40th Street Song of the Week: Breathe by U2

This is my current favorite song on the new album - mostly because I've been listening to all the songs so much and this is a kind of a weirder deeper cut so it still feels new to me. You've got to respect the confluence of seemingly random phrases in this tune. Here's a fun game: Anybody wanna take a shot at what the heck he's talking about? I've got some guesses...

Breathe
16th of June, nine 0 five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's a few things I need you to know. Three.

Coming from a long line of traveling sales people on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you?

These days are better than that
These days are better than that

Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down or out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you're fine, or dying
Please

Nine 0 nine, St John Divine, on the line, my pulse is fine
But I'm running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease

The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it
Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown
Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now

My Favorite Blog

I just got back from a conference put on by some friends in NYC who run a ministry there called Mockingbird. I don't really like conferences in general (and often times Christian conferences are the worst of all!), but this thing is run by a couple of truly down-to-earth dudes who are REALLY convinced that the gospel is true, and they see the world differently because of it. So, needless to say, the weekend had a profound effect on me and many others.

Anyway, Mockingbird has a blog that daily addresses pop-culture, art, current events and the like, in order to illustrate truth about the human condition and the gospel. It's creative, insightful, and usually pretty entertaining. I literally don't read any other blogs, but I read this one religiously, because it's that good. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Just in the last few months their readership has grown exponentially to about 9000 unique visitors per month. So check it out when you get a chance. And if you don't at least find it amusing...I'll give you $5.

Stewart vs. Cramer on The Daily Show

Okay, sorry for all the financial stuff lately, but goodness gracious, this interview on The Daily Show is worth acknowledging. Jon Stewart recently had Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money on his show to talk to him about all the "bad reporting" CNBC had done on the financial system before all the bankruptcies and bailouts. It brought me back for a moment to the time Jon Stewart came on to MSNBC's Crossfire, basically in the Trojan Horse of being "that funny guy" and very seriously and mercilessly picked them apart and detroyed the show. The only difference is this time everybody knew exactly what was going to happen - and I can only assume Cramer knew as well - he was humiliated.

The whole thing was just so uncomfortable, soaked in the kind of tension most of us spend our whole lives trying to avoid - the kind of tension that has given rise to entire social contructs that serve the sole purpose of avoiding that tension. And yet there it was as clear as day: pure, unadulterated law and judgment.

So here's how it went down: After a solid week of Stewart basically (and sometimes literally) saying "F you" in clever ways to Jim Cramer on his show, he actually managed to get Cramer to come on the show! Cramer admirably began the interview by admitting, "We all should have seen it...I got a lot of things wrong." To which Stewart replied, "So then...why were you mad at us? Because I was under the impression you thought we were being unfair?" Hmmm.

Of course Stewart knew the answer: Because no one likes to be criticized, ESPECIALLY not when the criticism points out truly bad things about them! That's when it sucks the most actually. Stewart then showed an ad for Cramer's CNBC show with the catch phrase, "In Cramer We Trust" and then followed it up with clip after clip exposing Cramer's own involvement in some very morally questionable trading tactics, ultimately exposing him as a liar and a hypocrite. At first he tried to make excuses, but the clips got worse and worse. One of the clips from his past awkwardly ended with him saying, "I'm not going to say that on TV." The live studio audience broke out in laughter at the irony of the situation, and all Cramer could do was sit there and say, "Well now it's on TV." Holy Moses. And that was only the first 10 minutes. Honestly it keot getting worse. Stewart was relentless, and yet, the circumstances seemed very clearly to justify his harshness.

Now, to me, Cramer was far more humble than most human beings. At times in the interview I admired the man. Don't get me wrong; he wasn't actually humble. He defended himself on and off for most of the interview, but also apologized quite a bit. He even said, "You're absolutely right," one time. That was really refreshing. But Stewart didn't let up AT ALL. It was so hard to watch.

The one thing I couldn't help but think the whole time was how beautiful and utterly strange it would have been if Cramer had simply said, "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry," and left it at that, with no defense, no arguments, just that. It was clear he didn't have a chance anyway, and the more he tried to fight it and to justify himself, the more he got hammered and humiliated.

And like I said, to me he seemed unusually repentant (though again it was nowhere close to pure). But I couldn't have expected any more from someone in his position, and if it were me, I would have fought much harder than he did! And that brings me to the main point I wanted to make: Sincere apologies are just so freaking hard to come by. To be left with nothing except, "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry," in the face of utterly relentless criticism and condemnation is a terrifying prospect. Everyone avoids it. And yet it is perhaps the ONLY human experience that actually makes sense of Christianity, precisely because it is the only experience that makes sense of the cross.

So here's to the relentless law! (Rom. 7:7) Without it we'd never taste the sweetness of grace.

