Find Your Way – Acappella

Well, I’ve just been sitting here, waiting on my night class to get started so I figured I met as well get my other review for the week put up.

Acappella will always have a special place in my heart. There were a couple of years where, literally, all I would listen to was Acappella. I would take out one awesome CD of theirs, just to pop another one right in. You may hear me mention few other musical artists as “favorites” here on my blog, but no one can ever replace Acappella as my all time favorite. They have just made too much good music for too long. And with that being said, this post is about their newest CD, Find Your Way.

Find Your Way is one of those CDs that is solid, but isn’t going to blow you away. There are a couple of what will be Acappella classics, but for the most part, you don’t really feel bad about skipping to the next song.

The opening song, “Calling Forth”, is one of those classics I was talking about. It is a real high energy song that I can see Acappella opening concerts with for a long time. To me, the other two classics are “Something to Hold On To” and “Find Your Way.” Too be perfectly honest, other than those three, I don’t see any other songs on the CD worth singing in concert once the newness of the CD wears off. “Something to Hold On To” is my favorite song on the album. Zac George is one of the most soulful white guys I’ve ever heard. And if you’ve ever heard him sing his version of the Acappella classic “Rescue” live, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The lyrics are generic, the melody is a little better, but the vocals are awesome. “Find Your Way” features Zach Wilson, the high tenor, as the lead, and he does an awesome job. He is definitely the best high tenor Acappella has had since Kevin Schaffer, and maybe the best they’ve ever had.

Other than that though, nothing about the CD really stands out. I think the biggest problem with the current lineup in Acappella is they don’t have that powerful lead voice. Sure, Wilson and George are both incredibly talented vocalists, but neither has the type of voice that takes charge of a room. Still, I enjoyed my week listening to the CD. If you are a hardcore Acappella fan, then you must buy it, but if you are just a casual listener, you’re best served just downloading the three songs I was talking about.

Okay, class starts in fifteen minutes so I must be off. Until next time, be good.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray – Your Prayer

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

The Lord’s Prayer. I was in band in high school. I wasn’t in a band, I was in the band. I played the trombone. As a marching band, we had this tradition. Every time, before we went to march, we gathered in a circle to hold hands and say this prayer. That was my introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. I had never heard it before. Before long I had it memorized, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I learned it was actually in the Bible.

Suddenly, the prayer had new meaning in my life. In high school it was just something I quoted out of tradition. I never really thought much about the meaning. But as a Christian, when you learn that Jesus actually said something, it tends to become more important. So I began to study it. Spending time really trying to figure out how what Jesus said related to me. It has become, in my eyes, the single most impacting verse on how I live my life.

What I’m not going to do is break down every little section. All you have to do is go over to Google and you can find all you want when it comes to that. But what I do want to do is take this prayer that is so simple, and try to explore what it means for us to pray this same prayer today.

I think we misunderstand prayer sometimes. Usually, we pray asking God to give us things. And I’m not against that. God tells us to ask him for our wants. But the problem with that is, once the prayer is over, you don’t do anything else. You ask God for something and then just leave it. But in the Lord’s prayer, we see Jesus telling us something revolutionary. Prayer is not just something done in private, but is something that affects the way we live all the time.

If you read it, you realize the prayer is completely communal. He begins speaking about God, then starts talking about us, but never really gets around to himself. I think that is sort of beautiful. Take for example, when Jesus prays, “give us this day our daily bread.” He could have easily just asked for his daily bread, but he didn’t, he asked for everyone. You see, praying communally spurs us into action. Praying communally means we must be willing to be the answer of our own prayer.

If we pray to God to give us our daily bread, but we aren’t willing to go feed the hungry, we have missed the point of the prayer.

When we pray to God to protect us from the evil one, but we are not willing to go rescue a brother or sister struggling with sin, we have missed the point of the prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is less about asking God for answers and more about being willing to be a part of God’s answer to a broken world. Being the hands and feet of Jesus today.

The Lord’s prayer is not about doing the right things to get to Heaven, but instead, it is enlisting in the cause to bring Heaven to everyone right where they are.

I’ve read and listened to a lot of real good stuff about the Lord’s Prayer over the past couple years. But the most influential was a lesson I heard at a conference by a guy named Wade Hodges. His lesson entitled “The Perfect Prayer” helped form the foundation for how I currently understand the prayer.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians – Rob Bell

Rob Bell seems to have a knack for provocative titles. You know, the kind of titles that offend certain people without even knowing what the book is about. I will start by saying I’ve never been a huge fan of Rob’s writing. I feel like he can be a little over the top at times. But with all that said, Jesus Wants to Save Christians is definitely my favorite of his books.

