"Come Alive"

"Come Alive"

Foo Fighters

Seems like only yesterday
Life belonged to runaways
Nothing here to see
No looking back
Every sound monotone
Every color monochrome
Light began to fade
Into the black

Such a simple animal
Sterilized with alcohol
I could hardly
Feel me anymore

Desperate and meaningless
All filled up with emptiness
Felt like everything
Was said and done

I lay there in the dark
And I close my eyes
You saved me the day
You came alive

Still I tried to find my way
Spinning now was end of days
Burning like a flame
Behind my eyes

Drowning it out
Drinking it in
Crown the king of suffering
Prisoner, slave to the disguise

Disappear the only thing
Bittersweet surrendering
Knew that it was time
To say goodbye

I lay there in the dark
And I close my eyes
You saved me the day
You came alive
No reason left
Me to survive
You saved me
The day you came alive

Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive

Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
(Come alive)
(Come alive)
(Come alive)
(Come alive)

I lay there in the dark
And I close my eyes
You saved me the day
You came alive

Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive

Nothing wrong to give
I can finally live
Come alive
You're laughing at me
I can finally breathe
Come alive

Lay me down in the dark
Open my eyes
You saved me
The day you came alive

Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive
Come alive

"That Which Matters Most"

"This is Zion and we are not afraid!"

If you are familiar with "The Matrix" trilogy this quote should be (at least) familiar... It's the last phrase of a speech from Morpheus to the residents of "Zion", and underground city - the last free "sanctuary" for humans in a world ruled by machines. At the time of the speech 250,000 machine assassins ("Sentinels") are digging their way to kill them all and exterminate the remaining free human race.

The people of Zion are afraid - the commander of their army has all but conceded the fight (even before it has started...) and this is not lost on the people of Zion...they are afraid...

Morpheus speaks to the people of Zion and tells them the "cold, hard facts" about their situation. The commander wants to hide the facts so as not to scare the people of Zion. Morpheus wants his loved ones to shed their fear based not on the "smoke and mirrors" of sweet ignorance, but because of their faith.

"I stand here without fear because I remember...that after a century of war I remember that which matters most - WE ARE STILL HERE!!!"

During his speech he urged the people of Zion to face their fear so that they can shed it.

Fear...

Fear is a powerful emotion, a terrible reaction that has the power to help us and hurt us, free us and control us. When we are afraid our body and mind react - instinctively. I often say that I have a "healthy fear" of power tools - my reaction to that fear is to be extremely careful with them, respect them and never forget that the POWER in the power tool can hurt me as quickly as it can help me.

But, what if I am so afraid of the chain saw that I never use it? My fear has now taken over and controls me. If I need to use a chain saw I can't (or more precisely, WON'T) and fear has won. If I need to cut down a tree I can't do it myself, I may have to pay someone else to do it or just leave the tree to rot and fall down on it's own.

This may sound redundant, but "keeping fear from ruling our life takes courage".

Wow, that's smart - if I have courage then I can keep fear at bay, but if I don't have courage then I am afraid then I can't keep fear at bay. Sounds like a Catch-22... If so, how do we break the cycle?

We have to recognize what fear is and WHO controls it... Sometimes we think of "the devil" as someone that wants us to have fun - to enjoy all of the "naughty" things in life. That may be true, but let's not forget this - Satan is desperate to get to you and he uses any and every way possible. FEAR is his realm - he wants you to be afraid because fear causes a reaction in you that allows him to get in and start whispering in your ear - and you start listening...

Fear is a contagious virus that spreads like the worst cancer imaginable and it eats at your soul and leaves it for dead. It takes the best out of us and leaves nothing - nothing but a rotting, stinking carcass with flies buzzing around it.

Things I learned at CCYC

I went to CCYC for the first time weekend before last as a chaperone. It was a blast! Here's what I learned:

• Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are not the same thing.
• 6th grade boys play hard and crash quickly.
• Singing worship songs at CCYC all weekend can be hazardous to your vocal cords.
• Chucks don't last forever.
• Chucks smell when they have holes in the soles and they get wet.
• Black lo-top Chucks rarely ever go on sale.
• There's nothing like a new pair of Chucks.
• CONFIRMED: kids in a bus or van on a long trip get louder the closer they get to the end.
• Driving a 15-passenger van is somewhat different than driving a VW Beetle.
• Give a middle-school kid 5 bucks at a gas station and tell them to get something for breakfast and you'll be amazed at the combinations you will see.
• Keep middle-schoolers away from magic markers.
• Technology is cool - wait, I already knew that.
• It's amazing what kind of "notes" you can hit on a high solo at the end of a choir program after being at CCYC the rest of the weekend. Can you say "yodel"?

