MIXTAPE: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Theme: Songs about coming and going in relationships

Rules:

• The rules are pretty straightforward for this mixtape. This is also one of those mixes that’s a bit of a cheat: thanks to modern software, I can run a search for relevant words. But still fun to create nonetheless. :)
• The length of the mixtape must not exceed 90 minutes.
• Only one song per artist.
• I must like the song.
• Each mixtape must, if at all possible, conclude with a great quote.
  

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

1. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? – The Clash
2. My Love’s Leavin’ – Steve Winwood
3. Let Me Go – Heaven 17
4. If You Have To Go Away – Amy Grant*
5. 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon
6. Baby Come Back – Player
7. If You Leave – OMD
8. Don’t Go – Yaz
9. Come Running – Van Morrison*
10. She’s Gone – Hall & Oates
11. Leaving On A Jet Plane – John Denver
12. Let’s Go – The Cars
13. Stay (Faraway, So Close) – U2
14. Don’t Leave Me On My Own – Chris Isaak
15. Come Away With Me – Norah Jones
16. “Run Away!” – from Monty Python & The Holy Grail**
    

*I couldn’t find a link to either of these songs. If anyone has one, please let me know!
**Warning: contains some offensive language and bathroom humor.

Selected Commentary:
Should I Stay Or Should I Go? – The song of choice for study breaks during finals my junior year at TCU.
My Love’s Leavin’ – I never grow tired of this song. It haunts me even today.
Baby Come Back – Sounds like it was just made for a K-Tel album.
If You Have To Go Away – I love the harmonies in the chorus…I have sweet memories of singing them with my friend Jenny one night during my senior year at TCU.
If You Leave – From the iconic “Pretty in Pink” prom scene. I was always so conflicted over Andie’s choice of Blaine, even though I was totally in love with Andrew McCarthy. And such a toss-up over which was worse: Andie’s pink prom dress (horrible even in the 80’s) or Blaine’s wig.
Come Running – It’s impossible to stay in a bad mood while listening to this song. “Put away all your walking shoes / then you come running to me…”
Leaving On A Jet Plane – I hear this song and I am seven years old again.
Let’s Go – I could only find a live clip to include here. This is ironic, because as much as I love The Cars, when I saw them in Houston on tour for Heartbeat City, it was the worst concert I have ever been to. Zero energy. I mean, look at this clip…they’re on Midnight Special and they’re totally phoning it in!
Monty Python & The Holy Grail – So many “Run away!” scenes to choose from. I finally settled on the most famous: the French taunting. “It’s very nice…”

So what songs am I missing? And what do you think: Blaine or Duckie?

To check out my other mixtapes, click here.

The Relativity of Prosperity

The Wall Street Journal published an article last week entitled, “Wealth-Less Effect: Earning Well, Feeling Otherwise”. It’s about how Americans who make close to the bottom of the salary cutoff for President Obama’s proposed tax increase—$250,000 a year—are feeling.

The article features one particular family of five who live in Sieverville, TN, and make right at $250,000. They feel as though they are outgrowing their 2500 sq.ft. home, but are now “skittish about renovations”. From the article:

"I'm not complaining, but the reality is Obama may call me wealthy, but I thought we were just good old middle class," says Ms. Parnell. "Our needs are being met, but we don't have a load of cash to cover wants."

My thought was, “How does someone who is actually in the top 2% of the American income bracket become so out of touch with reality that she actually considers herself ‘in the middle’?”

Of course it’s easy to point the finger at someone who makes more money than I do. But the truth is I too have a skewed view of how wealthy I am, even though I try to be intentional about this issue.

I took the title of my post from the subtitle of the WSJ article: the relativity of prosperity. It’s all about exposure and perspective.

Before my husband and I had kids, we lived in a 2-bedroom apartment in Fort Worth; I’m guessing it was around 1000 sq.ft. We both officed in the second bedroom, and often had guests staying with us as well. At times it felt cramped, and we would dream about a bigger place.

Then one summer while on assignment in East Asia we lived in a small dorm room for about six weeks. Although our bathroom was covered in mold and was only about 2’ X 4’—sink, toilet and shower all together in one space—we were actually grateful because a) we had a private bathroom, and b) it featured a Western toilet (read: with a seat) instead of a “squatty”.

I am telling you, when we got back to Ft. Worth after our summer, our apartment seemed HUGE!

If you’d like to gain a healthy perspective of how your salary compares to others not only in the U.S. but to everyone worldwide, check out a great site called Global Rich List. Their purpose is “to challenge people's perception of their personal wealth. And while [they’re] at it hopefully raise some money for a good cause.”

