“A mistake constantly made by those who should know better is to judge people of the past by our standards rather than their own. The only way men or women can be judged is against the canvas of their own time.” –Louis L’Amour
I don’t know what exactly happened to good old-fashioned Westerns, or why over the past 20 years they have been seen as somehow less erudite than the other tales we tell. Maybe it’s because the stories are so familiar, even predictable. Maybe it’s because the answers they give are too easy, what with the white hats and the black hats. Maybe its because we don’t believe life could be as simple as all that. Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry I’ve been AWOL here in the Rabbit Room for awhile – When I haven’t been hunkered down writing for a new record, I’ve been cloistered away from the world to spend time with my family. But what is it that could call me out of my hiding? A new Jill Phillips record.
One of the perks of being an artist is that I get to keep company with other artists and often find myself graced by friendships with people who I’ve long admired. Such is the case with Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips (Gullahorn). I was a fan long before I was a friend, and though I’ve spent a fair amount of time with them and shared meals at their dinner table, there are still times where I revert to a geeky fanboy and can’t believe my good fortune to have fallen into such great company. “Don’t be a spaz, don’t be a spaz,” becomes my mantra in these moments. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week was J.R.R. Tolkien’s 117th birthday. I give you some excerpts from his excellent work, “On Fairy-Stories,” on art, fairy tales, eucatastrophe, and the Gospel:
In its fairy-tale or other world setting, [eucatastrophe] is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.[…] Read the rest of this entry »
Remember that great scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the apes learn to use tools? That singular event changed the course of history, gave rise to domestication, civilization, and in the fullness of time, even iPhones. It’s an iconic piece of cinema and an unforgettable juxaposition of sound and image.
It’s 2009 now and civilization has come full circle. Man, like Clarke’s looming monolith, has passed on his precious cosmic gift and sown the seeds of future civilizations. All we can do now is watch, and wait, and wonder because a chain of events has been set in motion that leads, inexorably, to the very transcendance of body, mind, and spirit into realms undreamt of even in our wildest imagination.
While browsing at a used bookstore earlier this week with a friend, I came across a book by H. Richard Niebuhr, The Meaning of Revelation. I read his brother’s first book a couple months ago, Reinhold Niebuhr’s Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic, and absolutely loved it, so I figured this would be worth reading, not to mention that it is on a topic which holds a lot of interest for me at the moment. Before heading over to a friends’ house to watch (read: wrestle with) their kids while they went to a New Year’s Eve party, I read the preface to The Meaning of Revelation. The paragraph outlining the convictions underlying the study begged to be read several times. Seems like these are good convictions to affirm as we stand at the threshold of another year.
Among the convictions which in part appear explicitly in this study and in part underlie the argument even where they do not become explicit, three seem to be of fundamental importance, though I may presuppose others of which I am less aware. The first is the conviction that self-defense is the most prevalent source of error in all thinking and perhaps especially in theology and ethics. I cannot hope to have avoided this error in my effort to state Christian ideas in confessional terms only, but I have at least tried to guard against it.
The second idea is that the great source of evil in life is the absolutizing of the relative, which in Christianity takes the form of substituting religion, revelation, church or Christian morality for God.
The third conviction, which becomes most explicit in the latter part of this essay but underlies the former part, is that Christianity is “permanent revolution” or metanoia which does not come to an end in this world, this life, or this time. Positively stated these three convictions are that man is justified by grace, that God is sovereign, and that there is an eternal life.
What better song could usher us into the new year than Ben Shive’s “New Year”, from The Ill-Tempered Klavier?
Thank you for reading, for posting your thoughtful comments, for supporting the artists in the Rabbit Room Store, and for joining us in this journey. We hope your Christmas brought as many tender moments as mirthful, and that in the coming year you remember to hold to that which cannot be shaken.
Luke 4:7 jumped into my mind today. Not the words themselves, but just the chapter and verse number.
My mind was beginning to center in the wrong direction. Someone I know thought they could read my mind, and spoke their own erroneous thought to someone else. When I heard, I was taken by surprise. What they said was wrong and unjust. But I forgave, and trusted Christ in me to live through me, and He did.
But this morning - the soul-storm began to spin, slowly at first. The mind started mulling it over again, that forgiven thing. Read the rest of this entry »
I have to begin this review of Twilight with a disclaimer. I have only read the first book in the series. That’s important and counts as an initial strike against my review, because I happen to agree with James W. Thomas, lit scholar at Pepperdine and author of the forthcoming book Repotting Harry Potter that there are far too many people who have written off J.K. Rowling without reading all 4100 pages of J.K. Rowling. I’d hate to be one of those people who are missing the greatness of one particular series of books because I haven’t experienced them in full.
I grew up with Full Moon Fever. Songs like “Freefallin’”, “I Won’t Back Down”, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”, and “Yer So Bad” could easily be the sound track to my coming of age in rural Florida. I came from a town too small to have a theater, an arcade, or population of girls that hadn’t already told me to get lost, so I did most of my running around twenty-four miles away in the “big city” of Gainesville, home of the Gators, the University, a good number of unfortunate Volvos, and another awkward country boy named Tom Petty. I didn’t like the Gators, but I took a strange pride in being from the same backwoods that gave rise to a rock and roll icon and his Heartbreakers. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been unintentional, but on several occasions here in the Rabbit Room we’ve discussed the use and power of words, and eventually someone (often this guy) steers the conversation to musing about the difficulty and discipline of brevity– using fewer words for greater impact. Clearly, I’m only talking a good game here. Still, I’m fascinated by the discipline of forcing myself to be selective with the words I use. Here are a few fun links which are committed to the discipline of brevity. Read the rest of this entry »
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we have been posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, here’s a short introduction. Now we come to the last entry of our virtual advent wreath– the meditation that accompanies the white candle– the Christ Candle, for those playing along at home. The text for this final Christmas Day reflection comes from Matthew 1:18-25. Merry Christmas, everyone. Read the rest of this entry »
I was back in Michigan for the second time in three-and-a-half weeks. Knowing that it was a long drive to our ultimate destination of Lake City, my family left Nashville early on a Thursday where we reached Grand Rapids that evening and stayed the night with friends, Paul and Lyn, Michiganders who have been kind enough to host the traveling Peters clan in their warm and inviting home on more than one occasion.
