Play the background like it's an instrument

So often I wrestle with myself wondering why I continue repetitive cycles of sin that leads nowhere. I suppose it does lead somewhere. Death. It frustrates me to no end, but I so often overlook what is at the heart of the matter.

I just don't want to give up control.

That's risky. To have no say in my own life? To give up so many simple, earthly pleasures and pursuits?

But it's what we've been commanded to as followers of Jesus Christ...

One of Lecrae's songs on his newest album "Rebel" is titled "Background." It paints such a clear picture of the devastating results of trying to play the lead character in this story of life. Contrasting that is the joy received when we play the background and allow God to take center stage. I could go on and try to explain what he is getting at, but please, just watch this video and listen to the words.

"Prayin' the whole world will start embracing stage fright..."



I could play the background.
I could play the background.
Cuz I know sometimes I get in the way.
So won't you take the lead, lead, lead.
So won't you take the lead, lead, lead.
And I can play the background, background.
And you can take the lead.

It's evident you run the show so let me back down.
You take the leading role, and I'll play the background.
I know I miss my cues, know I forget my lines
I'm sticking to your script, and I'm reading all your signs.
I don't need my name in lights.
I don't need a starring role.
And why gain the whole wide world, if I'm just gon' loose my soul.
And my ways ain't purified, I'll live according to your Word.
I can't endure this life without your wisdom being heard.
So word to every dancer for a pop star
Cuz we all play the background, but mine's a rock star.
Yeah. So if you need me I'll be stage right.
Prayin' the whole world will start embracing stage fright.
So let me fall back and stop giving my suggestions
Cuz when I follow my obsessions I end up confessing.
That I'm not that impressive, matter fact I'm............
A trail of star dust leading to the superstar.

I had a dream that I was captain of my soul.
I was master of my fate, lost control, and then I sank.
So I don't want to take the lead
Cuz I'm prone to make mistakes.
All these folks that follow me gon' end up in the wrong place.
So, just let me shadow you. And just let me trace your lines.
Matter fact just take my pen.
Here, you create my rhymes.
Cuz if I do this by myself I'm scared that I'll succeed.
And no longer trust in You, cuz I only trust in me.
And see, that's how you end up headed to destruction.
Paving a road to nowhere. Pour your life out for nothing.
You pulled my card, I'm bluffing
You know what's in my hand.
Me I just roll to trust you to cause the dice to land.
I'm in control of nothing. Follow you at any cost.
Some call it sovereign will, all I know is you the boss.
And man I'm so at ease. I'm so content.
I play the background like it's an instrument.

I know I'm safest when I'm in your will and trust your word.
And I know I'm dangerous when I trust myself; my vision blurred.
And I ain't got no time to play life's foolish games.
Got plenty aims but do they really glorify your name.
And its a shame the way I want to do these things for you, yeah.
Don't even cling to you. Take time to sit and glean from you.
And its seems that you are patient in my ignorance.
If ignorance is bliss, its cuz she never heard of this.

Music Makes Memories

Do you ever hear something that will bring back the same memory over and over again?

Maybe it's a song that you heard in your favorite movie, or your prom or wedding. I guess this could be a good or bad thing depending on the memory, but I love that our minds are rigged that way.

For me, it is a combination of songs. A little over a month ago, some members of our Bible study went to Philadelphia for a four-day mission trip. Upon returning, I created a video of our experience, and the hardest part about it was picking out what music to put in the background. I couldn't pick one or two, but ended up using portions of four songs:

The Time is Now - Phil Wickham
Shadows - David Crowder Band
Far Away - Lecrae
City on Our Knees - Toby Mac

And now, every time I hear one of these songs, I am reminded of what I saw in Philadelphia.

And I am so thankful for that.

I became aware of God's presence amidst pain of joys of Philadelphia and I don't want to forget what that was. God can now use these songs to convict me of my comfort and inspire me to live a life that glorifies Him.

One of God's Tiny Presents

Singing a song in choir is one thing, but singing it in front of the poet who wrote the words and the composer who put them to music is another.

On Friday, October 23, 2009, I was able to do just that. For our fall concerts, the Marietta College Concert Choir sang a piece titled “Tiny Presents” taken from a collection of pieces called “Songs from Bonnie’s Heart.” Bonnie Donnelly is a poet who also happens to be a Marietta grad and William Beulow took her words and composed several beautiful pieces. So to have them both in the audience while we sang one of the pieces was a truly special moment.