Bell tells the reader immediately what the purpose of the book is. He says it is a book about New Exodus theology. I must say that from Bell’s book, which is my only introduction to New Exodus theology, I found nothing particularly exciting about this lane of thought. He basically took you through the entire Old Testament and then talked about the parallels in the life of Jesus. Some of them seemed like good thoughts, while others seemed to be stretching it a bit. One of Bell’s parallels is the fact that Jesus’ transfiguration and the delivery of the ten commandments both occurred on mountains. Right…

Bell, on a couple of occasions, seems to pull off one of my biggest pet peeves of preachers. In analyzing a part of Scripture, he ventures so far into the background and culture that he possibly loses sight of what the verse actually says. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like these things are important. Without knowing the context, we can make a verse mean anything. And I applaud Bell for wanting to know the way of the culture in Jesus’ day and how that affects his teachings. But I feel the greatest problem in our study of the Bible is we have a tendency to over analyze things a little. Let me suggest to you that when Jesus said we should love one another, what he really meant by that is we should love one another.

Of course, with all of that said, the book was entertaining. Bell is humorous at times, writes very clearly, and is easy to understand. The way the text is set up you can almost hear Rob reading it to you. If you have ever seen any of the Nooma teaching videos, and you know how he pauses between words and emphasizes certain phrases you will know what I mean. The format of the text does the exact same thing.

By the end of the book, somewhere along the way, Bell has turned it into a book about social activism. The transition is rather beautiful, in that I didn’t even realize it had happened until I was reading about war, poverty, and things like that. These couple of chapters were easily my favorite of the book, as Bell makes some very relevant points.

All in all, it was just a so-so book for me. Nothing terrible about it, but nothing spectacular either. I would compare it to a Max Lucado book, but not as well written. Bell makes some good points and you will come away enjoying the read, but he isn’t going to blow you away with some new thought. Of course, I’m sure there are many who will disagree with me. I don’t mind.

The Camping Trip (Part 1)

I have a real good friend named Jeff. I first met Jeff singing karaoke at a little shindig at a Christian house on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas. Looking back I don’t remember what he sang, or even if he sang, but I bet if he did it was really good because his voice is a mixture between Josh Groban and Enrique Iglesias. But what I do remember is that I wasn’t too sure Jeff and I was ever going to be friends. You see Jeff had facial hair. So naturally I assumed he was at least twenty-five. Turns out he wasn’t. We were both nineteen. It also turns out that we did become friends.

Fast forward a couple years, Jeff and I were thinking about going on a camping trip. I’m talking all out roughing it. Real men.

I had gone camping a few times growing up with my family. I always enjoyed it. There’s something about a terrible night’s sleep, waking up barely able to move, and needing to use the bathroom but remembering you had to dig a hole first, that always invigorated me. I loved the outdoors. Even today, I still love the outdoors; I’m just too lazy to actually go out there. Plus the sun hurts my eyes.

I began to recall those moments growing up, camping with my family, with great fondness, and the excitement for this new trip seemed to grow by the second. I even started working on a grunt. I figured if I was going to prove to everyone I was a real man, I needed to have a really good grunt. So I would sit in my room and practice my best grunt while listening to Jimmy Needham or Needtobreathe really loud so my roommate couldn’t hear me make a fool of myself with my pre-pubescent sounding attempts at grunting. I was ready to go.

Just a couple of days before we were supposed to leave, it became evident there would only be three of us taking the trip. It was just going to be Jeff, my roommate Mason, and myself. Mason and I have been friends for about as long as I can remember. We both moved into houses down the road from each other at about the same time when we were little. Whatever sport was in season is what we played in my front yard. It was in my front yard I took what were supposed to be my first steps to the NFL. We would talk about how we did in peewee, and I usually lied and said I was one of the best players on the team, when in reality I pretty much sucked. But despite my lies, he kept coming back over, and there we were, fifteen years later, getting ready for a camping trip.

In an attempt to show my manliness, I had thrown out the idea to the others, about not even using a tent. You know, just sleeping under the stars. Of course, much to my pleasure, that idea was shot down, and we decided on using a tent. But as it came time to go, there was one problem. It kept raining. And it wasn’t supposed to stop either. If this trip was going to happen, we were going to have to make a change in plans. Jeff brought up the idea of staying in a cabin. It was then my heart leapt for joy, because even though I was trying to be manly, in the end, I like beds, heaters, and toilets much more than dirt, rain, and holes in the ground.

So the next night, after I got off work, we loaded up in Jeff’s car to head to some cabins out in Dover, Arkansas. And under my breath, where the other guys couldn’t hear me, I let out a very manly grunt.

