Friday, July 8, 2011

Evictions, Court Dates, and Rap Music.

From the very title of this blog....you have reason to believe I'm backsliding. HA!

That's what you think.......it very well may possibly be true. Who knows. I don't. But what I do know is that all of these make for an interesting blog. So here goes:

Happy 4th of July!! Yay for freedom. I enjoyed waking up to a text saying "We have to move out." Made. My. Day. Especially if you knew how fancy the place I was moving from, and how NOT fancy the place I'm going to is.

Last week I'm swimming in a rich lady's pool....
This week my bathroom door falls off the wall and breaks my ceiling fan.
Wowza.

So...eviction. Probably one of Satan's genius ideas to get people angry at the world. Just a guess. The best part? Is that I've been praying for an opportunity, and who knew that God would place you right in the center of that. Literally.

Next big thing: COURT!! The beloved judicial system of this country..
Which kind of goes along with the whole "Happy 4th of July!" theme I'm going for.

If I may preach for a second:
Freedom isn't free. Soldies fight for our country, and we support them. We may not support the war they're in, but still. The price for our sin....wasn't free. Our soldiers step in and fight for us, and Jesus stepped in and fought for us. Basically, walking into a court room is just like walking into church. At least that's how it felt..

You walk in.
Huge pews.
Some sort of crowd: big or small.
Awaiting judgment.
The judge walks in...
You stand in respect, and be quiet.
He calls your name.
You plead guilty.
He charges you a fine...which is virtually a slap on the hand compared to what you deserve.
Then you leave.

Some people...have different destinations. When you leave the court room, based on what your charge was and what you plead, you are lead to a different room, or to the payment clerk so you can pay and leave.

I felt nervous and scared at first....
I'd never done this. Or knew what to expect.
But when it came time for the judge to call my name, I felt peace.
I would go up there, tell him what happened, how I got in a car accident, then pay and leave.
That's exactly what I did.

When Jesus calls your name, and judgment day comes...I'm sure it will be something like this.




Where does the rap music come in?
Well...when I became a Christian I threw away all my rap and hip hop music. "Bad" music, right? Well. I think that was the moment I lost who I was. So much time invested and searching....I identified with it. Then I threw it away. To follow Jesus, and be more holy. And to listen to more "holy" music. Because "Christian" music makes you more holy, right?

Well...my perspective on this is changing. How can anything creative be labeled "good" or "bad"? It's merely self expression.. God gives us creativity, and Christian music could DEFINITELY be more creative. I mean, why the HECK has Lady Gaga taken over the universe?? Clearly there are some songs, or artists that just don't measure up. And my mind is opening up to this idea again...the way it did before God radically changed my life.

Art is abstract to me again.
Music = enjoying life.
If I want to have a drink, I will. I'm old enough, and can control it.
If I want to hang out with sinners, I will.
Why should we limit ourselves? I've felt sooo limited and self restricting for SO long. TOO LONG.
This is no longer acceptable. I can express myself however I want to.

Listening to a certain genre of music, doesn't make me any less "holy" than any other church goer. Having a drink doesn't make me an alcoholic. Dancing, or "rhythmic movement" if you're a Christian, doesn't make me a loser.

Ok...I'm done venting. I have other words...but this sounds like a ramble.
I just think ministry would be more effective if we INCLUDED ourselves into more worldly things merely because we can use it to relate to the lost. Let's not ISOLATE ourselves from half of the world and not be able to reach them.

Don't think I'm "promoting sin". I'm merely saying that before I gave everything up, I could relate to more people. Now, I haven't led one person to Christ (that I know of, only God truly knows). Why is this?

Just something to think about..