I must mention here that two gentlemen helped me in the laborious and ridiculously long 3-month process of painting the exterior of my house: my neighbor Matt who, of his own accord, took up brush and pail when we had to rush to Louisiana in early September for a death in the family, and tall Michigander, Paul, who spent five days high atop a ladder slopping Grandiose Green on the wood siding of our 1925 cottage. As their names might imply, they are saints and true friends of action. I could not have finished the job without them. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Card wrote these beautiful words this season:
The Stable and the Cross
This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.
|| LUKE 2:34-35 || NRSV ||
As our family gathers around our faint, flickering candle to read the Christmas story, the loneliness of the stable reminds us of the loneliness of another place on a hill outside Jerusalem. The rough trough seems almost as cruel a place as a cross. The infant cries we hear coming from the stable seem no less desperate than his final cry, and no less forsaken.
Celebrate? you say. Yes, most heartily, amidst the dung of the stable, which is, of course, the refuse of the world. Celebrate at the foot of that ghastly cross because it is the hope of the world. Gather around a cattle trough and celebrate a baby born in poverty and rejected, because he is the Savior of the world!
“All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.” Ecclesiastes 6:7-9 (esv)
I don’t like to shop. I just go ahead and drop before I shop so I don’t have to go. Every day is black Friday for me –lots of sales I don’t care about and don’t want to be within a hundred miles of. Conjure up a mental image of me shaking my cane at the world. “Ya’ Dang kids,” he shouts. But I am not really glum; I just don’t like shopping at stores. (Note: The Rabbit Room store is on-line and stocked with great gifting items. Buy, Buy, Love. In that order.) Read the rest of this entry »
Jonathan’s incident with Randy McLeod underscores the neediness inherent in our God-created flesh, whether we are believers or unbelievers.
Sometimes famous people turn to substance abuse as an anodyne. It’s a horrific realization to finally climb to the top of the pile and still feel the same self-hatred as before. Others, after years of fame, may end up trying to start charities and such. What they (and we) are looking for is meaning, purpose, security, love; we’re looking to make a name for ourselves, to feel worth something, to know our lives have counted. But that can’t come by starting charities; that’s often just another way to feel on top of the pile, or to assuage guilt for having success when so many others are starving. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m in my bunk on the tour bus, which is in some ways like a coffin, in other ways like a berth on a ship. Some nights it feels more like a bunk bed at a sleep over with a bunch of friends, only your friends have whiskers and wives at home. To my left is a curtain that opens onto a little hallway of other drawn curtains where the other members of the tour are probably sleeping now. To my right is a book by Mark Helprin (one of the finest writers I’ve ever read) called Winter’s Tale. I’ve been reading it for six months or so and just can’t seem to finish it–not because it’s not good, but because it is. I don’t want it to end. Beside that is a book of poetry called Nine Horses by Billy Collins (which I highly recommend, especially if you’re like me and you don’t usually like poetry).
Let’s see, what else? A pair of dirty socks, my backpack, my cell phone, and a framed picture of a fourth grade class. The picture was a gift from a school teacher at our show in Charlotte. She gave each of her students a copy of one of my albums to coincide with a series of lessons and took a picture of the kids for me.
So now you know what it’s like in my secret chamber. Oh, I should probably also mention that it’s 3:31 am. Read the rest of this entry »
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, here’s a short introduction. If you’d like to make a wreath of your own for your family or study group, here’s how. The text for this week’s reflection comes from Matthew 2:1-12. Read the rest of this entry »
Here in the Rabbit Room, we try hard not to speak disparagingly about authors and artists. Rather, we laud the work that we admire and remain silent about that which we do not. However, sometimes exceptions must be made. In this case, the exception is that Andrew Osenga is hilarious. While I was talking with him recently about the newest cultural phenomenon which is Twilight, Andrew got passionate and I got tickled. I haven’t read the book yet, nor have I seen the movie, but what I’ve read about it leaves me a little concerned–not because it’s about vampires, or because it’s about teen romance, but because of its subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) themes. Also, because I have a hunch that it bears little or no artistic or literary merit. Someone emailed us recently and asked about a Rabbit Room perspective on this movie, and Travis Prinzi has a more in-depth one coming. In the meantime, enjoy Osenga’s editorial.
The Proprietor
——————————
So Andrew Peterson has been telling me for well over a year that I was welcome to post here at the Rabbit Room. He came to me a few days ago and said “Hey, remember that terrible book you sort of read? Want to review it on the site?” It seems like the perfect opportunity for my inaugural post. Russ Ramsey and Jason Gray write about theology and Paul Simon, I will write about teenage vampires. Read the rest of this entry »
I was in the checkout line at the Belmont Bi-Rite. In front of me, a famous person was paying for some ice cream. When I say he was famous, I don’t mean I recognized him from TV or the magazines. I didn’t. I knew he was famous because of the way he exchanged pleasantries with the cashier: not so much talking to her as engaging in stage patter. He pitched his voice about twice as loud as it needed to be, and he cut his eyes now toward me, now toward the thirteen-year-old bagboy to see how the act was playing to this little audience. His manner suggested that he thought we all knew who he was. Read the rest of this entry »
I told somebody that I was going to see Behold the Lamb of God, The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ with Andrew Peterson and friends. “Again?” he said. “Isn’t that the same guy you saw last year?” “Why yes, it is, as a matter of fact,” I said, avoiding the temptation to start a sermon, because how do you really explain such a thing; where would you start?
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, here’s a short introduction. If you’d like to make a wreath of your own for your family or study group, here’s how. The text for this week’s reflection comes from Luke 2:8-15. Read the rest of this entry »
The Rabbit Room welcomes its newest contributor. Travis Prinzi’s first book Harry Potter & Imagination: the Way Between Two Worlds is soon to be published, and he’s the proprietor of his own popular blog The Hog’s Head. He’s a Christian who is a bit of a geek about fairy stories and J.K. Rowling, which is to say that he fits right in. Welcome, Travis.
