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I am grateful Jesus didn’t intimidate people with his righteousness. When Jesus left his home land (saying a prophet is not honored in his own home) he went to Galilee. And do you know why the Galileans accepted Him? It was because they’d been at a feast with Him, at a wedding party, and at the party Jesus had turned water into wine. Seriously. That’s why they liked Him. And it wasn’t because He gave them alcohol, it was likely because he was a likable guy. We like the people who make us feel good about ourselves, like we are worth something. Did you know, Jesus is the only person who has ever walked the earth who knew, intuitively and truthfully, how priceless people were? How amazing is it that the one truly righteous man in all of history had a kind of righteousness that didn’t make people feel bad about themselves? And it’s not because He was such a nice guy, either. The woman at the well was crazy about Him, even after He spoke bluntly about her romantic disasters. In fact, stop reading this for a second and count the characters in scripture that rejected Jesus because they [...]

Every decade or so, the Scottish band The Trascan Sinatras release another album. Not sure what they do between releases, except take their sweet time creating whatever scraps of genius that get thrown on their occasional release. Everything I’ve heard from them is pure genius. As they’ve aged, they’ve only gotten better, more thoughtful and somehow cooler. Count me as a fan. Enjoy this song, All the Dark Horses, from the Trascan’s new record called In The Music:

I like the account of John the Baptist in the book of John. One of my favorite lines from scripture is when John says of the odd prophet of the same name “He was not the light but came to bear witness to the light.” What I like most about that verse is it takes the pressure off. I don’t have to be perfect to be used by God. I don’t have to be holy (insert a dozen major characters in scripture that weren’t.) I don’t have to be willing (insert another dozen) or skilled (here we go again.) I don’t have to be any of these things because I am not the light, Christ is the light of the world. All I do is stand and point. Have you ever noticed that in many Christian books the author looks better than Jesus Himself? I mean Jesus looks really good, but the author looks even better, even more Godly than Christ. Christ, after all, didn’t look very Godly, which is precisely why so many “righteous” people rejected Him. He wrecked the church turning over tables. He insulted religious leadership and called them fakes. He ate and befriended prostitutes and tax [...]

The classical violinist Stephen Nachmanovitch, in his book Free Play says that Perhaps the most radical sociopolitical invention of the past four thousand years was the sabbath. I think he’s right.  I often sit for hours at my desk without a break through. And then on a walk, it will come to me. Creativity is not like working with a jackhammer. You cannot force the creative. Something like God has to show up and work through you. I do not believe this is God, but I do believe there is a part of the creators brain that is God created and that your cerebral cortex cannot get to it by force. Your executive brain can treat the cerebellum like a garden, but it cannot make fruit come at will. When we stop forcing, the breakthrough often comes. A creator then finds a rhythm. They certainly show up to their work. They put in hours harvesting what has come to the surface. They edit chapters, write blogs, polish songs, record their music and so forth. But they rest, too. They turn off their minds and let the soil work for them. Walt Whitman spoke of the value of loafing. God rested. [...]