I have two things to say about this article 9.5 Theses on Music First, if I ever write an article about CCM, it will look a lot like this. Second, there are two types of people who should read this article--those who listen to CCM and those who don't. Now you have to read it.
This world continues to baffle me. You are watching this bafflement spill onto my blog like hot coffee with cream and lots of sugar onto an expensive computer keyboard just like a really bad metaphor on a freshmen's english paper.
Here are some things that daily puzzle me:
1. Why is Dunkin Donuts coffee never stirred? When the people at Dunkin Donuts make their own coffee, do they stir it?
2. Why are there still people holding signs by the side of the road asking for money? For crying out loud, Little Cesar's pays people to hold signs in front of their restaurants. Did the people asking for money on the side of the road get turned down by Little Cesar's?
3. Why does foxnews.com have an identity crisis? Are they a tabloid or news agency? All I know is that if I see another picture of Michael Jackson I'm going to vomit like a dog on hot summer day. And is every crumb of deviant sexual behavior really news?
4. What does the dining common here do to the "chicken leg quarters"? (Maybe the first question I should ask here is why they're called "chicken leg quarters", shouldn't all of those things be pretty obvious?) Either they harvest the chicken from diseased eels, or the chicken goes through a special jello-ification process before its served.
5. How long is www.thehighcountries.com going to be under contstruction for 12 hours?
6. Why does our country still have a tax code? I spent seven or eight hours this week filing taxes in two states plus federal. I think that the government's plan is to make paying taxes so complicated that eventually you won't be able to pay taxes without their help, and you'll just give them whatever they tell you--oh, wait.
Prayer is the most logical action a Christian can take. Christ repeatedly commands and models it. Paul starts almost every one of his epistles with it. Prayer is natural, like a kid asking his Dad for food. We gawk at men from history that the Holy Spirit used, but skip ashamedly over the sentences in their biographies about the hours they wrestled with God. It seems like we want the gifts and fire of Pentecost to fall on us while we watch TV. The verse "pray without ceasing" is so easy to memorize.
So let's rattle off some reasons, why don't we pray?
The Bible and the world share the same ugliness. Lot offers his two daughters to be raped by a crowd of men only to be seduced by his daughters later. Monday Night Football commercials. Noah gets drunk. The terrorists in Iraq used a child with downs syndrome as a suicide bomber. David steals Uriah's wife and kills Uriah. Israel is about to validate decades of terrorism by pulling out of the Gaza strip. The Pharisees and church members rest comfortably in their own righteousness. Kings and elected officials show promise but never make it through the eye of the needle. Humanity is sick and sickening.
But there is more written on the pages of the Bible and the world than these notes that scrape across our soul. The Sovereign Conductor is only highlighting the grand, timeless melody of His glory. And sometimes I wonder if these discordant notes sound so loud because they're in our range of hearing--for now.
