John P Kee Chill Out

It's a Sunday morning where I should be chilling, but I'm here in Stoke traipsing all over the place with a 6ft 9in settee which me mate reckons can fit in the window of the crib in which we live. It will have to as it can't fit in the door! Then as well as that there's a wedding to attend this afternoon. As long as I've got this evening to chill and can also get me own stuff done tomorrow including finding a solution to me ongoing IT problem, I'll be fine.

So enduring all that it's good to have some good music to encourage me at a lull point. Enjoy this quality batch of JPK material.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Foretaste

I read and hear people often talk about heaven and what it would like to be in heaven and how they would like to experience heaven on earth. I’ve found these musings intriguing from a background that always left heaven for where God is and where we’ll never go as I’ve read me bible. In any case the paradise picture that they all endeavour to paint is very much one based on what our imagination can put together from current experiences and the level to which it is liberated to explore all possibilities. For some heaven is about having all your pleasures given to you and sensual overload of that which is pleasing to you. I don’t have a problem with utopian thinking indeed I reckon its only limitation is that it doesn’t quite match the vision of eternity with God. That’s the only problem.

Still, I was doing a reading onto tape for my dear friend, Ray. First one I’ve done and I really enjoyed it, I’d want to do more of those if the opportunity arose. The book was Alex Robertson’s Manifesto for a Revolution: The Kingdom of God on Earth. The nature of the recording challenged me to at least retain some of the points made by the author as I summarised what was going on from tape to tape. That beat the way I usually read and also helped me to grapple with some of the issues better. Among other things mentioned in the book is how things like healings that we see in our day are actually foretastes of that great kingdom to come when Jesus’ millennial reign ends and He passes it onto His Father who wipes all tears from our eyes and removes sickness, suffering, pain, etc.

I like the concept of foretastes. I see them in scripture, littered in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. They are identified in church history and for those privileged enough they even pop up in our lives. Those glimpses of the glory ahead when Dad says enough is enough to this decaying, rusty old world and ushers in a new heaven and new earth so He can be with His people and His people can eternally be in Him.

At this difficult time in my life it is often a source of great encouragement to get triggers to those foretastes that I’ve read, heard, seen and especially experienced in my brief time on the planet. Those triggers and those foretastes have not happened in the stereotypical places of church services, but often in the quite amazing places – one happened whilst shopping in Tescos, can you believe it? God even shows a glimpse of His glory in Tescos!

Like last night watching Law Abiding Citizen and the consciousness of the three major forces that opposes the disciple of Christ – Satan, the World and the Flesh (aka me). How the world’s system is so inherently corrupt that the only option is to actually subscribe to a kingdom that is not of this world and which will one day completely overwhelm all worldly kingdoms. It makes sense not to try and oppose the system or even spend too much time investing it, but to actually focus on living for the kingdom come that One before ushered into our hearts by Calvary, the empty tomb and Pentecost.

The whole point though is of foretaste and the triggers thereof, and as you know I have to slum it using the wife’s laptop, which sucks for me who cannot be doing with all this cutey-cute small keys and small keyboard business. Anyhow it’s been a while since I’ve been able to watch YouTube stuff, and I had the song Golden Lady in me head and looked for covers of it especially looking for Frank McComb’s version, which is out of sight.

Then I came across this cover. I never heard the guy before in my life. Never heard of him, etc. I listened to the version and was suitably impressed by the quality and their own arrangement of the song which put another stamp on a beautiful song, adding another dimension of brilliance on a Wonder creation that Stevie must be really chuffed about. Then after listening to the song I took the time to watch the video itself and saw musical harmony interspersed with genuine enjoyment of the musically act and the unity involved in both and the mutual submission of sax to vocalist and vice-versa before trying a riff together.

That gave me a foretaste of a time without bickering, division, antagonism, but mutual submission, harmony in praise of our glorious Father and peoples of all ethnicities gathered round to sing those songs in a way that reminds me of this musical effort. One day. One day. And until then God grants me the privilege of being a member of the Body of Christ and in the small ways and relationships with brothers and sisters of Christ I get to play a part in reflecting that quality to a world watching on to see what the alternative looks like.