Do any of you struggle with an “I’m so poor!” mentality? What do you do to counteract it? For those of you with kids, what practical things are you doing to give them a healthy perspective on the relative wealth of your family?

Don't Miss: "We Shall Remain"

I want to highly recommend We Shall Remain, a 5-episode series currently airing on PBS as part of its “American Experience” program. It’s a fascinating look at Native American history, at the time when Europeans began to settle on this land we currently call the United States of America.

The producers of the show have done a great job focusing on a handful of the true, personal stories embedded in the larger clash of cultures of this period.

As an American of European descent, who also follows Jesus and desires people from all cultures around the world to know and follow Him, it is difficult at times to watch this show. The atrocities committed by my people against Native people, often in Jesus’ name, are horrific and heartbreaking.

But if “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”, this series is well worth my time.

Episode 1: After the Mayflower aired last Monday night. You can now watch it online here.

Episode 2: Tecumseh’s Vision airs tonight (Monday, April 20), so don’t miss it! Then a new episode will air each of the next three Mondays.

Here’s the trailer for the series:


(If the video doesn’t show up in your browser, click here.)

On Loneliness And Prayer

Last week my friend Cheryl wrote an incredible piece about prayer. I’ve been chewing on one particular insight of hers for several days now:

“Jesus went to the lonely spot to pull away from the loneliness. And certainly his life was marked with loneliness. How lonely to enter another world - that is really your world – and not be recognized. How lonely to know that you will never be fully known by your closest companions. How lonely to extend love with no guarantee of its return. How lonely to be misunderstood, misread, misinterpreted and just simply, missed.

I run to people hoping to be known, affirmed, pursued, explained, satisfied and not alone. But, Jesus leaves all those people to be in the one posture where he is most fully known...”

To read the entire article, click here.

Queso Quote: The Choreography of Grace

"The choreography of grace cannot be directly accessed; you must first waltz through brokenness and repentance. Those who seek to move directly to the upbeat and eliminate the downbeat destroy the tune entirely."

—Keith Johnson

How Do You Score On The Racial Knowledge Inventory?

If Step One in our quest to become less racist is admitting and examining our own racism, then Step Two might be reaching out and engaging those from cultures other than our own. (Bonus: By engaging in Step Two with humility and an open mind, we will simultaneously develop in Step One as well.)

How conversant are you in the language and important ideas of some of the various American minority cultures? Try taking the following Racial Knowledge Inventory* to find out:

1. What is a Curandero?

2. What does the term Nisei mean?

3. What does the one drop rule mean?

4. What does chi mean?

5. The acronym NAACP stands for what?

6. What is meant by the term La Raza?

7. Among Native Americans, what does the expression noninterference mean?

8. Name the native language of the majority of Sikh immigrants.

9. What is the Tuskegee experiment?

10. What does yin and yang mean?

How did you do?

I was pleased to get 7 ½ out of ten correct. But then I realized I had only a cursory knowledge of most of the topics I got right. So I had a great time doing some research to learn more. I hope you do, too!

*Taken from Derald Wing Sue’s 2003 book, “Overcoming Our Racism”.

Jesus In The Afikoman

As I write this, it is late evening on what Christians call “Maundy Thursday” or “Holy Thursday”. It is the night we commemorate Jesus’ Last Supper. Specifically it is the night Jesus celebrated the Jewish Feast of Passover with his disciples—the night before He was crucified.

As Christians, we understand the significance of Jesus being slaughtered during the Passover Feast: through His death He became our once-and-for-all Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5).

But tonight I am reflecting on a specific aspect of the Passover Seder: the afikoman.

Near the beginning of the Jewish Seder, the head of the household picks up the matzah-tash: a special, embroidered sack with three compartments. In each of the compartments is a whole piece of matzah. There is much debate about where this tradition came from. Some say it represents the three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob); others say it represents the three classes of ancient Jews (Priests, Levites, and Israelites). No one knows for sure.

The head of the household carefully pulls out the middle piece of matzah and breaks it in two. He places one half back in the matzah-tash. Then he takes the other piece—the afikoman—and wraps it gently in a white linen napkin, and hides it somewhere in the house—traditionally under a pillow.

The Seder then continues for what can often be hours. Finally, near the very end of the meal, the children are sent to find the hidden afikoman. It is a huge thrill and honor to find it! Lastly, the afikoman is unwrapped and broken into many small pieces, so that every person present gets to eat a bite.

