PoMo Poem

the first of a few poems i'll be posting:

from this box

despite your rules, despite your thoughts
of who I AM and who i'm not
you are my sheep, you are my flock
and i'll still love you from this box

take your religion & theology
i'm beyond their capacity
keep your church services and your talks
and i'll still love you from this box

when you put me in parades
when i'm neatly on display
or when you keep me to yourself
i'll still love you from this shelf

when you think you've got it right
when you're sure you understand
when you're eager, when you're willing
i'll still love you from inside this building

all i want is your adoration
my son died for you, my creation
so please don't try to comprehend me
just let some of me remain a mystery

so despite your rules, despite your thoughts
of who I AM and who i'm not
you are my sheep, you are my flock
and i'll still love you from this box

coasters and such

today we hit the 'burgh. great to be back in my home town. we (Kylie, Stephanie, Jodi and I) spent most of this sunny day at Kennywood Park.

my roller coaster preferences: (1) definitely wooden over steel - they're much more shifty and rickety - more 'romantic,' if you will. (2) the back is way better than the middle or front. you get tossed around quite a bit more - the tail of the dragon, so to speak. (3) if you ever go with my wife, try your best not to sit next to, or in front of her. she's a screamer.

we then ate at Primanti Brothers for a true Pittsburgh classic: big Italian sandwiches with fries and slaw on them. these things are so darn tall, you can barely fit your mouth around them. guess they got the idea from truckers who were in such a hurry, they didn't have time to eat everything separately, so they started to serve the whole meal on the sandwich.

listening back on the worship songs i've written this week, i'm still not sure what i'll keep or toss. think i'll try to demo them with drums, bass, electric & backup vocals before deciding. later.

wings & things

yesterday, we ate the best wings in the universe!  where?  at Quaker Steak & Lube in Pennsylvania.  they have over 20 flavors of wings, including one (Atomic) that requires you to sign a waiver before eating it.  i'd write some clever religious PoMo analogy to the hot wing if i had one.  but to my knowledge, nothing is metaphorically analagous to a hot wing except maybe... a hot wing. 

songwriting is coming along swimmingly.  just put finishing touches on another worship song today.   that brings this week's grand total to eight new worship tunes.  can't wait to demo some of this stuff on my 4-track when i get back to AZ.

today we also went to Cook Forest.  hiked, picnicked (sp?) and learned the difference between 'putt-putt' and 'miniature golf.'  apparently a significant difference.  peace up....

new worship songs

whew!  big day yesterday.  i finally finished the book i've been reading: Ancient-Future Faith by Robert Webber.  it was a doozy.  it reads about as easy as a doctoral thesis.  i think it took me so long because there was so much stuff in there i didn't want to miss.  i'll probably use it as a reference book for a long time.  more on that later.

i also got a chance to write a few worship songs yesterday.  been a while.  I slammed through FIVE new ones.  guess God really blessed my time.  hopefully going to write some more today, then see what i'll keep or throw away....

beginnings...

so here i sit.  preparing to go to camp meeting at Whitehall Camp, Emlenton, PA.  the place where i first accepted Christ.  first sang on a stage.  where i had my first kiss.  where i met my wife. 

hopefully i'm on the verge of another new beginning.  making the transition out of my regular job, and into the life of a touring, gigging, regularly played and paid... worship leader.  this blog will hopefully document that journey, to whatever extent God allows it to flow.

stick around.  maybe we'll learn something together.