George MacDonald’s 184th birthday is this week (the 10th). Author of many works of fantasy and theology - including The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, and Lilith - he was a foundational influence on Lewis, Tolkien, and L’Engle. Along with his works fantastic fiction, he contributed an important essay on the genre, “The Fantastic Imagination.”
Matt: I’m a big fan of powerful acting performances (who isn’t?). So with that in mind, I’d like to suggest a question for you, Curt: Favorite male acting performance of the last decade?
Curt: The last decade? Well, I think the best way to do this is stream of consciousness style. If a performance is so compelling that it is one of the first to come to mind, it must be pretty good.
I’ve been hearing about this children’s Bible called The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones for a year or so now, first from Ben Shive, then from a smattering of others whose opinions I respect on such matters. One night last week Jamie and I were putting our sweet Skye to bed (she’s 6 now), and we were talking to her about Christmas. I’d been gearing up to leave for tour and with the first Sunday of Advent fast approaching we wanted to find out what she thought. Jamie asked her who was born on Christmas morning, and Skye answered, “Um…Noah?” Read the rest of this entry »
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, here’s a short introduction. If you’d like to make a wreath of your own for your family or study group, here’s how. The text for this week’s reflection comes from Luke 1:26-38. Read the rest of this entry »
In light of the Kierkegaard quote a few weeks back, I thought I’d put this quote from Norman Grubb’s God Unlimited up for discussion:
“There is no need to force a person’s will. All the other person need do is attract and captivate our ‘want,’ and then we will love to act in harmony with him….People often ask, How can we conceive of God changing a person’s will if he is free? The answer is that God changes our ‘want,’ and the will follows spontaneously. Once God has captured our wills by drawing us back to Himself through Christ, then it is He in us who ‘wills and does of His good pleasure’ and it is we who naturally, gladly, freely work it out.”
I stumbled onto a treasure this weekend in the bookstore. Leonard Cohen. I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time, from the silky Art Garfunkel-esqe sound of his younger days to the deep, baritone rasps of his golden years, and though I’ve picked up his books of poetry often enough out of curiosity, I had never actually bought one until this weekend. It’s called Book of Mercy. It’s a collection of what can only be described as psalms. Read the rest of this entry »
Hey guys, just wanted to pass along the latest interview over at Soul-Audio with the Proprietor himself, Andrew Peterson. We had a chance to get some honest reflections about the upcoming Christmas tour, the new album and a lot of other topics I haven’t heard Andrew speak on before. Here’s part of the interview:
“Being in love,” that intoxicating feeling, is sublime, heady. It elevates us, changes our perceptions of the world, of our present, of our future. Our heart sings. Our dreams for ourselves ring with angelic voices.
But it can’t last; it isn’t meant to. It’s like learning an instrument. We hear an acoustic guitar and want to play it. There’s excitement at the beginning, the potential, the thrill. The learning process begins - and soon we find “this isn’t easy.” Playing an instrument requires commitment, focus, determination - and a whole lot of time.
The halo melts away. It is at this point that our will must engage - the will to believe, to faithe, to trust that we do love it even if we don’t feel it. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to the Rabbit Room Virtual Advent Wreath. Over the course of the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, we will be posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, here’s a short introduction. If you’d like to make a wreath of your own for your family or study group, here’s how. The text for this week’s reflection comes from Luke 1:8-80. Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of mine knowing that I’ve been suffering from writer’s block for the past several months sent this to me, a poem by one of my favorite authors about the writing of poetry. I’ll add one thought but otherwise let the work speak for itself. I remember several years ago listening to acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee read some of his poetry and thinking at the time that his words created silence in me. In regards to the last lines of Mr. Berry’s poem here, I’ve often thought that the best books, poems, and songs - though filled with sounds and words - create a quiet place in us and give us an opportunity to actually listen to silence. Now, from Mr. Berry:
Over the course of the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, we are going to offer a series of weekly posts to tell again the story of the birth of Christ, and we’re going to offer them as a sort of a “Virtual Advent Wreath.” If you are unfamiliar with Advent Wreaths, here’s a short description of what they mean and how to make one of your own.
As a kid, I marked time by its proximity to Christmas. I had good reason for measuring time this way. With the cold and often snowy Indiana winters of my youth, together with the warm home my parents created for us, the Christmas I knew was everything a little kid could want it to be. It was never overrated. Read the rest of this entry »
“Eric Peters is cursed with an inability to settle or to sell out, afflicted with a need to follow his nose musically, lyrically, while spiritually he has falteringly tried his best to follow where God leads.”
Andrew Peterson wrote those words about the Louisiana native for the Square Peg website of which both songwriters are a part and the sentiment is spot on. The ring of familiarity might come for some from the ’90s duo Ridgely yet others might know his strong folk work on Scarce or More Than Watchmen. But we’re betting that most are new to Eric’s world which is why he’s being featured here.
A new album is finally on the way yet the process is different than what you’ve encountered before - instead asking fans to be a part of the journey. We recently spoke with Eric to discuss the wiki-approach and how his story has changed over the years.
He could write and speak his name perfectly well (Brett), he could use his young hands to grip the braided climbing rope supporting his frame, but his body from the waist down was as inoperable as felled masts of white pine. Like the moon in a clear, harvest sky, he dangled there thirty feet above the ground, a suspended child, a saint as it turns out, exhausted by the events leading up to this moment where he glowed at the upper reaches of the man-made rock-climbing tower out of nothing short of utter fatigue and extreme revelry where the two emotions mixed and mingled as if they were reunited friends. The raucous cheering of the audience below made it perfectly clear that this was no ordinary moment, either for them or for Brett. Read the rest of this entry »
You may remember me going on and on about the variety show called Tokens, taped right here in Nashville. I had the honor of performing on the very first show, and have been invited back for their Christmas special on December 9. Check out their website for info on the show, that is, if you’re up for an evening of theology, humor, and music. Here’s a link to a free download of their last show, “The Politics of Jesus”, featuring my friend and fellow Square Peg Alliance member Derek Webb.
Note: Last year I had the honor of speaking to a group of educators on the art of eloquence. I recent.y ran across my script and thought I’d offer it here as an encouragement to any of you out there who are involved in education, whether in your school, Sunday school, home, conference room, youth group, bible study, etc.