As we began singing our first line, “In the middle of the park,” I looked just to the left of our director and there sat Mr. Beulow three rows back next to the aisle singing right along with us. It warmed my heart to see him in such a relaxed mood hearing his creation brought to life.

I looked two people to his right and there sat Bonnie with a grin for the world to see. Her smile was further-complemented by the tear that rolled down her cheek.

The piece went on and never had we sang with such intent to bring meaning to the words. The song concluded and we were applauded, but no gratitude was shown like that we received from Bonnie. With hands over her lips she stood and sent kisses our way with “thank you” interspersed. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw the most genuine gratitude and appreciation expressed that I had ever seen. Her words were now a part of us all.

It makes me wonder if God doesn’t feel the same way.

When He sees His creation bringing His words to life don’t you think He’s watching, smiling and singing along with us? When we put our hearts and emotions into His service, don’t you think He stands at the end of the day or the end of our lives and says “Thank you”?

I witnessed human gratitude that spoke volumes of emotion and it makes me wonder about the magnitude of Perfect Gratitude. I can almost hear God whispering to his children “thank you” as one reaches out to feed another, as one takes time to genuinely love the unloved. A tear slides over His smile as He watches His creation bring “music” to the words he spoke.

My heart has been broken.

At the end of January, I posted about an amazing concert that is heading to Ohio.  The Rock and Road Show is featuring five great that I would love to see perform, most notably Tenth Avenue North and Jeremy Camp.  Things were looking great as far as going....

Until yesterday...

Do you ever overbook your plans?  Or just assume you have the day free?  Well, that's exactly what I did.  I have had April 16th set out for three months as the day to go see some great bands.  Intense anticipation mounted in my heart each day until it was broken yesterday.  What's the conflict, you ask?

A STINKIN' CHOIR CONCERT!!!

Yes, choir!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy choir, but this shatters my entire universe.  I was sooooo pumped to go to this concert with some great friends of mine and I just realized yesterday that we have a choir concert with a conflicting date.  The choir date has been set since the beginning of the school year.  I just never thought to look.

I don't think there's a moral to this story other than conflicts suck.

Above the Golden State, Part II

Back in November, I reviewed Above the Golden State's rookie self-titled release.  Now, 4 months later, I get to write about a live performance.  It was interesting...

Saturday, March 21, the Truth, Hope and Love tour made a stop at North Parkersburg Baptist Church in Parkersburg, WV.  Building 429 was headlining and previous acts consisted of Kimber Rising, After Edmund, and ATGS.

I was honestly there just to see ATGS.  I actually left during intermission, before Building 429's performance, in order to make it back to campus for some birthday socializing.  But anyways, the concert was interesting for more reasons than this...

I eagerly awaited ATGS as Jared, the MC for the night, walked on stage to thank Kimber Rising and announce the next act.  "So help me welcome Michael!" yelled Jared.  Wait a second.  Michael?  Just Michael?  What about the rest of the band?  I came to see Above the Golden State.  Not Michael.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Turns out, the rest of the band was back in Oregon doing ministry with their churches.  Okay, I guess I can excuse that.

So Michael ended up giving us a five-song acoustic performance.  I'm not gonna lie - I'm glad the rest of the band was back doing ministry.  Not just because ministry is a great thing, but because the acoustic performance was awesome.  I already know all of their songs off the album, so to hear them live and acoustic was really cool.  Now I also see how playable they are, so I have some work cut out for me.

After his set, I also got to talk to him for a bit.  For more regarding that go here.

photo courtesy of newreleasetuesday.com

Winter Jam 2009

On Saturday, Jan. 31, some friends and I headed west to Columbus for one of the best concerts I've ever attended.  The Monday prior to the concert, I had no idea the thing existed.  A simple FCA announcement turned into my weekend plans and how grateful I am that they did.

The Winter Jam, a seven or eight band extravaganza is currently on tour and for the convenient cost of free (tickets were only $10 but we got our hands on some free passes) I experienced all of these bands, concluding with a eardrum-throbbing performance from tobyMac - but I'll get to him shortly.

