Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.

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I (Used To) Love the Red-Winged Blackbird

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Categories: random stuff, Rantings, What the heck was THAT?

I’m not really a bird-watcher. At least, not in the sense that I stalk through the marshes in khaki shorts with a camera, looking for a glimpse of the rare plaid-bellied whispercrike.* But I do enjoy seeing them out my window, especially when they are colorful; and when I’m traveling, I get a kick out of seeing species that aren’t found in my neck of the woods…although most of the time I couldn’t identify them as anything other than hey-look-at-that-red-and-blue-bird-with-a-little-bit-of-yellow-on-the-wings.**

All that said…we have red-winged blackbirds*** in our neighborhood. They don’t show up all the time, but you notice them when they do, because of, um, the small bright red marking on the wings. They sort of stand out among the other run-of-the-mill blackbirds we see flying around.

This is a preview of I (Used To) Love the Red-Winged Blackbird. Read the full post (700 words, 2 images, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

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Hurricanes and Change

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

In a couple of weeks, the hurricane season officially begins. I think hurricanes are captivating, a wonder to behold.

From the space shuttle.

I don’t live on the east coast or Gulf coast, and from June to December I am glad of that. Every time I am tempted to leave it all behind and find some tropical paradise somewhere to live out my days in relaxation and obscurity…I remember: “Hey, they gots HURRICANES down there!!” And I come back to reality, very thankful that, although I love to visit the ocean, I can go home if a hurricane threatens.

Hurricanes are of the devil. Or are they?

This is a preview of Hurricanes and Change. Read the full post (452 words, 2 images, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

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Why I Deliver Flowers

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Categories: life, Meanderings (look it up), What the heck was THAT?

So here’s installment #28* of Questions Nobody Is Asking Me but Probably Would Have If They Thought of It:

Q: Why do you deliver flowers?

A: I don’t get asked this a lot by passers-by on the street: “Hey, what is a pastor-type dude like you doing, delivering flowers?” Of course, they don’t realize they have answered their own question. (What am I doing? Delivering flowers.)

But seriously, folks…

This is a preview of Why I Deliver Flowers. Read the full post (1153 words, 2 images, estimated 4:37 mins reading time)

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Worship: the Sound of the Broken

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), worship

Ben at live.awake posted something about worship last week that really spoke to my soul. (I’ve been waiting to write about this while Ben took care of some technical difficulties, but the link appears to be good now.)

In his post, Ben describes a recent worship service he attended where everything about the worship time seemed “normal” and “right.” And then something happened…let me give you an excerpt:

“The set ended, the lights went out…a large group of men came up on the stage. It was a choir made up of about 15 or so men from a local Teen Challenge camp…This choir was primarily made up of men who are former drug addicts.

This is a preview of Worship: the Sound of the Broken. Read the full post (717 words, 1 image, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

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Awake

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Categories: life, Meanderings (look it up)

“My father says the whole world’s asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says only a few people are awake. And they live in a state of constant total amazement.”

These words, spoken by the character Patricia in Joe Versus the Volcano, have always stuck with me. Every time I hear them or think about them, they make me want to be one of the “awake” people. I mean, who wouldn’t? What’s not to love about being constantly amazed and wonder struck?

This is a preview of Awake. Read the full post (839 words, 2 images, estimated 3:21 mins reading time)

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Does Anyone Really Know What This Guy Is Singing?

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Categories: music, What the heck was THAT?

Ever since the Black Crowes came out with this years ago and I’d hear it on the radio, I’d strain to figure out just WHAT that lyric was at the end of the chorus. I never was able to figure it out.

I’m not talking about the whole song–the rock music tends to overshadow the lyric anyhow. (Not that that’s bad, or anything.) 🙂

No, I mean the part where the music STOPS and it’s just him singing.

You know…the part where he sounds kind of like an auctioneer. What the heck is he saying??

This is a preview of Does Anyone Really Know What This Guy Is Singing?. Read the full post (139 words, 1 image, estimated 33 secs reading time)

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Not What We Believe, But How We Believe

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought

Ellen Haroutunian recently posted a thought-provoking piece about the church’s subtle shift in the focus of our worship, how we have made an idol of orthodoxy rather than following the living Christ. Worth the time to read, but my mind has taken a rabbit trail on a few of her thoughts…particularly when she shares how easily tempers can flare when someone even suggests we have a problem in this area. Here’s a snippet from her post:

This is a preview of Not What We Believe, But How We Believe. Read the full post (1733 words, 1 image, estimated 6:56 mins reading time)
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