Sunday, August 18, 2013

Why music

Everybody loves different things.  I totally get that.  So this post might be just a little bit biased I understand.
But I was thinking about why I can't get away from music.  And why music is one of the most important things in the world (even though I sometimes think that America believes it is fame).

And I came up with one thing.

Music can and does inspire Everybody.

I realize that may seem like a simple statement at first so I should probably explain it.

I look at the things that people get excited about in the world (and there are a lot!) and I see that people rarely agree.  I am not saying that is a bad thing; after all, being an individual is a good thing and you should travel your own road and not someone else's or you will never be happy.
But when I look at all the things that people get excited about there aren't very many that everybody can get excited and inspired from.
I look at people that love sports and they get all inspired and excited about great sport moments.  I will admit that I am one of those.  But not everybody is.  There are people that have no interest at all in sports and a game winning score isn't a big deal to them.  They don't understand how and why people can get so excited about a game.  While I am one of the people that love those big game moments I can understand why there are people that don't love them.  Not everybody likes sports and they shouldn't have to because not liking sports is perfectly fine.
I know people that are super inspired by a sunrise or sunset or the calm of the lake or the waves of the ocean or the majesty of the mountains.  Yes, I am one of those people too.  I do love those sights; they take my breath away and leave me feeling very small but at the same time happy to be able to see things like that because it helps me know how big the world is and how small I am and then I remember that even though I am very insignificant God still loves me and He made all this beauty for me and others to enjoy.  But I know people that don't like nature and they don't like scenery and if you put them in front of a scene like that they can nod and smile and 20 seconds later they are bored and ready to go back to what they were doing.  I can understand that too because some people like cities and excitement and being out in nature like that isn't for them.  That is cool.
I know people that get inspired by books.  Yes, I know I am starting with all these things that I get inspired with and that does make it easier to write so yes I do get inspired by a good book too!.  But there are people that don't like to read and there are people that don't read and that is perfectly fine because you don't have to read to be a good person and to be inspired in life.
I know people that love a good movie and they are inspired when they watch a great film.  In a way that is also like the book side because a lot of movies were books and in a way a movie is almost always a story and in that way it holds true as well.  But some people have very little interest in movies or tv or anything like that.
I know people that get excited and inspired by cars and buildings and other things that we have manufactured and created.  Yet there are people that only see pieces of metal and stone and wood and they don't even worry about things until they don't work properly.
But of all the things I can think of the only thing that really can and does inspire everybody is music.  While there are many different genres of music and the same music may not inspire a bunch of people, music does inspire everybody.  Whether it be classical, jazz, rock, pop, metal, alternative, etc. people around the entire world get inspired by music all the time.  Even if they are watching a movie the soundtrack adds so much to the video that you would be surprised if you ever watched it without.  Concerts, radio, cds, online, music is everywhere and people love it.  It is so varied it can appeal to everybody and it is easy to see why.  It brings us to a higher place or a lower place and makes people want to do crazy things like get up and dance, shout for joy, clap, and stomp our feet.
So why music you ask?  There is my reason.  I love being a part of something so inspirational that it has caught 7 billion people.  :D

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

God explained by science

I know that when you want to talk about spirituality, religion, God, or faith that there are always those who don't believe.  They don't believe for a variety of reasons but one of the biggest arguments I have come across is the one about proof of God's existence.  For many years I didn't have a way to talk about this argument other than to say that faith is a matter of the heart and not the mind; and I still do believe that.
Faith is something that is easy to have when things are going your way and harder to have when things are going against you.  But true faith isn't faith unless things are going against you.  At least that is kind of the idea I have always had.  It would be like believing that the Twins could win the world series when they are up 3-0 in the postseason compared to still believing they are going to win when they are 0-3.  (If you don't watch baseball that would be they are one win away from the championship vs. one lost away from losing the whole thing)
I have always approached the idea of God from the perspective that I believe and I have faith that He exists and I am not going to worry about the science of it.  But this morning I read something else and it really helped me add onto this belief.
Don Miller writes that "God does not live within the philosophical science He made".  Yeah, that makes sense I told myself when I read it and I was prepared to move on.
But then I really stopped and thought about it.

Would we really want God to live within a scientific method we have developed?

If so, why would we want that?

Is it perhaps that we are so self-centered and ego driven that we still want to see ourselves as the center of the universe?  Is it the simple idea that we like to be in control of ourselves and our destiny and the thought that there is something so great out there the controls things that we are afraid to consider how insignificant we feel compared to the entire scheme of things?
I think that must be part of it.
I, like many other people, like to have that sense of control within my own life.  But so many times (and especially lately) I have had to remind myself again and again that God is in control of my life and He will do the right thing.  I just need to have faith and trust that things will be fine in the end.  (There is that faith concept again!)
But it is hard I think to accept that we are not in control of our own lives in so many ways.  There are so many outside factors just in day to day life that we cannot control that can affect us in so many ways.  Simple things like driving to work and the other drivers on the road and what they are doing or how they are driving can make a huge difference in our lives.  And that is just the most basic of concepts.
So we are not in control at all in many ways.  Yes our own decisions and actions but how many times have your own decisions and actions been the only contributing factor to a situation?  I can't think of a single one in my own life because the whole "no man is an island" quote is so true. (If you don't know that one look it up, it is a pretty good one)
The other part (and I know I have done those questions backwards) is the part about God living within our own science and scientific method.
This one is a simple thought to me.  I love the thought that if God in His omnipotence and greatness is going to watch out for us that He would be all powerful and mighty and that He would not have to live within the realms and boundaries that He has set for us.  If He did then what would make Him so great?  Would He be able to do anything that we wouldn't be able to do ourselves?  If God was restricted by gravity, by physics, by the ideas of matter and mass and density, what kind of God would that truly be?  Sounds like a man or woman to me albeit a really smart and cool one.  Is that who you really want running everything?
The greatness of God is the greatness of God if you follow me.  It is the fact that God is greater than all that we see.  A God that is greater and outside of science and the restrictions that come with it.
I never worried about whether God existed and those people that always talked to me about the proof of God's existence.  I have always believed that you can't explain God with a set of rules we have developed within our culture (because science is just stuff that we have all agreed on as ideas and theories that we have proven within the limitations of our senses but don't even get me started on that because that is a whole new post) but that instead God is beyond our understanding.  This just emphasizes it and expands my thoughts on it.
Yup.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Person to Person

Short post, not sure where I am going with this one.

I have noticed lately that when I hang out with groups that cell phones seem to dominate the table.  This isn't a rant against cell phones or the people that use them but I sometimes wonder if they are too prominent in my own world.  I guess I feel that I don't need to look at my cell phone every 2 minutes for any reason when I have people in front of me that I can look at the whole time and share a conversation with.
Tonight I found myself looking at my phone and so I put it away and just paid attention to the people instead.  It was nice to be able to look at them and listen to them in a way that I used to do more and don't find myself doing enough of now.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't saying that if you are a cell phone person that I think you should stop or that what you are doing is wrong.  This is a personal me decision and not an "everybody should do this decision".  So please don't get all upset if you feel like I am pointing fingers because I am not.
I just think that I am going to try to do my best right now that when I go out with someone that the phone is simply an emergency contact and not an activity or form of entertainment.  If I hang out with people I should want to spend time with them and not my phone.
Hopefully it will stay silent and in my pocket.  I lived a long time without one; why has it so suddenly become such a big part of my life?
That is all I got tonight.