Foretastes – I love them. I would love to experience more and get others too share in it as well. This is not all there is to life, but there is something that we get glorious glimpses of now even now whilst we wait and work until the Master comes. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Prayer - Taking A Load Off

It’s another Sabbath evening. These are precious, precious times. Times to physically, mentally and spiritually unwind. The rest offered on this day is one in which I am refreshed in the presence of God. It’s as though as I relax further I’m able to give him all the week’s stuff and He in return gives me peace of mind and rest. Were you to be made aware of the stuff that’s been on the menu of my life this week, this is a most gratifying and relieving activity in which to engage.

I did have it mind to write on another subject this evening, but just before I got to blogging I did the evening devotion with the girls. Sometimes I read from their Children’s Bible, sometimes we watch some bible cartoons or sometimes I’ll just make up a story on the spot. This evening I chose the latter. As I held both close to me it gave me a chance to meditate and ponder with them in some quiet. As I did so I reflected on the power of prayer and made up a simple story on the lines of how essential prayer is in every walk of life in whatever we’re doing.

We obviously prayed to end the session and on tucking the girls to bed a new song entered the consciousness. By new I mean old, but it was new in my head at the time after another song had dominated for a fair while as you’ll see in a later post.

The first song that popped in me head was Tis The Blessed Hour of Prayer, the second was Sweet Hour of Prayer then of course the third was Did You Think To Pray. Sometimes being so far from home, my parents and the old way of living and doing church I forget some of the old favourites that my dad loved singing to himself. These three compliment each other very well and as you look at the lyrics you notice them really selling the virtues of taking the time to pray whether it’s when your life is dark and dreary or as a balm when you’re weary or even as one on whom we can cast every care.

It is so reassuring to know that God offers all of this through prayer. So once more I salute my parents and my old church for embedding these songs into me so that even now as I look to solve some complex and deep issues, and also enjoy the rest made for man, I am reminded that prayer is the route through which all that I need can be found. In the light of that conversation the rest is made even sweeter, the joy is even richer, the peace is even greater as I can engage as friend to friend as well as son to Father.

So enjoy these reminders (even one modern updating) and remember you can take a load off through prayer – talk, He’s listening, listen, He’s talk, stop He’s embracing you and giving comfort even in the hardest times and whatever your life situation He is right there to live it with you.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

From Pride To Repentance: Why It Is So Hard For Me To Say I’m Sorry

Get this for a link – only last Friday night I’m watching a interview programme with the rock/jazz/pop group Chicago. I had recorded it from a few days before and it was an opportune time to watch it. I’m not the biggest fan of Chicago, but they’ve done a few tunes that I’m familiar with that I like and I’d seen them in some videos with Earth, Wind and Fire and they were alright. I like Earth, Wind and Fire – not everything you understand, but I like them. Then to find out Bill Champlin who plays for Chicago also wrote After The Love Has Gone that EWF popularised was a nice connection.

Anyhow, so I’m watching the interview and am not really that impressed by the level of knowledge that’s coming from it, but I am impressed by the music that they play some of which I hadn’t heard before but are apparently part of the group’s greatest hits, if you will. So I finish at that and think nothing of it.

Then on my way home from the teacher training session last night I’m reflecting further in preparation for last night’s blog and I’m walking through a walkway in a shopping precinct and I pass a pub that’s playing Hard For Me To Say I’m Sorry. It’s one of those occasions where a song just sticks to your head. You get me? You may have had a tune before, or a train of thought, but that is interrupted by the distinctive song that you actually like. (Yeah, I know it works with songs you don’t like as well, but let’s keep it positive.)

So I’m going back home with this song in my head from a group whose interview I’d seen last Friday, but it still doesn’t connect with me yet what it has to do with anything. Indeed when I got home and put together the blog the song was no longer dominant in my thinking for as I wrote the blog I was also watching an episode of Columbo that I’d also recorded from Sunday. (Have I mentioned what a blessing the SkyPlus box is? Especially when there’s nothing on to watch!)

However this morning I wake up and in my head I’m thinking back on the entry I’d written and I thought to myself in all I wrote about frustration and the like I wasn’t quite sure I’d expressed the sorrow I had in actually partaking in something hazardous to my relationship with God. In a sense I was blocking God out. Shutting off a relationship that means life to me. And I hadn’t said I was sad about that, or even sorry, or even repentant.

Although I hadn’t expressed it in the blog, however implicitly you want to read into it, I was and am sorry about it. Not that it was essential to blog it, but the thought in my head was around the process of reconciliation which requires some level of acknowledgement of hurts made and a desire to build bridges to re-establish that healthy relationship.

As I thought further I considered why it is so hard for me to say I’m sorry (ahhh you see how it all connects now, eh?) and this may just be me, but there’s something about saying sorry that acknowledges failing on your part. That requires a level of humiliating yourself, lowering yourself, placing yourself at the mercy of someone else. For it to work effectively for the health of the relationship this lowering of self has to be genuine and not only expressed in words but reinforced with action to follow.

Thus in a very real way sorry works with repentance. That is to say I really mean I’m sorry when I turn 180 degrees from the wrong (misguided, ignorant, stubborn, pig-headed, rebellious, contentious, argumentative, selfish) direction that I had set for myself, and walk in humility towards reconnecting and doing whatever is necessary great or small to do that. Yet there is the rub, who wants to really admit they are wrong? Who really actually wants to put away their agenda, genuinely for the interests of the other. And I mean for the interests of the other, because situations can be manipulated only too well that seeks to get our agenda done anyway by going through an appearance of repentance. That is why for me it is so hard to say I’m sorry, because it feels as though I lose.

Then again that highlights the same point I was making yesterday that it reveals the true nature of my heart – how self-centred, self-satisfying, self-justifying and self-gratifying I am to the cost of anyone else. Thankfully, as I’ve found from occasion to occasion, when the love breaks through, those issues are swept away to be replaced by that awesome character of Christ that is humble, meek, gentle, approachable, flexible, patient and in every way that which makes for peace. My ego, reputation and desire to be right is blown away to actually desperately wanting to maintain and enjoy this true life-giving relationship with God through Jesus.

As a result the best position for me to be in as a follower of Jesus is a repentant one as experience by experience He shows me His way as opposed to my way and how turning to His way from my own works in our best interests.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Until Your Love Broke Through

Today I could not locate the latest in the Maurice Barratt series on the Sermon on the Mount that I am reading, so I elected to continue reading the Michael Foot biography by Kenneth O. Morgan.

I have been reading it I believe for over a week now and it is proving to be a fascinating insight into the man. It is not exhilaratingly excellent, but it makes for compelling reading and getting to understand not just the man, but the context in which he played his role in history as well as Morgan’s own assessment of those factors and episodes.

As I made the enjoyable walk from the school to the COG/YMCA office where I work, I read further on the era in which Foot supported Aneurin Bevan in his brief spotlighted period as a significant figure in the Labour movement. It was virtually the rise and fall of Bevan as a political heavyweight and how his decisions were to be assessed in its effect on the Labour party as well as the direction of socialism as a whole.

It was good reading how in actuality socialism has different flavours from the working class flavour, to the middle class flavour to the quasi-Communist flavour and the near-right flavours that didn’t make too much of an issue about certain socio-economic demands and assumptions that the left made. I was fascinated by Foot’s role predominantly as a writer in supporting the values of whatever there was to Bevanism. (Morgan states that the problem was that there was hardly any doctrinal substance to this movement and they were usurped in actually shaping Labour’s vision of socialism by the side nearer the right of the party like Gaitskell and Crosland.)

All this is the set-up for what then happened as another epiphany moment in the life of Christopher Dryden. One aspect of the book was talking about Foot’s stance to trade unions in the early 1950’s particularly the leadership of the unions. Morgan depicts Foot as someone who didn’t really have much truck for them at the time and it took relationships later on to change his perspective. What got me thinking on a different stream was how Morgan describes the roles of these relationships with Frank Cousins and Jack Jones as opening the eyes of Foot.

