Greetings readers,
It’s amazing how your mind wanders when you’re listening to music. Anyone following me on spotify (all 3 people) can tell you I have something of a broad taste in music. It’s probably not a great taste in music, but at least it’s broad.
Recently, I’ve been feeling a tad bit nostalgic… So I’ve been listening to The Used.
Super-emo, I know…
But it’s amazing how listening to Box of Sharp Objects, Buried Myself Alive, The Taste of Ink brings me back to 14. I was so young. SO young. My group of friends was radically different than now, but I can’t say they were any better or worse than my set now.
It was just different. I was in a different place.
I think if we were to get together now, we’d reminisce about the good old days like old folks.
I’d really like that.
Everything was new. It’s one of the things I love about watching Jake.
Everything is new to him… even lights and sounds. It’s amazing.
When I listen to the Used, I’m 14 again. Sitting on the bus on the way to Convention or Winter Retreat. Tim beside me whisper screaming along to Atreyu or whoever. Everything so serious…and at the same time…so new…
Adulthood has given me perspective.
It was important. Those days, those friends, those cd’s, those trips were integral to my life. All of my problems, all my heartache, all my headaches, hurt feelings, all the triumphs, joys, and good times helped shape me.
A small part of me even misses those days.
Not in a, “bring them back” kind of way, but in a, “I totally took those days for granted” way.
We’re all adults now, hardly speak, and rarely see each other.
But we’ll always have fourteen.
It’s amazing how far 10 years can take you.
Speaking of 10 years…and in keeping with music.
Ten years ago, my long favorite band Showbread released No Sir, Nihilism is Not Practical.
That album changed my life.
I still enjoy their music, but their message has changed so much.
Their lead singer (a person I’d love to get to know better) Josh has written novels and studied theology. Showbread’s music and message directly changed with him.
Though I don’t live the same way, I appreciate the dedication to their beliefs.
Showbread’s most recent album, Cancer, an album I helped fund, offers a strong opposition to Calvinism and war. His theological beliefs dripping on the lyrics.
It hits home, but I don’t enjoy it as much.
And I think that’s more of a reflection on me.
It’s made me think…
God help me if my theological beliefs ever distract me from the body of Christ and from the core of the gospel.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying that’s what they’re doing…
Their theological points are so prominent in their work that it inspired the thought in me.
It made me wonder about my art.
It made me wonder how strong my theological convictions bleed through into my acting and writing.
How much of it should?
All of it?
Or is the message of the gospel… God loves you. Jesus died for you. No other way to heaven but through him… Enough?
What if Arminianism, Calvinism, Creation, Evolution…
What if none of it matters in the grand scheme of things?
What if all that matters is Christ and Him crucified?
Although I don’t listen to Showbread half as much as I used to…
(I had to buy 3 copies of Nihilism because I wore them out).
They still make me think.
-scritch out
And may raw rock kill you forever and ever amen.
Son of a Scritch 