Thank You Father

As we approach Thanksgiving I thought I would take a moment to talk about Thanksgiving. I have never actively participated in the time of thanksgiving that the Mayes family always has during our Thanksgiving gathering. It felt awkward. I didn't feel qualified.

Lord, I'm not qualified for your love. But yet you gave it to me. THANK YOU!

Some things I'm thankful for:

• the breath of life


• a loving Savior


• a family who truly loves me


• a beautiful loving girlfriend


• the most amazing group of close friends I could imagine


• more earthly possessions than I deserve


• the Christian Campus House


• music - and the ability to play and enjoy it


• sub-freezing mornings with frost everywhere


• the opportunity to live the life God has planned for me


• lastly, a big warm bed. especially nice after not even going to bed last night. 0:-p

Lord, I want to specifically take time out of my busy schedule and recognize all that you have blessed me with. Thank you for life, family, friends, stuff, and most of all your Son.

How Much Am I To Do?

So I'm sitting here in the sound booth at church, working on the podcast. One thought has come to mind just now, as it often has recently. How much stuff am I really to try to do?

With all my school work going on, especially right now, I don't really have a ton of time to be as involved at church as I am. But I love it. My involvement at church is the main thing keeping me going right now - I love serving the Lord, and I love all the actual projects that I do over there (well, here, right now...).

I know the Lord doesn't expect a certain quantity of work out of us. He wants us to do what he presents us with a worshiping, prayful attitude. I hope I am doing that, but it's so hard to tell. Am I serving the Lord, or am I playing with fun technology?

I hope it's the former. If not, I need to drop this stuff because there just isn't time to go to church just to play. If I'm truly doing it all for the glory of God, then I don't care so much how much school work I have; I'll find a balance somewhere.

But I'm struggling right now.

How Does One Love The World?

The following was written by a guy I don't know, but his name is Adam Schultz. I want to just copy and paste it here (from a CRU listserve email sent by Steve Van Elk), and then I'll discuss it a bit at the end.

A guy I mentor in highschool asked me the other day how he can love the world. I sat and pondered and this is what God put in/on my heart. Mind you, it is not complete, there are so many others ways to love, just I felt that I should post this. These are not my words, but God's. Give all the glory to Him!!

A. Accept people for who they are, exactly how they are.
B. Befriend them, not just to "save them from Hell" but for actually being a person that God created and loves. This is called being genuine and is a large part of integrity.
C. Love people with pure motives. Don't have a hidden agenda as to why you want to get to know them.
D. Be generous to them with everything you have. Whether it is money, your time, books, games, food..etc. when we give of ourselves to others without any expections of getting anything in return, this is real love.
E. Watch your words, actions, and thoughts. I'm not saying you have to walk on egg shells all day, but you are showing who Jesus is to people whether you believe it or not. Sometimes people don't become a follower of Jesus because some yahoo who claims to be a Christian is not loving people and is dishonoring the name of Jesus.
F. Spend time with people. When you are with them, value them and the time you have with them. Don't be thinking about what else you could be doing. You are there and God has you there.
G. Don't retaliate when people wrong you. To steal a few words from Jesus/Bible: "love your neighbor", "turn the other cheek", "be QUICK to listen, SLOW to speak, and SLOW to become angry". Bascially, watch how you respeond to what people say.
H. Pray for the people who you don't like, who treat you like crap, who hate you etc. and let God transform you heart to love them.
I. A short story..... Mother Teresa was once asked how she could help so many people who were sick, dying, had aids, STD's, infections etc. She looked up at the man who asked and simply said, "I see them as Jesus. When I take care of someone or help them, I am actually doing this to Jesus."
J. View everyone as Jesus and treat them the same way you would treat Jesus, especially of they don't know His love for them yet.
*Check out Matt 25:31-46--this is huge for us who are Chrisitians.

Do 3 things to start:
1. Love God.
2. Love people.
3. Ask God to help you love Him and others.

