Steve’s Blog

Over the weekend my wife and I decided we wanted to go roam around one of our favorite bookstores for a while to relax and clear our head after her graduation.  As I was cruising around the cultural studies section I saw a book talking about the dangers of our culture’s continuous quest for happiness.  It made me think about all the things we do in our “normal” routine to make ourselves happy or satisfy a particular desire.  Think about all the medication that is out there right now, legal or not, which is designed to create a chemical happiness in our brain.  Magazines, books, talk shows all offer us new ways of improving our lives to help create a happier you.  All of these ways to happiness send the same message: you aren’t good enough the way you are.

What does this do to our spiritual life?  Does Jesus become just another avenue to complete happiness?  Christ would take a spot in line along with Prozac, self help books, work out routines and the acquisition of material goods as one of the things to make us happy. 

I actually think that it is in our times of un-happiness that we are most open to the works of God.  It is in the times of questioning, doubt and uncertainty that we are forced to come face to face with the struggles and realities of the world we live in.  And in the midst of these realities we have the ability to see the redemptive workings of the Spirit and the hope of reconciliation.  If we embrace the reality of the imperfect, the broken, the un-happy we begin to see the need for God and not for those temporal things that promise us happiness. 

After 7 commentaries, 5 books and 4 articles about Isaiah 9:1-7 my brain is about to explode!  The worst part about it is that no one really knows what’s going on in this text.  I didn’t read two things that agreed with each other and now I am supposed to write a paper about what the text means.  Here is a glimpse into what will eventually (hopefully) be a 15 page paper:  After hundreds of years of research and countless hours of Hebrew study no one knows what the heck is going on.  It probably means something about Jesus, maybe.

Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working – Pablo Picasso

It’s finals week for me (and many of you) so I wanted to send out a prayer for peace and inspiration as we take the last steps of our accademic year. 

May we be graced by the wisdom of God and led by the eternal creative spirit as we search for understanding in our school work and in our lives.  May desire lead our thoughts and my our frustration and anxiety find a home in the comforting hands of our maker.   Amen

Super cool show just announced!  One of my favorite bands Everest is going to be playing a free, all ages show at the Hammer museum right across from church at 8pm on July 9th.  More details to come but I want us all to go.  (and if you haven’t heard Everest I HIGHLY suggest you check them out.)

really cool artwork from German artist Simon Schubert.  Neat images created by manipulating a piece of paper.  You can see the rest of the collection here

Yesterday was the last meeting of my theology and culture class and we talked a lot about what it means to be a Christian in our current cultural situation (sorry, no answers here). One of the main issues that kept being brought up as the conversation went on was the role of religion in the new spiritual practices that are starting to emerge. In my experience people will often tell me that they are spiritual but not religious but they have a hard time defining religion aside from the traditional structure of the church.  As we were debating what exactly is religion, one of my classmates put it this way:  Any action that is repeated is a ritual and any ritual that has a spiritual meaning is religion.  

If I define myself by the rituals I practice I am a devout Coffee Bean-ian, Sportscenter-ian, Read in Bed-ian and even a fundamental Facebook-ian.  But I would not say that any of these are a spiritual experience even though they are habitual and repeated actions.  But as I was thinking about all the repeated actions that DO have a spiritual meaning I am so much more than a chrurch-ian.  The most relevant of these repeated actions would be that of buying a new music album at midnight when it is released.  

As most of you know, I am a music freak and am always on the look out for great new music (any suggestions?).  My introduction into the religion of midnight music came in the fall of 1998 when the Dave Matthews Band released “Before These Crowded Streets” and the local record store in my home town was throwing a midnight release party to celebrate and allow fans to buy it the second it came out.  I had been looking toward to this album for weeks and when Monday night came around it felt like a pilgrimage to the promised land where my reward was waiting for me.  When I got there I found more than just a line of crazy people (like myself) waiting to buy music but a community of “believers” waiting for the new revelation and experience of the Dave Matthews Band.  And at midnight we all gathered around the counter, eager to receive what we had been waiting for.

I remember unwrapping the cd on my way to the car and taking in the entire package… the artwork, the lyrics, the graphics, the liner notes… all of them building the anticipation.   Once in my car I put the cd in my car stereo and was greeted by the joyous introduction of “Pantala Naga Pampa” (the first track on the album).  I drove home in my own cocoon of music and revelation.  As I got back to my house I sat in my driveway and just listened, song after song until the album was over and my moment of musical clarity had run it’s course.  After that night I made it a ritual to go to the record store at midnight to get the albums I was really excited for.  It became my ritual (and future paradigm) for experiencing the revelatory power of music that was nothing less than spiritual.  Thus began my religion of midnight music.

I tried to paint the picture of how influential this practice was for me because I don’t think I will ever have it again.  The new Dave Matthews Band album came out today but I wasn’t waiting at a record store with my community of fellow enthusiasts, instead I downloaded it from itunes at 9pm (midnight Eastern Standard Time).  It hurt a little to tell the truth.  Sure I had the music, same result as going to a store, but I had missed out on everything else.  It shows the changing nature of how we do things, not just in consumer practices but in all areas of our lives.  As my mind continues struggling with what spiritual rituals we practice it is hard not to draw the connection between my musical religion and my spiritual one.  Just as the way we experience and process music has changed I believe there is a re-evaluating of spirituality going on where the rituals are being questioned and re-thought.  I’m not saying this is a bad thing but it’s going on all around us.  I feel it’s time to begin new rituals, musical and spiritual that will bring about the revelation and community that has been lost.  I don’t know what it looks like and I don’t know what it’s done but maybe there are rituals in our lives where God is begging to come in and show us what spirituality in our individual context can be.