art

Confessions of a Thrift-aholic

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

One of my favorite pastimes is going to Goodwill or ThriftSmart. I’m a fan of any kind of thrift stores, but those just so happen to be the closest ones to where I live.

It can be hit or miss. Some days, I won’t find anything remotely interesting. Sometimes, I might pick up one or two items that pique my interests. Today, I came home with an armload of treasures.

I found a book I’d been wanting to read for a while. It’s called Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey. After I brought it home, I discovered it was autographed.

I also picked up a video series on Learning to Love the Psalms by W. Robert Godfrey. I recently took a class at my church on praying through the Psalms, so this will be something beneficial. Plus, it’s put out by Ligonier Ministries, so I’m sure it will be really good.

I found a blu-ray of a movie I’ve been wanting to watch for a while called The Commitments, about a ragtag band in Ireland in the 60s who do 60s soul classics. I remember the language being a bit blue, but I think the music should be fantastic.

I also snagged a Memphis Showboats hat. It’s not the original 80s incarnation, but I do really like the blue and yellow colors, plus I can represent my hometown.

I guess I love thrifting because of what you find in the least likely places. I think God’s grace is a lot like that. It shows up when you least expect it but when you most need it. I read somewhere that God’s nature is always to give above and beyond what we deserve. You might even say that God gives prodigally and lavishly — almost to a wasteful extent because of how little we often appreciate the gifts or give thanks for them.

Above all, I think that thrifting helps me to see value in what the world says is worthless. Those things that show up at a thrift store because someone thought they were trash can end up being someone else’s treasure. So it is for God and God’s people.

God’s Will

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

The older I get, the more I realize that there is nothing I want outside of the will of God. As I’ve heard before, having everything without God is nothing while having God plus nothing else is everything.

I can’t imagine life without God. Instead of owning stuff, my stuff would own me. I’d be a slave to my fears and my lusts and never know true joy. I’d always be the same broken and miserable person from day to day without any hope of change.

I’m learning that the best place to be is smack dab in the middle of God’s will. I can dream of some pretty wild scenarios, but no one out-dreams God. His plans for me and for the world are so much bigger and better than anything my puny mind can conceive or comprehend.

So I wait and I trust. I keep reciting the first part of the Lord’s prayer where it says, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I pray that even if it means that my will be undone, as Elisabeth Elliott used to pray all the time.

I’d rather have my will undone than to get my heart’s desire and be undone by it. I know how people are destroyed by fame and fortune without the grounding to handle that kind of success. I know even the severe mercies of God are better than the praises of men and the rewards of a life apart from God.

So it’s God’s will. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else. Period.

Homesick

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I was listening to an 80s Truth record I picked up recently. I got to the song Homesick. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I felt I had heard or read the lyrics before very recently. Then I remembered I had seen a post with the very same song lyrics less than a week ago.

The song is the heartbeat of any believer who knows this world isn’t really home. A former pastor of mine once compared this life to a very nice, very clean bus station (or airport terminal, if you will). It’s not supposed to be your forever place to live, but a place to be until you can get to your forever home.

“They say home is where the heart is
And I’m finding out it’s true
‘Cause I long to be in heaven
Since my heart is there with You
Reading over letters
That You’ve written to me
Telling me of all You have in store
Makes me start to dreaming
Of the place I want to be
And I get that lonely feeling
Like so many times before

I get homesick
Longing for my home
And for Your open arms
Of lovе and comfort
Waiting for me there
I gеt homesick
Yearning for my home
And for the day
When all Your family
Gets together forever
Our eternal home sweet home

Lord, You living truth within me
Keeps me safe and warm
All its strength and all its beauty
Rise through every storm
Without its presence in my soul
I could not carry on
To face the many battles I find here
Lord, you keep the promises
I build my life upon
And as time goes by, I know
That I will always keep them near

I get homesick
Longing for my home
And for Your open arms
Of love and comfort
Waiting for me there
I get homesick
Yearning for my home
And for the day
When all Your family
Gets together forever
Our eternal home sweet home” (Larry Bryant, Lesa Bryant & Justin Peters).

