A Prophetic Vision for America

Dear America (myself included),




Seek good, not evil,
   that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
   just as you say he is.
Hate evil, love good;
   maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
   on the remnant of Joseph.


Sincerely,


Amos 5:14-15

Andrew Bird and the Imago Dei

If you know me, you know this:

I love Andrew Bird.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - He is, in my humble opinion, the best musician alive right now.

Not only that, but he can write music. I've seen talented instrumentalists, well-trained vocalists, even stellar songwriters. But it is a rare package to include all three.

Still more rare is an opportunity to take a glimpse into the creative process of such a musician. Apparently I've been living under a rock because I missed the fantastic blog from the NY Times called Measure For Measure. It is a series of articles from songwriters offering insight into the delicate art of songcraft.

Anyway, Andrew Bird has written a number of articles there that you can read. But my whole reason for posting comes from this quote he wrote at the conclusion of his series...

Ultimately, I think that writing about music is a deliberate act and has nothing to do with creating music. The latter is mostly an involuntary response to being alive. I wouldn’t go so far as to say songwriters are seer-poets wired to receive transmissions from the ether, but I think we’ve all got a well that can be tapped and there follows the sort of sequencing or curating of one’s own ideas. It’s the content of that well I can’t claim responsibility for. Well I could but the only remedy would be to cease to exist.

"An involuntary response to being alive"

I will most certainly have to use this article in my upcoming course this spring where we discuss the creative nature of human beings as an imprint of the Creator (Imago Dei). Bird here seems to suggest the work of an artist as a channeler of the divine nature, a discoverer of truth/beauty (as opposed to a fabricator). Not only this, but he further asserts that perhaps this creative drive is not a specialized, esoteric gift, but rather a logical conclusion of simply recognizing that one is alive. "Involuntary" is the word he uses. I love his humility; perhaps it is one of the keys to his musical gift.

Regardless of all that, make sure you go and listen to this guy. Seriously. Maybe start here? Then go here? Then perhaps finish here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZBoZ0sUT3k

M & M's : 2010 in Review

So I'll just dive right in...

Since it's been over a year (next Monday it'll have been exactly a year and a half) since I posted last, I figured I should update my avid blog followers on the goings-on of my life these past 18 months. You can now release your bated breath and devour this post as you've been so anxiously yearning to do since July of 2009. And so, I give you: The M's of MMX

Moving

Not long after the aforementioned July '09, I hauled my arse from one commonwealth to the next, out to the lovely village of Grantham, PA. The long, harrowing journey featured such star cast members as Philip Byers (who assisted me in moving tons of furniture out of the Box, and by tons I really just mean one really heavy - like unnecessarily heavy - couch) and my father Dr. Bob (my UHaul wingman). I was out to take on the world with nothin' but a song in my heart and a pocket full of dreams. It was only about 13 hours of trailers swayin' in the Appalachian breeze before I found myself at...

Messiah

Established in 1909, Messiah College is a Christian college of the liberal arts and applied sciences. The College is committed to an embracing evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church. Our mission

is to educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character, and Christian faith in preparation for lives of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society. I typed that (mostly) from memory. When I'm not busy educating men and women for lives of leadership, etc., I'm typically hanging out with the residents of Witmer, making an idiot of myself (as displayed in this picture), and loving my job and my students. In particular, I've been blessed with stellar RA staffs two years in a row. Not only that, but I've also had a chance to really stretch my theological wings in a place that is a bit more ecumenical and intellectually stimulating. Good stuff...

Marriage

On December 4th, 2009, I trudged my way (with the help of several close friends, namely Travis Yoder and Katie Rousopoulos) back across the midwest a mere 3 days after making the return to Messiah, to ask the most important question of my life.

On July 3, 2010, it went down. Kerrie and I began our journey as a married couple in the presence of our closest friends and family and were absolutely humbled and blessed to celebrate God's love for us as displayed in the sacrament of marriage.

'Moon

Short for Honeymoon. We did so all across the south, hitting up Nashville, Atlanta, Savannah, and finally St. Simon's Island (off the coast of Georgia*). What a blast to begin the metaphorical roadtrip through life with a literal roadtrip alongside my best friend and life partner.

