MiPod: Best Songs of 2010 — Jan-June, Vol. 2

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Jason

The past few weeks have been chock full of some really good music releases, which made the free eMusic downloads I received even better. So here’s another heaping helping of some of the best music of the year thus far. If you’re looking for some new tunes to spice up the iPod, consider giving some of these a spin.

  1. Heaven’s on Fire, The Radio Dept. These guys were unknown to me three weeks ago, but I stumbled across them on eMusic and I’ve completely loved their album, “Clinging To A Scheme”. This groovy little ditty has been stuck in my head for about a week now. A light, airy summertime tune.
  2. See You in the Spring, The Court Yard Hounds. The Court Yard Hounds are the side project of 2/3rd of the Dixie Chicks, sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robinson. Emily gets to flex her chops here as a lead vocalist and her singer-songwriter, Sheryl Crow vibe permeates the entire album. This duet with Jakob Dylan is my favorite song on a strong album.
  3. Infinite Arms, Band of Horses. I could just as easily put just about any song from the recent Band of Horses album. They were also unknown to me until recently. I can’t believe I missed these guys.
  4. Think Your Gonna Feel My Love, Matthew Barber. Nearly everything Barber produces is drenched in a ’70s era, AM radio tone. His latest is no exception.
  5. Bring It On, The Gaslight Anthem. The comparisons to a young Springsteen are probably a bit overdone but impossible to ignore. I suspect this will go down as the best pure rock ‘n roll record of the year.
  6. Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough), Phosphorescent. Indie rockers, alt-country twang. No surprise that I would like these dudes.
  7. Chinatown, Wild Nothing. Another song that has bored its way into my subconscious. Not sure what it’s about, but it sounds good. And yes, that makes me shallow.
  8. Lantern, Josh Ritter. Another great entry in the Ritter canon.
  9. Redemption Day, Johnny Cash. Cash’s final album is — fittingly — a reflection on the brevity of life and what comes next.
  10. Laura, Mates of State. If you’d have told me five years ago that I would actually like this kind of music, I’d have said you were crazy. But it turns out you were right. So good job by you.
  11. Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, The National. The National are masters of the slow burn album. But this is one track that stood out to me instantly.
  12. Diplomat’s Son, Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend has evolved from a buzz band to a really consistent group in my opinion.
Posted in Cash, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thoughts on Proverbs: Principles, Not Promises

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Jason

I recently finished a ten month study of the book of Proverbs. I’m sorry to say I had never even read the Proverbs all the way through — much less studied them in depth — prior to last summer. But when our Wednesday morning men’s Bible class at church suggested we study them together, I began to read through this pearl of wisdom tucked away in the middle of our Bibles. Little did I know what I would find there.

But before I begin to share with you what I found, I also have to say what a blessing it was to be joined on this journey with some faithful and wise companions. The men’s class that I teach is made up of about 30-40 men, most of whom are a good 25-30 years older than me. Their life experiences are vast and rich: physicians, grandfathers, engineers, fathers, attorneys, teachers, Marines, ministers, deacons, recovering addicts, elders, husbands, accountants, brothers, sons. They’ve seen much in their time and the wisdom of the Proverbs opened up our conversation in some ways that truly blessed my life. I owe much to their godly character and spiritual insight.

One of the first things that you notice as you read through the Proverbs is the bold, assertive nature of the literature found there. One of the oft-quoted passages from Proverbs demonstrates this well:

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. — Proverbs 22.6

Taken from the pages of holy scripture, it’s easy to understand this passage as a command, even a promise from God Himself. Train a child properly and the result is guaranteed. This formulaic reading of this passage — and countless others — is quite common in modern evangelical Christianity.

There’s just one problem with this interpretation. It’s just not true.

Well, let me qualify that: it’s not true in every case. In my youth ministry days, I witnessed countless parents berate themselves for the choices their teenage children were making. I sat across the table from Moms and Dads who, with tears in their eyes, would quote this verse to me and say, “Did we do something wrong?”, as if they were somehow responsible for Junior’s decisions.

And that’s the problem with the Proverbs; they’re general wisdom, not universal truths. They’re principles for ordering and guiding our lives, not iron lock promises from the Almighty. Generally speaking, they prove to be true, even if they aren’t applicable in a few exceptional circumstances. Generally speaking, a child’s development — spiritual or otherwise — depends on their raising. Behaviorists and sociologists alike emphasize the importance of a child’s first six years. According to the experts, these years are formative for the development of a child’s values, worldview, and understanding of God, which merely confirms what the Proverbs have been declaring all along. But Scripture also affirms free will. From it’s first pages, the Bible makes it clear that God is eternally resigned to the existence of choice in His creation, even at the risk of a fallen humanity. So we hold these two truths in our hands as we read, trying to synthesize them into the everyday, flesh-and-blood realities of our lives. The Proverbs prove to be worthy companions for such a journey, for they are nothing if not lived in. Yes, the Proverbs have much to say about giving our children the foundation they need for faith, but alongside such teachings we also find ample warning against poor exercise of free will.

