Problems are for Solving

OK. I’ve decided, at least for now, to keep the current theme. It has all of the formatting issues solved, I like the double, rearrangeable sidebar, and everyone seems to like the flames at the top (I can change the color to a few others, but I liked this one best right now–you might see a different color in the same theme from time to time).

I also added last week to the sidebar a link to my Pandora stations. If you haven’t checked out Pandora–you should. You can create a station from a specific song or artist and Pandora will play other music like that song/artist. They don’t have everything, but they continue to improve and you’ll discover new artists in genres you like and I find that totally cool.

I also took the time to make a new page with favorite music artists of the moment (don’t know how often I’ll update them) with links to their own pages.

My friend Anthony wrote, recorded, and produced and album that I can’t currently get enough of. I really like it, and though my descriptive skills still reside in my 4th grade vocabulary, it is a great album.

Gabrielle wrote a review about it here. I agree with pretty much everything she said, and would add that the heart and soul of a man who loves Jesus is evident in every song. Having known Anthony for a long time, I can speak of his love for Christ and know that he longs to honor Jesus in his music. He has done just that.

You can get a copy shipped to you from cdbaby now.

If you’re familiar with “Christian art” you’re aware that often it’s not as good as what it really ought to be, like somebody will buy it just because we’re Christians. In the circle I travel in, that’s annoying. We’ll say “it’s pretty good for a Christian movie” or some such thing.

Anthony is among those artists who have produced music that is good in its own right, bringing his first-fruits as a public offering to Jesus. So if you want to hear some great music, click on the links and listen for yourself. Then buy 1 or 12 copies for yourself and your best friend. And imagine … 12 Anthony Hopps drumming for your true love on the 12th day of Christmas that’s right around the corner!

Ok, so I sound a little over the top. But take a listen on line and you’ll agree this is a fantastic CD.

Until this year my job has offered opportunities for travel on occasion, and some of them have been required, though not all of them. I’d gotten opportunities to visit conferences and places I might not have otherwise, and sometimes even to take along my family.

This year has been different.

None of my travel has been optional, and it has been exceedingly great. As of this post, I’ve visited 28 states and logged over 38,000 miles this year. (Side note: this is the reason my blog posts have been so sporadic all year)

I’m tired. I’m tired of coming home and tired of not getting to stay.

For my birthday Raquel gave me a copy of Andrew Peterson’s album, Clear to Venus. I loved it instantly and it became my favorite AP album just as quickly. The title track, Venus, is about his struggles as he traveled around from concert concert and the wear and tear on his family.

The song makes me cry.

I am convinced that what I am traveling for is a worthwhile–in fact I am convinced that there is no one else who can do what I’m doing. Which means that just because I’m tired I can’t just give up–if this is what God has called me to then there is no where else I can be.

…It’s one more night at the Hampton Inn
It’s breakfast on the house again
Well, it isn’t home, but it’ll do just fine
Still, it isn’t home

We’ve got planes to catch, bills to pay
We won’t make it home today
We’ve got shows from Boston clear to Venus
But if America is listening, as long as I’ve got songs to sing
We can always make a home right here between us

(whole song lyrics)

But that doesn’t make leaving home and spending “one more night at the Hampton Inn” any easier. It’s been hard on me, and hard on my family, and every time I come home I long for Home.

38,000 miles is a lot, and I’m not done this year yet. By the end of the year I’ll be well over 40,000 miles. The song was especially meaningful because my year of travel started with a trip to Boston, and I feel like I’ve traveled clear to Venus. But thankfully, that’s not true. Venus is closest to earth at 40 MILLION miles. I haven’t traveled a tenth of a percent of the way to Venus.

It just feels that way.

I miss my wife and my family when I travel, and it’s hard to balance my callings at times. Here’s a link to Andrew Peterson singing Venus. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And if it makes you cry, think of me and say a prayer for my family while I’m “singing my songs” to America.

I’d been wanting to start writing again–and to do it regularly, and now for a little bit at least I have been. I’ve had an idea for a series of posts based upon a few things, and would like to publish it as a series of columns of sorts. Maybe I’ll get some weekly posts done that will be part of this series and continue writing daily posts that are a bit shorter, more pointed.

This past year has been a rough one for me. I’ve been getting stretched on all sides in a bunch of different ways. As I was listening to an old Michael W. Smith album two things struck me. The first was that the album seemed to fit together as a thematic unit in a way that some albums do, but many don’t. The second was that where the songs seemed to be coming from were describing how I’ve been and felt in recent days.

The series, of which this is the first installment, is based on Michael W. Smith’s album, Live the Life.

The first song is called Missing Person.

Missing Person

Another question in me
One for the powers that be
Its got me thrown and so
I put on my poker face
And try to figure it out
This undeniable doubt
A common occurrence
Feeling so out of place

Guarded and cynical now
Cant help but wondering how
My heart evolved into a
Rock beating inside of me
So I reel, such a stoic ordeal
Where’s that feeling that I don’t feel?

A while back I wrote a post about wearing masks.  Sometimes we also call this wearing a poker face.  When we don’t fit in someplace, or feel like we don’t fit in someplace (which is more likely the case) we cover up who we are and how we feel. 
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From the Archives, April, 2005

So I’m riding home from work listening to an older Mars Hill Audio Journal (#64 from September/October 2003) and I hear an interview with Dr. Jeremy Begbie regarding his book, Theology, Music and Time.

In the interview (and I presume the book) he talks about how theology and music relate to one another—and especially within the context of time. During the interview Begbie speaks to Myers of chord progression and resolution. At one point, as a way of illustration, he plays what I think is a V⁷ chord which he says leaves us waiting for the resolution in the I chord.

I wasn’t sure I understood much of what he was talking about but he gave examples of how this resolution is put off and delayed in particular musical pieces (like in Fur Elise by Beethoven) and how the delay of this resolution makes the resolution even sweeter. He also talked about the presupposition of the V⁷ where the musical piece starts with the I chord in the pattern home, away, home again. This is the pattern of most western music.

I will want to talk to my friends Aaron, Anthony and Steve about this lecture and have them listen to it (they’re real musicians compared to my own amateur interest in the topic) and see if we can start a discussion that will fill out some of what Begbie was talking about for our own edification.

I hope to write more about this in a later after talking with my friends and listening to the interview again.