safety is illusion

I told you the other day that I've been thinking about fear. I've also told you that I've been listening to a little "christian" radio these days, trying to figure out what it is people are looking for when they turn to these stations. I've been wanting to learn both the mechanics (tempo, style, chord structure, melody) and the ideas. It's been interesting to me to notice that no one sings about fear. Not at all. But fear is all over the station.

I've already talked about the ethics of non-commercial stations using "corporate acknowledgements" or whatever they want to call it, as advertisements. I believe completely that this is wrong. BUT, I'm not going to go into that right now. What's been really interesting is how the buzz word in all of these advertisements is "safe". This is a "safe" station, watch our "safe" TV channel or use our "safe" web browser. It even gets into things like "a 'safe' place to buy a car" or a "'safe' online singles community" you know, to meet that "safe" significant other when the Saturday night service has dried up.

It's been shocking to me to see how often this word gets used. It's obvious that marketing dollars are being spent to get this word associated with products, and that only happens because the market research shows that people are looking for that identity with said product.

And I'm left with the question: what are we afraid of?

What is it that has us, or at least this demographic, so scared? I know, we live in a frightented nation. There are wars, racial tension, looming national debt, crooked politics, child molesters and deadly diseases.

BUT.

This is a radio station for believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The one who told us to have no fear. "There is no fear in love", He said, "perfect love drives out fear." Over and over, Jesus tells us that we have nothing to be afraid of. We are held tightly in His hand. Bombs may fall, disease may ravage, our innocence will be plundered, our stocks will crash. These things don't matter. We are new creations with the living God within us. Death has no sting!

Why, then, must our radio be "safe"??

To me, this shows that an area where we as a Church have stopped believing. To worry is to not trust in the goodness of God. As a believer, that's the only definition there can be. And we are worried. We don't trust that God is good, because if we did, we wouldn't be scrounging for safety.

This bleeds into all sorts of things: how we deal with the poor and the oppressed, with racism, with terrorism, with genocide, with heartbreak, with rape and murder, with peeping toms and internet porn. These things hang over us like a tidal wave and we're just running blindly. But what I believe Jesus has said, and is saying, is that we shouldn't fear the wave. It will crash, they always have and they always will.

Well, that's not true. They will until He returns to calm the seas for good.

Because the waves obey Him.

And why are we afraid of what God has in perfect, and loving, control?

Daddy time

Alison is spending the day at a lake a bit North of town today with some girlfriends, so Ella and I have been kicking it today, just the two of us. It's kind of weird that it's been so long since we have had a day by ourselves, especially since I'm usually gone at least a day or two every week playing shows and leave Alison and Ella by themselves.

I got really excited last night and was looking around on the internet to find something fun to do. The library had a puppet show but it looked kind of weird, and puppets may still be a bit over Ella's head.

She's taking a nap right now, by the way, which is giving me the time to write this post.

We got up, I gave her breakfast, then we went over to Paul Eckberg's studio so I could help Cason and Garett get some drum sounds. Ella loves watching me plug cables into a patch bay and she has a blast turning all the knobs (before we get started, of course). Then we went to a furniture consignment sale, which Alison and I had high hopes for (we're in need, nay "want", of a couple more baby-proof things). It was lame-o. Oh well.

We ended up coming home and played horsey and hide-and-seek and all sorts of other fun little things. And we listened to The Joshua Tree. "Train up a child..." It ended up being way more fun just playing around at home and enjoying being together. Often when I get to spend time with her I have the weight of the business or a list of to-do lists on my shoulder, and as much as I enjoy the time, it's sort of spoiled by my awareness of needing to get back to work. Today I know I won't get any work done but am just free to enjoy my daughter and who she is, and I'm loving it.

Right now, I'm going to try and take a little nap as well, though, cause, man, one-year-olds have a LOT of energy. I may need to go get a jug of sweet tea by the end of the day. Alison does this every day, while she's pregnant. She's the rock star.

blogathon

A quick note to let you know that two of our little AO.com community are taking part in a blogathon today. Basically, they're writing for 24 hours straight and taking donations to raise money for African charities.

Geof's can be read here and is helping BloodWater. You can donate to that here.

Stephanie is writing here for African Leadership, which you may know of as The Mocha Club. You can donate to that here.

town meeting

We just got back from our friends the Webbs' house tonight, where most of the Square Peg Alliance got together. We decided it was time for a "town meeting" of sorts, half to just catch up and hang out and half to figure out what is going on with the Alliance and what we want to come of it here in the future. A few plans were discussed and agreed on, doing a series of casual local shows and putting together a compilation cd being the main ones. It was a really great time to see each other and get to talk about different ways to spread each other's music and just get to make more music and spend more time together. I am truly grateful for this group of friends.

I finished up the bulk of my guitar work at Sputnik for this week today. Tomorrow I'll be writing with my old friend Marc Byrd, whose band GlassByrd I played guitar with for a while, and will then head over to Cason's to help with some production for an artist he's working with named Jonah Sage. It should be a fun day.

Kevin Lawson, whose record I'll probably finish recording on Friday, was over today and will be back tomorrow. He's a house painter by day, rock star superhero by night. But, um, these DAYS he's been painting a couple rooms for us that were in dire need of some freshening. It's amazing how such a little thing like a new color in a room can be so inspiring and spirit-lifting. Tomorrow our bedroom will go from the boring khaki it was when we moved in to a calm, peaceful blue. I won't lie. The idea of paint never really thrills me, but I'm pretty darn excited to have a "new" room.

In a completely unrelated topic, Alison and I both read this article that was linked on the ol' Drudge Report tonight, and some interesting discussion followed. The comments left under the article were as telling as the story itself. Curious as to some of your thoughts.

Well, it's past time for me to climb in bed and read (again) a couple chapters of the sixth Harry Potter book. I needed a book diet after The Brothers K. Hope you all are having a great week. I'll write again soon.

the ride

I'm over at Sputnik studio for a couple days this week, playing guitar on a project by a band called ThreeFold. Aaron Sands is playing bass and Jeremy Lutito, who's now playing with Jars, is playing kit. He's got a great feel and I'm really enjoying playing with him for the first time.

Thanks everybody for your kind comments regarding yesterday's news. It's an exciting time and we're really trying to cherish it as much as we can.

A couple quick links for you today:

A great review of Chris Mason's Songs One Through Six which Cason and I produced.

Some stuff I have up on ebay that goes in about 24 hours.

Also, many thanks to those of you who left reviews of my new record on iTunes in the past couple days. That is really cool and will hopefully help out with sales. And, I won't lie, it was just awful darn nice to read.

I feel like I had something else to tell you about, but frankly, I can't remember. If it hits me I'll drop back by and let you know. Happy Tuesday.