There is a scene in the film A River Runs Through It where the narrator, Norman Maclean, describes his education, saying, “I attended the school of the Reverend Maclean. He taught nothing but reading and writing. And being a Scot believed that the art of writing lay in thrift.” The scene flashed to a young Norman handing a paper to his father. His father scans it and hands it back, saying, “Again, half as long.” Norman goes back, writes his paper again, only half as long, and his father reads it again and repeats his instruction, “Again, half as long.”
This is strange instruction to students today who mistake the purpose of writing in school as being more of a quantitative endeavor than a qualitative one. Read the rest of this entry »
The Ill-Tempered Klavier made Christianity Today’s list of ten best albums of 2008! If you haven’t bought the album yet, by all means, proceed to the Rabbit Room store or iTunes. Also, until now the album has only been available as a download. The CDs just came in, if that’s what you were waiting for. Ben will also have them available on the Christmas tour starting next month.
Congratulations, Ben, from all of us in the Rabbit Room.
It’s a beautiful thing to be reminded of why we do what we do and why we love what we love. I recently spent the weekend in Spokane, Washington (a lovely part of the country) speaking to some high school students and young adults. The subject of the four talks I gave from Friday through Sunday was the concept of Shalom and the greater mission of God. And my time there was as fulfilling for me as it was for anyone else there.
I speak at my own church - The Mercy House - each and every week, for the most part. I’ve been doing it for over four years and we’ve built a community that I love to be a part of. It’s a creative, young, missional community and I feel lucky to lead such an amazing group of people. But it’s also true that what I have to say and how I say it is rather old hat. “Yes, Matt, we’ve heard that story before,” or “Yes, Matt, that analogy was a fine one to make the first three times we heard it.” Read the rest of this entry »
Resurrection Letters, Volume II is artful and beautiful. We’ve come to expect that from Andrew Peterson’s work, haven’t we? Like magnet to steel, we detect a divine pull. With the rising sun, the voice of beauty beckons. Something important is about to be illuminated. Melody after melody, phrase upon phrase, the Tennessee songwriter with a Barnabas heart imparts familiar truths unconventionally. Despite tackling some of the same topics as other Christian songwriters, it usually feels like we are getting a remarkably different take; one that burrows inside the emotional truth far deeper than might be expected from songs that are less nuanced and thoughtful.
Disclaimer: You may read this and want to defend Andrew Peterson. I assure you, that won’t be necessary. I read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness with my son and we loved it. Also, I’ve spent time conveying to Andrew in rather specific detail why we loved it and what it did in our imaginations. He knows my deep affection for the book. He also knows what I’m about to say is not a criticism. It is, however, funny. If you want to read up on Andrew’s book and make comments about it, may I direct you to Jonathan Roger’s insightful review. If you want to discuss the strange phenomenon of dubious honors, this is your place.
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness recently won an award. I saw it on Andrew’s website. “Darn right,” I thought. “Let the accolades begin,” said I. “Let the movie rights get bought up as the folks at Newberry, Medallion and Pulitzer stand and take notice.”
Whenever any of the square pegs are recognized for the excellence they create, it feels like a win for my team. So I clicked on the link to get the details of “our” book’s recent award. If you feel me here, if you know exactly what I mean by “it feels like a win for my team,” let me tell you what “we” won. Read the rest of this entry »
It is one of the ironies of Appalachia that beautiful, changing, fall leaves create a scene that is Edenic just before the bitter winter comes. As it is difficult to enjoy a Sunday night when Monday’s work is already filling the next slot in the viewmaster of our lives, so it is hard to forget that winter is stalking us, and we ought to enjoy the glories of fall while it lasts. Autumn, with its auburn and amber, is a fragile paradise. It is always a season on the brink. Read the rest of this entry »
In a new interview posted this week with Christianity Today, A Window to the World, Andrew talks about record labels, Resurrection Letters, Volume I, Patrick Swayze, square pegs, the Rabbit Room, and much more.
When CT asked what theme he wanted to convey with Resurrection Letters, Volume II, Andrew answered,
A lot of this album ends up paying attention and opening eyes to the idea that just as Christ drew breath in the tomb, we will also bodily come back to life because of him. And that’s not some ethereal Patrick Swayze in Ghost sort of a resurrection, but a physical bodily resurrection. The Bible says the earth will be renewed and made clean and that’s where we’ll live. Hopefully this record will encourage listeners with songs like Invisible God and Windows in the World, really getting to the heart of the resurrection story and the idea of things being made new again.
There’s also the song Don’t Give Up on Me, which is a love song I wrote to my wife. The bridge windows a really hard season in our marriage where we had to “die again” to ourselves and really go through the fire to come out clean on the other side. There are a lot of references to seasons and the sacraments God has given us, like baptism and the idea of lowering ourselves into the water with the likeness of death, only to be raised again to a new life.
That’s right, faithful readers, a new episode of the Rabbit Room Podcast is up and running. This one features our own Curt McLey’s silky smooth voice.
Oh, and thanks to you guys and your kind reviews of the podcast, iTunes has added the RR Podcast to the “New & Notable” list in the music section. There are a zillion podcasts in the world, so this is a pretty cool thing. Thanks for listening!
This past Sunday was All Saints Day, the day in the liturgical church calendar we remember and honor those who have died in the Lord. This has always been a really meaningful service for me, but this year I walked into our little Anglican church in Nashville with some trepidation. Our pastor, Thomas, had sent an e-mail out to everyone in the congregation asking us to tell our stories of loved ones no longer with us whose lives impacted ours in a profound way. Teachers who changed our minds and hearts, parents, grandparents or siblings that loved us well, friends who pointed us to God. He was devoting the entire sermon to these testimonies and wanted us to honor those lives publicly. Read the rest of this entry »
“No man is better for knowing that God so loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their redemption. In hell there are millions who know that. Theological truth is useless unless it is obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action.”
