I love East Nashville!

One of my favorite songs by Todd Snider is called From a Rooftop. I guess you could call it a song. It is a simple piece...just Todd talking about East Nashville over a simple, yet beautiful melody on his guitar. It oh so beautifully describes East Nashville, and why Francie and I love it so much. It sits just the otherside of the Cumberland River from Nashville, but in some ways it's a whole other world. It's home to many wonderful little bars, and beer joints, cafes, coffee shops, and little shops and music studios. There's the bid studios like Woodland St. Studios, and many people have a little one in their house (though not 'legally'). It's also home many alt-county and country musicians, and well as those working behind the scene in the recording industry. It also feels like home to us when we are there! We got to hear of East Nashville, or as they call it there, "The Good 'hood" or say, "37206 We'll steal your heart, and your lawnmower" from Todd Snider through his music, and fell in love with it the first time we went there.



Here is a link to the song, as well as the lyrics. Sadly, the Radio Cafe and The Alley Cat are no longer open. Two great losses. I hope you enjoy it. Be warned, there are a couple 'cuss' wors for those that object.

From a Rooftop by Todd Snider

http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#Todd+Snider:From+a+Rooftop:14935042:s40114558.10756971.18897108.0.2.22%2Cstd_bc5830b5cbf94248b030aef03da63d5a

East Nashville? Shit man.
We're living in a dreamworld over here.
Born on a full moon's what I heard
Turned over drinks from a neighborhood into a full-on goddamn dreamworld.
By two guys if you ask me...Mike 'Grimey' Grimes and Skip Kenneth Francis "Play a fuckin' train song' Litz.
The spirit of whom many still claim to see on a full moon to this day
Swervin' up Woodland in that ghost of a Cadilac he drives

Of course a lot of us smoke more dope before 9am
than most people do all day.
Saturday nights at The Three Crow, Sunday's - Alley Cat.
We're that guy from your town that would rather pick then eat
And we all met here to do almost exactly that

We usually got about half a tank of gas
And we don't feel like crossing the river
But we will. We will if it's for a song we like.

Nobody else in the whole world knows when Mac's
gonna open The Radio Cafe
But we do. And we tell each other
We stand around there and smoke during Dave Olney's break
Just like we do outside The Family Wash during Tommy Womack's

On the Fourth, we have the best illegal firworks show on Earth.
Last year, we even got it together to organize a non-fly-over by the
United States Air Force
It was beautiful
We were all pretty high
Our skyline, it ain't very high
It says, "Discount Cigarettes, Liquor and Wine" across it
I think our neighborhood's a lot like our skyline
We got great news, and we're shoutin' it from the highest rooftop we got!

It's foggy in here!

Wait...that's not fog! It's all the dust that has been piling up on this blog. That is what they still call these things right? Been a long time since I've last posted, and a lot has happened in that time. What a long strange trip it's been! More coming soon...

Change is in the air!

Change seems to be everywhere lately! For me, change is definitely something I have been dealing with first hand. Not only have Francie and I been dealing with the changes of pregnancy and getting ready to be parents for the very first time, I have also been dealing with a change of employment, as I quit working at the church that I have been employed at for the past 7 years. On top of those big changes we have been dealing with the loss of loved ones. Francie's Grandma Cox, passed away right before Thanksgiving and our dear friend Rose died in a house fire on New Year's Day. It has been a lot to deal with. Soon I will write more in depth on many of the things I mentioned above.

For now, I celebrate the change so many of us celebrate today...the inauguration of our 44th president...President Barack Obama! What a great day to be alive in America!

Why do I continue to do what I do?

So lately I have been wondering if youth ministry is where God still wants me to be, or if I should do something else for a while. This is not the first time, it goes in waves. And I'm sure it's not the only profession where people ask this question. I'm sure my brother ( a teacher) or my friend (a social worker) or my friend (a bartender) etc all ask themselves the same question. Luckily when I'm not sure of the answer...God IS! God has many times (not always, but a lot of the time) spoken to me through music. Lately (as I said) I had been questioning if I was suppose to still be doing this, and trying to find motivation to do my job, and then God spoke. He had me pop in the Kutless CD I had recently purchased for the youth group but hadn't listened to yet. The CD is called Hearts of the Innocent and the first song is the title track. As I listened to the words of that song I was reminded why I am a youth minister in the church, and why (even though I question it a lot) I can not imagine doing anything else!

Hearts of the Innocent

by Kutless

I'm looking down into the eyes of hopelessness

They're crying out to me

I see the pain it's so much more than youth should know

It tears me apart

What can I do to change what I see

This vicious cycle must come to an end

[CHORUS:]Can't you see, we're crushing the hearts of the innocent

We're teaching them to fail

And how it breaks me to see how we're living and punishing the ones that need us to care

To see them hurting

Feels like knuckles to the back of my head

Where have the days gone that a promise was forever

Families stuck together

We wonder why their generation struggles to get by

There's no one to help what can I do to change what I see

This vicious cycle must come to an end

[CHORUS:]Can't you see, we're crushing the hearts of the innocent
We're teaching them to fail
And how it breaks me to see how we're living and punishing the ones that need us to care
To see them hurting
Feels like knuckles to the back of my head

It breaks my heart to see out youth struggling and feeling so lost. Kids these days are far too grown up and are made to deal with things that I could never imagine when I was their age! Hopefully I can help even a few to know the love and grace of Jesus Christ, and how he loves them where they are at.

1 versus 99

I believe it was a radio program I was listening a few weeks ago. maybe it was just a little 'thought for the day' break on the show. Whatever it was I was listening to, the speaker was talking about the parable of the lost sheep. (Matthew 18: 10-14, Luke 15: 1-7.) If you have ever attended church at some point you are probably familiar with this story that Jesus told. If you aren't familiar with it, here it is from Matthew 18: 1o-14:

"Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd had a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost."

As you are probably well aware, this is not the way the world works. The world is constantly telling us that we are don't measure up to everyone else. We are not as rich as other people, we are not as thin as other people, we are not as smart as other people, we are not as well off as other people, the list goes on and on. We also hear all the time that 'one person can't make a difference'. But this is not the way that God feels! God loves each one of us so much, that when we are lost or hurting or struggling He 'leaves the ninety-nine' and comes to find us! And when we come to Him, He rejoices!!

Now if you are like me, you have heard this parable so many times that maybe you don't really think about it when you hear it anymore. But there was something that the voice on the radio said when I heard it a couple weeks ago that really stuck with me. He asked if the listener had ever thought about the fact when they are in times of hurt or struggle that you (YES YOU!) might be the ONE thing that God is focussing on and thinking about at that moment! I'm probably not conveying it as well as the speaker did on the radio, but it really hit me! I don't think I had ever really about it before, that God cares about ME (you) so much that when I (you) are hurting or 'lost' God might solely be focussed on me (you). It's pretty awesome to think that the God of Heaven and earth cares about me so much that for a moment in time I might be the one thing on His mind. Wow!

Here goes something...

So after some people saw Pastor Jen's blog, they encouraged me to start a blog. I had contemplated starting a blog a time or two, but thought 'What's the point? I have nothing to say.' But when I read some blogs I found out a lot of people who blog 'have nothing to say'! So I figured 'why not?' So here goes something. I plan to blog about books I am reading (I think I read 2 in the past 3-4 years), youth group Bible studies, and just thoughts I have on various subjects. I hope you'll join me on the journey!