It’s interesting to be homesick for a home we’ve never known, but that’s what it is. That’s why nothing here will ever completely satisfy the deep longing of our souls. Only God can do that. And our experience of God here is cloudy and partial. One day it will be clear and complete. We will know as we are fully known. And we will be truly home.

Fear

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean” (Khalil Gibran).

I’ve learned over the years that all fear is just looking at the future and seeing the mountain but not the Mountain Mover. It’s seeing the stormy waves but not seeing the One who walks on water. It’s basically looking at life’s problems and eliminating God from the equation.

I’ve also learned that 98% of what I worry about never happens. That dreaded scenario never takes place. I find that when I get to the place where my fear is greatest . . . and take one more step, that’s when God’s strength shows up in my weakness. God’s faithfulness shows up in my obedience, regardless of whether my motives are wholly pure or not.

“Jesus Christ is like a vast ocean, He is too immense to fully explore, and too rich to fathom. You are like a bottle. The wonder of the gospel is that the bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle” (Jesus Manifesto, Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola).

Never the Same

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

You can say the same for the heart. There are certain experiences in life that stretch your heart, like marriage, having a child, death, or a loved one moving away. Once your heart is stretched, it can never go back to what it used to be.

I can honestly say that I have known people in my life that have left imprints in my mind and in my heart. Some are no longer living. Some have moved on to different places or different phases of their lives. I may never see these people again this side of heaven, but I know that I am different and better because of them.

You never know sometimes when it’s the last time you’ll ever see someone. You think there will be more time, more experiences like this one. Sometimes, you get closure and a chance to process the grief of a goodbye, even if it’s not the grieving of death. Other times, you don’t.

One option is to be bitter and to focus on what was that will never be again. Or you could be thankful for what was because it made you who you are now. God never promised that every single person in your life would be there indefinitely. Some are only meant for a season. Some are to teach you a lesson. Some are like angels used by God to minister to you in a particularly difficult passage.

The best way to pay it forward is to be that kind of person to someone else. Just as someone was once God with skin on to you, so you can do your best to be that to someone else. You can’t be Jesus, but you can be the physical manifestation of God ministering to that person as His hands and feet, His voice.

Some of you might be reading these words right now. To you I say, “Thank you. I am more like Jesus because of you.”

The Mosaic of Community

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

This is most likely a repeat, but I’m too tired for original thought, so I’m posting something from Henri Nouwen that spoke volumes to me about the importance of community and how we together reflect God and make Him visible in the world:

“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.

That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: ‘I make God visible.’ But others who see us together can say: ‘They make God visible.’ Community is where humility and glory touch.”

I think stained glass window work essentially the same way. They are made up of bits of broken glass that only make sense when fitted together into a whole. We are that mosaic and that stained glass window that tells the story of God’s love for His people. That’s why community matters so much.

Kissing a Few Frogs

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

In a business setting, to kiss a few frogs means that you don’t quit on your first mistake or your first failure. You keep going. You keep dreaming and trying new things and hoping for the best until one of those hare-brained schemes finally works.

I think the same goes for car shopping. None of the cars I’ve looked at have been frogs by any means, but none of them were the one for me to drive home and call my own.

I’ve learned a bit in the experience of looking for a Wrangler. I’ve been able to refine what I consider must-haves and nice-to-haves. I still don’t want any manual windows. Been there, done that, got rained on a few times.

I’d prefer a 2-door, but I’m not opposed to a 4-door for the right price. I’m pretty sure I want a hard top and normal tires (as opposed to the oversized off-road tires).

I still can’t see myself in any other car but a red one. My faithful audience expects me to pull up in a red Jeep, and I just can’t disappoint.

Above all, this is one more way that God is using to strengthen my prayer life. I keep going back to that prayer of Jehosaphat from 2 Chronicles 20:12: “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

I’m praying and believing that God will lead me to the right Jeep at the right time not because I am so faithful to pray and so diligent in my faith but because He is faithful to His promises and He remembers me when I forget.