Stuff Of The Week

Well, it has been too long since I’ve put up a post on here. But rest assured, I have not forgotten you blogosphere. Things keep getting in the way, like school, work, and laziness. I do have some things planned coming up, though. I’ll have the next post in the “Lord, Teach Us to Pray” series in the next couple of days, as well as a fun post, hopefully, on a camping trip I went on last weekend.

The last couple of months I’ve been reading a lot. Last week I actually read 3 books. One of the problems I have had, however, is I have read so fast and took in so much information, I’ve had trouble retaining any of it. So starting now (I actually started a couple of days ago but I’m just now posting about it.) I am going to read one book a week. If it only takes me half a week to read it, then I read it again. But that is the only book I read for one week. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing this, and I think it is a fantastic idea.

But I also wanted to do something a little different. I do a daily Bible reading. ESV has a place on their website where they send you a daily reading from a lot of different reading plans to your email. I do the Bible in a Year plan. However, I’m still not in the Word as much as I would like. So every other week, my book for that week will be a book of the Bible. Reading it and studying it over and over again for the week. 

Also, while I was coming up with my plan for reading a book a week, I started thinking about all the music I own that I really don’t listen to. So I’ve also decided to do something similar with my music. At the beginning of each week, I’m gonna pick a cd, and that’s all I’m gonna listen to while I’m in my car riding around (excluding real long trips. A 3 hour trip and a 10 song cd on repeat doesn’t sound like much fun). Driving to work and school and back, I estimate I can listen to a cd about 6 or 7 times through in a week. Then the next week, I choose a different cd.

So each week, I will read a different book and listen to a different cd. Then, during the course of the next week I will post reviews of the book I read and the cd I listened to. Or if I read a book of the Bible, I might post some of the things that stood out to me or some verses I liked, I haven’t really figured out how I’m going to do those. Some of the books and cds will be new, and some will be older, some will be Christian, and some won’t. Just expect a little bit of everything. But be sure to stop by every Sunday to see what the book and cd of the week is. If you are a follower on Twitter, I will also be posting them on there.

One last note, congrats to the Yankees on winning the World Series. I’m not a Yankees fan, by any means, but they were, simply, the best team in baseball this year, and they deserved to win it all.

And just in case you were wondering, this week’s book is “Jesus Wants To Save Christians” by Rob Bell. And this week’s cd is “Find Your Way” by Acappella.

The Neily Awards – MLB

Well, the time has come for the little known, yet extremely important, Neily Awards for the Major League Baseball season. So without further ado, here they are.

American League Cy Young: Zack Greinke, Royals

With all due respect to C.C. Sabathia and Felix Hernandez, this should not even be a debate, in my opinion. I mean the dude barely gave up 2 runs a game. 2.06 is an impressive ERA in any era of baseball, but especially in today’s game which is skewed toward the offense. Plus he did it on a particularly terrible baseball team, which makes his 16 wins that much more impressive.

National League Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Giants

Don’t get me wrong, I want Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright to win this award more than anyone. I just don’t see it happening. Lincecum won the award last year, which will make it tougher for anyone to dethrone him. Plus, I think he probably deserves it. The guy was absolutely dominant. Striking out far and away more batters than anyone else in the league, he also is right near the top of every other pitching statistic there is.

American League ROY: Andrew Bailey, A’s

Little stat for ya. The only closer in baseball with a lower ERA than Bailey was Mariano Rivera. Pretty good company for a rookie. The guy absolutely dominated.

National League ROY: Tommy Hanson, Braves

The likelihood is Hanson won’t get the award. The biggest reason is that he might not have been in the big leagues long enough this season to draw the attention necessary. But he was absolutely stellar for a Braves team that need someone to step in and produce. 11-4 in just about 2/3 of the season. That is enough for me to give the award to Hanson.

American League Manager of the Year: Ron Gardenhire, Twins

Gardenhoser did what he does every year. He takes a Twins team that really shouldn’t be very good, and he takes them to the playoffs. Even more amazing is the late run made by the Twins, overcoming a 7 game deficit in September, all without their former MVP Justin Morneau.

National League Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy, Rockies

I don’t know how many of these awards have ever been given to interim managers, but it is safe to say Tracy will be with the Rockies at least for a couple more seasons. In last place when he took over, the Rockies were arguably the best team in baseball after he took the reigns.

American League MVP: Joe Mauer, Twins

Seriously, this guy is a catcher and he hit .366? Winning what is already his third batting title, a record for a catcher, Mauer also hit 24 home runs and finished just shy of 100 RBIs. He is also the unquestioned leader of the Twins and an integral part of their remarkable run to the postseason.

