PILGRIMSONGS Will be coming back to the blogosphere in 2009... I'll be lookin' for ya!

Feeling Unqualified? Join the club!

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." (2 Cor. 4:7 - NLT)

"Cletus Take the Reel"

Here's a great parody of Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel" for guys who wear plaid (prepare to be blessed!):

MLK Day One Week Late

Last week the US celebrated Martin Luther King Day.

This is a man we ALL (Canadians included) need to honor and remember. A man (and all those who followed him) who gave such a great example of how to win and influence a culture through the power of love well-mixed with truth, and poured out from the pitcher of self-sacrifice.

Some words for all of us who struggle at loving those we'd really rather not:

"We love men not because we like them, nor because their ways appeal to us, nor even because they possess some kind of divine spark. We love every man because God loves him."

- MLK

(see his Letter from Birmingham Jail)

Snow Day!!

Another beautiful winter day at the beach on the West Coast!!

-8 degrees celsius (I haven't figured out how to do the degrees sign on the computer yet) and covered in snow.
For my Alberta friends and family who undoubtedly take great glee in our winter sufferings claiming that our 'wet' cold is no better than their 'dry' -30 cold, I offer this kind but firm rebuttal: this morning my nose hairs did NOT freeze together and I did NOT have to unplug my car from the wall. .... 'nuff said.

However, us West Coasters love to quote the facts that here in BC you can go to the beach, windsurf, ski and hike all in the same day. Now my question to us is: WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE??


Anyways,


Though there are some families who use these snow days for tobagganing (not an easy word to spell, just like 'touque' ) or making snow angels, the Norlin family however spent some time in the backyard building this:





You can imagine the amount of hot chocolate we had to have after this...



Actually me and the kids had a great time sledding. Had fun watching Luke getting huge air on a jump he didn't know was there, watching Hannah scream down on her inner tube, and smashing into Noah - both of us coming up with snow beards plastered on our faces!

Kids definitely re-expose you to fun you forget to choose for yourself.

G.K. Chesterton has a good word on how kids (and God) give us a model for life that we dare not ignore:

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

-- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The words of Jesus Christ: "And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

The KEY to Getting those Young People Back to Church!

Redman on Bono on Songwriting

Stumbled on a great quote from Matt Redman for anyone who attempts to write songs, or any creative writing for that matter:

So, now a quick thought for songwriters. Not from me, but something I came across from Bono of U2. Speaking on songwriting he said “You can have 1000 ideas, but unless you capture an emotion, it’s an essay.”

(Click on the quote to read the whole article

I'm Greg and these are my songs

Ahhh, so here we are. If Solomon had been writing Ecclesiastes in todays world he would have said "Of the writing of blogs there is no end"...and here's one more.




Why, you might ask (or you might not because you really have better things to do) begin another blog to add (now quoting Sting) another "message in a bottle" to add to the other "100 billion bottles washed up on the shore"?

(For some reason I quite enjoy writing things in parentheses, I'm not sure why but get used to it...)


3 Reasons:


1) Because the discipline of thought that is forced upon one who writes for potential readers beyond one's self, one's wife (who is always forced to read and/or listen to anything 'one' writes and must do so favorably) and one's parents, is invaluable. To quote Sir Francis Bacon, "Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." So I hope researching writing for pilgrimsongs will crystallize, deepen, and broaden my thinking.


2) Because I believe that God has created us each uniquely with experiences, perspectives, joys,troubles and stories unique to us in order to build each other up and push each other towards Him through an endless variety of means.


3) Becuase it's cool to have a blog and now I will be socially acceptable, gain friends, and be internationally famous!


So why the title?


Aren't Pilgrims those people who ate lots of turkey, dressed like this:
(Perhaps those folks aren't as far removed from "The King" as you might think)

... and were known as the people who "were afraid someone somewhere was having a good time"??

Well, perhaps they were but allow me to define myself:

pilgrim
def. "One who journeys in a foreign land"

Having the title 'Pilgrim' in the title was to be a constant reminder every time I post that I am indeed a temporary man in a temporary land. That I, along with everyone else who has registered their heart in heaven, are "not home yet" and shouldn't expect this world to act, sound, or treat us like we are. And that that perspective should shape how I see everything else.

songs

I am a musician. I love music. I love songs. I love writing songs. I love being transported to new places, new thoughts and new hopes through great songs. I love using songs to lead other pilgrims in worship and to remind them of the God who created them and Who will welcome them back home soon.

And from time to time I'll post about songs, albums (whooah I said pardon old man??!! don't you mean packaged downloadable song files?!)), or artists that inspire me.

But beyond the obvious, all of the thoughts and reflections that will be posted here are my songs. All throughout the Bible, God's song book, we see songs and poems that cover enormous emotional, thematic, spirtual and 'earthy' grounds. So I see that every story we tell, every problem we wrestle with, and every thought that we express in our own way is our collection of songs. Some of these 'life songs' are accompanied by joy, some by pure 'pull out all the stops' fun, some by sorrow, some by confusion and doubts, and some by love. But hopefully all under the direction of THE Maestro of Maestro's, the Holy Spirit.

dotcom

While I've already reminded myself that I am a pilgrim, I then re-remind myself that God has placed me in this particular country at this particular time with all our particular interests, cultural issues, technologies, and relational and religious questions and quandries. It's no good to wear huge collars (unless you're the King of Rock and Roll) and speak in Olde English to a culture of blue jeans and Blue Tooth's (or is it Blue 'Teeth' ?). This is no time to deliver and defend answers to questions no one's even asking.

Sooooooooooo....... there you have it. My defense for this blog's existense.

I'll enjoy posting and perhaps there will be some who enjoy reading it (my wife and parents notwithstanding!). Feel free to leave comments if anything strikes you.

So to all who happen to pass through, I offer:

pilgrimsongsdotcom