Guitar

Since it's Christmas and I got a new effects processor for my guitar (a Boss GT-10), I thought I'd blog a little about my guitar adventure.

It all started April/May 2008 when I decided I wanted to play guitar. I've played the trumpet in various school/church/orchestral settings, and have liked music. My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul I bought with birthday money, and I now also have a seafoam green 50s Fender Stratocaster (MIM). I also got a VOX AD-15 amp (solid state, cheap) and a Korg AX-3000g effects unit (cheap, but works). I took lessons over the summer from a friend of my grandmother's who is an accomplished (read: very very good) classical guitarist, which wasn't the direction I initially wanted. Classical guitar is acoustic (I used my electric with no amp for lessons) and with fingers. Somehow, over that time I came to enjoy classical guitar and I miss it.

My love of music has now become an obsession. While I am not currently taking lessons (hopefully this will change in the next year or so) I spend a lot of time looking up tabs (guitar music) online and learning how to play riffs from songs. I'm not really into the whole "metal" or "hard-rock" genre, I usually play Christian (Hillsong, etc) or pop/rock with my biggest influence being U2's the Edge. Most of their songs are simple chords, but with delay and a little effects, they sound anthemic. The delay and shimmer make the songs sould alive

I do play in the freshman band for Freshmen City Groups at the Georgia Tech BCM, which I love. It gives me an opportunity to play with others (who are much better than me) for God. In a few weeks we are playing for everyone at Connector, so I gotta tweak my GT-10 and practice songs (which we haven't picked out yet) before hand.

One last note, my Church (Buckhead) has soo many amazing worship leaders and musicians that every Sunday I show up, I'm inspired....

Current Music

Currently Listening (in no particular order):

• Ingram Hill
• Taylor Swift
• Thriving Ivory
• Bedlight for Blue Eyes
• The Fray
  

Uncool Christianity

I've kinda been thinking lately about Christianity and its heroes and superstars. I know as Christians we are called to do the work of Christ, but are we guilty of trying to become glamour Christians? When I say glamour Christians, I mean that sometimes we (or at least I) do Christian things for the wrong reasons.


Things I've done that fall under the Glamour Title:

• I feel like I need to show other Christians (esp. at Tech) that I am also a Christian, instead of letting my actions speak. Because honestly, Im scared of someone thinking I'm not a Christian.
• Sometimes I do things that are great for Christ, but deep down I know they're not the RIGHT things I should be doing. Somehow some way I feel like I serve best when I'm happy and there is no way for me to get credit.
• I feel that things such as mission trips to exotic places and running C3 camp (which is a realistic possibility next summer) seems to be the cool thing to do. sometimes all of the hype seems to take the focus off of God and onto the people.
  
  I always have this dilemma of: "Should I do something right or good for the wrong reasons or not do it because I would be doing for the wrong reasons and it wouldn't be genuine?"
  

Revelations

One of my favorite Third Day songs off their new record is "Revelation" and it has this chorus:

Give me a revelation
Show me what to do
'Cause I've been trying to find my way
I haven't got a clue
Tell me should I stay here
Or do I need to move
Give me a revelation
I've got nothing without you
I've got nothing without you

I also overheard a friend a couple weeks ago mention the book of Revelation as "Revelations" which I instantly thought to correct (its a bad habit), but then I stopped and took a step back. How do we as Christians view Revelation from God? Is it as if the cover is pulled off by God and we are standing there with something new and wonderful in front of us, God has decided to show us something that He has hidden away?

Or maybe its something different... maybe the blindfold is being removed from our faces, maybe God sharpens our perspective a little bit... almost as if we are guilty of putting the blindfold there and God is saying "silly, open your eyes, look at My creation..." what if God has been waiting in plain sight for us to remove the dirt from our lenses...

It comes down to how we view God "showing" us things. Does our lack of sight come from our problems or God's mystery? Could it be both? These are the thoughts I'm wrestling with.

How does this thinking change who we are?

Bias in Life...

I read an interesting article yesterday about media bias and censorship in the upcoming election. It talked about how the media only chooses certain events to show and how it moulds its coverage to fit their views...

Do we as Christians take parts of the Bible and just ignore it or "interpret" it the way we see fit?
Examples:

1. Do we ignore the fact that God ordered the Israelites to wipe out entire populations? Geonocide? How does this affect our definition of love?
   
2. Read Numbers chp 31
3. What about Salvation? How do works play into it? Should we "work" out our salvation?
   
4. Corinthians is filled with verses dealing with women, have we changed that for a reason?
   
5. Jesus came with a radically different plan, are we really radically different?
6. Is it actually noticable to others? All the time?
   

Soccer

This is going to be completely about soccer...

Tuesday we had our first Independent game, and it was against CCF. We lost 4-1 which was pretty bad. I didn't play well and felt like I let people down, especially my center mid partner. Needless to say, Thursday was better. Our Co-Rec team beat the Field-Matheson-Perry team 2-0 and I scored a goal. The funny thing is, being a freshman, I almost played on it. Later that night I found out that my highschool soccer team was going to be in the state championship. That game was tonight. We lost... again. Like last year when I played, we lost to Stratford and there were several questionable refereeing decisions. But it felt weird watching, I wanted them to win, but I didn't want them to be better than us last year. Yes they played a much easier schedule and the competition was less, but I was jealous... of a highschool soccer team, that ended up not winning... It feels shameful thinking these thoughts...

Bringing Alabama to ATL

Having been inspired by working in Alabama, I want to do something in ATL. God does too, and I think everyone on the trip knows this. So i googled and came up with a couple sites that are a good starting point for helping those in need:

Crossroads Community
Atlanta Urban Ministry

I don't know how this will work with city groups, and other things at the BCM, but here's the vision:

Christians from GA Tech (Baptists, Presbyterians, EVERYONE) coming together in teams based on what gifts God has given them, serving with local churches. Together, everyone impacting Tech, churches, and Atlanta.

College students don't have money, but we can volunteer our weekends and maybe even some weekdays to help. Churches have the resources to support volunteers, but maybe not the manpower to create a large enough impact. But together? It could be huge... or it could just fade...

How big can this get? How big is God?