And so, the first thing that stands out as we study Proverbs is this: we must understand what kind of literature we’re reading. General truths, not eternal commands. Principles, not promises. But this is not to detract from our reading; no, not in the least. But we enter this country of Wisdom literature with our eyes wide open, attuned to the contours and features of this infrequently traveled but beautifully adorned land, the Proverbs.

Posted in Proverbs, Scripture | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Our Daddy

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Jason
Jason holding Joshua and Abby Kate for the first time together.

My Daddy
My daddy is 33 years old.
My daddy looks so handsome when he goes to church.
My daddy likes to make cookies.
My daddy always says, “I love my daughter”.
My daddy is funny when he makes silly faces.

“Happy Father’s Day, I love you, and you look handsome”. ~ Abby Kate

My Daddy
My daddy is 33 years old.
My daddy looks so handsome when he wears a baseball jersey like me.
My daddy likes to make hotdogs.
My daddy always says, “I love you”.

My daddy is funny when he tickles Jackson’s tummy and wrestles with Abby Kate, Jackson, and me.

“I wish you a Happy Father’s Day and I love you so very much!” ~ Joshua


Jason and Jackson

My Daddy

My daddy is 3 years old.

My daddy looks so handsome after a shower.
My daddy likes to make food.
My daddy always says, “You’re a floppy head”.

My daddy is funny when he laughs at me in bed.

“Happy Father’s Day Daddy, I love you very much”. ~ Jackson

____________________

Our Daddy is funny.

We love our Daddy.

We care for him.

Our Daddy says nice things to us.

Our Daddy plays with us.

Our Daddy teaches us about the Bible.

Our Daddy is strong.

He is brave.

He is healthy.

We love our Daddy very much!

Happy Father’s Day to the world’s best dad!
Posted in Family | 2 Comments

A Penny Is Just A Penny

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Jason

When is a penny “just a penny”?

Depends, I guess.

While we were in the hospital for Sunny’s surgery, part of my daily ritual was to run downstairs to the cafeteria to grab a little breakfast and bring it back up to the room to eat with Sunny. Granted, what she was “eating” was chicken broth and Jell-O, but you get the idea. (It’s not like my eggs from a box were a tremendous upgrade over her meal anyway.) After a couple of days, I got a little tired of the weak cafeteria coffee, though, so I decided to walk down the hall to the Starbucks kiosk just outside the Family Waiting Room.

Some people really love the options at a place like Starbucks. (Think of the Meg Ryan monologue from “You’ve Got Mail”, a severely overrated movie in it’s day, by the way.) I’m not one of those people. I just like coffee. Black. No sugar. And I always have to double check myself before ordering. (“What’s the fancy word for ‘medium’ again?”) Say what you will about the Starbucks experience, but the coffee packs a wallop. And on this particular morning, after another fitful night’s sleep in a recliner with doctors, nurses, and techs in and out of the room at all hours of the night, I really needed a boost of brew.

So I stood in line and waited patiently until it was my time to order: a grande Pike’s Place brew. (Shouldn’t grande be the largest size available to order? Makes sense to me. On a Tim James level.) The order came to $2.01. Over the course of the week, I had developed quite a pocketful of change thanks to all the meals I purchased in the cafeteria and food court. But on this particular morning, in my haste, I simply grabbed my wallet and left all my loose coins in the room. I checked the “community penny repository”; no luck. I looked back at the mini-barista and asked her to verify the total. “Did you say two-oh-one?” I elevated my voice an octave at “one”, implying the complete inconvenience this one cent was going to cause me. “Yes, sir.” This calloused soul was clearly unsympathetic.

I did the only thing I knew to do: I pulled out three crisp $1 bills from my wallet and handed them over. “Sorry, I don’t have any change,” I said. Again, that’s what I said. But what I meant by that was, “Look, can’t you see that I don’t have a penny on me. And your little ‘leave a penny, help a friend’ chest is bone dry, too. So rather than counting out a whole bunch of loose change — which you don’t want to do and, to be honest, I don’t want to carry around in my pocket — why don’t you just bail me out here and give me a penny. After all, it’s only a penny.”

I have to be honest — this little trick has proved to be fairly effective over the years. The shrugging, “Sorry, I don’t have any change” maneuver has worked in most any environment you could imagine. I suspect I’ve saved myself somewhere in the neighborhood of .37 cents over the years with this move. But to reach .38 cents, I’d have to find another hapless sucker. My kiosk barista couldn’t care less. I have to give her credit; she’d probably seen this same move from street wise, frugally-conscious coffee drinkers every day in the hospital. She counted out my .99 cents with the precision and speed of an oil rigger, a U.S. soccer player, a Samba-dancing toddler.It was at that moment I realized I was dealing with the Penny Nazi.