Scandalous Good News for Really Bad People

Wait a minute...Is this about AIG bonuses? The federal bailout? Amnesty for illegal aliens? The pardoning of political criminals? The release of terrorists? That dude who cut you in line while giving you the finger and ended up with way better seats than you? It could be. But I'm talking about something even more offensive: Christianity. The only message in the world that, if true, is ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS for actually bad people. All those other scandalous things are just illustrations of what the Christian gospel actually IS. The grace of God is like taxpayers paying huge bonuses to the very executives who squandered the taxpayers' life-savings with their greed, except, take it like thirty levels beyond that. It's more like parents paying huge bonuses to the very mob who mocked, humiliated, tortured and murdered their only child.

But it's actually much more radical than that isn't it? Because we (yes, I am now referring to us as the criminals) are getting much more than bonuses, much more than wealth, much more than earthly riches - we Christian sinners somehow believe we're heirs to the infinite riches of the Kingdom of God. And it's not a reluctant bailout from angry, obligated taxpayers, but instead, it's a joyful gift given freely out of the infinite one-way love of our Father - the very Father from whom we have spent our lives running to far off lands where we squander his wealth and we cover our ears repeating mantras about how he doesn't actually exist and even if he did we're better off doing things for ourselves. All of that figuratively speaking of course. What we have literally done is far worse. And we he has literally done for us is indescribably better.

Here's a wonderful quote from a recent article in Christianity Today called, The Scandal of the AIG Bonuses. As usual, I got this from my favorite blog, Mockingbird (thanks Jon W):

When Paul talked about the gospel, many were shocked and appalled. It sounded as if God wanted to reward sinners, to give a bonus to scoundrels! They scoffed, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Rom. 6:1). And when they figured out what exactly he was preaching, they got so angry that they told him to fall on his sword, and then formed a mob to run him out of town.

Bo Diddley, Showing Me Grace

So, aside from the fact he enjoys chewing on his back foot and occasionally runs headlong into trees, I’m pretty sure that my dog, Bo, is a genius. In 8 week-old Golden Retriever world, where no independent object is off-limits for snacking and the bladder is about as reliable as the 2009 economy, the last thing you expect as a puppy mama is to be able to sleep through the entire night. What you do anticipate is waking up to loud wails, moans, and general miserable vocal pleadings several times during the night. But let me tell you: after night two in his new home, Bo was ready to hunker down for the evening and give our house a greater gift than he will ever know. He slept through the night.

Granted, we take certain precautions such as avoiding feeding or watering him after 7pm, and we run him ragged, wrestling and playing with him until at least 11pm when we take him out one last time. However, even other puppies for which this is true still end up needing to go out to relieve themselves in the wee hours of the morning. And this was my expectation upon getting my furry ball of joy: delirious 3am rompings in the yard, and a lack of any sort of deep sleep for months. I assumed I was gearing up for something akin to having a newborn. But no. Bo’s bowels seem to be blessing me more than I could have imagined. It’s day 5, and the last three nights have been potty-break free- including last night, when he ended up getting four helpings of dinner at 10pm (due to some slight roommate miscommunication). I couldn’t believe it when I awoke at 7:30am. “How can this be true?” I asked myself. Life is good.

The only explanation is grace. I am receiving a gift far better than I could have ever fathomed. And it is continuing to happen, in spite of all odds. What is neat about it, is I am so grateful for the night’s sleep when I awake, that my first inclination is to get my tuchus downstairs ASAP to meet my dog with joy to take him on a bladder-relieving journey outside. I am not now, nor have I ever been a morning person. As a matter of fact, I am a widely-known snooze-abuser who will eek every last minute out of a morning to sleep in. But there is nothing that could make me happier to get up and head downstairs at an early hour than a sweet lump of fuzz who has graced me with 7-8 hours of sleep when I expected more like 3. I am responding to grace given to me!

And that is the life we get to lead as Christians, although I wish it was more true of the way I interacted with the world each day. We have been offered the greatest gift of love and full life by a God who limited and sacrificed Himself that we might approach Him and live in relationship with Him. We get to live lives of response to given love. Unconditional love. Love that’s better than even 9 hours of continuous sleep. We don’t live out of obligation to religious rules- to the Law; there is no power of duty which could get me out of the snuggly comfort of my cloud-like bed before absolutely necessary. But the gratitude which flows from an unexpected and undeserved grace can move mountains (aka my warm, comfortable, sleepy self). 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because [God] first loved us.” My prayer is that this truth would ever seep into my relationships to transform the way I love and care for people. And it’s such a treat to get to see it reflect in something as simple as a relationship with a puppy. But then, I’m convinced that Bo is no ordinary puppy…