Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm Through with Being a Christian

Well, at least as it's popularly defined. Before you start calling me Davis the Apostate; allow me to explain:

There is a system that crept into evangelical Christianity somewhere along the way. A system that relies on doing good deeds more than it relies on grace. It seems to say you will be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ but the rest is up to you. You have to be good from the point of conversion on for God to love you and so help you if you fail because God is just waiting there to snatch away the gift of salvation that he so hesitatingly bestowed upon you in the first place. So we go forth trying to play the part; acting good, acting like we have everything together to show ourselves and others that we are good and God's favor is upon us because of our righteousness. Scared to show any chinks in the armor because that would negate our holiness, destroy our "witness", and render us totally undesirable and useless to God (who had doubts about you to begin with.) Horse poo!

Sadly, this seems to be the prevailing view of non-believers in relation to Christianity. Two positions are likely to arise from non-believers with this view on Christianity: 1. "Christians are hypocrites because they are no where near as holy as they act or think they are." People can see our faults a lot easier than we think they can. 2. "I could never be a Christian because I'm not good enough."

In either case I can't say I blame them for not believing. If this is what Christianity is I'm done. I'm not saying people who believe this way aren't believers but they aren't as free as they could be. For me, being a follower of Christ means redefining this popular view of Christianity. It means not living within this system trying to prove to everyone I'm a believer because I say and do the right things all the time. Not that we shouldn't try to do good, we should; but it is by no means what we should hang our hats on. The good we do should be out of our love and gratitude for Christ. Not out of a sense of indebtedness; we'll never get out of the red. Not to prove to others how good we are; Christianity isn't that self-serving. People won't believe us or they won't feel they can measure up.

I'm beginning to realize that God loves me (no, I mean for real), his grace is bigger than my mistakes, that he won't let me go no matter what; I'm not going to worry about being perfect anymore. I want to be more vulnerable, willing to say I don't have all the answers or even most of them; that I fall constantly. God help me, I'm no longer going to carry a burden that I was never meant to carry. Through Christ I'm his child; He's not angry at me. He'll always be there whether I screw it up or don't and he's not looking for me to pay him back or return the favor because grace always has and always will be unmerited.

dig it.


Ya, your right. This blog sounded a little reformed. I may be listening to Steve Brown and Michael Spencer to much. I'm definitely feeling their influence but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

I can't handle this. I' don't think the world can handle this.

As most of you know; we all have a choice to make in this life. We choose to use are powers for good or for awesome. Boston and Michael Sweet have made that choice. They have chosen wisely. In the past they used their powers for awesome separately. They now combine to bring about an awesomeness here to for never experienced by man. In short, Michael Sweet is the lead singer of Boston. This planet will never be the same.

Here is but a taste of the power to be witnessed on their summer tour:
Tom Sholz and Gary Pihl of Boston playing with Stryper at a benefit show for the Station Nightclub fire.

dig it.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Intent

Great music always make me want to play music, always makes me miss playing.

My last serious music venture ended over three years ago. It's felt like a lifetime. I haven't spent every moment since then pining for Bigger than Dallas (The best band ever, if you never saw us well you missed something that surpasses anything that you will ever see. Ever.) I do still miss playing with Rob and Callie, the great times, the camaraderie, the music. BTD was my life, my identity. It didn't matter as much what crappy job I had because that wasn't me. I was a bass player playing music and that's all I wanted to do, to be.

Since my time with BTD has come to an end I've felt rather lost. I've had no certain idea what to do with myself or really, who I am. Now I know what you do is not who you are but still, it's very important to me that what ever I spend the majority of my time dong have real purpose, real intent. I need to feel like I'm working towards something. Whether it be reading (to acquire knowledge that I feel with be useful now or sometime down the road), writing, or playing music. I need to feel like I'm really using my God-given abilities not just toiling away at a job. I don't think I'm better than anybody who just works a day job but I feel like I have talents that can't reach their full potential in an insurance office.

Now you may be asking "So what do you want to do?" I don't know. That's what's frustrating. I still want to play sweet, sweet, rock n' roll but at this point in time, with two amazing little girls to raise; I'm not willing to sacrifice my family on the altar of rock. I want to play shows but I'm not ready for an all out effort right now. The real problem is time. I want to read. I want to write. I want to play music but finding the unobstructed time to do so is not easy. I'm not trying to make this an "I hate my day job" blog. I really don't. It's a good job with good benefits that is a blessing in our down-turned economy. I guess I'm looking for fulfillment on an "artistic" (man I hate writing that word, it feels so pretentious) level. I'm sure this issue will resolve itself in the fullness of God's mercy and time. Summoning the patience and perseverance for that time is the hard part. Enough of my whining, I'm out.

Here's a little Tom Petty. Sometimes we need Tom to get us through the day.

dig it.