So here’s to more coffee and carsguru.com and lots more praying. And maybe a few weeks from now, I’ll have a update post with color pictures and everything.

Andrew Peterson, Parking Garages and Lessons Learned

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I had the opportunity to see Behold the Lamb of God for the second year in a row (and third overall). It was just as fantastic as the other two times. It was both artistic and worshipful, the way any meaningful Christian media should be.

I learned that Buddy Greene is a harmonica whiz, that Jill Phillips sings like an angel, and that Labor of Love is one of the best Christmas songs ever written (and my favorite by far). The whole focus was on Emmanuel, God with us. In some ways, it felt like the best of worship services. We even closed with the doxology.

But then the fun started. And by fun, I mean me literally going in circles looking for my car. I went up and down and all around and could not find my little Jeep. I even thought for a split-second that it had been stolen, but then I remembered that my car is old.

It turns out that I had come out of my original parking garage from the back and there was another parking garage next to it that looked similar to the one where I parked, but was not the same. I had the feeling that people who enter parallel dimensions must have where everything looks a bit familiar but then again not quite.

As it turns out, I started off from the wrong premise that I was in the right parking garage, and all my earnest and sincere searching wouldn’t have led me to what I was looking for. So in life if you start off with the wrong premise, it doesn’t matter how devout you are in your beliefs. You will still end up in the wrong place.

The right place to start this Advent season is at the foot of the manger where the infant King sleeps. That’s where the greatest story ever told begins. That’s the one that will get you to where you need to go.

A Writer’s Advice

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt” (Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)

I don’t claim to be the best writer or blogger ever. I do know that I feel most alive when I’m writing and the words seem to flow out of me like they’re coming from somewhere else. Sometimes looking back, even the posts that I thought weren’t that great at the time seem to have improved with age.

I’ve been at this blog post business for going on 7 years and nearly 2,400 posts. That’s a lot of words. Not all of them have flowed out of me. Some days, I feel like Moses attempting to draw water from a rock.

If I have any advice for those who want to be writers, whether professionally or otherwise, it’s this– just write. Write a lot. Write every single day, even if what comes out feels like pure stupidity.

I’d also add one more thing. Find your own voice and be true to it. Don’t write or sing or paint or sculpt or film what you think will appeal to a mass audience. Do what speaks to you and what makes you happy and what makes you come alive. Create for an audience of one– yourself.

Ultimately, it’s not about numbers or popularity. It’s about expressing yourself and leaving a bit of yourself behind, whether on canvas or paper or vinyl or film. Success as I see it is staying true to your original vision.

Again, just write, write, write. That’s the only way to truly get better and to develop your own unique voice. The more you write, the better you will get at it.

Here endeth the lesson.

One of My Favorites

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Fri Sep 30 - Sun Oct 2, 2005

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
Fri Sep 30 – Sun Oct 2, 2005

Often at night, I’ll put on my headphones and get out whatever CD strikes my fancy and lull myself to sleep with some good music.

Last night, it was Gillian Welch’s Time (the Revelator). I love her music. In an age where music feels mass-produced, it’s a refreshing change to find songs that seem hand-crafted and lovingly spun.

I have all her music. I could put on any of her CDs and instantly be transported into a happier place of mind.

I actually got to see her and Dave Rawlings at the Ryman back in December of 2011. It was the last stop on their tour and it was fantastic. They had no opening act and played for 2 1/2 hours. It’s at least in my top three best concert experiences of all time.

Also, the Dave Rawlings Machine is good stuff, too. It’s basically a reversal of her albums with him doing the lion’s share of lead vocals.

Basically, go with whatever music moves you, whether it’s popular or not, top 40 or not, recent or not. Even if it’s Kenny G or Zamfir, Master of the Pan-Flute.

I wouldn’t want to live in a world without music and art. It would almost be like living in a world with justice but no mercy.

So yeah, I like music.

The end.