I like this list. As 'simple' as it is, sometimes I wonder if I am capable of coming up with stuff like this. I am glad that Adam did; part of why I'm posting this is in hopes that more people can read it. Despite being a 'simple,' 'introductory' guide, I think these suggestions are all suggestions that we can all use.

I think item letter C is one of the toughest to do. In reality, we have many different reasons why were first talk to someone. They're cute; they are in our major; they are older; they hold positions of leadership; we would like them to hold positions of leadership; and the list goes on. Now, none of these are inherently wrong; but, as Adam is suggesting, we really need to talk to people, show interest, love them from the get-go for no 'reason.' We need to love them because they are. Because they exist. Because they were created by God.

Loving people, truly loving in a Christ-like way is hard. That list is a great "Quick Reference" of how to go about loving people. As Adam stated, it is by no means exhaustive. But I think it's worth a read every now and then. Goodnight and God Bless!

Keep On Shinin'

So I've decided life is hard. Okay, I suppose this is no huge revelation to most people. But seriously. I've attempted to help a couple friends deal with some stuff this weekend, and I dealt with some personally too, and sometimes life sucks.

You know what's amazing? God is good. God is great. God is God. I don't always remember (or even immediately believe!) this when stuff's all going wrong. And man it can be hard to convince others of this fact.

Look around. See all those blessings? No, I'm not just referring to the "stuff" in your room (but that too). An friend of mine who has a heart and mind for God bigger than I think I can even understand has been going through a lot of stuff lately. Just today she posted a note in which she described her feelings. But then she decided to list the blessings in her life: college, nature, friends, hugs, Starbucks, prayer, music, and the Bible, among others. We all need to do this more. When things aren't going "right" (at least according to our limited-scope perspective on our lives), we don't often remember the good things. God has blessed us with everything, starting with our very lives! And if the fact that we have breath isn't enough, his ultimate depicion of his love on the cross oughta do it.

Guys, God's love is amazing. Unbelievable. Phenomenal. Indescribable. When life's got you down, stop. Pray. Remember God's grace. Ask for help. Take comfort in his love. There, it's my new acronym - PRAT.

I leave you tonight with lyrics from Third Day's newest album (Wherever You Are). The song is titled Keep On Shinin'. If we have received God's grace and love, then we need to share it with others! This song encourages a continued outpouring of his light. (More on continuous outpouring in another post.) Goodnight, and God bless.

Keep On Shinin'

It feels like forever since I can remember
It seems like it's always been this way
Keep the good news to ourselves, like a secret we'll never tell
I don't know why we've been so ashamed

But changes are in the air, sparks are starting everywhere
And oh, what a sweet, sweet sound
With millions of voices, singing new choruses
Leading the way to higher ground

Keep on, keep on shinin'
Wherever you may be
Keep on, keep on shinin'
For all the world to see

Having faith in the long run is easier said than done
It's hard to live out in the light of day
You're bruised and you're battered, your dreams have been shattered
Your best laid plans scattered over the place

Despite all your tendencies, God sees it differently
Your struggle's a time to grow
And you, you're a miracle, anything but typical
It's time for the whole wide world to know

PFR and Unceasing Worship

Okay, first, who among you have heard of PFR? Yeah, okay, not many... stands for Pray For Rain. Awesome Christian band of the 1990s, produced a best of-type album in 1997 (The Late Great PFR), still performs a few times a years and has recorded two albums since '97. Fantastic stuff; you should check it out. Anyway, I've been listening to them all evening long... Here are the lyrics to one of their tunes, a powerful song titled, appropriately enough, "Pray For Rain."