Also, we went to Coke.

Music

To say that the past year has been full of music is to say that the past day has been full of hours. There is no such thing for yours truly without a plentiful helping of music. A summary will suffice...

Concerts

Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, David Bazan, Derek Webb, Josh Ritter, The National, Ingrid Michaelson, Sufjan Stevens (Almost all were experienced along w/ Travis**).

Top Artists on last.fm

Wilco (#16), David Bazan, Regina Spektor, Band of Horses, Coldplay, Ingrid Michaelson, Radiohead, Jon Foreman, Nick Drake, The National, Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, Josh Ritter, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Vampire Weekend (#1)

Wrote a few myself, particularly one about 16th century Anabaptist martyr named Dirk Willems called The Ballad of 1569. I'm working on getting a good recording of it to share soon.

Ménage

I know what you're thinking. No, I am not trying to make some weird sexual reference. Gross. This, for you unenlightened, is the French word for "members of a household" or simply, family.

My family is really cool. Take my brother for instance, and the wherewithal he has displayed in selecting a fantastic wife to become my sister-in-law. Welcome to the family, Janelle. Along with two weddings, my family has also managed to completely blow me away in the physical fitness realm (thanks P90X), clean up from a horrible basement flood, and come out to visit PA several times (much to our mutual culinary delight, thanks Pizza Grille). I'd say that for the Taylor's, 2010 was a challenging but growing year. We appear to be aging well.

Musings

While I have (obviously) done little blogging, this doesn't mean I haven't been thinking. Of particular note for me in the past year or so have been a lot of thinking/reading on epistemology (cf. Dark), utopian protestantism (e.g. Polivka), judgmentalism and the fall of man (a la Boyd), pacifism (see Jesus), transparency of government and media (i.e. Assange), generational sin (Steinbeck, 1952), commodity fetishism (via Marx), and the plight of the 18-year old middle-class American (read "my job").

In addition to these titans of intellect to stimulate my mind and my heart, I have the privilege of living close to a number of real people who have given me a chance to bounce ideas around, laugh at me when I'm utterly wrong, and just generally sharpen me. People - like my wife Kerrie, Travis Yoder, Dave Downey, Katie Rousopoulos, Cody Miller, Caleb Polivka, Amy VanDerWerf, Ashley & Lucas Sheaffer, all my RAs, Wendell & Teri Witter along with our entire small group, the students in my book chapels (RAs and SAB), and of course my mother and father (when I get to see them) - have all been a big part of where my heart, mind, and soul have been directed these past 18 months. I am thankful for such smart and challenging folks in my life.

Mystery

It's probably too predictable to end a "year in review" post with a thought on the future, enshrouded in mist, the great unknown. But in many ways I feel that as I emerge from a year or so full of new starts, the next major directions for my journey seem indeed mysterious.

Will my teaching experience this spring go well and solidify my drive to further my education?

Will my wife's strange movie tastes domesticate me beyond recognition?

Will the Wildcats be able to win a national title with so many one-and-done players?

Will the critical acclaim of Weezer's re-issue of Pinkerton cause Rivers Cuomo to re-think his artistic direction of the last decade?

These are the questions that plague me. Lucky for you, I will probably explore them more on this blog, hopefully very soon.

* Yes, Georgia has a coast. Much to the chagrin of Steve Conn, who hates both.

** You might even say that I "saw" a Coldplay show as well. Travis was texting me updates about every 12 seconds and increasing my pissed-ness that I wasn't there.***

*** I was stuck in a small, hot van full of people and luggage.

So what's a blog for anyway?

I re-discovered my blog from college today! It's a livejournal (how angsty).
http://benno48.livejournal.com

I read some of my old entries this morning. Many of them are all about what I was up to, chronicling the ups and downs of my life as a university student. I started it halfway through my freshman year and my last post was in the fall of my senior year (after that I lost the password to it and had to create a new one; perhaps it was best that those thoughts would be preserved in a wholly separate place). It is really fun to reflect, and luckily I really did document many of the goings-on of those years. There were things I had completely forgotten.*

This got me thinking: Why blog? People have made fun of blogs a lot, and I've been mocked for doing things like blogging or Twitter or whatever. But you know what? I'm going to keep doing them. I've been mocked for things before and I never let that stop me. I realize that I could just keep a private journal (which I do, thank you very much), but I think this is good because it 1) forces me to think a bit more about how I'm articulating my thoughts (i.e. keeping an "audience" in mind) and 2) it's stored on the interweb so that I won't lose it.**

One other thing I realized when reading my old blog: Some things change, others stay the same. So now, a few observations about how I'm different and how I'm still me...