Jewish tradition holds that since the destruction of the Temple—and thus the ceasing of the sacrificial system—the afikoman has become a sort of substitute for the lamb that used to be sacrificed for the Passover.

But as a follower of Jesus, I see the Passover Lamb in the afikoman:

· One sack with three compartments
· The second piece is removed, broken, wrapped in white linen, and hidden under a pillow
· After being hidden for a while, it’s brought back out to much rejoicing
· It is further broken into pieces and made available for everyone to take part in

But do you know what the coolest part is? The name itself.

“Afikoman” is the only Greek word in the entire Hebrew ceremony. Most Jewish scholars trace the word to the Greek epikomion, which can mean "dessert" or "revelry". Certainly a case can be made for this, given the afikoman’s place in the Seder program.

But what if* the Greek root was actually aphikomenos? It means “the coming one” or "the one who has arrived".

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

*(As posited by David Daube, the late Oxford professor, in 1966.)

What Will We Do With Jesus?

Douglas McKelvey wrote the following piece for the liner notes of the Jesus mini-series soundtrack in 2000. May the Lord use it in your life and mine as we prepare our hearts for Easter Sunday:

"’What do we do with this Jesus?’ This was the question on every one's mind at the swing-point of history 2000 years ago. The Jews, the Romans, Herod, Pilate, the High Priests, even Jesus' own disciples - they all found themselves wrestling with the same perplexing question: "What do we do with this man?" For some reason he didn't seem to fit very conveniently into anyone's agenda - personal, national, religious or otherwise. The Jews wanted a warrior king to drive the occupying Roman army out of the promised land. The Romans wanted to maintain and expand their empire over the known world. Everyone else just wanted what people everywhere have always wanted: pleasure and prosperity and to be left alone.

Jesus came along and upset all of that. He refused power. He didn't seek fame. He treated the pleasures of this life as inconsequential. He humbled himself as a servant and his selflessness alone became a walking indictment of all human agendas - base and noble alike. It's no wonder he made people nervous. He was like a splinter in the soul. Even those who despised him couldn't ignore him. They buzzed around him constantly, angry and perplexed.

In their defense, his presence must have been a bit overwhelming. The story of his life on earth are more than we seem eager to contend with today, but people then had no choice but to physically rub shoulders with him. They walked the same dusty roads and breathed the same air. There wasn't any getting away from it. He kept popping up at odd moments, infuriating people with his compassion, perplexing them with his gentle wisdom, and frightening them with his unbearable love. And then there was the whole business about claiming to be the Son of God.

Truth is, Jesus was an absolute scandal. He taught that the least were the greatest, the rejected were the blessed, the wise were the foolish, the weak were the strong, and the secure were the lost. He taught that people should selflessly love, not just their friends and families - which would have been difficult enough - but strangers and enemies as well. He called on those possessed by their possessions to leave their wealth behind to follow him into a life of uncertain suffering for the one promised consolation of his love.

His words grew so appalling one afternoon that many of his followers gave it up for good and returned home, muttering that his teaching was too hard. They had had enough. Those who stayed were apparently in too deep already. Most scandalous of all was the way Jesus publicly and persistently rejected the proud, self-righteous religious leaders of the day and instead drew prostitutes, half-breeds, political revolutionaries, smelly fisherman, and turncoat tax-collectors into his circle of friends - all of whom soon and somehow found themselves, by his very acceptance, transformed from what they had always thought they were into a new existence as children of God.

It's one of the eternal ironies surrounding Jesus that those who allowed the exposure of their own weakness, shame, and guilt were the very ones who were afterward able to drink with joy from the fountains of eternal forgiveness and love, while those who fought desperately to prop up their own crumbling facades of self-righteousness were in the end reduced to a ridiculous position, raging blindly against love and their own liberation. Jesus was always hard to take that way - an insult, even - because beneath it all, it seemed that everyone needed him whether they wanted to or not, prostitutes and Pharisees alike.

And that really was the crux of the problem. His very nature exposed the heart and forced the hand of everyone around him so that in the end, after the haze and baggage burned away, it was all laid out pretty simply. You were left with only two possible ways of answering the question "What do we do with this Jesus?" You could either follow him or you could crucify him. 2000 years of science, progress and religion don't seem to have changed things for us all that much. The human heart is still the human heart. Nuclear power, psychotherapy, and satellite television notwithstanding, most of us still find ourselves - in our more honest moments - faced with the same troubling question and the same simple options that perplexed Christ's contemporaries...

