Quickie

*This is just a quick update on my blogging status: I was out of town for most of last week due to Thanksgiving, and this week I probably won't have time to blog at all since this is probably going to be the most intense week of the semester; I've got two quizzes, a major test, a final orchestration project, a senior recital, an on location shoot, and a ton of video editing to do, all in the same week. Please bear with me.*

PS: The good news in all of this is that I have an amazing girlfriend and an amazing possibly-future-family-in-law that I love with all of my heart, as well as an amazing group of people I work with who I also love with all of my heart, and a slightly dysfunctional family that I love with all of my heart. Also, I play saxophone, which makes me happy. Okay, I'm off to go sleep now. Peace be with you.

PPS: It's after Thanksgiving! Bring on the Christmas music!

PPPS: BTW, I have a Starbucks gig in Doral this Friday night. Call me if you want to drink free coffee and hear some live jazz music.

People Matter

I was reminded tonight of a very important truth:

You can't treat people like they don't matter, because they do.

It's a pity that it took someone else making me feel an inch high for me to realize that I don't want to ever take out my frustrations on people I care about, but like Troy says, people are motivated by pleasure and pain, and for my sake I'm glad that I'm starting to "get it," pain or not.

Steph and I spent some time talking about this, and we both decided that is one thing we definitely don't want to carry into our adulthood. It really did (and still does) mean a great deal to me that she was willing to walk with me through this, and that at the end of it, we were able to decide how we were and were not going to treat each other and the people around us.
So much of my behavior is habitual, and I'm not so sure that all of it is noble...
I'm reminded that every day we are becoming the people we are going to be for the rest of our lives, that I am deciding right now the kind of 30-year old, 40-year old, 50 year-old man I'm going to be. The fact that Stephanie is the kind of person who is willing to deeply wrestle with this alongside of me says a whole lot about her, and reminds me that I am truly blessed among men to be courting such an amazing woman. "Lily among thorns" is the appropriate term here, methinks.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything

The talking Jesus doll. I can't believe someone actually put together funds to produce this thing. And not just one of them, either; there are at least 4,000 of these dolls in existence. I am not making this up. Here is the article.
There are times when Christian sub-culture just mystifies me. Of all the things we could be spending money on (the blood:water mission, World Vision, International Justice Mission, etc.), we instead spend it on half-baked junk that only Christians will buy and that ensure that everyone else thinks we're a bunch of wackos.
As a side note, I also think it's kind of funny that the marines wouldn't take the dolls. To tell the truth, their reasoning makes sense to me in a way, but it all seems a bit too PC for me. If the toys are being given for free as part of a charity that obviously doesn't promote one religion over another, then I don't see how a talking Jesus doll could've caused them trouble.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to when the Mohammed doll comes out.

Holy Cow

It's already November 12!
That means that Thanksgiving weekend is only a week and a half away! How did this happen??

...that also means that in less than a month I will be graduated!...beautiful...

..okay, I'm off to write a paper for music app and then possibly another one for Jazz Evo if I finish in time. Peace!

Prayer Vigilantes

Well, I just got back from helping out at the 24-hour prayer vigil we're doing at church. Man, if you haven't gone and you're in the area, you really need to go (and if you're out of town, you have until 7 PM tonight to get here). It has been a really amazing experience so far. Ricky and I got some guys together to lead worship for the 11 to midnight and the midnight to 1 AM shift. Nothing too fancy. Christian was on bass, Igor took the djimbe, Liz singing, Ricky on keys and vocals and me singing and playing acoutsic guitar, so it was a neat little quasi-unplugged set.

The remarkable thing for me was the almost instant development of community among the people there. For a lot of the folks, it was their first time at a prayer vigil, and you saw the wide-eyed looks on their faces when they realized how cool it is that at a church the size of ours, a small group of people can come together and connect in worship and prayer so deeply. There was a really neat sense of awe about the whole proceedings; I think for a lot of the people there, communion took on a whole new meaning. People were crying real tears, I mean really crying out to God, and it was like we all came to this deep realization that, yeah, this thing is for real, and God is really here, and he's way different than anything we've ever known.

It was beautiful and free and was long where it needed to be long and short where it needed to be short (which also means that Paolo was back in the booth yanking his hair out as he was trying to keep up with us on the slides), and I really think God was honored, because we were all reminded that the journey we're on isn't just about us anymore; it's about the God who is madly in love with the community we live in and for some reason wants a bunch of screwed up orphans like us to join him.

sigh...I love my church.

wow

I just read something that I really needed to be reminded of. If any of you all here haven't heard of Michael Spencer (also known as The Internet Monk), you really need to stop reading this and go check out his latest post about the whole Ted Haggard scandal. Here is the link. I'll be here when you get back.

He also has an essay called When I am Weak That I just got through reading, and I have tears in my eyes, because I know that he is describing my journey, and beacuse I know how hard living in brokenness and in simple, constant reliance on Christ alone is for me.

I had a conversation with Steph last night where I was able to admit to her that a lot of times this journey is hard for me, and I get bogged down. It's far easier for me to settle for religious ritual rather than a deep relationship with Christ and with people around me. I've got that type-whatever task-orientated-ness about me that makes shoving things under the rug particularly appealing. It's just really difficult to admit it when I'm struggling, when things don't totally make sense, despite the fact that Paul writes clearly in 2 Corinthians that he's been there (And if that isn't enough, there's always Romans 7).
I think part of the Tears journey for me is going to include crying over my own weakness, not out of hopelessness, but in an honest way that helps me to acknowlege the deep truth that there has never been a moment when I was able to stand apart from Jesus. If there is any love for enemies in me, any desire to serve, it is because of Jesus. If I've ever unconditionally loved anyone, it is only because of the power of Christ working in my weakness...

All at once I am floored once again by the awareness of what I've been given by God.

When I sing "Marvelous Light" on stage tonight at FRC, it is only because Christ's righteousness is covering me in this moment, helping me to die to all the darkness in me so that he can resurrect something better.
It ain't about me, praise God. And that's reason enough for me to celebrate.

Viernes

Thought of the night:
It's always a good evening when you have time to play your guitar
(even if it's only while your videos are rendering)

Post Trunk or Treat thoughts

Ah, Trunk or Treat 2006 has come to a close. I was at our Doral campus, and man, you wouldn't have thought that it was only the first year we'd done it. From the comments I overheard from a bunch of the people there, I'm definitely anticipating that the event will at least double in size next year. Seriously, it was as much of a success as if possibly could have been, I think (and since I was running around the whole time either with a video camera or a saxophone, I'm pretty sure I know whereof I speak). A squad of firemen even showed up with one of their huge trucks, lights flashing and everything. Also, they were selling arepas, which is always a good thing.
Other reasons for why it went so well include:
- Kyle Johnson and Mark Varca, the dynamic duo, were running sound for our band, so we ended up sounding way better than we probably should have.
- I overheard one guy talking about how he was hearing about our church all over the place. "They're everywhere" was his exact phrase. (Beware. Wherever you are in South Florida, unsuspecting non-church-goer, FRC will find you and show you love. Muahahahah!)
- I didn't have to man my trunk (thanks, mom!)
- It didn't rain (this one bears repeating)
- it didn't rain
- Lots of people came who'd never heard of Flamingo and learned that we're not a bunch of weirdos (although there was that one pickup truck decorated as a very, very large Bible "turned" to John 3:16...just kidding)
-I got another FRC Staff T-shirt to add to my growing collection

So yeah, it was definite success. However, between filming, playing saxophone, and the hour and a half of practice time in put it after all was said and done, I'm about ready to keel over, so before that happens, I'm signing off. Goodnight, kids.