“What is generally overlooked is that truth as set forth in the Christian Scriptures is a moral thing; it is not addressed to the intellect only, but to the will also. It addresses itself to the total man, and its obligations cannot be discharged by grasping it mentally. Truth engages the citadel of the human heart and is not satisfied until it has conquered everything there. The will must come forth and surrender its sword. It must stand at attention to receive orders, and those orders it must joyfully obey. Short of this any knowledge of Christian truth is inadequate and unavailing.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hey, folks. I just published a new episode of the Rabbit Room Podcast. I don’t mean to hog the air time, but I wanted to share the stories behind the new songs on RL II with the folks who couldn’t make it out to one of the release shows. The whole album is on here, albeit in edited form, so if you have friends you want to pass the music on to, go for it. Thanks for listening!
Nikola Tesla, inventor of the radio, said, “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” —from the “Flash of Genius” movie website.
“Flash of Genius” is based on the true story of engineering professor and part time inventor Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper only to have Ford, and then Chrysler steal his design and refuse to credit him for inventing it. Figuring the film couldn’t possibly be banking on drawing windshield wiper lovers alone, I had a hunch the invention itself would be incidental to a greater story.
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Randall Goodgame’s new album, Bluebird, officially releases today. About six weeks ago, as they were nearing the end of the recording process, Randall asked if I would write some string arrangements for it. I thought I’d write a little about the process here, for those interested in seeing behind the scenes. (I’ll leave a song-by-song commentary for someone else (Curt?) saying only that it’s a great record, from the opening downbeat to the last B3 organ chord.) Read the rest of this entry »
Artists are passion people. To feel passionately about things seems to be a prerequisite to the creation of most art forms, maybe music especially.
A songwriter’s passion for ultimate ideas is what drives him/her to write songs about love, life, God, and other ultimate ideas - even ideas about justice, war, and the way the world should work. Thus there is a strong tradition of political, social, and protest songs that make up the songbook of our Western civilization, from Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to Keane and Coldplay.
So on the eve of our latest election, I thought I’d ask you all for your favorite political, social, or protest songs - the good, the bad, and the ugly. It could be songs you love, or songs you hate. It could be social commentary like “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, or it could be more direct like “The Great American Novel” by Larry Norman or… well… just about anything by Derek Webb. Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry I’ve been MIA here for a bit. Between the Fall tour, writing for the next record, and quick trips home to be with my family, there’s been little room for extracurricular writing. But I wanted to let you know that CMCentral.com has posted a new piece I wrote about apples and what they have to do with being salt and light. The Fall is the Gray household’s favorite time of year, and every Fall we make a trip to the apple orchard and bring home bags of fresh, delicious apples. So with Fall in the air and apples on the brain, I wrote this months piece that you can read in it’s entirety here
Apples To Apples
“You are the salt of the earth…the light of the world…” (Matthew 5:13, 14)
I don’t like Red Delicious apples. I don’t mean to sound negative, but truly, I can’t stand them. It’s not an indifferent matter of preference but a well developed loathing. They’re an altogether unexceptional apple whose skin is bitter and whose insides are soft and mealy. Even the immodest name of the apple is suspicious. It’s like they’re trying too hard to convince all of us: Red Delicious apples. So I like to call them Red Not Delicious apples (or RND for short).
My friend posted a quote the other day that has me thinking (although it should have me ‘doing’). I’ve actually read this a couple times but now, more than ever, I am considering the implications and whether or not I agree. Then I thought the Rabbit Room is a perfect place for such an excerpt:
The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand it, we must act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. ~Soren Kierkegaard
My first career was radio broadcasting. My big break came when I was hired as the all night guy at 59/WOW Omaha. That era was the tail end of the glory days for music on AM radio. With 5,000 watts and a favorable dial position, our signal blasted into Canada, seven or eight states, and with the skywave signal during my shift in the middle of the night, sometimes more. With high profile promotions and good ratings, it was a heady time for a small town boy of nineteen. I was the all night Jeff Spencer. Read the rest of this entry »
I have a memory burned into my mind of one of the last times I talked to my father - this was shortly after my parents’ separation after 25 years of marriage and just before God told him to kill me, my siblings, and my mom. We were standing in the nearly bare dining room of the house I grew up in, a room filled to overflowing with good memories from my childhood, memories of laughter and safe places and love. The only items in the room were my old stereo system that was left behind because it only worked half the time, sitting on the floor to my left, a cluttered desk in the corner across from me, and a folding table set up in the middle of the room, where the dining room table used to sit, piled high with several weeks worth of mail and old newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw an invigorating concert tonight. I was blessed to be surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world. I sat next to Jill Phillips, Andy Gullahorn, and Don Chaffer (Waterdeep, Enter The Worship Circle) as the Art Music Justice tour unfolded before us – an artful combination of music, images, media, the Word of God, and the call to remember the poorest of the poor. The tour was the brain-child (or perhaps heart child is more appropriate here) of Troy & Sara Groves and featured guests Charlie Peacock, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Brandon Heath. Read the rest of this entry »
Author’s Note: I’ve always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I love his weird words and the strange way he’s able to evoke things that are both awe-inspiring and horrific at the same time. His stories, even the bad ones and those that are merely repeats of others, stick in my mind for days after I read them partly because he never lets the reader see everything, he leaves you with glimpses, impressions, reactions. You have to let your mind fill in the blanks and what your own mind comes up with is often more disturbing than anything he could have written.
When I decided to write a ‘ghost story’ about my brother’s house and its location on Stephens Hill I succumbed to my desire to write in the style of Lovecraft. Anyone who’s a fan will recognize the structure, word choices, and even a certain (slightly altered) name. As much as I like the way the story turned out, it’s so clearly Lovecraftian that I can’t really claim it as my own and prefer to think of it as an homage to a master of the genre. Read the rest of this entry »
Reading with my children has reminded me of a truth that years of adulthood had almost caused me to forget: that “story” is truer than “precept.” We adults tend to think that we arrive at the truth of a story by reducing it to two or three abstractions that the narrative embodies. The parable of the Prodigal Son is “about” grace and forgiveness. The Lord of the Rings is “about” courage and friendship. We listen with half an ear as the preacher reads the scripture lesson, because his sermon is going to boil it down to three basic truths anyway.
