Echoes and Stars

1. One of the more profound ideas swirling in my head is being loved by God. It is stated so often, the gravity gets lost in the repeating. But we are not just those who have salvation. We are not just tolerated. We are loved with a love that cannot be diminished. Hard to get my head around that, sometimes.

2.  So much great music coming our way… Alison Krauss, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gary Clark Jr, Jason Isbell. I’m gonna need to sell a bodily organ.

3. It is amazing we live in a climate in which someone you do not know can feel free to insult you via social media. And simply for disagreeing with a possible conclusion based on a possible implication. This is not a world I want to live in.

4. Y’all, we are just days away from baseball getting started.

5. I was listening to a talk given by Eugene Peterson yesterday and in it he quoted a Christian philosopher, Albert Borgmann, from the University of Montana who studies the effects of technology on people. He says that with each new technological advance there is a breakdown in relationship… in how we relate to people. And the reason is technology is always about speed and efficiency. Step away from your phone and let that sink in.

6. In an interview, Derek Trucks said he was careful about the kind of music he listened to, because as a musician he knows whatever he takes in will come out in what he plays.

7. If you are all for protesting for the rights of others but you cannot be kind to people you disagree with, then do not be surprised if you are not taken very seriously.

8. Peterson goes on to say, we in the church must be careful about technology and not assume that it’s use is all good. Because relationships are fundamental to living out the gospel and if technology does damage to those relationships then we must be careful.

9. I am convinced more than ever, the primary text of the American church is the News.

10. I cannot get over the other night. Bethany and I sat in the den after the kids went bed. Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio spun in the living room. Some Monk too. She read a novel and I read a used book of poems. Life can get chaotic and dark but that was a good night.