purpose

The Story of Your Life, Part Five

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It happened one night, it was a dark and stormy night, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No matter how it begins, everyone has a story to live. This series looks at the story of the Christian life. Part Five talks about the tests we encounter along the way.

Podcast: The Story of Your Life, Part Three

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It happened one night, it was a dark and stormy night, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No matter how it begins, everyone has a story to live. This series looks at the story of the Christian life. Part Three focuses on Crossing the Threshold--taking the first step of the journey--and the factors that often stop us.

And, I share my secret fear in this episode.

The podcast runs approximately 11 min.

 

Podcast: The Story of Your Life, Part Two

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The story begins. We've been called to a grand adventure. It's what gets us involved in our neighborhoods, our country, and the world. Part Two of The Story of Your Life looks at the Christian's Call to Adventure, the catalyst that starts our story.

 

 

Podcast: The Story of Your Life, Part One

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It happened one night, it was a dark and stormy night, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No matter how it begins, everyone has a story to live. This series looks at the story of the Christian life. Part One reviews the overarching narrative in which we play a part.

The podcast is just under 6 min.

 

 

Tension and Release

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My piano teacher used to say this over and over and over again until I could feel the tension and release in my shoulders. Tension and release. It's what music is built on. You can't have the resolving chord without that on-the-edge-of-your-seat V7 chord (although perhaps Debussy would disagree, but even he has tension and release, and often in the V7-I sense, so we won't go there). It crosses boundaries into every genre, whether a big Berlioz piece or Wagnerian epic or a Bach pastoral.

ABA or CBA or ABCDEFG?

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There's ABA, or American Booksellers Association (also a musical term describing ternary form, American Basketball Association, or Baseball perhaps, and American Bar Association, but although I am a musician, I'm not speaking of the first, and I'm neither a basketball player, baseball player, or lawyer, so that rules out the rest), and there's CBA, or Christian Booksellers Association. It's about publishing, fyi. The question is, which one do I got with?
I've vacillated between the two, and it has to do with philosophy, both of them good and desirable.

Good Morning, Baltimore

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I pull out my handy-dandy Nancy Drew notepad that goes everywhere with me and flip to some notes from my Chicago trip. I pass through the name of the porta potty company in South Shore Station that would make for a good title of a new mom book (Oui Oui Enterprises), through notes on the man snoring beside me in the Metra station and the butterfly that got trapped in the bench area with me, through a dazzling first line and brilliant character sketch, and I get to this: why I write. Sometimes when the words don't come and the rejections do, I remind myself.

The Whys, Wherefores, Thithers, and Hithers

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“Popular culture believes that the function of the artist is to entertain. Artists are told that to be political or the challenge authority is an abuse of their gift. How fortunate for our common humanity that so many through history have refused to acquiesce! I believe that art is a prime facilitator of truth, and those who have come to embrace this have always enhanced our humanity.”
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