Men,

Next time Snowpocalypse decides to unleash its fluffy fury on Minneapolis, let’s be ready. If you’d like to band together with Nick Laparra and me to push, dig, and haul people out of the snow, let me know and I will add you to my list as a Snowman.

When huge snowfalls hit our neighborhood this winter, I will call on the Snowmen to gather at my house – shovels in hand – ready to walk our neighborhood digging people out of the snow. Come dressed and ready with your chosen weapon. I hope you will join us.

Snowman Tong

Download: Live | Less-Live

Lyrics:

I am sick. I am not doing well.
I?m writing home, because I your need help.
Livin? the dream ain?t so dreamy darlin?
Livin? the dream ain?t me

Cause I can?t kill this animal between my ears
And I can?t stop feeding it what I?ve fed it years

Can you restore what?s been taken?
Can you restore what?s been given away?

What good is freedom if my heart?s a slave to sin?
My allegiance lies with me.
Oh, my pride is overwhelming.
My hands ready, my body poised, for malevolence
I can?t keep fighting it, I can?t swing through the tears

Can you restore what?s been taken?
Can you restore what?s been given away?

I?d like a little of your blood but that?s all
Just enough forgiveness to keep on being careless

Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven?t done?
Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven?t done?
Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven?t done?
Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven?t done?

How do we undo what?s already been done?
With nothing to stand on, we fall,
We?ve been falling before we first stood up.

Can you restore what?s been taken?
Can you restore what?s been taken?
Can you restore what?s been taken?
Can you restore what?s been given away?

Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven?t done?

Back in march during a rehearsal, Ryan Thom, one of the church’s worship leaders, improvised a song about our beloved pastor. I recently stumbled upon it and thought the internet deserved to hear it. I really want to play it as he takes the stage to deliver the sermon. At least it would make a great ringtone.

Download It

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Just one thing: I feel like I’m all dressed up with nowhere to go. Actually, I’m all hyped up with nothing to do.

You see, I’m a lightweight. I only weigh around 140 lbs., and so substances have their effect on me rather quickly. I noticed this when my parents let me have a sip of wine in high school, and I stumbled into a doorpost. Last semester, one cigar knocked me off my feet, after which I lied on the couch for an hour, trying to find the strength to make it up the stairs to my bed. One cup of coffee (or one 5-Hour Energy) can keep me going all day long. I had two cups today. I might not sleep tonight.

Not only does the caffeine evoke energy; it also evokes stupidity. Just as a shot of coffee before a run seems to make my legs move faster, the stuff also makes my brain work faster – too much faster. I have learned that some filter of mine – which usually keeps stupid comments chained in the dark recesses of my mind – is immune to caffeine’s dastardly effects. It sleeps through even the heaviest mocha explosions. So, my dumb comments come tumbling out.

Sometimes, this is a good thing. I can be quite clever and humorous. I tend to be an extroverted personality already. Coffee removes all the holds. I’m not drunk, I’m caffeinated.

Today, I have no people around to stupid at. I don’t know what to do with all my energy. I would go exercise, but I already ran three miles. My legs have informed me that they’re done for the day. I could read, but I can’t focus for very long (I’ve opened five new tabs in my web browser since I began writing this.).

I think I’ll try a sordid combination of Twitter, YouTube, and blog surfing until my heart stops racing.

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As an instrument? A concept? A sound? An icon?

Depends.

I’m currently employed on the media team of a large church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Part of my responsibilities here includes running the sound for weddings. Weddings, as anyone who has thought about getting married knows, often include pianos.

So, after a summer full of weddings, I should have a pretty good relationship with the piano, right?

Wrong.

My affection fluctuates. Some weekends, I love the piano. The wide range of notes, intricate overtones, and complex chord structures are a joy, instilling an excitement for music that perhaps had faded in recent days. At other times, the piano can drive me insane. The notes don’t quite blend with other instruments; the overtones ring too loudly; and the chords confuse my vocalists, giving them difficulty finding their own notes.

Today, though, I think I like the piano. I’m at a wedding. A fresh rendition of a play I have seen many times before. This time, the pianist gets her money’s worth out of each key, and the vocalist she’s accompanying keeps nailing his notes. Right now, the piano is all right.

