LOVE

Other than music, I'm not much of an art-buff. I enjoy reading, I like poetry, and can observe paintings. There are few physical pieces that move me as much as music does. But, there are a few exceptions, and I want to talk about one of them. There's a popular piece of art on the street corner of 55th St and 6th Ave in New York City. I'm sure you've seen it before. LOVE. That's it. The letters L and O (which is slanted) over the letters V and E. The face of the letters are red and the silhouette is blue. It's nothing fancy, colorful, or significant. Ring any bells? Here's a pic:






Pretty simple right? For something so obvious and artistically relevant, it carries the weight of a city on its shoulders. Though just a four-letter word, LOVE packs a strong meaning, and is simple to say, do, and experience. Right?
"What have I learned about love? It's a dangerous commodity, froth will peril". That's a quote from the artist, Robert Indiana, who originally created the concept for the cover of a Christmas Card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964. It then became a popular (and now collectable) postage stamp 9 years later. In 1966, Indiana made a steel sculpture of it and was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art for many years before being moved out onto the corner of 55th and 6. As you can see from the picture, it stands alone as an obvious reminder to the millions of New Yorkers and tourists who walk by it each year to simply love.

Has it worked? Probably not. We live in a world that seems to do the complete opposite as fine wine; it gets worse with age. Sitting in the Christian box for a moment, I hear about love all the time. With all the sermons, books, music, and special speakers I hear over the course of a year, you'd think that I'd be learning to love better, love more, and love differently. I'm not the one to judge whether that's true or not, but at least I have some sort of self-awareness of it. Sitting in the secular box for a moment, I see more war, killing, lust, and immoral opportunity every time I turn on the TV. When I sit in my lunch room at work every day, CBC news is on (it's the only channel we get) and all I see if how many have been killed in this Eastern country, what political party is slamming the other, and what Pres Obama is doing to save the universe today. (side note: Obama, by the way, had his own version of the LOVE statue created by Indiana to raise money for his campaign which replaced the word "LOVE" with "HOPE").

We're bombarded with pleas to love more. Love each other, love our neighbor, and love our enemies. Love others despite race, religion, sex, political affiliation, and moral belief. Why is it so hard for us to do? Can something as small as buying a hamburger for an ungrateful homeless man be considered love? Can doing the dishes for our spouse be considered love? Can offering hugs to complete strangers be love? Yes, it can. But what else is LOVE and why does Indiana himself call love a "dangerous commodity"? And where do find our example of what love is?

God is Love. And Jesus ended up being the "dangerous commodity" that Indiana spoke about. Jesus' death became the "peril" of what love brings. He was the ultimate sacrifice of love. Maybe you don't believe in God or Jesus. That's fine. But, even the simple concept of God's love is something amazing. I can't imagine giving up my son, Noah, to die for any one human being, let alone all of human race. Regardless, the most fruitful example of love is found in Jesus. His care, love, compassion, and encouragement for the poor, needy, helpless, and disenfranchised is beyond any other religious, literary, fictional, or physical example we've even been confronted with. Bono has a great quote in an interview he did with Bill Hybels where he says, "You either have to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God or believe that he was a complete nutcase. Jesus was either Charles Manson... an absolute nutcase or, in my opinion, who He said He was."

To push these comments a little further, world-renown preacher/speaker/spiritual advisor, Tony Campolo made an appearance on "The Hour" one night and said about Bono, "Here is a guy who is a rock singer who has done more to articulate what Christianity is really about than most of we preachers. In fact, he says to be Christian is to commit to the poor and to the oppressed." Later on in that same interview, Campolo talks a bit about love and how it's portrayed in society (using Luke 25 as his basis): "I (God) am not up in the sky somewhere. I'm waiting to be loved in people who hurt. As you relate to people who are hurt, you relate to me. There is no Christianity that does not tie (Christians) up with the poor and oppressed of the world".

Jesus shows this example of love many times in the scriptures. "The least of these..." so-to-speak. But not only Jesus' example of love through who He is, but God's example of love my simply sending His son down from Heaven into a world that needed love more desperately than ever. Jesus was God's 55th & 6th sculpture. He was the purest form of love to give us, yet "God so loved" that he "gave". We were the poor and disenfranchised until God sent a love to real and pure we didn't have to be reminded; just shown what real love meant, what real love felt like.

