Do You Know Someone Whose Soul Shines?

With three blog posts in less than a week after a four-month hiatus I am going to set the blogging world on its backside!

This is an awesome song that I only just recently heard. I love the lyrics, the sentiment, and I think it ties in with my two most recent posts.

Today's Assignment: Think of someone you know whose soul shines...and then let them know.

The Allman Brothers


Soulshine Lyrics
Artist(Band):The Allman Brothers

Transcribed by Sean Carpenter

When you can't find the light,
That got you through a cloudy day,
When the stars ain't shinin' bright,
You feel like you've lost you're way,
When those candle lights of home,
Burn so very far away,
Now you got to let your soul shine,
Just like my daddy used to say.

[Chorus]
He used to say soulshine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometime,
Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

I grew up thinkin' that I had it made,
Gonna make it on my own.
Life can take the strongest man,
Make him feel so alone.
Now sometimes I feel a cold wind,
Blowin' through my achin' bones,
I think back to what my daddy said,
He said "Boy, in the darkness before the dawn:"

[Chorus]
Let your soul shine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Sometimes a man can feel this emptiness,
Like a woman has robbed him of his very soul.
A woman too, God knows, she can feel like this.
And when your world seems cold, you got to let your spirit take control.

[Chorus]
Let your soul shine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Lord now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Oh, it's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

The C Word

C-words run the gamut. Candy. Cr@p. Christian. Some are repeatable, some not so much. Has anyone else ever played the game Dirty Minds? Okay, that was an inside joke :)

I used to joke around about the word "community." It seemed like such a catch phrase, the in thing to do. Everywhere I turned "community" popped up either actually or through inference. What does living in missional community mean? What does it truly look like? I remember reading books and blogs that expounded wonderfully upon on the idea - www.friendofmissional.org, authors Henri Nouwen, www.the-next-wave.com - and in the back of my mind I thought I was living what I believed.

I was wrong.

To live in missional community, to truly fellowship with one another, you have to open yourself up to people, something very uncomfortable for me. I have never trusted anyone enough to even begin to approach it from other than a truly academic point of view. It is great in theory, and in practice for others, but not for me. I open myself up this much and no more. There is too much of a danger in letting people see who you really are and what you are truly going through in life, your struggles,your inadequacies, your failings. When it comes right down to it, it is purely a pride issue - wanting people to see you as you want to be, not as you truly are. When you are truly yourself before others, you run the risk of being rejected. I can share with others and give of my money, my possessions, and my time, but to open myself up, to let people see past my defenses, is unacceptable.

Over the last two years, I have had to deal with life circumstances from a variety of directions, blindsided in some sense of the term. My normal routine would have been to put up walls so no one would know what was going on in my life, attempted to pick myself up by my proverbial bootstraps, and deal with the situations. This time I took a different approach. I took a chance. I opened myself up to people I know and trust. I was open and honest about the circumstances in my life. Instead of presenting things in a cleaned up vernacular, I presented the unvarnished truth - this is who I am, where I am, and what I am dealing with - and instead of finding an additional weight of fear from doing so, I felt relief and freedom. I do not have to do it on my own. I live in a community of friendship, people who love Jesus, and in turn love me. I have seen theory turn to practice, and it is a beautiful thing.

"Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble." Ecclesiastes 4: 10-11

James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend" seems to beg to be associated with this line of thought, but frankly it seems too cliche and so yesterday. Coldplay's "Clocks" conveys my conviction.

The Soundtrack of my Soul

Whenever I begin to ponder a subject, the majority of the time there is a song that pops into my head mirroring the subject, the current circumstances. In some way it is like having a continuous soundtrack to my life. The people I love, the situations all have a parallel song playing in the background.

For instance, Howard Jones "No One Ever Is To Blame" = Graduation 1986. Elvis' "Trilogy" will always be associated with just about any time I went out with Susan Harris because Elvis was a mainstay. "Comfortably Numb," before being given a redneck rendition courtesy of my good friend Neil Partyka, was associated with strange happenings while cruising around with Tracey May. Robin Mark's "Revival" brings joy to my soul because I got to rock out with a fantastic group of people. I truly believe that angels were singing and dancing with God Himself smiling as we played together.

The current soundtrack of my soul - I will title it "Transformations" - looks something like this:

1. Grace - U2
2. Hands of Time - Groove Armada
3. Come Home, Sweet Child - Samm
4. Thank You - Led Zeppelin
5. Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam
6. Faithful to Me (Prelude & Reprise) - Jennifer Knapp
7. In a Little While - U2
8. Strawberry Swing - Coldplay
9. Trinity - Jennifer Knapp



Coming soon to a blog near you: The C Word

The Books On My Nightstand

I have an evergrowing stack of books on my nightstand to wade through. Some of them are partially read. Some of them are rereads. Some are just want-to-reads.

01. Les Miserables -Victor Hugo... 3/4 of the way through
02. Tale of Despereaux -Kate CiCamillo... read to Benjamin
03. Naked Spirituality -Brian McLaren
04. Love Wins -Rob Bell... almost 1/2 way through
05. Kingdom Triangle -JP Moreland
06. The Eyre Affair -Jasper Fforde
07. Dune -Frank Herbert...1/4 of the way through
08. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -Stieg Larsson
09. The Divine Conspiracy -Dallas Willard
10. What's So Amazing About Grace -Philip Yancey...reread

Throw in the mix a couple of Bibles (NLT and The Message), a journal, and a bar of Godiva Dark Chocolate and it is truly a wonder I can find my alarm clock.

There Is A Reason I Don't Blog Late At Night...

When I blog late at night, my thoughts become more random and scattered than usual. I have been working reasonably late for a pretty consistent basis, most of that work being typing with my playlist from Playlist.com resounding in the background. I have a couple of lists, and the one that I most frequently listen to while working is a bit eclectic, to say the least. Of the 200 songs, tt ranges from Jim Croce and The Mamas & The Papas to Kid Rock, Ozzy, and Metallica. After I finished working tonight and cranked up the volume, earphones on, I realized that there are some songs on the list that I want to listen to more than others...hence my post tonight. It is no deeper than that. So, without further delay, my current favorite favorites...

(in no particular order)

1. Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Breathe - Anna Nalick
3. Thank You - Led Zeppelin
4. Basket Case - Green Day
5. Miss Misery - Elliot Smith
6. All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
7. The Messenger - Linkin Park
8. Drops of Jupiter - Train
9. Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls
10. Just Like Heaven - The Cure

That is as deep as it gets...nothing profound or riveting...just a few songs that make me smile.