I love your house; it's so architectural.

Sometimes someone goes and writes something that I've been wanting to write, but way better than I ever could have. This is the case with this blog post by Michael Gungor. 

He writes a very accessible and well-constructed evaluation of the Christian music industry. In light of the Burst Into Song You Mtns. project (That will happen. One day. When we get to it, eventually.), some of his points were really well-spoken and a synthesis of a lot of what we've all observed.

For those of you without the time or energy to read the whole thing, here are notable quotes, in my opinion:

"I had a conversation with John Mark McMillan last night about something that I think is very interesting. By the way, I consider John Mark to be one of the ones I consider to be making a valiant effort in transcending some of these imposed limitations in this industry. But he mentioned to me how strange it is that people keep calling his new album “creative.” That word is actually one of the most used words when people describe our music as well. In fact, I bet some of you reading this have described as such. Here’s the weird thing about this…
Why do you find it necessary to say that?

Do you notice that nobody really uses that word about other types of music? I just was perusing some Itunes user reviews to see if this holds up. I checked John Mark and mine, and “creativity” is very often found. But it’s not often found in reviews of bands like Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens or other artists who are certainly very “creative.”

Nobody goes to an art gallery and says, “boy, that painting is so creative.” Why? Because it’s art! Of course it’s creative! Why else would it be there? It’s very nature is creativity. Or like Lisa pointed out to me today, “that would be like saying, I love your house, it’s so architectural.”

But when someone in the Christian industry actually takes their art seriously, everybody is like “holy crap, listen to how creative it is!”

"Yes money matters. But so does beauty. Art actually makes a difference in the world. Have the courage to actually make decisions on values and not simply on past numbers and trends. And for crying out loud, if it really is good, the numbers will follow eventually anyway."

Can I get an amen?

The Lonely Life of an Apostle

Donald Miller is the only current pop Christian writer who I still like and would recommend. This excerpt from his book, Searching for God Knows What provides insight into the humanness of apostle Paul that I never would have seen (but man, I wish I did. Then I would be rich and famous and popular among the trendy Christian community. One day...).

If you don't have the time or energy to read the whole thing, read these:
"For the first couple of days in a new town, Paul probably felt completely alone. I see him like this when he talks about how he wants to go home and be in heaven but stays on earth so he can write letters and preach. I see him writing by candlelight at a stranger’s table when he talks about how he has this thorn in his flesh and can’t get over it and prayed about it three times, but God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
 ... the guy was passionate, like he actually believed this stuff was true, always going off about heaven and hell because he knew life has extremes. One minute he talked about how disgusting sin is and how it hurts God in His heart, and the next minute he said he would go to hell for people if he could, how he would die for them and go to hell if they would just trust Christ. It’s really hard to read that stuff because it gets you feeling guilty about not loving people very much, and then you feel very thankful for people like Paul because it means that if a person knows Christ, they become the sort of man who says difficult truths with his mouth and yet feels things with his heart that make him want to go around and die for people. It’s quite beautiful, really."

yet untitled

A little girl darkened the door of the old cathedral at dawn. That is to say, her shadow was cast across its towering doors as the morning beams of orange and warmed pink creeped up over the horizon and onto the stone sidewalk behind her.

Ding-dong

The resonant sound of the bells inside the echoing walls of the God-aimed monstrosity made her jump slightly as she pulled the ringer rope.

 A man in a grey robe opened the the door with an overdrawn creak.

"Welcome, little one; we've been expecting you."

She gazed up at him, eyes widely soaking in his wrinkled, over-sized countenance.

"Expecting me?" she inquired as she cocked her head at a jaunty, inquisitive angle, "I just came here to wonder if anyone would like to buy a flower." She gestured with her bent arm upon which dangled a wicker basket filled with cut chrysanthemums.