Born in a dry season
Wind and sand have blown through me
Haven't found shade anywhere
Only moments of relief
But sometimes I think I hear the thunder
Somewhere on the horizon line
If I could just find a way to get under
The rain that can reach this soul of mine

(chorus)
I pray for rain to come
And wash away what's made me numb
I pray for a raging storm
To drown what's in me
And the rain comes in the nick of time
I swallow hard cause my throat's been dry
The rain comes beating on my skin
Till I'm washed away - nothing left within
When the rain comes
Your rain comes

Seasons have passed so quickly
Since I felt that first big storm
Still there have been times of drought
When i've prayed for the clouds to form
And I often hear the thunder
And I know of its coming rain
Many times in my life I'll kneel under
The moving showers that brought this change

Also, I just finished reading the second chapter of Unceasing Worship. This books attempts to clearly define worship, more specifically Christian worship, and authentic worship. In doing so, many areas are explored. At the end of Chapter 2 ("What is authentic worship?"), Best writes:

These words of Christ ["It was said of old, but now I say unto you..."] are of such magnitude that the entire shape of the New Testament depends on them. And it is only because of this that the Old Testament can be quoted with such force and probity throughout the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles. To put it negatively, the Old Testament is quoted because it is not finished until Christ reaches it. In this sense the Old Testament reaches ahead of itself longingly and hopefully to its finality. To put it positively, Christ is established in the Old Testament so efficiently as to make the Incarnation an inevitable reality.

So what does this mean exactly? Well, interestingly enough, it is actually related to a portion of the material I covered in my sermon a little over a month ago. In that sermon I talked about how Jesus established a new covanent; the Jewish Sabbath was Saturday, but after Christ's resurrection Christian's celebrated the Lord's Day - Sunday. His death and resurrection superceded Old Testament Law (observance of the Sabbath). Anyway, Best's interpretation of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments is very good.

It seems to be quite simple, really. If we realize that God, in his omniscience, inspired the writers of the Old Testament with his plan for his Son in mind, then the Old Testament is not as separate from the New Testament as we often make it out to be. We completely segregate the Old from the New, as if they are two separate and different works. In reality, I believe Best would argue (and I would tend to agree), the Bible as a whole is unilaterally the divine Word of God; sure, we divide it into two parts, due in large part to historical and chronological reasons, but the Old Testament directly provides for the arrival of the New Testament and Christ Himself. His arrival, death, and resurrection, allow for the "completion" of the Old Testament and the full understanding of the New Testament.

So I'm not sure if any of that makes any sense. Perhaps I just muddied the waters even more. I said it was "simple" and then expounded on it for another enormous paragraph. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I haven't posted a real post in over a month, and I thought I'd give it a try again.

Thank you Lord for all your blessings, You are truly amazing!

Carter Beauford and Victor Wooten

Oh goodness... These guys are two of the best... I wish I could play either of those instruments half as well as they can! Anyway, I just thought this video was just cool.

Anti-Tank Missile

Okay, so this is really not a useful post of any sort. But I just ran across this and found it to be freaking sweet. It's a 2000 fps video of an anti-tank missile being fired. Check it out.

Lest We Forget...

"The difference between us and the terrorists is clear: We endanger ourselves to protect their civilians. They endanger their civilians to protect themselves. If we want to live in a world where civilians are never used as human shields, then we must create a world in which employing such measures results in the unequivocal condemnation of terrorists and in forceful action against them by the civilized world."

Thanks to Adrienne for posting this on her away message; not sure where she got it...

God Bless America and the families of all those who lost their lives 5 years ago.

Lest we forget...

A MusEd Paper vs. The Rest of My Life

So I had a nice long talk with Melissa yesterday. You see, we have this paper due in our MusEd class tomorrow - a paper about our philosophy of music education, it's place in schools, etc. One problem - I'm not sure what my philosophy is! Also, I don't totally agree with the things we're being taught/told in class about the importance of music education - especially when it comes to performance ensembles. Furthermore, I'm not sure of my place in music education, or whether or not my place is even in music education or not.

It was on those subjects that we talked, for essentially two hours. The following are some of my thoughts, after our discussion.

I do not have to agree with everything we are taught. Individual's philosophies will differ; we cannot all be clones of one another. It's not even that I hate music or disagree with everything; quite the opposite. I just take issues with some of the things; for example, I do not find music (in any form) to be as completely essential to a person's well-being and ability to function in society as English (as one article tried to say it is).