First, we got to Shottenstein center in Columbus around 4 p.m., an hour before the doors opened.  Lines were already backed up at each entrance to the arena and we picked the shortest line we could find.  But there was a reason it was short - it was already in the teens temperature wise and we picked the line in the shade.  Bad idea.

But after the wait, we managed to grab decent floor seats in what would eventually be a packed out Schottenstein Center, which seats over 20,000 people.  The only seats were in the nosebleeds way behind the stage.

The music got started shortly after five with a pre-concert from Stephanie Smith - an up-and-comer who didn't disappoint.  The rest of the evening went in this order:

Pure NRG - hats off to three kids at 13, 14, and 16 years old.

Francesca Batestelli

NewSong

Barlow Girl

Brandon Heath - unfortunately, he only got three songs, although he was still awesome

tobyMac

Okay, so now tobyMac.  Prior to the concert I had never really listed to Toby.  I didn't have anything against him (I know now that I would have loved his music) but I just didn't listen to it.  I knew a few of his songs but couldn't tell you more than one title.  But that all changed after Saturday night.

When tobyMac took the stage, it was obvious that my face was about to get rocked off.  His stage crew, Diverse City, was right there with him, laying down beats and lyrics that had the crowd throwing their fists and bobbing their heads.  It's had to put into words what the concert was like.  You could listen to his CD's, but they don't do a justice to a live performance.

Enhancing the already stellar lyrics and music was breakdancing, turntable solos, synchronized steps (not your typical N-Sync moves), and a finale crowsurf from Toby with confetti as icing.  The most gut-wrenching feeling was when the bass reverberated through my body.  This wasn't the typical feeling from the pounding of a bass drum.  This was some type of synthesized base that was felt for a couple seconds each beat.  I could feel several short pounds for each throbbing note.  I'll just say that it's a good thing I went to the bathroom before the concert because I didn't have any spare underwear on hand.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better performance.  Especially since I got the whole deal for free.  tobyMac - you have a new fan.

Great Lineup

Here I am, two weeks down the road from my last blog entry.  I really do want to keep this thing updated.  Procrastination is the stinkin' devil.  Anyways...

April is a good ways off, but within it is a concert that I will hopefully be attending.  On April 16, a lineup of five bands will be performing at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio as a part of the Rock and Worship Roadshow.  The performers are:

Jeremy Camp

Tenth Avenue

 North

Addison Road

Mercy Me

Hawk Nelson

I don't know who is headlining this thing.  But I don't really care.  Those are five pretty awesome bands, especially the first two I listed, and I'm seeing them for ten bucks!  Yeah, $10 at the door and that's it.  First come, first serve.  

I was just recently opened up to Tenth Avenue North and I love them.  They have great lyrics which to me is the primary thing.  I have always been a big Jeremy Camp fan, as well.  Simple yet powerful lyrics and relatively easy songs to play on the guitar.  I've actually seen Addison Road and Mercy Me before, but another performance can never be a bad thing.  And for Hawk Nelson, never really listened to them.  Nothing against them, I have one of their CDs it's just not a top priority.

Unfortunately, Thursday is my busy day as far as classes go.  So we'll see how that plays out.  But I just have to be there.

He's by our side

First off, in response to my last post, my dad did figure out the CD player. Phew - that would have been a long trip without music.

I wanted to share some lyrics from a song that has recently been playing over and over in my mind. It's "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North. I've been struggling lately just in feeling close to God. This distance is large in part due to a lack of being in the Word and in prayer. I was talking with a buddy of mine, Anthony Mossburg, a few days ago and he mentioned this song. I had heard of it before (it's quite popular on Christian radio) but I hadn't really listened to what it was saying. The song is an encouraging note from God's point of view of not turning away from Him. Please read these lyrics and let them sink in as God's Truth to us and an amazing gift that He and only He can give:

Why are you striving these days?

Why are you trying to earn grace?

Why are you crying?

Let me lift up your face

Just don't turn away.

Why are you looking for love?

Why are you searching as if I'm not enough?

To where will you go, child?

Tell me where will you run?

To where will you run?

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you.

