Mood Music

I’d like to think that I am not ruled by my emotions. For the most part, I think this is true. The one notable exception to this is my taste in music. I have noticed as I drive to the church in Beverly where I work and worship, I flip through radio stations until a song resonates with me. Lately, I have noticed a correlation between the music and my mood. I don’t think this is out of the ordinary, but I began to notice the type of music I listened happened to like at the moment, and that, in turn, told me something about how I was feeling. Sometimes I can’t pinpoint my emotions, so this little experiment has been helpful at different times.

Below I have listed some of the emotions and the music that appeals to me while I am feeling those certain emotions or am in certain situations. I would love to know if any of you experience this same phenomenon and what music appeals to you.

Angry/Frustrated: Linkin Park (anything from the first 2 albums)

Homesick: Country Music (usually Alabama or Randy Travis, but also Josh Turner)

Energetic: Top 40 music (anything with a good beat – Gwen Stefani, Timbaland)

Need Motivation: “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas

Studious: Movie Soundtracks (Current favorites: Pirates of the Carribean 3, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Chronicles of Narnia)

Romantic: Standards, Big Band, Michael Buble (This normally happens after watching a romantic comedy or something.)

Missing College: Praise and Worship music (esp. “Never Let Go”)

Excited/Really Happy: Broadway Musicals (Wicked, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, etc)

Missing my Brother: Metallica, Poison, Bon Jovi (anything 80’s metal)

Exercise Motivation: Tower of Power (just can’t help myself)

I like a lot of other music, but this music serves a specific purpose. Just thought it might be something interesting to share!

Conviction

This past week I've had some free time to surf the web as well as go through some of piles of papers and notebooks I've collected as a college/grad student. In one of my notebooks I came across a sentence written at the bottom of a page full of hebrew verb charts. Upon further inspection, I must have been practicing the charts while listening to a lecture in a different class. This must have been something the professor said that really struck me and so I wrote it down.

"When we say what we believe, we are necessarily saying what we don't believe."

This seems obvious in some contexts. Take the presidential election that is consuming the media. Every time I open my homepage (which happens to be BBC world news) I see some story about the Presidential campaign. I can only imagine what American news must be like. I don't own a tv, so I don't watch the 6:00 news. Instead, I know about world events ( and not many at that). Back to my point: when a political candidate makes a statement, it is immediately assumed that the negative is also implied. For example, Candidate A says "I am pro-life." Embedded in this statement is the implied statement "I am against abortion." Obvious, right?

Now, imagine you are sitting in church. A lot of Christians know of such creeds as the Apostle's Creed or Nicene Creed. These creeds are designed to outline the faith of the Christian church. They are positive statements of what people profess to believe. Implicit within these statements are also negative statements. If one were to say, "I believe in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit" they are necessarily denying the belief in Buddha or the deistic belief that God exists without the trinity.

I could go on with examples, but the reason I was thinking about this is because often Christians affirm positive statements, but deny the negative statements. I believe in the Trinity, but I don't deny the power of Buddha. Okay, they may not say it that way. Instead, they may say, "I'm a Christian, but I think it's cool you're Buddhist. Your religion may not be right for me, but if it works for you, that's all that matters."

If we don't also accept the negative statements implicit in our positive affirmations of the creed, do we really affirm the creed? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me." Do you believe that? The negative that is implicit in that statement is, "There is no other way except through Christ." Wow, huh? Pretty strong statement. Makes me a little uncomfortable just writing it. I believe it. It's the hard truth of Christianity - and it is what makes us so blessed.

We know the truth - the only truth.

Reading Week

Greetings to all. I am currently in the middle of my first reading week this semester. It came up on me really fast and I didn't have a chance to make any plans for it. So, I'm not sure if I'll actually doing anything interesting this week or just relax and read. I really don't need to be going anywhere and spending money right now. I figure I'll wait until the weather is nicer to do my traveling. Although, the weather is pretty nice for February. A couple of weeks ago we even had a thunderstorm!

Last week was pretty exciting for me. On Thursday I went to Gordon College to see Dallas Willard speak, and then I went again on Friday to hear him in during their chapel service. For those of you who don't know, Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at USC. More importantly (for this story at least) he also writes books on Christian spirituality. In college I was fortunate enough to read a book of his called The Divine Conspiracy which changed my life. I made my mother read it. I've made my friends read it. I just absolutely love this book. So, when I heard he was coming to Gordon College, I jumped at the chance to see him.