National League MVP: Albert Pujols, Cardinals

He is the best player in baseball. I don’t know how much more there is to say. Pujols is making himself one of the greatest of all time, once again hitting over .320, as well as having upwards of 45 home runs and 120 RBIs. On top of that, he single handedly carried the Card’s offense until Matt Holliday arrived, and has a real shot at winning his second Gold Glove. Bobby Cox was even quoted as saying Pujols is the greatest defensive first baseman he has ever seen.

Speaking In Story

I will start by saying that I am no expert in public speaking. To be honest, I’ve only spoken before an audience a handful of times in my life. That being said, it is something I really enjoy. Throughout the years, many of the people in my audiences have given me really nice, unnecessary compliments. From the adults, I sort of expect it. They want you to feel good about yourself and give you support. But it is when some of the younger folks, especially those in their late teens, come and talk to you, that you can feel it really connected with the audience.

Isn’t that the whole point of speaking. Connecting with the audience and getting a point across. Incidentally, if you are trying to get more than one point across, you might want to consider cutting back. I’ve decided people’s heads start to explode after one point and they stop listening. But how are you supposed to connect with the audience? What is the best way to go about it? Honestly, I really don’t know what the best way is. Like I wrote earlier, I’m not a professional. But I will tell you what has worked for me.

It’s all about form. I’m not saying content isn’t important. It is of infinite importance. But it is not the content itself that will connect with the audience. Rather, it is how you present the content to the audience. Here’s what I do. First, I do a little praying to ask God to help me get everything worked out, and put in a way that will connect. Then I get to work on the content. For this part, I usually cheat. I call my dad. Here we usually have brainstorming sessions. Coming up with ideas about whatever the topic I am studying is. And by we, I mean my dad usually comes up with about five to my one idea. From here, I take the content and start working on it. I try to think of illustrations to support the content. I prefer things that have happened in my life, because I feel that anything real connects better. However, if necessary, I am not afraid to make up a story that sounds like it could have really happened. I also look for any area to add humor. I’ve had a couple of times where someone has told me that I used too much humor. They felt like they were just watching a stand up comedian. It has actually happened each year I spoke at Barton. But too be honest, I could care less. You see, humor is how I keep those not really interested in what I’m saying, interested in what I’m saying. Humor is a tool that, in my opinion, should be used more often. You see it a lot when talking to teens, but I think it should be used more in speaking to adults as well. I don’t understand why humor, or at least very much of it, is off limits on Sundays. If it helps to get my point across, you better believe I’m going to say it, whether you like it or not.

As I’m setting up my lesson, I try to think about what allows people to sit and watch three hour movies and be content. Really, it is all about anticipation. The person watching the movie is always wondering what is going to happen next. I figure, if it works for three hour movies, surely it will work for a thirty minute lesson. The biggest way to do this is something I learned from my dad. Never tell the audience what your lesson is about. You see it all the time. The speaker gets up and immediately tells you what his purpose is for the lesson. In my opinion, the moment the listener feels like they know what you are trying to say, is the moment they stop listening. As a result, I don’t want the listener to really know what the point of my lesson is until I’ve already started the conclusion. I want them to be taking a journey with me as we move towards a conclusion. The anticipation builds until the climax and resolution are reached.

Now, don’t get me wrong, preachers who use bullet points and alliteration are not wrong. It is just a different style. In my experience, a style that doesn’t work as well, but a style that has been used by many great speakers. This is just my viewpoint on it. Think of bullet point preaching as a trip where you have went to map quest. Before you even go anywhere, not only do you have the final destination, but you also know every turn and road it is going to take to get there. Now, I call this other way speaking in story. When you speak in story, I am the driver. I know exactly where we are going and what turns we need to take. But you have no clue. I never tell you where we are going. I don’t tell you when we are going to make a turn, I just make the turn. Sure, along the way you start to pick up clues where we might end up. But you never know for sure until I have parked the car at the destination. With the anticipation of what happens next, the thirty minutes flies by for the listener, and they are able to connect with your point.

I hope this was good. There are parts I wasn’t real sure how to explain it. This wasn’t necessarily meant as a how-to, since I didn’t really give you any specific directions. Just sort of an idea of what goes through my mind when I am trying to prepare to speak. You all have a wonderful day.

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years – Donald Miller

Donald Miller is my favorite author and in his new book he doesn’t disappoint. A Million Miles In A Thousand Years is another memoir style book. Basically, the premise is this. After Blue Like Jazz did real well, Don had trouble figuring out what to do next. His goal in life was to be able to the pay the rent with his writing. Now that he was able to that, he wasn’t sure what happens next. As a result he lost motivation to write and spent the next couple years dodging phone calls from his publisher.