Look at these hands and my side

They swallowed the grave on that night

When I drank the world's sin

So I could carry you in

And give you life

I want to give you life

I'll be by your side

Whenever you call

In the dead of night

Wherever you fall

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

'Cause I, I love you

I want you to know

That I, I love you

I'll never let you go

It kind of reminds me of 2 Timothy 2:13 - "if we are faithless, he will remain faithful."

Amen!

A trip without music?

Before I get to my main topic, I want to say that I hope I don't stop blogging on here just because the class it was for has ended.  I am still writing occasionally on trumpful-sound so I this one keeps up to.  So here we go.

I'm really good at leaving my car headlights on.  I have emptied my battery this way on many occasions.  But it's not all my fault.  Most of the time when it happens, the little trigger that makes the dinging noise gets stuck, so I don't hear anything reminding me to turn the lights off.

I went about three days without needing to drive my car, so I was fully unaware that the battery had been drained.  Fortunately, my gracious father hooked it up to a charger and in a few hours, it was ready to get back on the road.  So on the road I went and what did I find out?  My stereo system was no longer was working!

I never listen to the radio.  I don't even know how to tune it manually, I'm only capable of scanning.  So this not being able to play CD's thing was quite the dilemma.  And even if I wanted to use the radio, it wasn't working either.  I thought maybe it was because it was so cold outside, but nope.  It's been almost a week and it's still not working.  I have yet to inform my dad about this and I don't really want to.  Not that I'd be afraid of his reaction, but I just don't want to bother him about it when he's got a lot of other things to take care of.  Because God knows that I'm not going to be able to fix it.  So here's the real dilemma:

I'm currently planning on taking an eight or nine day road trip starting the day after Christmas, with a few stops for friends, a camp New Year's reunion and ending with my sister's wedding.  My first destination is Warren, PA - 6 1/2 hours away!  That's a long time, an extremely long time, to go without music.  Rarely do I go without listening to anything in my car.  I turn my car on, and the music starts playing.  It's not like I have to turn it on, so why turn it off?  On a couple occasions (such as the drive home after an amazing summer at camp) I have turned it off to take some time in prayer and to soak in all I had just been through.  But this is only for about 30 minutes.  Six and a half hours is different.

But here's the funny thing.  In the week I've been without any noise in my car, besides me talking to myself (you know you do it to), I haven't really noticed the lack of music.  I can't say that it's been a miserable experience.  I've only gone about 5 miles at a time, but when I get o where I'm going, I don't even realize that the music hasn't been playing.

This makes me realize how little time I spend in silence (I think you can say the same for yourself).  And I'm a big believer that it's important to spend some time in silence.  I like to use that silence to reflect and be in prayer.  When I think about a typical day, the only time when there is silence is probably once my roommate and I have fallen asleep - so not until about 2 a.m.  And then at 8:30 the noise starts up all over again.  I need to take some more time in silence.  I need to create it if it's not there.  If I'm just sitting in my room doing homework and I have music playing or the TV on, turn it off.  Take a few minutes to reflect and just relish the silence.  It's something we all need a little more of.

So, for this trip - Music or no music?  That is the question.

Pa rum pum pum pum

On Tuesday, November 25, 2008, The Almost released their five song EP, titled "No Gift to Bring."  Around 12:30 a.m. on the 25th, half an hour after it had been released, I had it purchased from iTunes and sitting in my music library.

I must say, I was very pleased with what I heard.  The track listing is as follows:

1. Awful Direction
2. Little Drummer Boy
3. Amazing (Because it is) Full Version
4. Your Love is Extravagant
5. Dirty and Left Out (McTague-Lectro Version)

Awful Direction is their only new song on the album.  It is entirely acoustic (a simple guitar and drum set) which sets the mood for the rest of the album.  Lines like, "I've been wrong, I've been right, but tonight, I just want to be Yours," are straight from the heart and reflect the struggles of a life faithful to God.

The Little Drummer Boy version is one of the best I've heard (I guess I really haven't heard that many versions, but you catch my drift).  It has a unique rhythm and Aaron Gillespie's voice adds a new flavor.

Tracks 3 and 5 were on the previous album, Southern Weather, but this time with a new twist.  The electric sensation of Dirty and Left Out caught me off guard but I am really warming up to it.  

Your Love is Extravagant has always been one of my favorite praise songs, so to see The Almost cover it this Christmas season is very refreshing.

Well done guys.

photo courtesy of fye.com