But our children know it’s the story that does the work on us, not the disembodied precept. If you don’t believe it, open up a book of Aesop’s Fables; skip the fables, and just read the morals at the end of the fables. You might just as well tell punch lines instead of telling jokes. The moral may summarize the story and bring it to a point, but the moral isn’t the point. Read the rest of this entry »
“One track he’s an evocative poet, the next a storyteller, and before long he’s singing praise to the Lord—all within the same album. Though he resides in the same folk-pop vein throughout, he varies his scope from song to song (like Mullins) and thus more fully articulates Christian living than most of today’s faith-based artists.”
Laura Nunnery at Jesus Freak Hideout had this to say:
“If every artist received the amount of recognition he deserved based on talent, Andrew Peterson would have shelves filled with awards. Unfortunately, the industry does not work that way. Although Peterson continues to remain under appreciated, he is never miserly when it comes to producing quality albums that are honest, poignant, and relatable. Resurrection Letters Volume II is another page in a moving story that is Andrew Peterson’s musical catalogue.”
“Andrew Peterson has always been able to communicate the Gospel in the vernacular. But with Resurrection Letters, Vol. II he makes the Good News indelibly crisp, remarkably clear, and undeniably appealing.”
Is there a qualitative difference between learning a song from your Grandfather and downloading a song from iTunes, from getting a recipe online and pulling out the yellowing paper of an old, family recipe? Ken Myers answers in the affirmative, channeling C.S. Lewis when he discusses the need for thoughtful Christians to consider not only content in what we appreciate in art, but also how we receive it.
Myers, in his excellent book All God’s Children and Blue-Suede Shoes, points out that while Christians have been very sensitive to the content of movies, music and other art forms, we have been less discriminating about how art comes to us and what that process can help us become. We have counted the references to the name of Jesus in music (at rough estimation, repeated about 9,000 times in many Praise and Worship songs) and we have checked for how many so-called “curse words” there are in films, but we have failed to recognize our increasing tendency to fracture and disconnect from our own history and community in how we receive art. Often we see art only as a vehicle for moralism and this has issued in some pretty crummy results. And by art I mean music, painting, drawing, writing, etc. Myers (and Lewis) argue that we need to receive art in a different way than we are being trained to by our culture (increasingly autonomous in the modern era) and I think he is right. Read the rest of this entry »
The other night my wife and I had the opportunity to see Charlie Peacock in concert. The Art*Music*Justice tour, featuring Sarah Groves, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Brandon Heath and Charlie, had an off day in Kansas City. So Charlie set up a house show with just him and his piano in the upstairs art gallery of the world’s most perfect Christian bookstore, Signs of Life, in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. (No kidding. Not a Scripture mint to be found, but huge sections on art, history, classics and local writers. There’s one wall devoted to the puritans, and another to Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor and the like. Dangerous.)
Now you need to know for those formative years bridging high school and college, Charlie provided the soundtrack for my life. So there’s my bias. There was one record in particular which made me want to write, sing and play guitar. In fact, it planted in me a desire to make art and live artistically during that window of life when I was considering, in many ways for the first time, what I wanted to do and become. Read the rest of this entry »
I had the pleasure of reviewing AP’s latest, Resurrection Letters, Volume II, over at Soul-Audio and I thought it might be of moderate interest here, seeing as how Andrew Peterson is slightly connected here and that some of us are nominal fans.
If you haven’t purchased this album, do so now! It’s really an incredible listen and much more than a simple listening experience. You can read the full review here.
You know you’re in for a great night of music when the first half of the show features Square Peg Alliance members Jeremy Casella, Andy Osenga, and Andrew Peterson playing in the round. That’s how the release show for the last album from JJ Heller, The Pretty and the Plain, started out. And the album lived up to the expectations set by that evening. I bought more copies of The Pretty and the Plain to give away as gifts than I did any other CD last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever been on the receiving end of truly gracious hospitality? How about on the giving end? For Andi Ashworth, the art of caregiving is something that came alive in her. She said, “I discovered that, with design, intent and hard work, I could contribute to a story laced with the true, the good, and the beautiful in the lives of my family and friends.” In her book “Real Love for Real Life,” Andi contends that caregiving is more than a second-tier Christian duty. It is a “grand invitation to serve others with beauty, imagination, and love to which God calls us.”
Maybe I’ve found a good reason to justify my pack rat inclination. For years I have maintained three dresser drawers, a suit case, and an old trunk–full of so-called memorabilia–spanning over thirty years now. I rarely venture in there. These archives contain an old autograph book, boxes of letters from old camp friends, many of which have antiquated eight cent stamps on the envelope, pictures of people I haven’t seen in years, essays from college, journals, greeting cards, Bible study notes, awards, some dirt in a jar from Camp Merrill, home-spun novels, and a partridge in a pear tree. Read the rest of this entry »
The new podcast is now available. Thanks for listening! If you have a moment, be sure and leave a review of the podcast on the iTunes page. I hear that helps them decide which ones are posted on the main page of the iTunes store–and if the RR podcast made it there we’d have have eight million listeners overnight, which would lead to the opening of the physical Rabbit Room here in Nashville, which would lead to our taking over the world. Review away, compatriots. Here are the links:
Also, you should know that Eric Peters is starting a new record with producer Ben Shive, something about which I’m very excited. Eric has come up with a brilliant plan for raising funds for his album that is right in line with the Rabbit Room philosophy on supporting artists who are shedding light. Here’s the plan, in Eric’s words: Read the rest of this entry »
Back in 1994 I was living as a student in Jerusalem. A roommate of mine had this book called “The Living.” He was just finishing when I first saw him reading it. I asked him if it was any good. In a non sequitur kind of way, he said, “Look at this picture on the cover.” It was an old plate picture of a family of loggers in the American northwest, circa 1900 or so. I couldn’t stop studying that image with fascination. It seemed to capture an era we’ll only imagine– men and children with axes and saws beside a clapboad shack beside fallen redwoods with trunks six feet thick.
