Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Taking A Break...
If you've been on the site since July 10th, you'll have seen that there have been no new posts. Let me apologize for that before going on. I'm going to take a break from writing anything on the blog until early August, so hopefully I'll be able to come back writing more things of my own accord, rather than just one post per week. I guess this could also serve as the beginning of the transition stage... Once September begins, the blog will still be mine, but I won't (and hopefully shouldn't) be the main contributor. It should be those left who are still serving that ministry, which means all of you. It is my hope that you guys make the blog something useful and encouraging to each other, and that you remember what the space is for: A space for the band and our ministry over these past few years, and the years to come, as new generations rise up. That's all I've got for now, so take care guys. I'm signing out.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Song Of The Week - July 10
Hello again everybody! Summer is trickling by slowly, and I must apologize for not putting more things up on the blog lately. There's really no excuse other than lack of inspiration/laziness, but I think that comes to everybody now and again. However, at least I write (or try to write) this segment faithfully :P. It has become one of my favorite 20 minute moments in the week, once I sit down and get to it, so here's hoping y'all enjoy reading it. Well, let's see... this week's SOTW is more of a laid back track, sort of ;), but take a look for yourself and see:
Afterglow - Nine Lashes, Escape
"You're still vanishing/You left me here/But I'm not all alone..."
Ah... new band time for some of you guys. Nine Lashes is a fairly new band, coming out with a demo a few months ago, and releasing their first full length the first week I was gone. They're a harder band, which I like quite a bit, and the most noteworthy thing about them right now for me is the singer's voice... I'm a very impressed 18 year old hahaha! You usually don't get a voice that pleasant or smooth with bands that perform the type of music they do. There is some grit there, but the voice just adds a lot to the emotion and feeling of this groups' music, especially with this song.
Every time I listen to this song, I can not help but feel a sense of loss, of bittersweet resolve. Both the instrumentation and the lyrics lead me to feel this. I've never experienced the loss of someone that I hold dear and close to me, fortunately, but I can feel the weight of what's being sung. Death is... something I rarely enjoy thinking about, something I'm sure not a lot of people like to think about or dwell upon. It's an end so full of sadness and sorrow, and it affects everybody so much. To the living, it feels like a final seperation, much more final than a friend leaving on a trip or moving away. It is the loss of physical, verbal and emotional communication, the knowledge that you'll never see them in this life again. And that for me, when my time comes to grieve, will be the hardest part. I went to a high school where we lost a lot of people during my years there. Too many. And I remember feeling numb and disbelieving about the whole thing. "We're just too young to die", I would always say. But no. We have no idea when God will decide to call us home, and when that time comes, we all have to be ready for the pain and the hurt. But let us all remember: Death is not a final goodbye, however much it may feel like it. It is a "see you later". Yes, a painful one, but one nontheless. And we have to take heart that when our time on this earth comes to an end, we'll see our loved ones again. For they have never truly left us, and never will. So I pray, that if you have lost someone close to you, you would remember that even though they're not there in person, they're there in spirit, and that one day, you will see them again, in the light of the afterglow...
Afterglow - http://www.mediafire.com/?tkutizywzzy
Afterglow - Nine Lashes, Escape
"You're still vanishing/You left me here/But I'm not all alone..."
Ah... new band time for some of you guys. Nine Lashes is a fairly new band, coming out with a demo a few months ago, and releasing their first full length the first week I was gone. They're a harder band, which I like quite a bit, and the most noteworthy thing about them right now for me is the singer's voice... I'm a very impressed 18 year old hahaha! You usually don't get a voice that pleasant or smooth with bands that perform the type of music they do. There is some grit there, but the voice just adds a lot to the emotion and feeling of this groups' music, especially with this song.
Every time I listen to this song, I can not help but feel a sense of loss, of bittersweet resolve. Both the instrumentation and the lyrics lead me to feel this. I've never experienced the loss of someone that I hold dear and close to me, fortunately, but I can feel the weight of what's being sung. Death is... something I rarely enjoy thinking about, something I'm sure not a lot of people like to think about or dwell upon. It's an end so full of sadness and sorrow, and it affects everybody so much. To the living, it feels like a final seperation, much more final than a friend leaving on a trip or moving away. It is the loss of physical, verbal and emotional communication, the knowledge that you'll never see them in this life again. And that for me, when my time comes to grieve, will be the hardest part. I went to a high school where we lost a lot of people during my years there. Too many. And I remember feeling numb and disbelieving about the whole thing. "We're just too young to die", I would always say. But no. We have no idea when God will decide to call us home, and when that time comes, we all have to be ready for the pain and the hurt. But let us all remember: Death is not a final goodbye, however much it may feel like it. It is a "see you later". Yes, a painful one, but one nontheless. And we have to take heart that when our time on this earth comes to an end, we'll see our loved ones again. For they have never truly left us, and never will. So I pray, that if you have lost someone close to you, you would remember that even though they're not there in person, they're there in spirit, and that one day, you will see them again, in the light of the afterglow...
Afterglow - http://www.mediafire.com/?tkutizywzzy
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Real Love, Real Life
I feel stretched at the moment. A lot has happened, and now that I have nothing of extreme importance I'm setting myself on, it's almost like the world is standing still. I know however, that this is not the case, as I have learned and experienced many things that I now have to incorporate into my own life, as well as share with others.
Real love, Real life we'll illuminate.
