I’ve been nourished by the music of Shane & Shane for many years now. Here are the two of them taking two minutes to describe how their latest album came about.
Bring Your Nothing
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Tag Archives: music
Stompin’ Tom Connors: The Hockey Song
Yesterday, an iconic member of Canadian culture passed away at age 77.
One of Canada’s most prolific and well-known country and folk singers, Stompin’ Tom was credited with writing more than 300 songs. He had released four dozen albums, with total sales of nearly 4 million copies.
Yet among all his creations, it may be that the Hockey Song will go do as one forever woven into Canada’s fabric and knotted closely with the nation’s obsession with its sport of choice.
If you need an orientation OR just a reliving of past memories, here you go. In honour of Stompin’ Tom, I give you “The Hockey Game”…
Brokenness Aside
My Twitter feed served up this devotional based on the song “Brokenness Aside” by All Sons & Daughters. I only skimmed the article, but I have soaked in the song on numerous occasions. Inspired by the concept, I offer the following reflections birthed from this artful piece of worship.
These touching lyrics are below, and if the song is unknown to you, then THIS will help you “feel it”.
Brokenness Aside
Leslie Jordan and David Leonard
Will your grace run out
If I let you down
‘Cause all I know
Is how to run
‘Cause I am a sinner
If it’s not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful
Will you call me child
When I tell you lies
Cause all I know
Is how to cry
CHORUS
“Will your grace run out if I let you down? ‘Cause all I know is how to run.”
I lived in a state of fear for years, certain that God’s nature must be as fickle as mine. In my finest moments, perhaps I am courageously consistent, steadily stepping toward God. But how few are my finest moments! The vast majority of moments involve failure to meet even my own lax standards, let alone the brilliantly holy nature of the One Without Beginning or End. Wearied myself by my inconsistency and unfaithfulness, it seemed only logical to conclude that God must sigh an exhausted sigh every time I returned in need-filled prayer. Stumbling the same path repeatedly was furiously frustrating to me, yet apparently it was not frustrating enough, as I was apt to be there again the next day. Every taste of personal disappointment worked to foster in me a belief that God’s dominant emotion toward me must be, at best, an obligated kindness. I mean, I would be frustrated enough to give up on such weakness. Surely God would too.
How pleasant to be woefully wrong about Him!
Will you call me child when I tell you lies? ‘Cause all I know Is how to cry.”
What a joy to sense God speaking over me as “His son”. The acceptance of the Father is staggeringly hard to accept. Truthfulness is so foreign to our crooked-to-the-core natures. Love freely given makes a mockery of the merit-based systems that we so proudly function within. Surely God cannot maintain His affection and commitment toward children so quick to compromise, so prone to wander. And yet, PRAISE GOD, He does, for His faithfulness is based upon the integrity of His being rather than than the fragmented states of the rest of us.
And that is indeed very Good News.
‘Cause I am a sinner
If it’s not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful
The distortion runs deep within us. The moment we shore up one gap, we create another. There is simply not enough wholeness within us to cover up our brokenness, not enough fabric to hide the nakedness. Yet God, the Abundant One, wades into the depths of our deception, cuts the cords that bind, and miraculously brings beauty from ashes. From Genesis 1 onward, the Spirit of God hovers over formless voids of darkness, shaping them into conditions that sustain thriving and God-honouring life. There is One striving to work such wonders in every life today, and Yahweh is His name. You can be certain that He is hovering over life as you know it today.
If you haven’t yet heard “Brokenness Aside”, then let your soul be fed by clicking below.
Peace on you today, my friends.
Saturday Six-Pack (2)
Welcome to the weekend, and thanks for spending some time “Wandering & Wondering”.
With the inaugural edition of “Saturday Six-Pack” out of the way, let me once again provide a half-dozen directions you might look for some fine online reading this fine day.
Typically, these articles are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but I reserve the right to live up to the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page!
In this edition:
1) Can We Prepare our Culture to Receive the Gospel
Justin Taylor provides this quote from “Christianity and Culture”, an essay written by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937). Living out faith within a culture that many describe as increasingly closed to Christianity, how might these words speak into what can or cannot be done in “opening doors”?
2) What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him
Byron Yawn has written a newly released book by this title, and Tim Challies provides this positive review of its contributions toward helping men become more the men, husbands, and fathers that God has created us to be.
3) How to Tell a Good Story with our Life
A few years back, Donald Miller wrote a book called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”, which challenged readers to consider their lives against the list of ingredients which compose all great stories. How might we pursue a life comparable to the rich tales we love? A much-shorter-than-the-book summary can be found here.
4) It’s Time to Move from Minutia to Movement
If you’re seeking spiritual revival, dreaming that it could happen in your church or country or lifetime, then this piece by Mark Driscoll may feed (or fuel) your hunger.
5) Your Best Creative Time is Not When You Think
The tag line of this article, from Scientific American, says this: “Morning people have more insights in the evening. Night owls have their breakthroughs in the morning.” Translation: Out-of-the-box thinking, the type often needed to troubleshoot life, is a tad odd. How to maximize it? Start with this article.
6) Music for Lent
Searching for some fresh tunes for these pre-Easter days? How about something that nudge you along in the classic Lent themes of struggle and sin moving into hope and even resurrection? Go with Bruce Springsteen. Yes, the born-in-the-USA Bruce Springsteen.
Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.
Miserere Mei, Deus
The above title is Latin for “Have mercy on me, O God,” a phrase from Psalm 51.
It is also the title of a stunningly beautiful piece of music composed by Gregorio Allegri sometime around the 1630’s. It was intended for exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel during the morning services of Holy Week. These services typically began around 3:00 AM, and during the rituals, candles would be extinguished until only one remained.
At some point, it became forbidden to transcribe this music and was allowed to be performed only at the services described above, adding to the mystery surrounding it. However, in 1770, a fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome. Hearing the piece for the first time during the Wednesday morning service, he left the chapel to write it down from memory. It is said that he returned on Friday for a second listen to make some minor revisions. He published the piece a year later, effectively ending the “ban” and earning him surprising praise from the Pope, who was understandably astounded at the musical genius before him.
When your schedule today will fifteen minutes of listening, press “play” on the video below and be blessed by this once mysterious, ever-majestic creation, dedicated to the Creator and Redeemer of all.