His main topic of interest is Christian discipleship. He argues that churches today don't make disciples, they make converts. People aren't being taught how to become disciples of Christ and their faith is lacking because of it. The transformation promised in conversion is not being realized. He then provides ways in which we can become disciples of Christ, which is what we are called to be.

I am also currently in a book study through my church. We are reading a Dallas Willard book about discipleship. It is much shorter and much more accessible than the Divine Conspiracy. If you are interested, I would recommend this book: The Great Omission.

Other than that, I have been reading a lot about postmodernism and have been reading some Foucault today. Foucault is not easy to understand - do not recommend it. Not that you are going to go out and read whatever I mention on this blog...

That is all for now. Have a great week!

James Freeman Clarke

So will the best harmony come out of seeming discords, the best affection out of differences, the best life out of struggle, and the best work will be done when each does his own work, and lets everyone else do and be what God made them for.
- James Freeman Clark

This is one of my favorite quotes. The first time I read it, I remember being struck by its truth. We are all different, unique and yet when we come together we can form something beautiful. That does not mean the coming together won't be without its struggle and that we won't retain our differences. On the contrary - we are called to be one as we are. Jesus talks about it in the language of a body. A body has many different parts but when they work together, they form the body of Christ (and let's face it, what's more beautiful than that?)

Many times I have thought maybe it would be better if I was only like this person or that person. Maybe things would work out better if I just went down this certain path instead of the one I am currently on. In the words of Mr. Clark, I wanted to do someone else's work. Instead, God is calling me to trust in him and stand on the firm foundation of Christ. He has called me for a specific person. My calling is meant for me and to compare it to another's calling is to question God. Romans 8:28 says that God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

I have a confession to make about this quote. I learned today that Mr. Clark is a unitarian pastor. (They deny the Trinity.) My first reaction was to instantly re-read the quote looking for "unitarian" or "liberal" traces in it. Instead, I still found the truth. I have a little prejudice. Just because someone doesn't believe as I do, and are missing out on the most wonderful truth - does not mean that God can't use them to speak truth to us. God spoke through a donkey to one of his prophets - he can speak to me through a unitarian minister.

1 week to my first reading week...unreal.

applying my education...

A week into the second semester and I can already tell things are going to be a lot different that in the fall. My schedule is a lot less intense as far as work load which is really nice. That is, in part, due to a class I am taking about prayer. We have no reading! It is actually quite an amazing class and I thank God for what I am learning in it.

My favorite class will probably be the class on Christianity and the Postmodern world. I love to take what I have learned and make unexpected connections with it. Last week I read a book by Frederick Nietzsche. He is a philosopher from the late 19th century. His big idea (one of them anyway) is to base morality on "the will to power". Everything everyone does, he argues, should be based on the motivation to gain power. He hates Christianity because its central claims command us to not think of ourselves first but help those in need. If you are more interested (which I doubt many of you are) just shoot me an email and I'll try to explain it better.

Anyway - so I was pondering this whole "will to power" concept and what that would look like. Nietzsche himself really wasn't able to live out this theory because he was very ill most of his life and frail. Part of me wonders if that is why he is so obsessed with power and strength - because he resented his illness and desired physical power. Just a theory.

Anyway, as I was thinking about it, I decided to watch an episode of the show Heroes. (I ended up watching every episode of Heroes this weekend...oops!) The show is about these people who have genetic mutations that give them powers (a lot like x-men only without the costumes). One character in particular is the main villain. He is driven by motivation to be special and unique, but most importantly - to be powerful. He kills other special humans and takes their power. I realized that this character could possibly be classified as an example of Nietzsche's "uber mensch." Which is someone who acts on their will to power. Interesting that the only person I saw exhibit those qualities was the villain.

In a decidedly postmodern society and Nietzsche as the figurative father of postmoderism, I found it very interesting to see his theory in a villainous light. Since the show Heroes is so popular, perhaps society as a whole isn't ready to give up some sense of objective morality. So, perhaps watching all of those episodes wasn't such a waste of time - it helped me to understand one of the great philosophers of history (great in the sense of capacity, not in the sense of morality.)

On a side note: It's about time that people in New England were humbled a little bit. It's just not fair to have so much athletic ability living in one area.