coolest thing you've never heard of...

www.songsworthwakingupto.blogspot.com

why haven't you heard of it? because it's the genius collaboration of the nusz sisters (hannah & kate), justin k. & myself. and it happened last night.  at community dinner*, the four of us decided it would be pretty rockin to have a fresh song a day to wake up.

after much logistic & technical debate (podcast? use of iPhones/iPod touch? iHome?), we decided that implementation of actually waking up to a song may be problematic... for now... but that the concept is still amazing. justin, being the proactive man that he is, set up this little blog.

songs will be posted at midnight.
you may not wake up to the song, per se, but they are certainly still worth waking to.

enjoy.


also, if you'd like to collaborate or make song suggestions, by all means, please suggest!


* our friends are obsessed with/love each other to such a degree that we decided to take turns cooking dinner 4 nights a week. it works out pretty nicely: family dinner with some of my favorite people Mon - Thurs & I only have to cook about once a month for 15 people. we appropriately call this "community dinner."

if anyone wants to join us some evening, just let me know & i'll get you the details.

in the last week my thoughts on risk have evolved from the risk of decisions (previous post) to the risk of faith and now on to the hilarity of faith.

rather than tackle both of these fresh ideas at the same time, i'll start with the former and then, at a later point, pick up on the latter. with as regular of a blogger as i am, i realize this is somewhat ambitious, but i'm comfortable with that tension.


the author of hebrews says simply that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. frederick buechner says that faith is not being sure of where you're going, but going anyways. a journey without maps.

faith somehow is the light, if only in our mind's eye, that entices us forward believing that there is a way out of the dark room.

faith is what causes us to hurl ourselves into the way of danger or, at least, out of the place of security, trusting that somehow we'll survive the ordeal and come out better for it in the end.


faith is nothing short of risky. whether it's faith in an organization. a philosophy. a friend. God. in fact, it's probably one of the more risky things we can do with our lives. because faith is two things:
1. it's putting our confidence in someone or something.
2. it's movement of some sort.

and that leaves us vulnerable. it puts us in a place in which actual harm and pain is a real possibility whether physical, emotional, financial or otherwise.

furthermore, the annoying thing about faith ... not just that it's risky; that's annoying in and of itself ... is that as humans, we were made for it. there seems to be a part of the human make-up that compels us towards trust, towards belief, towards faith. against all odds. as painful as it can be & has proven to be. we have this instinctive gravitation towards placing our faith in others.

in friends... that they'll be there for us & not betray us.

in our wives (or husbands)... that despite the ugliness of sickness, the desperation of lack, and until our journey is complete, they'll be with us, loving us, pursuing us & sharing in this great journey of life. 

in our God... that God is who S/He says S/He is: a giver of good things & restorer of beauty.


and yet, the beautiful thing about faith, particularly faith in God, is that though it moves us out of a place of security into a place of the unknown, at the same time it provides deep peaceful confidence. in faith we live in the humble trust that though we are not in control, Someone is, and that Someone is Good. 

my mom describes the way that i process as percolating.

for those unfamiliar (as i was when she first mentioned it), percolating is the slow process of filtering a liquid through some sort of porous substance. so, hot water is poured over coffee grounds, rests there taking on the aroma & flavor of the coffee, and then is slowly percolated through the filter into my cup.

and then i drink the deliciousness.

so it is with my mind: information, experiences, ideas, conversations, creative bursts & images all come into my mind and then i go through the process of marinating in them and absorbing them so that they change the way that i think, dream, hope & live. this typically takes time, especially for the deeper level things.

one of the side effects is that i return to the same stimuli (movies, quotes, books, etc) again and again. and as i do, they tend to take on richer and richer meaning each visit.

i've been thinking about risk lately, specifically the point of decision and how every decision, large or small, has a jumping off point. we commit to a course of action or way of thinking and then we have to deal with whatever comes from that decision. thus, though to varying degrees, each decision has corresponding risk.

w.h. murray's wisdom has again been a comfort as i digest these ideas:

'Concerning all acts of initiative and creation: There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manor of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way.

...
on a separate but related note: when it comes to the notion of transformation or transcendence, the best language i have found has to do with the idea of saturation (my current favorite is the metaphor of marinating). this probably has a lot to do with my own processing style, but i've found that nothing beats time... just sitting... waiting... thinking... receiving...

as i give myself time, as i give attention to a certain problem, question or dream, i am never ceased to be shocked by how quickly a solution, answer or new possibility emerges.

I was asked last weekend by a pastor from my sister's church in dallas whether all midwesterners were depressed.  He had been bumming around Kansas City and was surprised by the number of strangers (waitresses & store clerks in his case) who were upfront about having bad days.  I laughed and remarked that midwesterners aren't depressed, just honest; whereas in the south (I'll include Texas in this broad generalization), people tend to sugar-coat things with strangers and then be deeply authentic with closer friends.

This morning, I was confronted with this same candidness as Rob had been.  Tyler and I had our customary saturday morning "coffee" (it's slowly morphed into vegetarian biscuits & gravy + coffee at the Mirth Cafe) followed by our weekly trip to Wildman Vintage (after months of trekking to WV, today I finally got a new pearl snap shirt... blue & white with pink, peach & yellow stripes... don't hate; it's awesome!).  At both the Mirth & Wildman, after laughing and asking whether I wanted a real answer (I normally do), two strangers independently spoke of deep loss in their life: the dying of their grandfather & the putting to sleep of their family dog of 15+ years.

My experience, coupled with Rob's question last week, helped me to realize how thankful I am for our midwest culture of authenticity. This isn't to diss the south (they've got great things going too - sweet tea & southern accents immediately come to mind!) or anywhere else, but I appreciate our capacity to share on a deeper level.

Our ability to be deeply honest with strangers reminds me that we're all in this together... that despite our differences, humanity is much more similar than we are diverse... furthermore, I think people generally want similar things in life: friendship & deep relationships, beauty, peace, love.  Our authenticity helps us to be present to one another and bear with each other's burderns, as well as joys, even if that is with someone we don't know (well).

jup. a quite adorable dog.

probably explains why he hangs with this guy a lot.

(i asked for a sexy face and this is what i got. between that & jupiter... i'm not certain how the ladies can resist)

apparently i've subconsciously decided to get technologically hip...

i'm blogging again.

flickr.

and now twitter.

hip. or just catching up to everyone else.



here's my favorite picture from the last couple days...

(from the Boulevard Brewery tour i took on Friday with my now brother-in-law and the rest of the groomsmen/ushers. congrats Em & Travis!).

in case you're interested in more pictures from my time in the w. bottoms, check out my new flickr account.

i'll try to keep it updated with the latest. maybe i'll even post when fresh pictures are up.

no promises for either. i know better than to promise some sort of virtual commitment; i have enough of those in "real life."