‘What do we do with this Jesus?’ It is something to think about..."

Many thanks to my friend Scott Crocker for introducing me to this piece via his blog, Crocker Chronicle. He has a tradition of posting it every year during Holy Week.

The Cost Of Racism

Last month Resist Racism ran a short series entitled “The Cost of Racism”. It was an insightful look at just a few of the ways racism devalues the racist's own life:

1. Racism strips people of their empathy.

2. Racism denies people the ability to develop their critical thinking.

3. Racism often keeps people from doing the right thing in stressful/dangerous/harmful situations.

I hope that those of you who are joining me in my quest to become more aware of my own racism—as a first step in becomimg less racist—will read the posts (just click on the links provided above), and even subscribe to the Resist Racism blog.

PS: Make sure to read the comments, too.

Flutter: The New Twitter

For those of you who think Twitter is just too old-school:



(If the video doesn't show up in your browser, click here.)

When I Grow Up I Want To Be Just Like Mommy

[The following post is stolen from my friend Tracie at Bring Me To Jesus, who stole it from her friend Marie at Biding My Time.]

When asked to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up, second-grader "Sarah" turned in the lovely drawing shown below. Needless to say, the teacher was a bit surprised--Mrs. Smith had always seemed like such a conservative woman. So she sent a note home to the girl's mother asking for clarification as to the picture's meaning.

Here's the reply the teacher received the following day:

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.

I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.

From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

My Life Verse

Many years ago I was asked by a church that sponsors our ministry if I had a “life verse”—a passage from the Bible that defined my life, my calling, my ministry.

I had heard two other people talk about this concept before, as it related to their own lives.

The first was Steve Bateman. In the 1980’s he served as a youth pastor in Houston and would sometimes visit students from his youth group for lunch in my high school’s cafeteria. So during the spring semester of my senior year, when my friend Renee and I started investigating religion, he was a natural person to seek out for answers to our questions. The influence Steve and his wife Lori have had on my spiritual formation—and life trajectory—cannot be overstated.

Steve’s life verse—which is mounted on the wall of his office—is Luke 9:62:

“But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’"

The second was Elisabeth Elliot, the famous missionary, martyr’s wife, author, and speaker. I had the profound privilege of taking part in a small group Q & A with her many years ago. Ms. Elliot’s mind had already started to deteriorate (she was born in 1926) to the point where she had to pretty much read straight from her notes to present her talk at our student conference. (Not that this prevented any of us from hanging on her every word.) But during the Q & A session, when one of my friends asked, “Ms. Elliot, has there been a verse or passage from the Bible that has been a guiding force throughout your life?” she answered without hesitation:

“For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7)

When the “life verse” question was posed to me, what quickly came to my mind, and has stuck there ever since, was Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

This verse encapsulates the core beliefs, the driving forces, the sacred values of my life:

· Jesus loved me and wanted a relationship with me.
· He gave His own life as a sacrifice for my sin to make that relationship possible.
· My old life was crucified with Him.
· I have a new life now—a life of faith.
· My life is no longer my own—it is Christ’s.
· Jesus lives inside me and is pleased to live His life through mine.

I would love to hear from you…What is your “life verse”? Why is it important to you?

A Chance To Change The World

I’ve been listening to the new U2 album a lot since it came out. (It’s taking some getting used to. But that’s a topic for another day.)

The following lyric from “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” keeps sticking in my head:

“Every generation gets a chance to change the world,
Pity the nation that won’t listen to your boys and girls,
‘Cause the sweetest melody is one we haven’t heard…”

Jesus Christ reached into my life and rescued me when I was 18 years old. I have been passionate about changing the world for good ever since. I mean, if our lives are not about changing the whole world, then what’s the point? What else is there to live for, really?

And call me naïve, but I believe one person really can make a difference. I can make a difference. And I can leverage my life to inspire the next generation of leaders to make a difference.

But a lot of things stand in the way. Bono goes on to sing:

“A change of heart comes slow.
It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain…”

On the path to purpose and meaning, I can easily become
Tripped up by the trivial.
Calloused by cynicism.
Plagued by doubt.
Enticed by empty entertainment.
Fattened by material wealth.
Discouraged by failure.
Stifled by selfishness.
Overwhelmed by pain.
Lulled to sleep by apathy.

So this is a reminder. To me. To you.

Let’s make our lives count.

Let's "shout into the darkness, squeeze out sparks of light…”



Check out U2's live performance of "I'll Go Crazy..." at Fordham University. (If the video doesn't show up in your browser, click here.)