the world is bright and beautiful

Can I begin by saying just how much I love Rock Band? This is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I just started my world tour on Expert Mode, and my thunder is rolling. This has been a good week so far. I spent saturday in Westminster for a work-related meeting, and got to experience all that is the Westminster Mall; or as I like to call it, “where 1985 came to die.” This was an amazing journey through a wondrous land of knife shops, velvet paintings, empty retail space, and an all-encompassing cloud of peanut oil emanating from Chick-Fil-A. I’ve never breathed peanut oil before, and I can’t say  I enjoyed it very much. I imagine that if I were to shrink down inside of a microscopic submarine and explore a strain of Syphilis, “Fantastic Voyage” style, it would be almost exactly like walking through the Westminster Mall during a card collector convention.

This has been a very busy 2 weeks for me. I am now convinced that I could easily stay at ORCC for years and years to come, and that makes me happier than I can really express. My family has always been somewhat nomadic when it comes to churches, and I can’t remember being at any church longer than 3 years or so. We always managed to find a hotbed of dissension or even the occasional adulterous leader(s,) or join a church just before meltdown or move-away. And it always seemed that once we were all somewhere, some member had something to do somewhere else. We found Jubilee while Hoshi was in MO, and then I went down to NewLife right around the time he made his triumphant return to Denver. And then I got back and Hosh and my folks were making the transition over to ORCC, and I spent a good 2 years just kind of… floating. But I finally feel like I’m settling in, and after having lead worship 4 times in the past week-and-a-half, I can’t think of a place where I’ve felt more at-home or happy. And that’s my story about that. 

everybody, please welcome to the blogroll P.A.! If the first post is any indication, this will be a blog for the ages.Bordering on Arrogance 

This is a scene from my day: As I am walking out of the Catalyst room to grab some cables out of my car, there is a man with a long, greying ponytail and torn jeans walking toward me. He also has a goatee; I have never met this man, nor have I seen him before. He is a stranger to me. He is nearing the door that leads down to the parking garage when he sees me, smiles, and says “hey, girlfriend!” in what can only be described as a “playful” manner.I am perplexed, and say nothing, wondering what would prompt this person to address me in such a way.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, I am a 6-foot-tall Caucasian  male with curly light-brown hair and what is now a respectably scruffy/hairy face. At this particular moment I am wearing a t-shirt with a wolf on it and a green army-style hat I stole from Josh Mickelson. I in no way, shape or form resemble a female (to the best of my knowledge.) So I am left with only 4 possibilities in my mind:

1: He simply mistook me for someone he actually knew well enough to jokingly call “girlfriend.”

2: He has seen me leading worship around church and feels enough camaraderie with me to jokingly call me “girlfriend.”  

3: He likes his women a little tall, lanky and beardy and I just made his day, OR

4: WTH, this is a strange, strange occurrence and I should be perplexed, if not a tad nervous.  

I think I need to let this one marinade a little bit. 

today I walked to church to get ready for JTTC: part 2. I had a Coca-Cola Classic in hand and, of course, li’l Sean in ear. “All These Things That I’ve Done”  came on and given my brisk pace, hipster Gap hoodie and Chucks ensemble, and ubiquitous iPod attached to my tiny half-pocket on my blue jeans, I decided that this would be the perfect time to make believe I was in a Coke commercial. And by the time we hit “I got soul…,” I realized that I was in the greatest Coke commercial ever.

this is where you are

$20 later, my personal domain is now up.theworldisbrightandbeautiful.com  

“Vertigo” is still one of the greatest tracks of the last 2 decades. Anyways. Today I discovered what an absolute joy getting spam in your inbox can be. Here is an actual email I recieved today, complete and unabridged.  

Hi dear,how are you today i hope that every things is ok with you as it is my great pleassure to contact you in having communication with you, please i wish you will have the desire with me so that we can get to know each other better and see what happened in future.i will be very happy if you can write me through my email for easiest communication and to know all about each other, and also give you my pictures and details about me, here is my email (joysaleemeh_24h .co.uk) i will be waiting to hear from you as i wish you all the best for your day.Yours new friend. Joy.  

 Now, I could probably blog for weeks just on this one email; I envision a daily post regarding the grammar and structure of each sentence, because, wow. But I will just let this one speak for itself.  

Last night was the first night of Journey to the Cross at ORCC. This is a very cool production idea, where people are lead, almost like wary tourists, through scenes depicting the last night of Christ’s life; beginning at the last supper for communion, (my favorite element of Christian faith,) moving through Gethsamane, (the most fascinating place on earth,) onward to the place where Judas sold his savior and then hanged himself, through the trial and scourging, and ultimately to Golgotha. Throughout, you are presented with the oppurtunity to sort of “dig-in” to what you’re seeing and hearing; touch the whip, feel the chains, hold the coins in your hand and wonder what you’ve sold out for (and if it would even be worth the copper.) Altogether, it is an entirely unpleasant experience, and therein lies the beauty. There is a dark and dingy side of worship, when we stop focusing on where we’ve been saved to and pay remember what we were saved  from and through. The children in the old testament wrote songs and stories to remind everyone of Egypt, where we’d come from. Now we write songs and dress rooms to remember history’s second turning point, the crucifixion. It is the unpleasant side of worship, when we actually remember what happened then to better understand and connect with what happens now, tomorrow, and forever. It is the dark side of worship, but it is the most important by far in my mind. I had a blast at JTTC, and can’t recommend it enough.

Recent discussion with the Sutherlinder: What is your karaoke song? The song that comes on the radio and you always, without fail, step up to deliver; and you know what? You freaking nail that song when the opportunity presents itself. And you know that if you were going to sing Karaoke (which I would really like to start,) that would be your song. For me it is indubitably ”Tiny Dancer” by Sir Elton. Y tu?  

I’m dealing with a lot of stuff lately. This is good, but dealing with stuff kind of sucks. It means you have to stare yourself in the face and admit that there is some gross stuff going on beneath the surface. As a musician, this is less pleasant than pulling my own teeth. I prefer to think that all of character flaws and attitude issues add to my mystique and intrigue. But the truth is that character issues are universal, and I need to deal with that. But dealing with issues is always hard for me. I’m a very, very black-and-white person; something either is one way or it is another way. So for me I’m having to learn to slow down my life, especially when it comes to personal growth and relational development. My passion and my hard-line personality want everything to be fixed right away or just be good after a few words, but God has been really challenging me on this concept: pursuing immediate change vs. pursuing lasting change. The point in all this is that the way I am and the way I want to be don’t match. But I can’t expect to get closer to the person God’s called me to be overnight. It takes the cultivation of a new lifestyle in me, and it starts with me being willing to let God expose the weeds growing on and around my heart. I’ve always had a sort of “finish-line” mentality, where one day you walk across something and you’re “there,” you’re good and you’ve finally accomplished something or made something, but the thing I’m learning most of all lately from Hoshi, Mark, and Pastor Ben is this: it’s not about getting somewhere, it’s about going somewhere; movement is the key for me here. As much as I want to wake up one morning and be perfect, I’m praying and believing that God will take me from where I am to where I need to be as long as I’m faithful in the here and now, humble, teachable and graceful.