Something that I really admire is photography. I love the art of photography and the idea of the story that a single image can tell. Strangely, all of the J’s in my blogroll are all photographers. Here you go…
James Taylor – James and I are partners at St. Arbucks. James is a photographer. I’ve talked about him before, but you should check out his work again.
Jewels Harrell – Jewels is great. Her pictures tell wonderful stories and capture beautiful moments.
Josh Durias – Josh is another partner that I’ve talked about. He is doing really cool things with his photography. Really rich and deep colors. I am a fan.
Josh Longbrake - Joshua Longbrake is a student at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. His pictures contain a lot of imagination.
Seriously, Check all of these people out. Comment and tell them that the Brown Kid sent you. Maybe they’ll take my picture…hmmm?
My friend Sam’s, also in my links, friend Wade Hodges wrote this:
“A friend of mine celebrated one year of sobriety today. We got to talking about Alcoholics Anonymous and how helpful it has been to him. He said that from a marketing standpoint AA is hopelessly antiquated. The material was written in 40’s. It uses sexist language, outdated illustrations, and awkward syntax. Yet countless people from all walks of life come to AA and are given the tools they need to make a change in their life. Nobody gripes about the way AA does things. As far as my friend knows, there is no feminist agenda within AA to update the masculine pronouns of the Big Book. There are no young people campaigning to make AA more relevant to their generation. At AA those things are not issues. AA is made up of a bunch of alcoholics who have hit rock bottom and have no other place to go. This reality allows them to see past the irrelevance and grab onto what really matters: a plan that works and a group of people who understand and are there for you no matter what. I guess when you’ve got those things, relevance isn’t that big of a deal.
I wonder how much of our effort in churches to stay relevant, to be hip, and act cool is actually a sign of how little we really understand the gospel. If our churches were full of people who have been grabbed by the gospel—what it means to be lost, what it means to be saved from sin, what it means to die someday and give account to our creator for the mess we’ve made of our lives, what it means to join God someday around his banquet table in the new creation—then would they really care how relevant we are? If they could come to our churches and have their lives changed, really changed, would they gripe about the length of our services? If they found in our assemblies people who really cared and welcomed them into the family and loved them into a relationship with Jesus, would they hop from church to church looking for better music? I don’t think so.
Rock bottom alcoholics aren’t looking for a cool program. They’re looking for one that works. Sinners in search of salvation aren’t looking for a cool church. They’re looking for one that can show them the way to salvation.
Until we understand this, everything else is irrelevant.”
There are some people who are naturally talented at things. My friends (and st. arbucks partners) Josh Durias and James Taylor (not the singer/songwriter) are two of them.
Josh Durias is an amazing photographer. He has a great eye and great ideas. I have him linked in my blogroll. Check him out. Here is a taste of what he does:
My friend James Taylor is the same. Check out his link also! He has a great eye and great ideas. Here is one of my favorites of his:
Hire them. Hire them both. I wish I had an ounce of the talent these guys have. If you need portraits of any kind get a hold of James or Josh.
I love reading through the Old Testament of the bible. Some of the most beautiful imagery comes out of there. Today I was beginning to read through Isaiah and found this passage:
“He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer thier swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” (Isaiah 2:4 GNB)
This imagery of weapons being used to retill the earth and help restore it back to something beautiful. My friends Matt Martinson and Shauna Mann – links to their blogs are on the side - used (what I think was) this verse for a compassion project or advent at their church and showed people plowing fields with AK-47’s. That image has never left my head.
When I read this verse I see this: this is what God does in our lives as we use our bodies for what we think is good, but when we truly trust in God he reshapes us and turns us into something better and far more useful than we ever intended.
I’ve talked about them before, but Asbojesus is still one of my favorite sites. Their pictures speak into the questions that we’ve all have and more! Check em out. I’ve got them linked in my blogroll.