Still, though, why do we need a simple structure of steel to remind us to love? A simple word and simple piece of art is all we have left as a physical reminder of God's gift to us. The world is denouncing Christ, taking Him out of our schools, and find every way to find truth without Jesus. I don't believe that's possible. I realize I've asked a lot of questions in this blog without answers, but I leave it up to you to truly seek what true love is; find it so powerfully that you don't need anyone or anything to remind you of it. Having Christ is the ultimate expression of love and by giving, expressing, displaying, and showing love we can make this world better. Of course, that doesn't mean we need to stop making art about it; we just need to make sure that it points to the most fantastic, unreal, and purest example of it. Jesus. LOVE.

"Music is my first love. To wake up early in the morning with a melody in my head is a great gift."
- Bono

Art vs. Ministry: Part 3

My last few blogs haven’t really been much about music and the “inward audio” I often speak of, so I had some thoughts today I had to get off my chest and would appreciate some feedback. So, I bring to you…

Art vs. Ministry: Part 3

Deuteronomy 31:19-22
19 “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20 When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves oand grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. 21 Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.” 22 Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.

We have a very creative God. Music was one of the many “arts” that was created under Him. There are over 1100 references of music, instruments, and/or singing between Gen: 31-:27 and Rev: 18:22-23. In the bible, there are all sorts of reason for singing: marriage, praise, bereavement, merriment, worship. I’m sure that with the various kinds of instruments (flute, harp, lyre, cymbals, etc.), there were also different styles of music. It’s important to note that God created not only music as a whole but different sounds & kinds of music.

I think that one of the biggest mistakes any one person who enjoys music can make is being exclusive to one or two genres of music. I grew up on metal and anything loud. Metallica, Finger 11, and Nirvana were my bread and butter as a wee young’n. I even had a major Marilyn Manson phase, if you can believe it. But, as I’ve grown older my tastes have changed quite a bit. I’m now listening to rock, pop-rock, blues, (self-coined term) ”computer-rock”, alt-rock, worship, world music, singer/song-writer stuff, new-school jazz, and even some post-hardcore. I think it’s important for any musician to explore as much music as possible. There's no better way to expand a musicians abilities and gifts than to expose themselves to music that they would not normally listen to. Steve Vai, guitar virtuoso, emerses himself in all kinds of music (like Hungarian wedding music and Indian tabla/sitar songs) that heavily make its way into his own music. Vai is one of the most influential, accomplished, and versatile guitar players in teh world. I'm sure that if I hadn’t been introduced to John Mayer’s acoustic version of “Neon” I’d still be stuck with Dream Theater in my headphones and playing old Metallica riffs. Listening to Mayer’s great song-writing and smooth guitar playing also introduced me to bands like The Police and Marvin Gaye as well as re-igniting my love for Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. And, through my years with JSB, Jay and Sunny introduced to other bands like Copeland, Future of Forestry, and even Coldplay that really made me think outside my musical box.

So where does this all fit in the “Art vs. Music” dilemma I’ve been exploring? I thought about it this afternoon, and you don’t find many “ministries” that are making art (bare with me here before you get all puffed-up). Sure, worship music is still “art” and worship leaders/song-writers are “artists”. I won’t dispute that; God made music which is an “art”. And while I like a lot of worship music available, there aren’t too many song-writers willing to push the envelope of worship-music with (in my opinion) the exception of people like David Crowder and Charlie Hall who are using on-stage sequencing/loop programs like Ableton & Reason run and instruments like turn-tables, Guitar Hero controllers, and toy Xylophones to push their musical sound-scapes. All that, and their focus is on leading a large group of people to a place of communicating with God through music. However…

Then there’re the bands, artists, and musicians who are always reinventing what people think of music. Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, and Feist are a few names that come to mind that I believe are redefining the art of music. Yet, while I do not necessarily love all of their music, claim to be ½ as talented as those individuals, nor inspire to make similar music, I long to follow their footsteps and be artistic and create. I don’t quite understand how to make “ministry” out of a form of art that isn’t necessarily meant to spiritually rejuvenate a specific group of people.

I could define Christian Ministry as a definite profession that serves the specific function of meeting people's needs with love and humility on Christ's behalf. Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would. So, can ones profession of being an “artist” still meet these specific needs? There are plenty of artists out there who are Christians, write/sing about Christian things, yet don’t consider themselves a ministry. Moreover, they’re introducing Christ (whether obvious or not) through their music. Is that still ministry or does ministry have to have the purpose of teaching/leading other into a better understanding of Christ or introducing others to the person of Christ? There’s a question for some discussion. I’d like to hear some different opinions.