But that could change.

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No, I will not use emoticons.

I friend has been on a long journey, trying to sell a house he owns in Minneapolis, MN. He’s had potential buyers come and go as he sought to sever his relationship with his property. The road had potholes and frustration, but the shoulder was always full of prayer.

Finally, God has brought to him a buyer, working things out in a way that is many times better than he had imagined beforehand. Read the God-glorifying conclusion to this story here.

Devin: How would answer Britton’s question below?

“Dad, how come God just doesn’t kill the devil?”

And, I responded.

Dad,

Ready for this?

Here are three questions I would work through the socratic method:

Who made the devil?
What is this Creator’s ultimate goal?
How does the devil help him achieve that?

In answering Britton’s question, I would try to construct a framework that paints the devil not only as God’s enemy, for surely he is, but also as God’s tool so that he is not viewed as outside God’s control. It would be inconsistent to tell someone that God is working “all things” together for good if we then denied that God is not sovereign over evil as well as good.

So, the answer to the first question is: God made him. In Genesis, we are not told where the devil comes from, but Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18 speak of the devil’s fall, referring to heavenly events parallel to the rebellion of the kings’ situations they address in preceding verses. So, the devil was a good angel who sinned, wanting to attain God’s authority, and was then thrown out of heaven.

Now I want to establish who is in charge of all these goings on, and what does he want? To glorify himself and make his name great. God, with his infinite power, wisdom, and knowledge, knew the devil would rebel, and yet still allowed it to happen. To many, the existence of evil makes God seem less-than-perfectly good. However, “no purpose of [God's] can be thwarted” (Job 42:2), and so even the devil is somehow helping God fulfill his purposes in the world, similar to how Joseph’s brothers meant their actions for evil while God meant them for good (Gen 50:20).

Finally, we need to answer Britton’s question: How come? The essential answer: nobody would know how good God is unless there was badness to contrast. Would we know light without darkness? Would we comprehend heat without cold? In the same way, God has given the universe the script of a deep comedy: A beginning which is good, a fall which is bad, and a redemption which is even better than it was to begin with.

God doesn’t just kill the devil. No, God’s enemies get a far worse punishment than that. However, God is currently restraining his wrath so that sinners have a chance to repent and believe the gospel. One day, God will throw the devil and all of his children into a lake of fire so that only what is good remains (Rev 20:10,15). In eternity after the resurrection and the judgment, believers will enjoy the riches of God’s glory (Rom 9:23) while God’s enemies are tormented forever: the devil, his angels, and non-believers (see Is. 68:15-24).

Britton will probably run in one of two directions. He might go tell all of his friends about the devil, how bad it is, and how people are going there. So, it should be stressed that because of these realities, God has provided a way out. God does create a hell without an alternative. It’s not that “people” end up in torment, but that people who don’t love Jesus do. Also, he might ask why God’s so mean. After all, isn’t God loving? You could answer this in one of two ways: (1) God is love, and to love he must hate the enemies of what he loves, just as a man cannot be said to love his family if he does not give his effort to fighting off an intruder. The man must necessarily love his family by hating the intruder. This picks up on the themes of how God’s people are the poor or are those who help the poor while God’s enemies are those who grind the faces of the poor. (2) God is good, infinitely so. Therefore, one sin against this infinitely good God is infinitely bad, deserving an infinitely bad punishment. For an illustration, you could mention that if someone punched the school bully in the face, people would probably not be happy with him, but there would be some saying, “He deserved it.” However, if someone punched the sweet cheerful little girl who only helped and never hurt, lots of people would be angry. God, if we can try to imagine, is infinitely more pure and good than that little girl, and so the punch is infinitely more bad.

I don’t expect all of this to be covered in only one conversation with Britton. The best course of action would be to help him develop a habit of Bible reading on his own so that a Christian framework begins to develop in his own thinking. He’ll then come with more questions like this, but also will answer some of them on his own. Yet, you might run into this.

Devin

My parents thought that was pretty clever. They sent it to everyone they know who knows me. Oh boy…

This was an email correspondence. Let’s see how I do in in this situation: