The Rabbit Room

This post is incredibly brave, Shigé. I’m grateful for your words and for your voice.

Beautifully expressed – thank you. An album that has embodied the range of emotions found in the Pslams for me has been “When I Was Younger” by Colony House. If you know their backstory, they give voice to sadness, self-doubt and yet, God is still good. Their rock sensibilities give voice to rage and all the pent up emotion that comes with grieving. It is a go to album for me.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this articulated and am so thankful you did, and did it perfectly. I too have always felt the need for this music, and have had to choose between songs of faith that speak the deep truth, and songs that acknowledge the full range of valid human emotion and response to such a world as this one. Mere melancholy is just inadequate for some of the things that are done to us while the Kingdom is still being birthed. And as frightening as the passages about God’s wrath are, if He couldn’t muster some rage at the enslavement and victimization of His children, I’m not sure He would be God enough for me. I will certainly be giving the album a listen, and maybe can enthuse about it properly in October.

Helena, thank you so much! Christopher, I look forward to listening to “When I Was Younger,” thank you for the suggestion. Matthew, exactly! I’m so glad this resonated with you. Does this mean you’ll be at Hutchmoot in October? If so, please find me, I’d love to get to talk with you and hear what you thought of the album.

Yes, we’ll be at Hutchmoot – just two and a half months away! The thought makes me cackle and caper like Sméagol when he’s caught a fish. On the inside anyway. Will definitely catch you for that Ember conversation!

“Most Christian music is in such a hurry to get to hope that it ends up feeling like a lie to anyone tuned into the devastation of the world—a cheap curtain drawn over the smoking wreckage.”
Mmmhmm. Beautifully stated.

Love this! To quote Lewis again: “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing.”

Shige, you offer such insight and wisdom that I pray will resonate throughout the community. You and I have spoken of this, but for the sake of sharing I will say that I am doing my part to bring dear friends from my church into the Rabbit Room community by offering a writing small group to help build confidence in those who long to write but aren’t sure where to begin. (Once word got out about the possibility they are coming out of the woodwork! So exciting!) We are also forming the small beginnings of what we hope will become a mini-moot showcasing the unity our very racially diverse church enjoys and how God has brought us together to create a beautiful work of art. Someone once told me, “We are the part longing for the whole.” Only in true, Christ-centered community, will we ever be satisfied. It is certainly difficult to achieve, but it is no less a worthy and high calling to which we aspire and one I believe we can attain.

What a wonderful reminder! Thanks, Shige, for sharing. I am new to The Rabbit Toom. Similar to Elizabeth’s response to your question, what is the best way for me to find “fellow Rabbits” near me? I look forward to connecting with this community online, but finding Rabbits that I could meet face to face with would be even better!

I heartily agree with Kara’s comment! I also wanted to add, in addition to my earlier comment, that sometimes we find ourselves in a holy moment when we are with a lot of people we do not know well at all, and in a place we never really wanted to be. My husband encouraged me to attend a church conference with him in Texas last month–all in Spanish, not my first language, so I was totally outside of my comfort zone. But I wept constantly, singing praises in Spanish and hearing powerful sermons in Spanish–I never would have put myself in that room, never would have desired to go to this conference, so I have thanked God a million times for bringing me together with these few hundred people who are all from a completely different cultural background to focus on the most beautiful Truth of all beautiful truths.

Before I ever knew the Rabbit Room existed, I was part of (grew up in) a Christ-centered community that actively fostered creativity and various art forms. Dance, theater, music, writing… and various off-shoots of that involving photography, drawing/painting, filmmaking, etc. None of this was high-profile. Most of us were amateurs or enthusiasts (and many of us very young ones, at that). It started when a young lady, at the age of 15, directed a “canned” musical about the story of Esther. A year later, she started teaching about 10 of her peers and younger friends ballet in a church fellowship hall. Over the next 6-8 years, this developed into a large community of families involved in regular theater and dance productions (some had cast/crew of about 100!) who shared a similar heart, values, and love of worshipping God through these art forms. About 5 years ago, the dance and theater ministry/company at the heart of it all ended, due to many of the leaders getting married or moving away to college. (Yes, most of the leaders were in high school. Our parents were incredibly supportive and awesome.) At that point, lacking the structure that had defined the community so far, several of the families created a new structure… a family Bible study that meets every other week, with various gatherings and retreats at the beach, lake, or mountains. The families in this group belong to several different churches, yet worship and grow together in this context. And this is a beautiful thing.
I was one of the young “leaders” who graduated high school and went away to college for four years. Now I’m back, in a weird in-between season, neither a “kid” nor a parent, and the structure of the community I grew up in is no longer based around the arts, although many people within it have creative passions and skills. Part of me misses what was before. But I know that it’s futile to look backwards like that. I’m not sure what to do in the meantime… I don’t know how long I’ll be in this place with these people. And I’ve totally had the thought, “if only I lived closer to Nashville.” This article has made me consider that I have a responsibility to foster community and the arts where I am now, rather than wishing I was somewhere else. But it’s hard to invest in a place when you don’t know if you’ll be there for very much longer. (Early 20s are a time of lots of unknowns and change.) I share this, I guess, to give an example of what one “arts community” grew into. And to show how small beginnings can turn into something lasting and significant. But also because, on the other side of it, I’m finding myself searching for an Inner Ring again.

It took me several years of Hutchmoots to learn this. From “if we only lived closer” to feeling like I had to be involved in everything for fear of missing out (and missing the beauty of the moment in front of me), to pining for the Nashville mountaintop at the expense of my local church family, I had a lot of things to get straight.
What a poignant reminder to return to what matters. Thanks for writing it all down.

First I must SQUEEEE because you are now a published-on-the-Rabbit-Room-blog POET!!! So exciting!
After I got that part calmed down enough to actually read, I realized that you have brought out a whole side of the truth that I have never realized. I knew the gentle side, I knew the about the humility and selflessness needed to be willing to come at all, but the reality that incarnating was an act of war, coming for our rescue. It is completely there in the Bible…I just didn’t see it that way…Simeon knew it when he saw an 8 day old baby though and talked to his Mom about swords and him being spoken against and causing the fall and rise of many.

Just so proud of you, sweet friend! You are a gifted poet and teller of deep truth. So thankful for how you make us think beyond the surface!

So beautiful. And so very proud of you. Hope this is just the beginning of sharing your writing with us here.

I am reading _Return of the King_ this month, and your poem is giving me some serious Aragorn vibes. To war!

YEAH SHIGÉ ON THE RABBIT ROOM.
Also: Epic.

Powerful! Thank you for sharing this!