I’m reminded of a story from my youth involving my Dad and our mail carrier. I’m not sure if you can still do this or not, but back then, my parents would take a letter and put it in the mailbox without a stamp. They’d put the appropriate amount of change in the box (.22 cents at the time, I think), and I guess the mail man would take the change and put the postage on the letter for you. Maybe that was just a small town thing, I don’t know. One time my Dad was trying to get rid of some change, so he counted out 22 pennies and put them in the mailbox with a letter. I guess the mail man didn’t like it, because when my Dad went out to check the mail, he found his letter, along with the 22 pennies still in the box, along with a Post-It note with the following written on it in big, block letters: “I DON’T LIKE PENNIES!!!” My Dad, not to be outdone, wrote back “I DON’T EITHER!!!” and put the note, the letter, and the 22 pennies back in the mailbox the next day. To my knowledge, the letter was mailed.

As the barista went to hand me my change — all .99 cents of it — she actually dropped one of the coins behind the cash register. I heard it clank and land between the register and the kiosk back. Penny Nazi and I watched the penny fall, as if in slow motion, and then our eyes rose to meet one another. She shrugged and said, “Ooops. Oh, well. It’s only a penny.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call irony.

I guess a penny is never JUST a penny.

Posted in Dad, General, Humor | 3 Comments

LOST: Putting It All Together, Vol. 3

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Jason

What is the Island? Well....take a look.

For the topographers out there, you’ll love this post.

It seems that a LOST aficionado out there put his considerable talent to work drawing up a detailed map of the mysterious Island. Apparently dude has been working as a cartographer for the Department of Defense for the past 11 years. And now, he’s charting the details of LOST’s Island. I love it. (Am I the only one who thinks the Island resembles one of those turtles from “Finding Nemo”?)

(Click here for the “Geography of LOST” website; hat tip to EW.com for bringing this to my attention.)

Posted in Television | Tagged | 4 Comments

MiPod: Best Songs of 2010 — Jan-June

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Jason

This year started off a little slow for me, but the music releases have really picked up of late. Here are some of the my favorite songs that have been released so far in 2010. (I’m sure you’ll be seeing most of these albums again in my year-end music review.)

  1. Change of Time, Josh Ritter. Fans have been waiting for Ritter’s latest album for a couple of years now; turns out So Runs the World Away was well worth the wait. The best cut is “Change of Time”, a sonically-arresting ballad about time, love, resignation, and hope. To that end, it makes for a perfect auditory companion piece to the final season of LOST . I’m telling you, there are worlds packed into this four minute vignette. Hands down my favorite song of the year.
  2. Ain’t No Grave, Johnny Cash. Death hangs like a pall over Cash’s final American Recordings sessions. With titles like “Ain’t No Grave”, “Redemption Day”, and “1 Corinthians 15.55”, it’s easy to see where Cash’s thoughts were in his final days. And although the album itself never quite gels, the title track is as chilling as any tune the Man in Black ever recorded.
  3. One Day, Matisyahu. My favorite eschatologically pregnant Hasidic hip-hop song of the year. Plus my kids love it.
  4. Laredo, Band of Horses. Best guitar licks of the summer.
  5. Holiday, Vampire Weekend. These NYC indie rockers put out a great debut album in 2008. (“Mansard Roof” is still one of my kids’ favorite songs.) But their 2010 release Contra was a little disappointing at first for me. Over time, the album really began to grow on me and it’s now one of my favorites of the year. This is a short little ditty, but it’s contagion level rivals “Mansard Roof”.
  6. My City of Ruins, Eddie Vedder. Recorded as part of the Haiti earthquake telethon, Vedder’s cover of “My City of Ruins” is a rich, mournful recording. Great.
  7. Everybody’s Hurting, Jakob Dylan. The younger Dylan is clearly at his best when he goes alt-country sad sack. Aided by the backing vocals of Neko Case & Kelly Hogan, Dylan sings of darkness and the downtrodden. Depression has never sounded so good.
  8. Cloudy Shoes, Damien Jurado. Reminiscent of late 90s, Play-era Moby. Weird, harmonious, and way cool.
  9. Swim Until You Can’t See Land, Frightened Rabbit. These guys are like the Scottish Counting Crows. Good stuff.
  10. Vaporize, Broken Bells.
  11. Bloodbuzz, Ohio, The National. I have no clue what this song is about. But I like it.
  12. Domestic Scene, The Radio Dept. A perfect song for spring’s blue skies.
Posted in Cash, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

LOST: Putting It All Together, Vol. 2

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Jason

In the weeks since LOST’s finale, I find myself continuing to process the implications of what we’ve seen. I wrote last week about the nature of the Sideways world; that part seemed a little easier to synthesize in light of the finale. Next, I plan on writing about the nature of the Island, which I’m finding is a much more daunting task. Basically, we only had one season to try and understand the nature of the Sideways; but taking a look at six years of Island story and trying to systemitize it is more of a challenge.