It got me thinking about how certain episodes in life really do open your eyes to reality. It got me especially thinking of the current circumstance that we as a family find ourselves in where in essence for our own health and safety we need to make some very tough decisions.

It related well with the hints that had been dropped over the last year or two. In particular it reminded me of the Keith Green song Your Love Broke Through, especially the lyrics of the chorus

Like waking up from the longest dream,

How real it seemed,

Until your love broke through,

I was lost in a fantasy,

That blinded me,

Until your love broke through.

Those are profound lyrics of the power of revelation. It doesn’t just show you what is really there, it also says, to an extent, that what you thought was there, and believed passionately was reality was actually an illusion – a convincing, blinding illusion. The journey of faith on which I am travelling has been littered with incidents and episodes that bear this sentiment out. The key here as well is what makes the difference, what wakes me out of the reverie, what shakes me out of the fantasy – true, honest, pure love.

This is not a romantic, gooey version of the word full of soft settings and pleasant feelings. This is the love that goes out into the fields, mountains and valleys searching for the one lost sheep. This is the love that sends an only Son to die for the enemies. This is the love that spares no effort in doing what it takes to lift the blindness and let eyes see what the reality is. This is tough but comforting love. This is liberating but confounding love. This love is not easily digested in one sitting. This love is not easy to understand in one reading. This love is constantly unveiling and revealing, constantly exposing and highlighting, constantly leading and directing, constantly assuring and reassuring.

This love is seen in glimpses in the harsh realities of life where we get to know who our real friends are when the chips are down. This love is seen in the patient, caring, compassionate approach to us in failure and rejection. This love is heard in the words of this very real experience not just for Keith but for others, like me. This love is smelt, felt, heard, seen, tasted and experienced as much in times of great joy as in times of great sadness. This love, funnily enough, is exactly the love that is outlined in the Sermon on the Mount (almost as though God can talk about the Sermon on the Mount through the life of Michael Foot – how creative is that!).

This amazing agape love sustains me in the challenges of life and sees me maintaining hope even if the structures on which I relied on in time past are removed slowly or harshly. This love is centred primarily on knowing God better and then, in the light of that, recognising who I am and what I am meant to do.

I am grateful that His love broke through and continues to break through in my life, and it remains my life’s prayer as well as my life’s journey to share the experience and witness it in the lives of others open to this love breaking through.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Take Your Time

(You may be asking the good question – oi Chris, where’s the teacher training class blog entry for today, didn’t you go to teacher training today? The answer to that is no, I did not go to teacher training today. This afternoon I was in Leicester for the YMCA Regional Thanksgiving Celebration which finished after 9pm. Did a workshop on the Christian Spiritual Development Toolkit that’s been published for the region. Interesting document, good workshop with some dear colleagues and new friends – all very good. Also spent some time with my good friend, Ray. So no teaching today, but the lesson learnt is that not teacher training need take place in a college!)

I don’t talk to my dad that often. Not because I don’t like talking to him, or I don’t love him. Ours is just a relationship that’s not been about constant phone calls and that kind of stuff. I know he loves hearing from me when he does and finding out how things are with me, but he’s not one to make a big fuss. It’s one of the endearing features about my dad that he doesn’t usually make a fuss of these kind of things.

Another really endearing quality of my dad is his ability to just focus on doing what he can get done in the time that he can do it. There’s no rushing him, there’s not pressuring him. If he can do it, he will do it. If he cannot do it he will say he is unable and not get bogged down by it. If he’s going to do it he’ll take his time and get the job done properly.

I have yet to learn from my dad in all these areas of life. I still find myself being somewhat manic in addressing some matters and in the mania not really giving my best to a task and ending up disappointed in the outcome. There is still a significant part of me that has learnt to take my time with things. Now for me that means not being that rapid in completing things. I can read fairly quickly, but even there I’m not reading especially speedily for the sake of it. I just tend to take on large tracts of words in a given sitting. Other than that I’m a bit of a stroller. Yeah I type a bit, but even then if you look at me the fingers are doing the work, but the rest of me is going at a pedestrian pace.