Different
- Thankfully, I've matured some in my faith, my thought processes, and my values.
- I don't use emoticons anymore.
- My musical tastes have refined somewhat.

Same
- I have some favorite (go-to) words and phrases and literary techniques. For instance, the parenthetical statement; also the word "somewhat."
- I tend to pick the same topics, namely music.
- I love lists. I make lots and lots of lists.

Well, there we have it. I'm resolving now to blog more frequently. Here's to nostalgia!



* Kerrie is really good at remembering. This is a shortcoming of mine. Good thing I have a blog!
** Photobucket destroyed all the pictures I had originally posted on my LiveJournal. Not cool.

When I am weak, then I am strong.

Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
– Plato (in Phaedrus)

According to Plato, it’s all about perception, about the fact that appearances may only be a flawed reflection of the truth of a situation. Martin Luther once said, “That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened” (Thesis 19, Heidelberg Disputation, 1518). He went on to say that one who claims to theologize based on surface appearances should be known as a “theologian of glory,” or to say it another way, what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 1:20 as the “philosopher of the age.” The apostle speaks here of those who do not comprehend the counterintuitive message of the Gospel: that God gave Himself up to the sufferings of the Cross for the sake of an undeserving and ungrateful people. It really is kind of counterintuitive…

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
– 1 Corinthians 1:18

Often, I find myself sliding all too comfortably into a theology of glory; I believe too easily that life is about glory, about blessings and success. But if there is one message Christ preached, it was not a sermon he spoke, nor was it even the life he lived. It was the death that he died: the Cross. It is the Cross to which the Christ-follower is called, not glory. It is the Cross from which the true theologians get their picture of God’s plan, not glory. It is the Cross by which we have been saved, not glory.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
– 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And this is more than simply learning to live in a world where there is suffering (although this is most certainly part of the Christian experience, simply because it is part of the human experience). Indeed, it even goes beyond just accepting that suffering is inevitable (even though it is). It approaches a strange, counterintuitive – dare I say foolish? – approach to life: that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We are not called to glory in this life. We are called to suffer as Christ suffered, knowing our hope is for what is unseen. We are called to be “content” with weakness, because this is the way things really are. The way of strength, perfection, and glory may seem right, and it is so tempting to live wrapped up in these things. But things are not always what they seem: up is down and down is up; strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Oh that we could live in light of this truth… a theology of the Cross.

A Verse

Terrible.

Unforgiving.

That's how I saw God.

Punishing us in this life,
committing us to Purgatory after death,
sentencing sinners to burn in hell for all eternity.

But I was wrong.

Those who see God as angry...
do not see Him rightly...
but look upon a curtain
as if a dark storm cloud has been drawn across His face.
If we truly believe that Christ is our Savior...
then we have a God of love,
and to see God in faith is to look upon His friendly heart.

So when the devil throws your sins in your face
and declares that you deserve death and hell,
tell him this...
"I admit that I deserve death and hell.
What of it?
For I know One who suffered...
and made satisfaction in my behalf.
His name is Jesus Christ,
Son of God.
Where He is,
there I shall be also."


*Special prize to whoever can name the source without the aid of any form of technology. And I'm serious about a prize...

Caveat

Caveat.


So, do you know the actual definition of this word?


Quick, before you look it up, reply to this post, and without reading anyone else's reply, write your own definition of the word "caveat."

Please do not be embarrassed to get this wrong. I want you to take a stab at it.

To loosen things up, I'll start off with an incorrect definition just so you won't be alone...

caveat - a French word meaning a small, hollow rock formation filled to the brim with fish eggs

There, now give it a go... (but really try)

...