Music has a very important place in elementary schools. Kids will never know what they might be talented in or interested in if they are not exposed to many different things. Music, art (visual), P.E., computers, and drama are just some of the areas that kids need exposure to, right alongside "normal" subjects like math, English, literature, history, and science. In middle and especially high school, however, music takes on a bit of a different role. Though most states require a Fine Arts class or some equivalent for graduation, music classes exist almost entirely as electives. Thus, to my mind, they do not have to be truly curricular. Well, performance classes anyway. A non-curricular music theory or general music class will never get anything done; a curriculum is essential here. But I say that performance classes do not need (and in fact cannot function properly with!) a set curriculum.

Now, I am assuming a couple of things here. One, I am assuming that the teacher/instructor/director of these performance classes is doing his/her job well. To run an effective rehearsal and perform well, teaching is still required, even without a curriculum! The students must learn about the pieces they are playing, the historical context surrounding those pieces, the composers' backgrounds, the musical concepts contained within the pieces, and the best methods to perform the pieces effectively. This still requires teaching and learning! I simply believe that a performance class cannot be oriented to a curriculum; it must be oriented to performance.

Stepping back a little further, than, beyond more than simply my philosophy on music in schools, I look at my future. Do I truly see myself teaching band or some other music class in 5 or 10 years? Honestly? Not really... While I still love music and do enjoy helping others enjoy music, I'm just not convinced that it is truly my main passion. Melissa made a good point while suggesting a couple of things for me to think about as far as how to deal with this semester and the major in general. She reminded me that I do, in fact, care about music and music education. Thus, I need to continue to treat it as such. I care about it and it is important to me, so I need to not completely neglect it. I should not get out of the major and the school and immediately pursue something else. I am much too far in at this point to get out, and I am completely capable of finishing this major strongly and, if it comes to it, even being a very good band director and music teacher. This is all very true, and I need to keep it all in mind.

However. (There's always a 'but,' isn't there?) I feel my true passion and calling elsewhere. More specifically, at church. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but that's where I care the most about everything. There have been way too many signs of this over the past year to continue to call them "coincidences." The part of me that is afraid of change wants to ignore all these signs, but I shouldn't. Mark and Alex apparently see potential in me, and I can't honestly say that I don't too. I have been given opportunity and opportunity to serve in many different capacities at church, and I still can't get enough - I love it. I had the opportunity to preach this past Sunday. Is that what I want to do with my life, become a preacher? Maybe! I don't think that's my primary area of calling, but it's possible! Frankly, I've seen myself as an Alex (assistant minister, being in charge of music and other like-minded tasks) for quite some time. Like, 6 to 8 months probably.

The church has been given some money to use for student interns. Joel and Jessica are presently serving as interns, and they receive a stipend for their internships. Mark and Alex have mentioned to me that they'd like me to consider doing an internship, very possibly in the spring. This could be part-time as I still attend school and classes, or not. I could take next semester off and work at the church essentially full-time.

You know what, that sounds amazing!

But I have a problem. Well, a couple. I really want to graduate in four years. Partially for cost, and partially because I know I can. Well, frankly, I also can't imagine not staying in the tracks of classes with Melissa. Especially with me less-than-enthusiastic perspective toward it all right now, I need her there. Perhaps that's a lame reason, I don't know; but it's true, I want to stay in track with her. Not just so she doesn't beat me ;-P

Other problem? Dad. He'll have a fit if I tell him I'm considering not taking classes for a semester. Or that I want to graduate with my B.S. (or is it B.A.? who knows) in Music Education and then ignore that degree and either work in ministry or go back to school. There's no way he'd go for any of that. Which is unfortunate, because if that's truly what I'm being called to do, he shouldn't be able to stand in my way. But presently, even if only in my mind, he is. That doesn't seem right.