I find it more enjoyable to take my time to get something done. That way I can savour it a bit more, check it out in terms of its context both what has gone before and what might be ahead as a result. It’s relaxing and soothing to be under great pressure to produce, but know that as you reach the end the goods will emerge.

I say all this to celebrate the legacy of my father, who is still with us but has left his older son with a great sense of timing. I sometimes believe that in as much as God hears the cries of His people and sees their plight, there is something about Him in which He calls His children to step out of the immediacy and see things from his perspective. See how in actual fact the end is not the end, but the beginning, and how the beginning is not the beginning but the end of another chapter. Then in viewing things from His perspective and trusting Him with all the details it is no surprise that there is a great peace and serenity even in the midst of crisis.

The sentiments of the song below reaffirm that, in as much as the rush is on according to some, and there is an element in which we have to be mindful of the time, in the Kingdom economy based on eternity we really do have all the time in the world for love.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Confessional Community - In The Bigger Picture

You’re aware that I’ve talked before about confessional community (there was this one, then that one before the other one). It is something that I desperately desire and there have been experiences where I’ve caught a glimpse of what that life might look like. This evening I had the chance to talk with a dear friend of mine about how some of our church experiences actually prevent that level of confession and transparency to take place and how some of the leadership junk we take on board further alienates us from getting the help we so need when the way of Christ actually promoted brotherhood.

I love that honesty and vulnerability not just to satiate the therapeutic side of me, but to really deal with what it will take for Christ to be formed in me. That is a love for someone else to enter their hurt and pain on the understanding that it likewise leaves you open to someone else entering your hurt and pain in a bid for presence and love to help heal that hurt and pain however long it takes.

Today was another one of those highly compressed, potentially mega stressed scenarios. It didn’t all work in my favour and I was frustrated at times and it was so easy to get absorbed in my own problems to the neglect of others. God as ever though stopped that self-indulgent rubbish almost immediately. Another friend of mine came to see me today right in the middle of all the busyness and shared with me how his marriage is on the rocks and he’s currently separated from his wife.

This guy is a Christian. This is a man who has shown a tremendous servant heart in helping others not the least of whom is me. Here is a guy who I know makes every endeavour to follow the path that God has set for him. Yet here he is facing such a heart-rending and painful period. Not only that, rather than hide it in religiosity and busyness, he’s choosing to share the issue with a brother, who himself in going through the wringer albeit in another area of life.

So what are we supposed to do just keep it to ourselves, just muddle through on our own? No. Are we meant to get into a group huddle and sob over our issues as if we’re a self-help group? That’s not what fellowship is about – that’s not what confessional community promotes. Bearing each other’s burdens, confessing our faults one with another is submitting ourselves to each other and to Christ in that effort to leave ourselves open to His mercy and slowly but surely having our characters conformed after His own.

That at times requires challenging each other to holiness as well as compassionately walking with brethren through some very difficult decisions.

I am glad that following Jesus is not about getting the right answers, or having things work out as we would like them. I am glad that following Jesus takes us through valleys as well as mountaintop experiences. I am glad that following Jesus is just as much about living in my weakness and pain as it is about rejoicing in victories.

This song has ministered to me in terms of what our loving Father does and how our anguished cry to Him in those dark nights of the soul has to be for our precious Lord to take our hand and lead us home. Remember my friend in your prayers. Remember me in your prayers as well, so that this amazing love that we experience every day may swell our hearts with a desire for His presence and a passion to see the broken-hearted healed by sharing this amazing love.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Dealing With Cares: Sing A Song

You know I’ve been mentioning assignments of late, well tonight is a very interesting one as I have to complete another one. I believe it really is the last proper assignment that I’ll have to do for a while, so if I can put in the effort over the next hour or so then I should be fine. Trouble is, I’ve been grappling with it since about 2pm this afternoon and that’s a rather long time to be dealing with an assignment that in other worlds I could polish off in a few hours. Such is the life of a man with a lot on his mind.