I think the most important thing that I learned while I was gone was that you have to be "real". Real about your faith, real about your actions, real about your worship... People can see the sincerity of that in you, and through that, I have seen many a soul brought down to the foot of the Cross. But let's take "real" a step further. I think it's important to be sincere in those areas, but perhaps even more important is to be real with one another. I met some very amazing people, with great senses of humor and excellent musicianship, but my, were we ever a group of broken and troubled teens. Each of us had our own problems, and by the end of the first week, most of us had brought our problems to light for everyone else to see. You may think that this could potentially tear us apart, one of the reasons why I think we don't strive to be more "real" in our everyday lives, but it only served to bring us closer together, and through prayer and compassion, strength was fostered. It's scary and unnerving to let down your guard down towards others, but trust me, your relationships with those you allow in will be much better for it. I feel closer to some of those people than I do to classmates I've spent years with, because they allowed themselves to be "real". Will you?
Real love, Real life we'll illuminate.I think the most important thing that I learned while I was gone was that you have to be "real". Real about your faith, real about your actions, real about your worship... People can see the sincerity of that in you, and through that, I have seen many a soul brought down to the foot of the Cross. But let's take "real" a step further. I think it's important to be sincere in those areas, but perhaps even more important is to be real with one another. I met some very amazing people, with great senses of humor and excellent musicianship, but my, were we ever a group of broken and troubled teens. Each of us had our own problems, and by the end of the first week, most of us had brought our problems to light for everyone else to see. You may think that this could potentially tear us apart, one of the reasons why I think we don't strive to be more "real" in our everyday lives, but it only served to bring us closer together, and through prayer and compassion, strength was fostered. It's scary and unnerving to let down your guard down towards others, but trust me, your relationships with those you allow in will be much better for it. I feel closer to some of those people than I do to classmates I've spent years with, because they allowed themselves to be "real". Will you?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Song Of The Week - July 3
Hey guys. I'm finally back home, and while I'm sad that Exalt has ended, as well as a specific chapter of my life, I am glad to be back home with you guys. Bear with me, as the fallout is about to begin. I am more prepared for it this time though, so don't worry about that too much :). I am very late with this SOTW hahaha, sorry about that, but hopefully the song makes up for that. During my travels, I purchased a nice new toy, and finally got to use my iTunes gift card (thanks Matt). I bought a particular album, and was quite surprised with what I ended up listening to...
Mercy - OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud
"Angel of Mercy/How did you find me/How did you pick me up again?"
**Cameron: "I love bands that are mainstream, but also show their Christian values through their music, like The Fray, Lifehouse, OneRepublic-"
Odum: "Whoa, back up."**
You learn a lot of new things when you meet new people and go to new places. For me, one of these things was discovering that OneRepublic was Christian influenced :O. Forgive me if you guys already knew this, but it was a complete paradigm shift for me. I should tread more carefully with my assumptions. Just because everyone and their grandparents have listened to Apologize should not diminish the authenticity of this band. Wow, they are good. And yes, it was a complete surprise to discover that they were Christian. After purchasing the album and listening to it a bit, I can definitely see a spiritual touch on their music.
Mercy was one of the many songs from this album that stood out to me this past week while touring with Exalt. In a similar fashion to last week's SOTW, the song seemed to talk about a lot of what was going on during our performances and off stage as well, during group prayer, "powering-up" and devotions. In a nutshell, Mercy is a song that describes the Exalt experience well for me... God brought a group of 45 people together for two weeks, through different paths and walks of life, and picked us up, with all our baggage, all our trash, and allowed us to be us to be used by Him. It was an honour to serve God in this way again, a privelege that I, nor any of the other students deserved. The song encouraged me the last week of tour, because everything I was feeling was described in it. I saw Him, I felt Him in ways that I never had before. I honestly didn't know how I could be changed any more from last year's experience to this one's, but God is not something that you should come to have expectations about. He gave me the opportunity to serve Him in the way of a lifetime... twice, despite my shortfalls and failures, and He has made me better because of it. I greatly recommend that you try out OneRepublic, and don't look at them as a one hit wonder, or greatly overhyped band. Instead, look at them with open minds and hearts, because I know for me, the rest of their music is full of meaning and spirituality.
Mercy - http://www.mediafire.com/?yohologznnh
Mercy - OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud
"Angel of Mercy/How did you find me/How did you pick me up again?"
**Cameron: "I love bands that are mainstream, but also show their Christian values through their music, like The Fray, Lifehouse, OneRepublic-"
Odum: "Whoa, back up."**
You learn a lot of new things when you meet new people and go to new places. For me, one of these things was discovering that OneRepublic was Christian influenced :O. Forgive me if you guys already knew this, but it was a complete paradigm shift for me. I should tread more carefully with my assumptions. Just because everyone and their grandparents have listened to Apologize should not diminish the authenticity of this band. Wow, they are good. And yes, it was a complete surprise to discover that they were Christian. After purchasing the album and listening to it a bit, I can definitely see a spiritual touch on their music.
Mercy was one of the many songs from this album that stood out to me this past week while touring with Exalt. In a similar fashion to last week's SOTW, the song seemed to talk about a lot of what was going on during our performances and off stage as well, during group prayer, "powering-up" and devotions. In a nutshell, Mercy is a song that describes the Exalt experience well for me... God brought a group of 45 people together for two weeks, through different paths and walks of life, and picked us up, with all our baggage, all our trash, and allowed us to be us to be used by Him. It was an honour to serve God in this way again, a privelege that I, nor any of the other students deserved. The song encouraged me the last week of tour, because everything I was feeling was described in it. I saw Him, I felt Him in ways that I never had before. I honestly didn't know how I could be changed any more from last year's experience to this one's, but God is not something that you should come to have expectations about. He gave me the opportunity to serve Him in the way of a lifetime... twice, despite my shortfalls and failures, and He has made me better because of it. I greatly recommend that you try out OneRepublic, and don't look at them as a one hit wonder, or greatly overhyped band. Instead, look at them with open minds and hearts, because I know for me, the rest of their music is full of meaning and spirituality.
Mercy - http://www.mediafire.com/?yohologznnh
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