The Irony of Christian Celebrity
(Found in an article by Relevant Magazine)

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
   Psalm 90:12 NIV
IT IS NOT enough to do God’s work; we must do it in God’s way. And that way is no more evident than in Jesus. We cannot keep justifying our methods by saying so long as people are “coming to Christ,” it doesn’t matter how we do it. The division between our message and our methods is a false dichotomy.

It’s not just the methodology of lights and video and technology and rock music—but the way, the values that shape how we approach ministry. I suggest we value fame—we call it “influence”—too much. I suggest we value size and scale too much. I suggest we care more about systems and efficiency in our churches than we do about the personal and the communal. And I think it’s time to mend our ways.

Psalm 90 prays we would learn our frailty and be able to “number our days,” to understand we will have an end to our efforts, a limit to our strength. For Jesus, immortality—living forever, the eternal kind of life—was not in the gods of fame or success, but in knowing “the only true God” (John 17:3, TNIV). And this, more than anything else, is what Jesus wants for us, too.

my inner sixteen year old secretly loves this video

I think we all lose our way at some point. But I never thought I would be one of those people. “Those people” who find themselves at a place in life where all they have are questions - in God, in the Church, and in the meaning of life. I’ve known who I was and the heart of Jesus since I was in my mothers womb. So naturally, I’ve never doubted who He was or His goodness. And even beyond that, I never questioned anything pertaining to this life I lead. But I suppose we all lose our way at some point, or maybe losing our way is actually the start of finding our way.

For the first time, I have found myself in a season of a lot of questions. Disappointment from church leaders, and people in general, really, have seemed to lead me to an avenue of questions for God. I’ve never doubted God himself, but I have come to find that I have more questions than my 16 year old self ever thought I would.

But I suppose questions are good. And I suppose pursuing the heart of God and the meaning of this life isn’t really losing the way I’ve walked for almost twenty-three years, but rather chasing after it.

a song for saturday:

i love weddings, and ever since i heard this song as a little girl, i have loved it, too! saturday’s are always the best when there is a love affair to attend - and on this particular day, i was blessed to take photos of the beautiful ladies getting ready. this evening two will become one, and this song will play in the back of my head all night long…

Whenever I have a really hard day, I ask God for rain.

Hard days don’t come often in my life. I have even come to notice that people close to me often don’t know how to respond when I’m deeply upset or in a negative mood - simply because they rarely ever experience it. Unfortunately, this makes my day even more gloomy because it causes me to feel so alone.

I’m really blessed to have these kinds of experiences/moods/days be so rare. I mean…really, really blessed. And that’s exactly what I have to focus on when the hard times do come. As I’m being stretched for grace in so many areas of my life, I’m trying to work really hard on a few things that will help me reach the other side:

3 Steps to a Better Life

1 • The phrase “It’s not that big of a deal” has changed my life. It can be terribly offensive to the human soul because we are so easily consumed with our troubles that we literally come to believe that the earth is shattering around us when hard times come. To speak this phrase over myself, “It’s not that big of a deal,” when I’m in the beginning, middle, and end stages of my dim experience truly challenges me to live for something more than myself. It almost always offends me. But it always causes my heart to expand.

2 • Turning worship music on helps in more ways than one. My spirit almost instantly begins to calm down and my attention turns towards the goodness of God rather than the reasons of why the day/season sucks. Switching focus is a way of surrendering my current situation to God - and in turn He begins to show me things in a different light. He causes me to see my life from His perspective - and I’ve come to find that His perspective is always better than my own.

3 • I remember what I love. Who I love. What I love to do. This helps me remember why I am alive. I am alive to have love, be love, give love, and experience love. To orphans, children around the world, my next door neighbor, my best friend. It reminds me that I wasn’t created for a career. I wasn’t built to depend on money. I wasn’t meant to live up to others expectations or strive to meet anyone’s standards (not even my family’s…and yes, that’s a tough one for many of us). I was simply created for love. And remembering this helps me breathe.

Yesterday afternoon I asked God for rain. The single line of a popular song ran through my head “Let it rain.” The rest of the afternoon I never thought of it again…until the sun was setting and the sound of thunder was heard rolling in the distance. It began to rain.

Are professional musicians worth the sacrifice of kindness and honor?

What makes an excellent musician, anyway? Is character included? Or is it purely just based on skill relating to instruments and vocals?

Does the definition of “excellent musician” differ when referred to a secular artist as opposed to a worship leader in the church?

I have been struggling so much with these concepts and questions. Working in a sound department at a church filled with “famous” artists as well as the not-so-famous but extremely gifted causes me to ponder such things…daily. I have found myself walking on a difficult tight rope of learning how to carry grace for the things I face, honor for those I wouldn’t naturally want to extend honor to, and a search to find hope in the church and it’s musical leaders.

Jesus, help me.