This song just makes ya happy!

William Fitzsimmons’s cover and total reinterpretaion of Kanye West’s song Heartless.

C.S. Lewis

Just finished C.S. Lewis’ brief but excellent Letter to Malcolm (Chiefly on Prayer). What an outstanding, though-provoking little book! There wasn’t a chapter in it (in all its 22 chapter glory) that didn’t challenge me on some level, whether intellectually or practically. The amount of truth within this book is almost overwhelming. And the fact that C.S. Lewis writes to a close friend–not us–gives the book a warm, conversant feel that often blends together both of the former challenges.

I most liked C.S. Lewis’ ability to analyze, both intellectually and spiritually, the problems with various humanizations of our faith (whether it be ritualization or liberalization or any other form of tainting) while gently bringing back the truth of the Gospel and showing its paramount importance. He handles the topic of petitionary prayer with such acumen that I’d be hard pressed to find a better work on the topic.

This book certainly isn’t for everyone. C.S. Lewis argues and debates his way through the points in this book with great candor and one must be prepared to not just read through but think through the work. He rarely runs far from scripture and when he does it is with at least one disclaimer attached. All in all a fun little book that will surprise you with its depth. I can only hope to exchange letters such as these with a friend. I can hardly believe Malcolm knew how lucky he was every time the postman came.

Tim Keller

It’s a complete mystery to those pushing a seeker-sensitive movement or something along the lines of the post-modern movement within the church (dubbed “emergent” Christians) why Redeemer Presbyterian Church thrives. Here’s the deal: it’s a hard-line, conservative, Presbyterian church (reformed theology, predestination and all) growing rapidly in the heart of New York City.

But their secret is simple: they preach the gospel. Nothing added. Nothing subtracted. Nothing assumed. Just the gospel.

Unfortunately this concept is not as common as one would hope.

Redeemer’s own Pastor Tim Keller wrote a fantastic book called The Reason for God (In An Age of Skepticism) and in it he touches on the subject of true forgiveness. Essentially he links our forgiveness of others to something prompted by the forgiveness shown to us by Christ.

But he doesn’t stop there. He shows that when we “take up our cross” we are literally called to totally forgive and absorb the sin and wrongs inflicted on us from others (almost literally bearing the pain they should rightfully have) in order to totally and wholly forgive them. This kind of radical forgiveness is hard. But it makes the gospel so much more hollistic and meaningful.

In that sense it’s no wonder that a church like Redeemer Presbyterian is thriving. Praise God for it!

It’s nearly 3:30 am. I was laying in my bed idly working on things on my computer and fiddling around listening to Pandora. It was my Sufjan Stevens station–one of my favorites. A song came on that made me stop. I couldn’t concentrate. It literally consumed my entire mind with everything it said, what it meant to me, and what it meant to things in the past.

I don’t get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a white sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there’s an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

This song meant a lot to me. It described the way I felt–and still feel. When it came it what rushed through my was a mixture of emotions, memories, feelings, thoughts, regrets, hopes, dreams, fears, and sorrows. I don’t have a point for all of this.

I think it was meaningful which is why I am recording it. It’s the first time something like that has completely debilitated me. It as overwhelming and scary but at the same time beautiful and sad. But I’m going to spend some time thinking about it now.

Tonight at 8:00pm we pay tribute to one of the most antiquated, ritualistic, and still necessary part of our American political system: the State of the Union address. We know from the outset that we won’t learn anything new (thanks to the endless, 24-hour news cycle) and we know that over half of the allotted air time is going to be spent with pan-and-zoom shots of our current representatives clapping either in support of what was said or out of formality because they don’t want to be a sourpuss.

But this is an integral part of our system. It is a chance for our President to truly recognize the state of our nation, make public his priorities, and show the American people his plan for the next year. At a juncture as critical as this it’s important that he is just there. That our leader is willing to stand up, admit fault in our nation, but promise to tackle it head on. That alone can restore confidence enough to pull the working man into the fold.