But it’s a challenge that I’m up for, albeit in time. So while my “What is the Island?” post continues to percolate, I submit to you the latest installment of Doc Jensen over at EW. Doc — like me — continues to be smitten with this little sci-fi saga and he’s written a couple thousand words on the Island, Desmond, Jack, and how the castaways’ time traveling hi jinks from last season were integral to the storyline. I’m not sure I completely agree with his assessment, but it makes for an interesting read on a balmy Monday. Enjoy.

Posted in Television | Tagged | Leave a comment

Marriage Matters

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Jason

The Marriage Matters conference with Jerry & Lynn Jones at the Mayfair church, June 27-30

The Mayfair church will be hosting a free marriage enrichment seminar Sunday, June 27 – Wednesday, June 30. For nearly 15 years, Jerry and Lynn Jones have toured the country, presenting the Marriage Matters conference in 42 states. Jerry and Lynn combine the Biblical teaching on the sanctity of marriage with fresh insight and practical counsel for husbands and wives. Each session of Marriage Matters explores some of the complex issues and emotions surrounding relationships and is filled with sound psychological advice and biblical direction. Both professional educators and dynamic communicators, Jerry and Lynn Jones are guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and truthfully evaluate yourself and your relationships.

This is a free conference, quality child care provided. To register, click here. Call 256.881.4651 for more information.

Posted in Family, General | Leave a comment

The Sermon on the Mount 16

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jason

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. — Matthew 5.21-26

I used to hear this word as a warning against calling someone a “fool”. I remember watching the A-Team growing up and I’d mimic Mr. T, who would go around saying stuff like, “I pity the fool who messes with me.” It always bothered my mother and when she told me why, I stopped saying it. Partially out of respect for her; mostly out of fear of hell. Clearly there’s a message here about the words we say to one another.

But I think this passage speaks a much deeper word. The gospel life that Jesus announces and inaugurates is brimming with reconciliation. The kingdom of God is properly understood as the sphere where reconciliation occurs most comprehensively. The mission of Jesus is to bring reconciliation (Romans 5.11; 2 Cor 5.19; Col 1.22). Disciples of Christ participate in this same mission (2 Cor 5.19-20). Our very lives bear witness to gospel truth: we vanquish estrangement in our relationships with the same voracity God demonstrates in His great reconciliation project — the Incarnation of Christ. Reconciliation must be more than what we “do”; it defines our very existence. We, the reconciled, agents of God’s grand mission.

And so Jesus calls us to first practice that which we later preach: Be reconciled! For this obedience is far greater than sacrifice.

Posted in 2 Corinthians 5, Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Missiology, Scripture, Sermon on the Mount | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Strasburg Mania

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jason

Last night something strange happened. Baseball in the nation’s capitol was relevant.

Well, sort of.

Stephen Strasburg, the much-ballyhooed precocious fireballer the Nationals drafted with the first overall pick in the 2009 amateur draft, made his major league debut last night. Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates – with what amounts to a Quad-A lineup – Strasburg demonstrated the velocity and command befitting the next big thing, walking nary a batter while striking out 14 in an impressive win.

According to ESPN, Strasburg’s arrival was also heralded by luminous phenomenon and magi from the east.

Sure, the kid had an impressive debut. And yes, the Nats desperately needed a positive night after languishing at the bottom of the NL East since their inception. (As a reminder, here’s an all-time lowlight.)

But a healthy dose of perspective is also in order. To begin with, Strasburg alone won’t be the savior of baseball in D.C. Let’s not forget that the team has an elite third baseman in Ryan Zimmerman. (It’s a travesty that Placido Polanco is besting Zimmerman at present for the starting nod on the NL All-Star Team. Come on, people!) And there are also a bevy of young players in the Nationals organization that are either on their way (Bryce Harper), recovering from injury (Jordan Zimmerman), or already helping out at the big league level (Drew Storen). And by kicking the tires on available veterans like Roy Oswalt and signing low-risk injury recovery types like Chen Ming-Wang, the Washington front office has shown a willingness to acquire more talent through a variety of different routes.

So is Strasburg the Messiah of Nationals baseball? Time will tell. But to coronate him as such undermines the hard work of a front office that has this team pointed in the right direction for the first time in the club’s history.

The Nationals’ salvation is a much more collective process.

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Tagged , | Leave a comment