So what to do when there’s much on the mind? What to do when you’re in a challenging spot in life? Well sing a song of course! Even thinking about it in the run up to doing this blog piece as an illuminative ad-break from the assignment I chuckled at that whole concept. You’re in a spot of bother so sing a song. The Bible is replete with episodes of that happening. Whether it’s the suggestion of the prophet of God to Jehoshaphat when they were going out to war, or the response of the people in the Exodus on making it through the Red Sea as their enemy was flushed out.

The most outstanding episode that springs to mind is the one with Paul and Silas in Acts 16 who have just had the snot beaten out of them as punishment for upsetting the social order with their scandalous gospel talk. So then whilst locked up and presumably coughing and spluttering from the beatings they have received, what better way to pass the time behind bars than to sing a song or two.

Now I obviously don’t have a clue what they were singing. For most people the highlight is the bit afterwards where the earthquake comes and gives the prisoners a chance to do a runner. The guard wants to kill himself only to have Paul and Silas reassuring him that there’s no break-out today and there a gospel invitation is given and the guard and his family get in the business. That’s worth a big shout out right there and then. That’s great to see.

I’m still stuck on the singing business, though. Now the Praise and Worship fanatics will make a big deal of the usual mantra ‘when the praises go up, the blessings comes down’ and do the spiritual hokey-cokey and turn around because that’s what it’s all about. Sing a song – praise Him and He turns up and everything’s alright.

There are of course elements of truth in this glorious approach to life with God. There is however, something about singing a song that doesn’t just put our spiritual debit card to withdraw a blessing from God. There is something in singing a song that turns the words into the melody of the heart that brings them to life, giving them feeling and power that sometimes on their own would not be possible at all.

What it also engenders is presence. For as many people who have experienced ‘victory’ in praise, there are others who through singing a song endure and keep their hope set in God even when the circumstances continue to look dim only because of the Presence it engenders. It’s almost as though as we sing our hearts are intimately connected with the One who gave us the song in the first place. It’s no longer a matter of ‘getting results’ but it’s a reminder of where our first love rests. Music is surely powerful in evoking those sentiments of the soul and heart.

So it comes to me on this Sunday evening with loads on my plate mentally speaking. No I’ve not been beaten physically and imprisoned, but the last year or so has been rather harrowing on occasion. As things build up to the current day there is a great temptation to become overwhelmed with it all, until someone throws a song my way.

No ordinary song as you can hear, but one that says it is more than understandable to have issues. It is life to have many cares and then to deal with them is to follow the advice of Psalm 55:22, which Pete would repeat later on – throw those cares on God. Literally pick them up and throw them in God’s direction and having done so rest assured (two words that really need to be embedded into our psyche) that God Himself will keep us going. Not only will we keep going, but we won’t fall.

Now on that point I think it’s important to be very clear that the kind of fall I envisage hear is very much like the walking over a cliff fall – as in a fatal fall. God allows slip ups, but He will not let His righteous ones fall (especially from that height). So at this hour with things cracking off left, right and centre, I just sing a song and I am reminded of His wonderful love for me and His presence with me, so that I need not carry my cares at all.

A dear friend of mine gave me those words of assurance that I could let go of all the stuff that I’ve been carrying. He was confirming this verse. I can let go of it all, I can throw it at God’s feet and rest assured of His sustaining work in my life. It will literally be not me carrying myself or keeping myself going by sheer power of my will. It is God keeping me going. That is the reality for my situation. He is sustaining me. He is enabling me to keep on loving my wife and children. He is enabling me to keep up with my responsibilities … like finishing assignments on time. He and He alone is doing this and I am so glad that He is.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

He Will Be There

The nature of a blog like this is to give room to be fairly frank and open in a way that you wouldn’t get in the regular run of things. So if you are eating, or about to eat or have just eaten you will have to excuse this next word picture. I am somewhat verbally constipated. In fact I really mean there’s so much to release through words and ones especially written that it’s a challenge to be disciplined and stay on track with what is to be shared. So if this one rambles on and on don’t be surprised. Although something tells me that won’t be an issue, still, you have been warned.