It’s going to be interesting to see from whom President Obama pulls his quotes from. Like many of our greatest leaders, he grabs his most poignant statements literally or synonymously from the great leaders of the past. He has already pulled from Kennedy, Lincoln, FDR, and Jesus Christ. It’s going to be interesting to see if he goes that route tonight.

I’m excited. If nothing else, it makes me feel involved in the government. Like I have something to do with what goes on in Washington besides voting for someone every two years.

Possibly the coolest thing I've found in a long, long time.

Since I last posted something…

• I finished up my fall semester
• I enjoyed Christmas break
• I made a killing working at a snack bar over break
• Started spring semester
• And, last but not least, Kevin Durant turned into one of the baddest scoring machines I’ve seen in a long, long time.

But this post is about Last.fm. I listen to all sorts of different types of music. If you check out my library you’ll find Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jay-Z, Kanye, Nas, Mozart, Morissey, Mae, Depeche Mode, Jack Johnson, Black Eyed Peas, The Roots, Korn, A Perfect Circle and plenty of other random things.

I’ve always wondered what kind of music listener I am besides a binge listener. What I mean is that I’ll listen to an artist or style until exhaustion then move on to another. I recently completed a John Mayer binge. Before that was Kanye. Before that was Dave Matthews Band. Right now, I’ve really been enjoying some classical music and some of the more modern arrangements that have been put out.

The beauty of Last.fm is that it tabulates all of the songs I listen to from any number of sources (Pandora, Winamp, it’s own player, etc.) to assemble it into data of what I truly like. Then it makes recommendations based off of that.

But it gets better.

There is a free player application that runs on virtually zero system resources that acts as a free internet radio app. Personally, I think it’s better than Pandora. You also have the option to play through things they would recommend based on your library.

The idea behind Last.fm is to take music listening in the virtual social direction in much the same way Facebook did it for personal interaction. Regardless of whether you involve yourself in the sizable sommunity there, the application is still extremely useful.

"And the LORD commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." Jonah 2:10 (NIV)

A friend of mine pointed me to these two verses before I got to them in chapter two of Jonah.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice for you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.
Jonah 2:8-9

Chapter two of Jonah is his prayer after he is swallowed by the fish. In it, he is thanking God for His mercy. That he would be swallowed by a fish and that God spared him from drowning.

Many of the parts of the prayer are strait out of the Psalms but his grasp that God was at the center of his situation is awesome. He realizes that he disobeyed and that God punished him to make a point but in His infinite wisdom and love He still wants to use Jonah.

He still wants Jonah to be His man.

A lot of times I struggle with thinking I’ve done too much bad stuff–or that one thing that takes me out of God’s plan. But Jonah literally heard a command from God, walked in the opposite direction, probably joked about it, and defied God to His face. And God still wanted to use him.

In the midst of his punishment he sees his dire situation not through his own eyes–mad that he is in a fish and not on a boat headed to Tarshish–but through the eyes of God. He realizes that God is working all things together for His glory. He thanks God for the fish. He dedicates himself to the LORD’s purpose. In verse six he says, “…but You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD, my God.” Jonah realizes that it is his fault that he is there but it is compeltely God’s hand working him out of that situation, shaping him along the way.

I looked ahead to chapter three and saw that God asks Jonah to go to Ninevah again. This is forgiveness by God and a second chance given to Jonah. It’s a chance He wants to give us but often we don’t accept. We need to start taking that chance so that God can use us in the Ninavahs in our world.

Looking fierce as always...

Tonight I was treated to two more hours of my personal favorite terrorist-stomping superstar, Jack Bauer. 24: Redemption aired and attempted to bridge the gap between Season 6 (officially ‘Day Six’) and Season 7 (also, ‘Day Seven’). With the writer’s strike of last year, the season ended up getting canned. This was written and shot in the mean time to fill in the blanks.

