
16. Monahans -Low Pining

17. Andrew Bird -Armchair Apocrypha

18. The Choir Practice -The Choir Practice
19. The New Pornographers -Challengers

20. The White Stripes -Icky Thump

21. Derek Webb -The Ringing Bell

22. Ron Sexsmith -Time Being

23. Ryan Adams -Easy Tiger

When Newer Isn't Better

"Everything around and underneath has been from prehistoric times as unaltered as the stars overhead, and gives ballast to the mind adrift on change, and harassed by the irrepressible New." -Thomas Hardy

Liberty and Leaps of Faith

It is evident to all that sectarianism has received a death wound, and as light increases, liberty will in the same ratio increase, and the truth will run and be glorified, unfettered from human manacles, untrammeled by the fear of man. Christians will flow together. I have seen sheep pent up in a lean pasture, looking through the crevices of their enclosure at a flock grazing on a rich field at liberty—I have seen their manifestations of anxiety to be with them, in their bleating and running along the fence to find a place of escape. At length one made the leap and many followed. –Barton Stone

Come Meet The New School: Reflections on Micah Hinson, Elvis Costello, and Expecting the Unexpected

So, last night I'm sitting around at a friend's baby shower when someone happens to mention a Micah P. Hinson show happening that night at Emos.

My ears perk up. I'm interested. I've been a fan of Hinson's music since my ACU days and a little thing called "Party On The Patio". I've been listening to his albums since he first released "Gospel of Progress". But I had never seen his live show, at least not since he had begun touring outside of Abilene, TX. So I jumped in the car and tagged along.

Here's what I expected.

I expected to enjoy myself. I'm with friends in downtown Austin. As long as no one spills beer on me, I'm going to enjoy myself.

I expected to enjoy the music. Hinson's albums are favorites and I'd been assured that his live show doesn't disappoint.

Here's what I did not expect.

Fervor.

Hope.

Unadulterated joy.

Not happiness, mind you. If you're looking for happiness, go eat a chocolate chip cookie.

Joy. The joy that reaches up, out, and under. The hope that smiles when it can and screams when it has to. The fervor that shakes and shouts and shimmies. The more I watched the more I couldn't look away. Hinson smiles like a kid who just lifted you wallet and cries out like a bear whose just lost her cubs. He is raw and he is real and he is rock and he is roll.

As I watch him move and shake and sing and play I am reminded of someone. Some now-aging superstar who once moved across the stage the way Hinson does today. Someone of the old school. I'm reaching back. Orbison. Cash. Presley. And then it hits me. I had the Elvis right, but not the Presley.

Costello. Watching a Micah Hinson show is like watching Elvis Costello, back in the day. When Hinson knocks his microphone stand aside in frustration, he does it with the same commitment to the cause that had Costello stop "Less Than Zero" only to launch into "Radio Radio".

And then it all came together for me. That coy grin. That wildcat roar. The music that borrows from the sadness of country and the anger of punk and makes of it something completely new. I should have expected it. I should have seen it coming. But I never did.

But when I finally saw it, it was something to see.

Whether you're a Hinson fan or not, I recommend catching his show. And to go in expecting the unexpected.