I judged the book by its cover. And while Annie Dillard didn’t take the picture, write about the picture or probably even select the picture, that photo of a world that seemed to be teeming with a secret knowledge of how hard life is brought me into Dillard’s world, which carries that same secret, along with a secret knowledge of how glorious life is at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently interviewed the fantastic singer/songwriter and friend of Andrew Peterson’s known as Jill Phillips. In the interview, she talks about being away for a bit from the music scene, being on the Christmas tour for the fifth year and her brand new album due out in just over a month. Read the rest of this entry »
This may be a Rabbit Room first, but this post is about sports. Yes, sports. In particular, baseball. The playoffs begin this week for this game many people find to be one of the dullest professional sports around. I, however, find baseball to be loaded with significance and parallels to a meaningful life. (That may have been an overstatement right there, but not by much.) Read the rest of this entry »
I fell for it again these last few weeks. And it hurt more people than I wish to admit.
You see, I’ve never voted. Not once. I don’t really care to get caught up in this person or that candidate. I find the notion silly that everything has to be pared down to only two options and neither have ever been that intriguing as long as I’ve been alive. Plus it always seems to divide and I have more interest in the day to day needs of the immediate world around me than to get caught up in Washingtonian debates.
Yet this year is different. Excitement (or fear) is in the air more than ever before. Where in previous years, nobody would bother talking about politics, now this year everyone is talking about it. My conservative parents are concerned about their liberal son. Friends and family are taking up the cause of the economy, the war, immigration and so forth. It’s not just a heightened awareness, but rather an emotional cacophony of concern and protest.
“A mistake constantly made by those who should know better is to judge people of the past by our standards rather than their own. The only way men or women can be judged is against the canvas of their own time.” –Louis L’Amour
Last week was J.R.R. Tolkien’s 117th birthday. I give you some excerpts from his excellent work, “On Fairy-Stories,” on art, fairy tales, eucatastrophe, and the Gospel:
While browsing at a used bookstore earlier this week with a friend, I came across a book by H. Richard Niebuhr, The Meaning of Revelation. I read his brother’s first book a couple months ago, Reinhold Niebuhr’s Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic, and absolutely loved it, so I figured this would be worth reading, not to mention that it is on a topic which holds a lot of interest for me at the moment. Before heading over to a friends’ house to watch (read: wrestle with) their kids while they went to a New Year’s Eve party, I read the preface to The Meaning of Revelation. The paragraph outlining the convictions underlying the study begged to be read several times. Seems like these are good convictions to affirm as we stand at the threshold of another year.
What better song could usher us into the new year than Ben Shive’s “New Year”, from The Ill-Tempered Klavier?
I have to begin this review of Twilight with a disclaimer. I have only read the first book in the series. That’s important and counts as an initial strike against my review, because I happen to agree with James W. Thomas, lit scholar at Pepperdine and author of the forthcoming book 
I grew up with Full Moon Fever. Songs like 
It has been unintentional, but on several occasions here in the Rabbit Room we’ve discussed the use and power of words, and eventually someone (often this guy) steers the conversation to musing about the difficulty and discipline of brevity– using fewer words for greater impact. Clearly, I’m only talking a good game here. Still, I’m fascinated by the discipline of forcing myself to be selective with the words I use. Here are a few fun links which are committed to the discipline of brevity. 
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we have been posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, 
I was back in Michigan for the second time in three-and-a-half weeks. Knowing that it was a long drive to our ultimate destination of Lake City, my family left Nashville early on a Thursday where we reached Grand Rapids that evening and stayed the night with friends, Paul and Lyn, Michiganders who have been kind enough to host the traveling Peters clan in their warm and inviting home on more than one occasion. 
I’m in my bunk on the tour bus, which is in some ways like a coffin, in other ways like a berth on a ship. Some nights it feels more like a bunk bed at a sleep over with a bunch of friends, only your friends have whiskers and wives at home. To my left is a curtain that opens onto a little hallway of other drawn curtains where the other members of the tour are probably sleeping now. To my right is a book by Mark Helprin (one of the finest writers I’ve ever read) called Winter’s Tale. I’ve been reading it for six months or so and just can’t seem to finish it–not because it’s not good, but because it is. I don’t want it to end. Beside that is a book of poetry called Nine Horses by Billy Collins (which I highly recommend, especially if you’re like me and you don’t usually like poetry).
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, 
Here in the Rabbit Room, we try hard not to speak disparagingly about authors and artists. Rather, we laud the work that we admire and remain silent about that which we do not. However, sometimes exceptions must be made. In this case, the exception is that Andrew Osenga is hilarious. While I was talking with him recently about the newest cultural phenomenon which is Twilight, Andrew got passionate and I got tickled. I haven’t read the book yet, nor have I seen the movie, but what I’ve read about it leaves me a little concerned–not because it’s about vampires, or because it’s about teen romance, but because of its subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) themes. Also, because I have a hunch that it bears little or no artistic or literary merit. Someone emailed us recently and asked about a Rabbit Room perspective on this movie, and Travis Prinzi has a more in-depth one coming. In the meantime, enjoy Osenga’s editorial.
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, 
Matt: I’m a big fan of powerful acting performances (who isn’t?). So with that in mind, I’d like to suggest a question for you, Curt: Favorite male acting performance of the last decade?
I’ve been hearing about this children’s Bible called The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones for a year or so now, first from Ben Shive, then from a smattering of others whose opinions I respect on such matters. One night last week Jamie and I were putting our sweet Skye to bed (she’s 6 now), and we were talking to her about Christmas. I’d been gearing up to leave for tour and with the first Sunday of Advent fast approaching we wanted to find out what she thought. Jamie asked her who was born on Christmas morning, and Skye answered, “Um…Noah?” 
Here in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we are posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, 
Hey guys, just wanted to pass along the latest interview over at Soul-Audio with the Proprietor himself, Andrew Peterson. We had a chance to get some honest reflections about the upcoming Christmas tour, the new album and a lot of other topics I haven’t heard Andrew speak on before. Here’s part of the 
Welcome to the Rabbit Room Virtual Advent Wreath. Over the course of the next several weeks leading up to Christmas, we will be posting a series of meditations focused on the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospels. For more on what Advent means and why many Christains observe it, 
“Eric Peters is cursed with an inability to settle or to sell out, afflicted with a need to follow his nose musically, lyrically, while spiritually he has falteringly tried his best to follow where God leads.”
