Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian?  If someone were to walk up to you today, and ask you, “What is a Christian?”,  what would your answer be?

Let me know.

Music I Listen To

Amorphis (Tuonela) – This is the Finnish metal band’s finest album.  It all flows seamlessy from the first song to the last, and is an amazing conceptual album.  Tuonela is, if I remember rightly, a Finnish underworld.  Plus it has the band’s best vocalist, who has since moved on to other projects.

Basil Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian) – This is the soundtrack to the infamous Arnold movie.  Majestic brass orchestrations,  very Wagner-esque.  I love it. 

Coldplay (Viva La Vida) – Great album.  It’s a slow-grow, takes some listening to get used to, but once it gets its hooks in ya, it’s great.   I listen to it all the time.

David Gray (Greatest Hits) – Great compilation from one of our best songwriters.  Amazing tunes, wonderfully produced.  The two new songs, “You’re the World To Me” and “Destroyer” are great, and a new version of “Babylon” is done nicely as well.

Eddie Vedder (Into the Wild) – My two favorite songs on this album, “Hard Sun” and “Society,” are the two that he didn’t write.  Go figure.  But the whole album has a very unique tone to it.  Definitely worth listening to.

The Everybodyfields (Nothing is Okay) – Amazing album.  I love these folks.

Pearl Jam (Avocado Self-Title) – Their newest work is their best since “Yield.”  I love this album. 

Radiohead (Kid A) – My favorite Radiohead album, and their best work to date.

Movies I’ve Seen #2

Across the Universe – This movie was NOT what I expected. I’m not sure what it IS I expected, but it was not this. What I got, however, turned out to be more than I expected. At first, I was put off, but I slowly warmed up to it. I think this is an extremely visually entrancing film. Loved it.

No Country For Old Men – LOVED it! After months and months of hearing folks say that it was a terrible movie, and that it did nothing but glorify violence, I decided to watch it. And I thought it was an AMAZING flick. The acting was great, the story was awesome. I just thought it was good all around. I was engaged the whole time.

Memento – Rented this. I saw it right when it came out and hated it, but I decided to give it another go, and I loved it as well. It’s done by the same director that does the Batman movies. So far Christopher Nolan is turning out to be an amazing filmmaker.

This About Sums It Up

I’m reading “A Purple State of Mind,” by Craig Detweiler. In the first chapter, he quotes Fight Club, and it really struck a chord with me. It perfectly defines what we’re going through today. It defines the zeitgeist, the moral sense of life, that we as Christians have to face head-on and address.

Here’s the quote:

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… Our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

Welcome to the world, folks.

What does the gospel have to offer in the face of this? Church on Sunday, then a nice dinner, then back off to work for another week? What sort of radical life is Christ calling us to? What alternative does he hold in his hands?

The world is dying, literally dying, to hear the gospel.

We just need to make sure we’re getting the message across.

And, truthfully, I’m still kind of in the process of finding out what that message is.

What is it, people? What can we, as Christ followers, offer a dying world, enslaved to consumerism and self-worship?

What can we do?