Miller’s saving grace came in the form of a movie company who wanted to turn Blue Like Jazz into a movie. However, in order to do this, changes had to be made to the Don in the book, essentially because his real life wasn’t interesting enough to make a movie about. While writing the screenplay, Don attended a seminar to learn the basics of story. It was then that Don learned what it is that makes a story interesting. What it is that makes people care what happens to the main character in a movie. And he wonders if we can apply those same basics into our real lives.

So the rest of the book is Don trying to live out the basics of story within his life. It really is another brilliantly written book. Don is always a funny read, and at the same time, always says a few things that really make you think. Everyone tells a story with their lives, Don says, and the story you tell is contagious. This is a book about inspiring people to live better stories. Another great read from Donald Miller.

Same Kind Of Different As Me – Ron Hall and Denver Moore

So here’s the deal. I’m a member of Thomas Nelson Publishing’s blogger review team. This is something new I’m doing, and basically, I write reviews of books on my blog, and after I have written my review Thomas Nelson sends me another book for free. Well, the first book they sent me was a book called What Difference Do It Make, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. After doing a little research, I found out this book is a sequel to a book written a couple years back called, The Same Kind of Different as Me. I decided it would be best if I read this first book to give me a better understanding of what is going on in the second one. Luckily, my roommate had a copy that I was able to read.

Same Kind of Different as Me was a fantastic book. It is the true story of two men. The authors, Ron Hall and Denver Moore, tell the story of how their lives were intertwined in ways they could have never imagined. Denver grew up, essentially, as a modern day slave. The grandson of sharecroppers he knew nothing different. Meanwhile, Ron Hall was a millionaire art dealer. Not to give too much away, Denver ended up as a homeless man in Dallas, where Ron and his wife Deborah lived. Even though Ron and Denver are the authors, the story is really about Deborah. Drawn to work with the homeless, she insisted that Ron try to make friends with Denver.

The book is fascinating. Opening your eyes to some of the problems that still exist in America that no one tells you about. It is also a fun story about a friendship that no one expects, and what can happen to people when they allow God to run their lives. To me, it is a must read. If you would like a copy of it, you can get it right here.

As soon as I have finished reading, What Difference Do It Make, I’ll be putting the review up on here. But first things first, Donald Miller’s new book. Miller has turned into my favorite author, so I’m gonna read his new one, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. So you can look forward to that review coming up, too.

Life Without A Cell Phone

I didn’t even have a cell phone until I started driving. But I don’t how I made it so long without one. It all started Saturday night. I was over at the Bledsoe’s house when my little brother, Tyler, called me. I answered but Tyler refused to talk to me. I thought that was rude of him so I hung up. I tried calling back. I looked at my phone and it said I was connected but I never ever heard it ring. To make a long story short, I did that about twelve times, and probably drove Tyler crazy by calling, realizing I couldn’t hear anything, then immediately hanging up. What happened next was terrifying. Tyler sends me a text message that says, “I think your phone is messed up.” He was right. The ear piece had stopped working. But do not worry readers of this blog, for I had a solution. For the next couple days, I had my phone on speaker. Sure, everyone could hear my entire conversation, and some people probably thought I was conceded. Too full of myself to care that I was bothering anyone by having speaker phone turned on. But I didn’t judge them. If they only knew the truth, how their opinion might change.

But then, out of the blue, it stopped working. I’ve had this phone for three years, so maybe it was just it’s time. But for three years it never even showed signs of slowing down. Then in the span of three days it is completely finished. So here I am, feeling practically naked without a cell phone. I really don’t even talk on the phone that much. Or so I thought. Only now do I really realize how much I used it. Just in the last couple days, there’s no telling how many times my roommate, Mason, has suggested I call someone or send a text, to then bust out laughing because he remembers I don’t have a phone. Even the lady at Verizon today. I go in to tell her that I need a new phone because mine broke, and I should be eligible for the upgrade price. Then she tells me a few things about how I need to be authorized on the account so I must call my mom. She writes down the number and hands it to me. After a rather long awkward silence, I inform her for a third time (I had mentioned another time during the middle of our conversation) that my phone is broken and doesn’t work. Then rather apologetically she allows me to use the store phone. Which brings me to right now, where I am trying to have a conversation with my mom over Facebook, because that is the next best way I have to get in touch with her. Not having a phone is not fun. How amazing is it we rely so much on those little pieces of technology goodness. Just thought I would share a little bit of what has been going on with me the last few days. Until next time, where I might have a phone update for ya’ll, be good.