So as mentioned, and not for the first time, there is so much I could say at this time about some significant developments in my life that have enormous bearing for life as I live it and those around me. For this season, however, I have to keep things under wraps (although thankfully I get to unload and unleash in prayer and through journaling or note-taking as I prefer to refer to the exercise). I am confident there is a time coming soon where I’ll get to share at least some of what’s been going on for so long. Until then …

One of the scary things about spirituality outside the safety of my confines and upbringing is that God really is bigger than I made Him out to be. He thus pops up in the most surprising places, or maybe they’re just surprising because I’ve not dared to believe God is greater than my small mind. That’s of course very scary because then it means that I no longer have a hold on exclusive truth as I comfortably had because of the doctrinaire that I swallowed as a child and took into adulthood. It doesn’t leave things open to the relativistic, individualistic set up that a pluralist society would want to promote, God isn’t that wild. It keeps me, however, from making cast-iron judgements on all spiritual expressions, and it keeps my eyes more keenly open for where He will express Himself.

So in a move that really surprises me, I’ve only made scant reference in this blog to Michael McDonald (oh but it is a good entry, read it, I think it’s alright). Over in the other place I’ve not been that generous to the brother either. That’s a crying shame. He really is a most gifted singer and songwriter as well as pianist/keyboardist. What I like about the brother is how generous he is in collaborating with other artists on other tracks. He’s sung with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Billy Preston, Christopher Cross and others and he’s just a generous operator – or he appears that way and that’s always important.

One particular collaboration for which he’ll be forever famous is with James Ingram on their 80’s hit Yah Mo Be There. Now I’d heard it before growing up, but didn’t pick up on the lyrics. It sounded alright at that the time, but I never really embedded it into me system. It was another pop song, so just let it go. In the last year or so, especially as I picked up interest in McDonald (not by his farm or fast food franchise) I came across the song again.

With the wonders of YouTube we don’t just have to get the official music video but as you’ll notice we get live versions as well in different contexts. Now this isn’t necessarily the best live version of the track – scoot around for yourself and you’ll probably bump into better renditions. What I like in all of them, though, is Mike’s open reference to the Deity as the one to whom they are referring who will be there.

That puts the whole song on a really interesting slant, because it’s an appeal to people who are slipping in life to reach out and call on God and He will be there. Not just as a spectator in your situation, but to get all biblical on you, a very present HELP in the time of storm. That appeal is made in the light of recognising being in a world where ‘take from each other, and give nothing at all’. How insightful are those lyrics?

I cannot say enough for the truth of this sentiment that God/Yah will be there. In these challenging times for me on so many different aspects of life, He is a very present help. He is right there. He is encouraging and challenging, prompting and stimulating, providing and amazing along the way in a manner that I could never expect even from my best friend. Just when I think I know Him, He surprises me again with another encounter through another situation. He is there. He is not there to necessarily pander to my ‘felt needs’. Nor is He there to boost my self-esteem. He is there to remind me that I am His and He is mine and my identity found in Him is a very safe place for me to be in, whatever storms rock the boat in which I’m doing this life thing.

It can only be – it is only His presence that allows me to have peace and joy in what in other circumstances would be stuff to send people over the edge. Because He is there, because he cares, because He leads, because He chastises, because He challenges, because He remains by my side when even I have given up on myself, that is more than words could ever mean to me.

So as I relax and enjoy this Sabbath evening in the company of a loving wife and two beautiful daughters, the experience of rest is heightened not just because of knowing I’ll have some kip and can chill, but also knowing that the Greatest Company of all is right there with me. That’s good news.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Messy Genius Necessary? And Happy Birthday Sesame Street

When last I blogged (not that long ago was it) I was sharing about the assignment run that I’m on at the moment and you catch me right in the middle of another assignment, so again this is not going to challenge War and Peace for length in any shape of form whatsoever.