The clergyman chuckled to himself. "Yes! If flowers were prayers then you could call this place an arboretum! Then again, perhaps flowers are prayers..." his thoughts seemed to trail off as he squinted at the morning light that now bathed him. Seemingly regaining his state of mind he motioned her in with a wave. "Anyhow, come on inside, young one. "

The girl gave a tug to the bottom of her tightly buttoned yellow cardigan (quite matter-of-factly) and trotted lightly yet intentionally inside.

"If prayers were flowers," she began, dinner plate eyes scanning the cavernous enclosure, moving up one wall, across the domed ceiling and down the stained glass on the other side, "then I would make a much more notable profit with my business."

"Oh, yes?" he inquired.

"You see, my expenses to produce would be nothing, and I would never run out-- in and out of season!"

Again, he laughed to himself, though this time more loudly and lively. "I am happy to have found that sprouted youth who kneel before the Holy One are still being cultivated in this day and age."

"You should be," she stated emphatically. "My mother says that our people are going to hell in a hand basket. That's why I've decided to carry flowers in mine."

With a grin the man of the church plucked a dark red mum from said basket and brought it to his nose. "With some baskets of flowers and prayers, perhaps there is hope after all," he spoke dreamily, as he exhaled the fragrance of the mum with enjoyment.

...

 

Sweet!

Scientist Mohamed Babu from Mysore, India captured beautiful photos of these translucent ants eating a specially colored liquid sugar. Some of the ants would even move between the food resulting in new color combinations in their stomachs.


from visualamor


p.s. this is the sort of thing that makes me think i might switch from blogger to tumblr. it's a much more convenient sharing machine. 

I told you so.

(that I would get back to writing. it's not a story but it's something.)



Drink of My Tears
 
You squeeze out my tears into Your bottle again.
My spirit responds to You with watered eyes;
the arrows of your eyes pierce my thunderhead.
Tears like rain washing down a dirty wall
descend my face
like the way You wash over my tarnished heart.
Jesus, Jesus, drink of my tears.
I see You hanging on the wood;
You thirst.
Here, Jesus, drink;
drink of my tears.
They can't help but fall
when You move,
when You walk into the room.


The Island
 
I swam out to a lonely island
in a gray sea
under a thickly misted sky.
I felt cold;
there was no one with me.

The water, like abandoned dreams
and people who left us,
kept me cold.

My breaststrokes divided the water
as I propelled myself under it.
No longer did I walk the shores
of this sea of lonliness.
I set out to find You.

You set my feet upon a rock
wide enough for me to stand.
I was surrounded by water but
You gave me solid ground beneath my feet.

Patient patient patient One,
Why'd You leave me waiting here?

You said that You have not forgotten me;
emphatically so.

Unrocked, unwrecked, yet unwritten
alone here,
alone there, with you, somewhere.

Cyclone of light, I see it coming down.
Suck me up into higher places;
make me to transcend this place
for You are more real than here.
Take me up from this lonely island.

The reality of You whispers above the roar of the silence,
and if I can't see You, I look for You inside my heart.
For even when there is no ground or light,
I hold onto You-- I cling to You
like there's nothing else
for there. is. nothing. else.

Suspended in darkness
or raptured in light
I can't flee from You,
for when I run
You chase me.

Writing Again

{The best writing advice D.Mill has ever received.}

I would like to actually start writing again. That's the whole reason Malapropisms exists anyway.




On that note, for those of you who didn't catch the update on Arrows of Hope...

Attention all poets, writers, artists, and prose-producing thinkers:

You are invited to participate in the first edition of the community literary magazine, The Circadian.

We will be accepting submissions in the following categories: short stories, essays (creative nonfiction, passionate theological essay, comic blog post, etc.), short plays or screenplays, poetry, graphics and visual art (most likely black and white print capabilities only).

Submit in as many categories as you’d like. Please limit yourself to two submissions per category.  All poets are requested to include three poems per submission, unless your poem is extraordinarily long.  If your writing doesn’t neatly fit into one of the three categories, submit it anyway and suggest your own category. Full theses or dissertations will not be accepted, however, due to space considerations.

The deadline for submissions is January 1.

All further questions can be addressed to Susan or Kait via email.

Susan: arrowofhope@yahoo.com

Kait: kaitlyn.rockrohr@gmail.com

Too true.

InsideOut

 InsideOut

fighting against what is with a mighty weapon:
faces.
see: the people
working toward
of, by, for.


grow up when want i to be a street artist i.

Paul's take on the Law

"Any teaching by Paul and the Law must take note of his key foundational statements in relation to Torah as God's revelation, as well as a reflection of His eternal standard of right and wrong. So far as the Law reflects this eternal standard of God, it is irrevocable. As such we should note there verses:

• Romans 3:31-- faith established the Law. "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law."
• Romans 3:2 states that the Law is a gift of God.
• Romans 3:7 teaches that the Law defines what sin is, while Romans 6:1-2 says we are not to continue to sin.
• Romans 7:12 states that the Law is holy. "The commandment is holy and just and good."
• Romans 7:14 states that the Law is spiritual; 7:16 that the Law is good.

In the Law the great wisdom of God's standards is revealed. Only the Bible reveals an infinite, personal, ethical God!"

Dan Juster, Jewish Roots, "Paul, Israel and the Law"

Baby Albums from Lowercase Noises

First there was...

and now there is.

Welcome to the world, Vivian. Our ears thank you for coming.

Mason Jar Music Presents

White Owl video

Hey girl, let's go down, wash our hands in the Carolina tide...

Here is a little window into my vacation at the Outer Banks with the Randy Rockrohr's 2011. What a big fat blessing! Especially since it ended pre-Irene and we returned to D.C. just post-Earthquake. 

Home is where you hang your hat. In our case, that was at the local KOA. In my case, specifically, it was the TBlakes trusty Sierra by Design. Thanks guys! We were constantly chuckling to ourselves that all the other sites had massive campers, pop-up trailers, and party buses with spinning rims and we had a minivan and a u-haul. Staying classy.

Did you hear about the new Blackbeard film that's coming out? It's rated arrr!

We took the ferry to Ocracoke island....for $FREE.99! Car and all!

It looked a little something like this.

Let's just say Rosko didn't stay dry for long. There was a lot of unanticipated dog fishing that went on.

We survived my first attempt at kayaking. Note the kayak high five. A little blurry, but you get the idea.

I sort of liked it on the island.

Special island horses of Spanish decent with one less vertebrae than a typical horse. 

This sign was seen on the side of a bait and tackle shop. The fisherman and the bird people don't necessarily get along.

On the deck of a seafood joint near our campsite, back on the banks, facing the sound.

Late night beach side campfire.

It  may be hard to tell in this pic, but this particular marshmellow was unstoppable.

On our last morning of camping we actually got up for the sunrise...

...but it's never too early for throwing it up!

maria tries her hand at some photog + we love each other.

If you've never been to East Asia, this is what it means to pose for a pic Asian-style. 

If I had an fb, this would most certainly be my new profile pic. 

I told Aunt Gee that she was being literally Christ-like. I actually don't know how I will be a clean person when I'm not around her anymore. She is the most hygienic lady I know, which also left me very impressed at her camping abilities.

And that's just scratching the surface. mm mm good. I spent some great times with the Lord on top of all the fun, and for all you JMM fans, I'm coming back like a baby.

Flowers feel like flowers.

I am still washing off the residue of Gnosticism that coats my worldview. Sometimes I find myself subconsciously delegitimizing or trying to separate myself from my emotions. For instance: There is a particular thing that I desire to do or to have that I know will require patience. I still feel the desire, yet on the other hand I want to submit to what He has for me because that's obviously best, even if I disagree in the moment.

I'm linking this to Gnosticism because of its emphasis on spirit v. matter, in which spirit is valued above the physical/material realm, the realm where we walk and talk and feel happy and sad and everything else. I'm linking feelings to the physical/material realm because they are an innate part of "humanness." With Gnostic thought, divine knowledge is exalted above the human physical experience and the goal is essentially to transcend the real world. This kind of thinking is still lurking in the church world, especially in charasmania where the end goal tends to be a transcendent, mystical experience.This has great value, but if the importance and value of day-to-day life and general humanness is de-emphasized then it's problematic.

I keep feeling the Lord point out that I am, in fact, a human being (believe it or not) and that He made human beings to feel and experience. He wants me to be in those feeling places with Him, to include him in the process, to invite Him into my heart and what I'm experiencing there. He does not expect me not to have emotional reactions nor should I deny them or experience them alone. Sometimes in Christian world we infer that we are expected to be bulletproof, unaffected by anything, which is not realistic.

Simple enough, yeah? So here is a story.

There was a job I had been pursuing for which I already had one interview. After playing phone tag with a guy from their HR dept. I was informed that I was not going to be invited back for another interview. Now, I knew that this was the Lord's sovereignty, that the door was closed on purpose. Plus, it was a position at a large company, which isn't my cup of tea. I had an ends-justify-the-mean mentality in going for the job, thinking that the ends of paying off school loans and the resulting freedom would justify the means of working for a corporation. But still.

Despite recognizing this was how it was meant to be, I still felt sad. Thoughts such as, "What did I do wrong?" and "What's wrong with me?" "Why do they hate me?" and "I'm a disgrace to the family name" murmured back stage. I told the Lord that although I accepted this outcome and trusted it was for the best, I still felt this way. I felt permission to feel what I needed to feel for a little while.

Jessica Youmans texted me to ask about the job. I told her that I didn't get it and was trusting it was the right thing, yet I tagged "but, rejection doesn't feel like flowers."

Later that night, I arrived at our small group and Jessica pointed at a vase of beautiful, freshly cut blossoms of white and green and said, "those are for you."

"What for?" I inquired.

Without skipping a beat, she said, "Because rejection doesn't feel like flowers."

Flowers feel like flowers!

Upon later reflection, not only was I touched by her kind gesture of encouragement and thoughtfulness (she picked the perfect ones! Sorry, no picture), but also I saw how the Lord really moved through her to confirm what He had been teaching me. Yes, we accept what falls from His hand. But also, we get to have the space to experience whatever that is, honestly and genuinely with Him. Disappointment, rejection, shame, guilt, anxiety, happiness, desire, passion-- He wants it all. Isn't He great to give us challenges that sharpen us, and then also surround us with people through whom He moves to comfort us and to share it with along the way?

Thank you Jessica. Thank you Jesus. Flowers feel gooooood.

Kite Party 2011

I am spoiled. Hopefully not rotten.

Some brave souls came out to celebrate with me on the hottest day of the year. My smile was so big I couldn't feel the heat.

Cass and my mom put on a whimsical and wonderful kite party for me for my bday. Maasen was kind enough to take some pics for me, the camera-less. What a blessing!

the spread

my mother's handiwork, of course. the veggies are carved into flowers, and if you can see it, i have a bday message spelled out in cheese-its.

needed more wind..but please note that big cass MADE me that kite. wawaweewa, where does all the creative energy come from?!

i am loved.

ang trys her hand at flying

my youngest brother and his friends had recently invented a new frisbee game that proved to be a hit. we spent much of the evening on this due to the lack of wind.

team rockrohrrrrrrr + sam = total domination. or, at least in the first game.

he tried so hard!

quit gabbing and play, boys.

muh girls

she made that sign. another example of her superior making skills.

cass surprised me with one of the precious figs from her tree, a truly sacrificial gift. mmm....

Father of Lights, you continue to delight me with the good and perfect gifts you shower down from above. I open my arms to you and lift up my face to feel your radiance. Thank you for my family and community and the way you overwhelm my heart through them. May we all enter into the new season of fullness, movement, joy and love as you break forth into our little world. You are blessed above every other name, and I am humbled that you would look down on me with such favor to give me all of this. Thank you for another year to live, move and have my being in You.

I love you, my friends, those who could be there and those who were there in spirit. If all I had was all of this....dayenu!