All of you Archuleta fans have been so mean to me. You’ve all said how I’m jealous. You’ve told me that I’m a hater. You’ve even said that you were voting extra for David A. simply because of my posting. Because of you, this posting is the one that I’ve gotten the most hits on (even more than my own “about me” section). But here is the thing: As I lay trying to take a nap today, I watched “Ellen” as Simon Cowell said the exact same thing as I did in my original posting of David Archuleta Must Lose. He said that beyond the voice, David Archuleta doesn’t have any skills to be a pop star, even saying that “once you get beyond the ‘Golly, gee…” of the sentence, David has nothing”.
Now it comes down to tonight – the season finale for American Idol. I gloat in the fact that Simon and I are on track, but lament the fact that David Cook’s career may possibly turn for the worse if he defeats our friend David Archuleta. With that in mind, I leave all the fans of David Archuleta with these parting words: suck it.
I’ve been meaning to talk about this movie, the Namesake, for a while (below is the trailer). I saw it a few weeks back, netflixing it on the whim, and I was not disappointed. This movie is about second generation families. It shows the dysfunction that forms between parents from the “old country” and their children who are raised in American Pop Culture and the importance of finding your identity and how you fit into where/who you are. I am not from a second generation (My mom and dad were born and raised in the United States), but my wife’s mother grew up in Mexicali, Mexico. I get to sit on the sidelines and watch some of these second generation happenings first hand.
This movie is definitely worth a watch. If you have Netflix or Blockbuster, put it in your queue. The Namesake will give you a glimpse into another life that most of us are not used to. I’d love to hear also from people who are from second generation families and what they thought.
PS – If you haven’t seen August Rush, keep it that way. It was awful.
I’ve been reading a book lately called “God is Green” by Ian Brodley. I’m only a couple of chapters into it, but it is pretty cool. One of the funny things that I read is the idea that the depletion of the environment is due to Christians believing that God cares from humans first and environment second. I’ve found it pretty interesting so far, and I will talk more about the book as I finish it.
My first thoughts so far is this: of course it is our responsibility as Christians to take care of God’s creation, but I wonder where we fell off course? Was it in the enlightenment when we began to advance in thought and technology only to forget about our environment that surrounds us? It seems that only recently have we begun thinking about this idea of Creation Stewardship. Why did it take so long? Now we have to ask ourselves what does this look like in likes of Christian faith? My thought is that taking an interest in ecology is not only our Christian duty, but also our job in serving others who are not Christ Followers. Creation Stewardship is not for people to see how much Jesus loves them, but instead, maybe it is to show the Christian responsibility to taking care of this planet alongside the rest of the world.
Do you have any thoughts on Creation Stewardship or Ecology and your faith?
My friend Chauncy is hilarious. I love when we get to hang out because he makes me laugh…a lot. Think of your funniest friend whose humor is way beyond their years. Now combine them with a Spanish Major who wants to get back to their roots and serve God somewhere in Latin America. Now picture him being giant. I mean GIANT – like 6′5″ – but he is a gentle giant. This is a description of Chauncy.
Chauncy had this interesting thought about worship that I wanted to share with you from his thoughts over at Team Chauncy:
Last thing before I take a nap before dinner. Sometimes people clap after praise music. Why do you do that? I don’t get it. Unless you’re clapping for Jesus, you’re confusing me. The people playing music may be good. Yes. I agree. But why are they playing music? Is it to put on a good show or is it to bring glory to God and bring people to a place of worship? I think the second one, or at least I would hope so. When we clap for them what are we saying? Perhaps we’re thanking them, but it feels less like that. It feels more like we’re getting done with praising God and then starting to praise people. Yes they have amazing talents and gifts. Tell them they played well after the service. It’s not about them, or me, or you. It’s about Jesus. Clap for Him if you’re gonna clap. I don’t like that either because He’s not putting on a show, but still it’s better than clapping for the people playing praise music. Clapping for them is like getting a present from your mom at Christmas that is handed to you by your uncle and then saying thank you to your uncle. It’s rude. Your uncle gave you the gift directly, but he didn’t buy it.