The boy’s legs were useless.
Note: Last year I had the honor of speaking to a group of educators on the art of eloquence. I recent.y ran across my script and thought I’d offer it here as an encouragement to any of you out there who are involved in education, whether in your school, Sunday school, home, conference room, youth group, bible study, etc.
It’s a beautiful thing to be reminded of why we do what we do and why we love what we love. I recently spent the weekend in Spokane, Washington (a lovely part of the country) speaking to some high school students and young adults. The subject of the four talks I gave from Friday through Sunday was the concept of Shalom and the greater mission of God. And my time there was as fulfilling for me as it was for anyone else there.
The newest podcast is up and running, this one from Pete Peterson himself. Thanks for listening, folks.
It is one of the ironies of Appalachia that beautiful, changing, fall leaves create a scene that is Edenic just before the bitter winter comes. As it is difficult to enjoy a Sunday night when Monday’s work is already filling the next slot in the viewmaster of our lives, so it is hard to forget that winter is stalking us, and we ought to enjoy the glories of fall while it lasts. Autumn, with its auburn and amber, is a fragile paradise. It is always a season on the brink. 
In a new interview posted this week with Christianity Today, 
That’s right, faithful readers, a new episode of the Rabbit Room Podcast is up and running. This one features our own Curt McLey’s silky smooth voice.
This past Sunday was All Saints Day, the day in the liturgical church calendar we remember and honor those who have died in the Lord. This has always been a really meaningful service for me, but this year I walked into our little Anglican church in Nashville with some trepidation. Our pastor, Thomas, had sent an e-mail out to everyone in the congregation asking us to tell our stories of loved ones no longer with us whose lives impacted ours in a profound way. Teachers who changed our minds and hearts, parents, grandparents or siblings that loved us well, friends who pointed us to God. He was devoting the entire sermon to these testimonies and wanted us to honor those lives publicly. 
Nikola Tesla, inventor of the radio, said, “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” —from the “Flash of Genius” movie website.
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Randall Goodgame’s new album, Bluebird, officially releases today. About six weeks ago, as they were nearing the end of the recording process, Randall asked if I would write some string arrangements for it. I thought I’d write a little about the process here, for those interested in seeing behind the scenes. (I’ll leave a song-by-song commentary for someone else (Curt?) saying only that it’s a great record, from the opening downbeat to the last B3 organ chord.) 
My friend posted a quote the other day that has me thinking (although it should have me ‘doing’). I’ve actually read this a couple times but now, more than ever, I am considering the implications and whether or not I agree. Then I thought the Rabbit Room is a perfect place for such an excerpt:
I have a memory burned into my mind of one of the last times I talked to my father - this was shortly after my parents’ separation after 25 years of marriage and just before God told him to kill me, my siblings, and my mom. We were standing in the nearly bare dining room of the house I grew up in, a room filled to overflowing with good memories from my childhood, memories of laughter and safe places and love. The only items in the room were my old stereo system that was left behind because it only worked half the time, sitting on the floor to my left, a cluttered desk in the corner across from me, and a folding table set up in the middle of the room, where the dining room table used to sit, piled high with several weeks worth of mail and old newspapers. 
Author’s Note: I’ve always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I love his weird words and the strange way he’s able to evoke things that are both awe-inspiring and horrific at the same time. His stories, even the bad ones and those that are merely repeats of others, stick in my mind for days after I read them partly because he never lets the reader see everything, he leaves you with glimpses, impressions, reactions. You have to let your mind fill in the blanks and what your own mind comes up with is often more disturbing than anything he could have written.
Reading with my children has reminded me of a truth that years of adulthood had almost caused me to forget: that “story” is truer than “precept.” We adults tend to think that we arrive at the truth of a story by reducing it to two or three abstractions that the narrative embodies. The parable of the Prodigal Son is “about” grace and forgiveness. The Lord of the Rings is “about” courage and friendship. We listen with half an ear as the preacher reads the scripture lesson, because his sermon is going to boil it down to three basic truths anyway.
Is there a qualitative difference between learning a song from your Grandfather and downloading a song from iTunes, from getting a recipe online and pulling out the yellowing paper of an old, family recipe? Ken Myers answers in the affirmative, channeling C.S. Lewis when he discusses the need for thoughtful Christians to consider not only content in what we appreciate in art, but also how we receive it. 
The other night my wife and I had the opportunity to see Charlie Peacock in concert. The 
You know you’re in for a great night of music when the first half of the show features Square Peg Alliance members 
Have you ever been on the receiving end of truly gracious hospitality? How about on the giving end? For Andi Ashworth, the art of caregiving is something that came alive in her. She said, “I discovered that, with design, intent and hard work, I could contribute to a story laced with the true, the good, and the beautiful in the lives of my family and friends.” In her book “Real Love for Real Life,” Andi contends that caregiving is more than a second-tier Christian duty. It is a “grand invitation to serve others with beauty, imagination, and love to which God calls us.”
Maybe I’ve found a good reason to justify my pack rat inclination. For years I have maintained three dresser drawers, a suit case, and an old trunk–full of so-called memorabilia–spanning over thirty years now. I rarely venture in there. These archives contain an old autograph book, boxes of letters from old camp friends, many of which have antiquated eight cent stamps on the envelope, pictures of people I haven’t seen in years, essays from college, journals, greeting cards, Bible study notes, awards, some dirt in a jar from Camp Merrill, home-spun novels, and a partridge in a pear tree. 
The new podcast is now available. Thanks for listening! If you have a moment, be sure and leave a review of the podcast on the iTunes page. I hear that helps them decide which ones are posted on the main page of the iTunes store–and if the RR podcast made it there we’d have have eight million listeners overnight, which would lead to the opening of the physical Rabbit Room here in Nashville, which would lead to our taking over the world. Review away, compatriots. Here are the links:
I recently interviewed the fantastic singer/songwriter and friend of Andrew Peterson’s known as Jill Phillips. In the interview, she talks about being away for a bit from the music scene, being on the Christmas tour for the fifth year and her brand new album due out in just over a month. 
I fell for it again these last few weeks. And it hurt more people than I wish to admit.