The Balcony

The Church I am a part of has a balcony in the auditorium (most people there call it the "Sanctuary"...that's for another discussion). The Church that I attended for about 12 years and left a few years ago added a balcony a few years after I started going there (with the INTENTION of using it for growth). Other than that, most of the Churches I have attended haven't had them.

I don't like them...

I used to be afraid of heights - that fear is pretty much gone (although I'm still not crazy about falling - especially the sudden stop part at the end), so the reason I don't like balconies has nothing to do with height...

They CAN be useful...as overflow. To me, overflow (noun) is simply the stuff that won't fit into the container with the rest of the stuff. For example, if I am filling my Big Gulp with Mountain Dew at the 7-11 and I get distracted (hey look! a squirrel...in the 7-11?!) the Mountain Dew will overflow (verb). The stuff that did not make it into the 64oz. tub is the overflow (noun). In this case it flows into the drain and it's "healthy goodness" is gone forever... Consider the Mountain Dew - made for one purpose - to be consumed by us and at the last moment their life is rendered in vain...i digress...

Have you ever sat in the balcony? I have to when I work in the A/V booth (or whatever we call it), otherwise I don't. I don't understand why you would unless there was nowhere to sit on the main floor... The only reason I can think of is...

That you really don't want to be there anyway...

Sitting in the balcony is like WATCHING the game from the nose-bleed section. You are THERE, but you have to watch the jumbo-tron to see what really happened. I still remember my first trip to "The Big House" to see Michigan play, my son and I were on the goal line and the band was on our side of the field on the other goal line. I remember that I could hear the band on the radio I had plugged to one of my ears but I couldn't hear them "live". It was surreal...

At best the balcony is the "box seats" of worship. You get box seats so that you don't have to deal with others impeding your view of the action or (in the case of a baseball game) spilling beer on you. You get to go to worship, but you don't have to get "dirty" doing it, you can be there in body...you can say "I was at worship".

At worst the balcony is like a "sky box". If you every have the chance to watch an NFL game from a sky box it's a treat. You get to be AT the game - you feel GREAT, you are comfortable... You are "out there" but not IN IT. When the temperature dips into the cold you don't care because the sky box is comfy and warm and dry.

• You get to watch the replay on the T.V. mounted right above...
• The BUFFET and
• There is always a beverage nearby - no yelling for a vendor or fighting your way through the crowd spilling it all the way.
• If the game gets too loud, you just close the windows and listen to the play-by-play on the T.V.

If I sit in the sky box I can say I was there, but no ringing ears, no cold limbs, no beer soaked back, no rain soaked clothes and no aching back from the stadium seats. In fact, my nice clothes are as clean as when I left home... It's...like...I didn't..go...at...all...

It's just sad to me to watch someone come to worship and walk directly to the balcony and sit way up in our "nose-bleed section" and "watch the game". You can't convince me that you can participate from the balcony (unless MAYBE you are on the front two rows). I'm not complaining too loudly because they are THERE - and I have been just there myself before.

I wish we would close the balcony until the floor is loaded... Problem with that is that everyone that wanted to sit in the balcony would...just...come...late...

"Oh bother"...

Things I Learned on Choir Retreat 2008

Choir Retreat / Tour 2008 is over and history. It was fun, emotional, and down right exhausting, but worth every bit of effort.

Here's what I learned:

• Take cold medicine with you if you are still recovering from the flu.
• "It's just like riding a bike..." only works if you have actually ridden a bike and only if you really want it to.
• People love to complain.
• NyQuil and Klonopin should only be taken together when you are REALLY ready to go to bed.
• There are times when your EMOTION supercedes your MOOD.
• There IS a way to endure extreme heat and exhaustion for short periods of time.
• NEVER take the ability to participate in the Lord's Supper for granted.

OK, it's not much, but I did learn a few things.