So, here's where I'm at overall. I still like music and even music education. I'm going to try my best to do well (enough) in my classes, and I still want to get out of them what I can. If they're not my number one priority, that's fine. But I am not going to blow them off or develop a rotten attitude toward them. I am going to talk with Alex at length again about this whole situation and see where we go from here at church. I want to be even more involved. We just have to find the right balance. I am going to pray. A lot. If this is what I am to be doing, I need that to be clear. And lastly, I'm going to hope (well, pray) that once I have reached some sort of conclusive decision on this all, my dad will be receptive and supportive.

Okay, so that post is enormously long. My apologies. But it doesn't even begin to approximate the breadth of our conversation last night... lol... To sum it all up, please pray for me!

Preaching? Who, me?

Well, I just delivered my first sermon this morning. "Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath," at the Christian Campus House. Pshew, who knew... It's been a bit of a stressful week, juggling school and the "normal" stressors but also dealing with preparing for this. I've never done this before; I've never even delved this deeply in the Scriptures before, at least not in one concentrated amount of time. It was awesome! The Bible studying, alone, was fantastic. So much so that I bought a new Bible to make it easier and more enjoyable! :-)

The sermon went well, I suppose. A little short (estimated at around 13 minutes; a review of the tape will tell me for sure), but I stayed on topic well (even if that meant that I glaced at my notes a bit more than I should have). Although, I did make up a word this morning: dramastically. :-p

But, here's the crux of this post. Is this any sort of calling for me? Or just something fun to say that I did. Sure, I was a bit stressed out before it; who wouldn't be? I need to think and pray about it a lot more. The Lord may very well be leading me in this direction; I need to not let stress get in His way.

To that end, I continue to be confused. I am struggling, ideologically, in a MusEd class or two, and yet I love the idea of preaching like this. I just don't know what to do.

Anyway, my first (and hopefully not last!) sermon is in the bag. Crazy, isn't it?

Confusion...

Do you ever wonder why God puts certain people in your life? Perhaps they are frustrating, nay, angering, at times. Maybe they force you to think differently about things. Possibly they challenge you directly or in roundabout terms. Other times, these people may be your friends, help you out, make you laugh, or give you some encouragement. But all the while, you just can't figure out the reason for that particular person and the assortment of feelings you have related to them. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Music Education - Curricular, or Not?

So I just got done reading an article for my MusEd 360 class entitled "Making Arts Education Curricular." The basic point of the article was to explain why arts aren't yet widely considered curricular and what we (as [future] music educators) can do to make the arts curricular. But I have some issues with this thinking. Here's an excerpt from the article review I wrote:

If music is so critically important, as much so as English and Math and Science, then I agree with essentially all of the article – true curricula need to be written; teachers need to adhere to their curricula; schedules needs to be more reasonable; the arts need to be more inclusive; etc. But if music is not as crucially necessary, which I do not believe it is, then many of those points become moot – it can remain largely extracurricular; it can be more selective; a true curriculum becomes less important; and so forth.

Is this bad? Should I be fired as a music education major? In a sense, I truly think so... In the past, some of us 'good' music ed majors have scoffed at 'bad' music ed majors, wishing they'd leave the major so that we don't license bad teachers. We've secretly rejoiced when some of these people have, in fact, left the major for performance, for example - jerks, bad teachers, people who don't believe in music education? They're welcome to play, just stay away from our students.

But now I feel like a hypocrite. I still fully believe in music education as being important. It has been a very important part of my life, and I am what I am today in large part because of it. But I just don't feel it to be as completely necessary as some of my classes are trying to make me believe it is. And I feel like the only one in the music education department who still feels like this.

I just don't know...

In the Beginning

So I decided to be super-cool and get a Blogger, um, blog. And I figured that title was somehow appropriate. I don't really use my xanga (http://www.xanga.com/mjthom) as it is, so we'll see how much this gets used. I'm thinking about making this a little more of my thoughts on life, rather than a useless narrative of my life. Just a thought.

I leave you, then, with this thought:
Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once. - Evan Esar

Okay, so perhaps this blog will not be quite so sarcastic. But you never know, it's me you're dealing with! :-p