Without giving too much away, Jack is on the run. He’s still his normal kick-tail-take-names-later self with the hidden emotional side to get those ratings we all love. But there’s something about him you see in his character after the last season–after he got back from Chinese torture camps. It’s like he just doesn’t care about himself anymore. It’s interesting. We’ll have to see if that’s how he plays it for the rest of the season.

I always think it’s interesting trying to guess the statements and political leanings of the writers. It’s more obvious some times than others. In season five President Logan was a big deceiver and behind it all–in the midst of lots of questions about President Bush and Iraq coming out. They didn’t make him ostensibly Republican but there were hints of it. Ironically, he seemed most like President Clinton in his demeanor. And it’s interesting that Clinton has largely redeemed himself in the public sphere–which later happens to Logan in the 24 universe.

Wayne Palmer was probably the most bipartisan 24 President, but also the least important in terms of story. His sucessor, Noah Daniels, is just screaming Republican. There’s a grizzled, military-based, blinding-pride about him that seems to be the way anyone would characterize a Republican these days. And wouldn’t you know it! His successor is a woman. There’s an interesting scene that plays out something like this, suggesting more about the politics of the show…

Daniels: “I appreciate your optimism.”
Taylor: “I can’t say the same for your pessimism.”
Daniels walks around and sits in his chair in the Oval Office
Daniels: “We’ll talk again when you’ve sat in my chair for two years.”

I wonder if they’re trying to make any statements about our next President. Keep in mind that when this was filmed, Hilary was still very much in the race. The most popular of the 24 Presidents was without a doubt David Palmer. Described in the show as a Democrat, he bears the most resemblance to Reagan. Cool, calm, comfortable, resolute, wise, and incredibly popular. It’s interesting that the Reagan-esque President preceded the Clinton-eqsue who was followed by a Republican characature and who is followed by a woman.

Maybe I’m a dork, but I love trying to think about what the writers are thinking when they make a show like this. It’s doesn’t take much in the way of brains to try to put together the plot for a season of 24. The requisite plot twists show some wit. But it’s the social commentary that shines through that makes the writing truly fantastic. Love it.

If you haven’t been sold yet, check out Season 1 on DVD. The new season starts in January 2009.

I started reading Jonah today. It’s always cool to read the actual text from stories we all know. You always find little things in the text you didn’t notice before–depth in the story beyond the basics. Today wasn’t any different.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
Jonah 1:15-16 (ESV)

After Jonah runs away from God and the storm comes upon the sailors, Jonah tells them to him into the sea. Eventually they do. As soon as they do, the sea is calm. The men fear God exceedingly and then they offer a sacrifice and made vows. Essentially, they were converted.

I think it’s amazing that God was able to use not only Jonah’s unbelief but His punishmen of him to serve a purpose to bring glory. We question a lot when things don’t go well in our lives, but isn’t that still exactly where God wants us? We wonder why God would let us still mess up over and over again even under grace, but doesn’t God want to use that?

If God could do it with Jonah, he could do it with us. Maybe He wants to take all of our sin, shortcomings, and doubt–all of our humanity–and use it for His glory to bring others to Him and his glory. It’s amazing to think of a God who could do that, who is that powerful. I have to realize that I’m not even good enough at being bad to be unusable. That’s downright humbling

It's been good, Coco.

Today it’s official. The Red Sox traded centerfielder Coco Crisp. Rumore of a deal came up a year ago and the deal was all but inevitable given the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury a year ago in the playoffs. Throughout his tenure with the Red Sox Coco played outstanding defense, often running down sure singles and turning them into outs. He was literally a human highlight real and a pitcher’s best friend. He leaves with a career .283 BA with a .751 OPS. Coupled with his excellent defense and you have an extremely valuable player.

And then there was this…

Pwn'd.

In return, we get relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez who could certainly be useful. At the very least, he could be flipped to try to pick up another impact player. Happy trails, Coco.

Just one of many outstanding catches...