I tend to use these blog breaks as a way to keep the old mental matter ticking, but give it a break from whatever rigours it has undergone in the time previous to it. As a writer I need atmosphere and momentum to get stuff done. Although I can work off inspiration a great deal, I’m not always one who can just sit down and start typing on the given subject matter at hand. Sometimes I need to gear myself up for what I’m about to write and that takes a bit of mental doodling and messing around online or with other documents and electronic stuff knocking about on the laptop on which I work, before that clear zone is seen and I can effortlessly shift into hyper-work gear and get some serious stuff done. It’s how it worked last night when I got that first assignment complete and although it wasn’t perfect, for what was required in the circumstances I was fairly pleased at getting the job done.

At this time I find myself in a similar situation in at least getting the job done in the perspective and context of that which has been asked of me, for that I’m really grateful with the opportunities to set the infrastructure in place for me to have the run that I’ve had tonight in completing the job.

As I mentioned, though, I need to create the environment. That environment is as much an audio one as it is a spatial one. So for example, I’m more than content working in what others call a mess, because my only focus is the writing implement that I’ll be using as the receptacle in which to pour the mind-juice. However the sound has to be right. That’s why I’m not always keen on working in the same room with other people when I’m doing some typing work or the likelihood is I’m going to be distracted. So I have to be alone. Not only that but there has to be a good background stimuli sound. Usually that’s a playlist I’d have set up with the appropriate tunes determined by the subject matter on which I’m writing. Sometimes however a playlist or the range of songs I have doesn’t quite cut the muster and I need a little something different.

Tonight was one of those nights. After a bit of a listless time searching through to discover what would be appropriate I started wandering around YouTube to see if they had anything that would be of interest. I came across this intriguing playlist in the life of Miles Davis. How I am able to do it is something that God Himself knows, but I am able to pay attention to the nature of the documentary whilst still rattling off the words for the assignment which perhaps says something about the assignment as well as the level of commitment I need to get job done. Hey perhaps it also says something about the level of preparation that’s been put into this in the first place.

Anyway, I was mostly troubled by what was being stated about the man’s life. Now these were contributions made by ‘the people who would know him best’. It painted a picture of an undoubted musical pioneer and yeah perhaps a genius. There would be no doubt that his contributions not just to jazz but music as a whole have been breathtaking in how they have mesmerised and spellbound listeners and influenced those who have come behind him to make him the envy of peers. Those are accolades and tributes that many a man would be pleased with.

Yet the brother’s character comes off all wrong. Riddled with addiction issues and evident pride complexes that would sometimes make him as insufferable as it would make him inspirational to others. I know there is the thing about being driven and focussed, but do you really have to bear severe character flaws to be accepted as genius? Do you really have to be that messed up to be the perfect vessel for works that will have the world applauding? Is that the price for fame and a lasting musical/artistic legacy?

Don’t get me wrong I think the whole thing about Christianity is that it works best with people who are only too aware of how messed up they are. The whole humility and meekness deal is dependent on the implicit admission of total inadequacy and a complete competence to mess anything up given our own way. Some of the best Christian biographies are of those with the greatest character flaws and challenges – that’s not the issue. The difference between Miles Davis and Billy Graham to pull a random Christian out of the hat is that the latter was not only in touch with his ‘greatness’ but was more than aware that this was not from him as it were and the appropriate position then was one of humility. Passionate about preaching? Sure. Gifted at communicating that passion to others? Sure. But all the results and anything came from the One who commissioned him, as opposed to some sense as if his genius was inevitable and others should just be privileged to be breathing the same oxygen.

I have no aspirations for greatness as the world defines it. I’m not seeking after the fame and fortune as it were, but I am very much aware of my pride and ability to take the gifts I’ve been given for granted as if I’m just good that way. As a result I am all the more desperate to live off my dependence on God as the one who sustains me and allows any aspect of my gift to emerge, even on something like writing an assignment.

Speaking of which … we shall meet again should the Lord spare our lives.

Oh but before I go, Google were reminding today that today was the 40^th Anniversary of the most important television programme in my developmental years. I’m sure I’ve blogged it before elsewhere, but I’m happy to blog it again. Happy Birthday Sesame Street – now there’s a creation of genius that didn’t require the guy to live off any significant character failings!

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd