Adventures in Syberspace

Barbie and Me

This is from our Fall Retreat. We refer to the song simply as "The Barbie Song" because I discovered it over the closing credits of a Barbie movie many years ago. The song just plain rocks. The performance here? You'll have to be the judge.

Lake County Video...please watch it!

This is a video conceived by Christina Jones, and created by Pat Jones, played at Christ Church this past Sunday. Especially if you live in Lake County, it's very moving. It's not easy to make a video using only music and printed words that will move you to change the world. But this one does just that.

Former SHYG-ites on the YouTube, Part Two

Tyler Schwartz attended SHYG and graduated from high school back in '03, and is now a sax player/chess teacher in NYC. He has a nice role in this clip featuring a chess-playing Amp Energy Drink can. He's the one with the "I ♥ Chess" pin. You devil!

Former SHYG-ites on the YouTube, Part One

If you haven't yet seen Zombieland, you should check it out (as long as you don't mind zombies, gore, and language). It's really funny, features an outrageously hysterical cameo in the middle of the movie from the great Bill Murray (as Bill Murray), and has a nice message. Plus, former SHYG-ite (SHYG is the name of the youth group I run) Victor Paguia has an amazing stunt that you can watch here. Yes, that's him being jettisoned through a car into a store window. (Part Two tomorrow).

The best football storyline of the year

Regardless of what you think about Brett Favre, the fact that he's playing in the NFL this year makes it so much more interesting. For those of you that don't follow sports, let me bring you up to speed and don't worry-- this is way more about drama than sports. So let's put it this way: Favre was to the Green Bay Packers what Jesus is to Christianity...the focal point. The center. He was their quarterback and leader for 16 seasons. Won a Super Bowl for them. And then Favre said he was leaving, cried at his news conference, and a few months later changed his mind. At that point, the Packers had already committed to their QB-in-waiting, and so traded him to the New York Jets. Favre desperately wanted to be traded to the Minnesota Vikings so he could stick it to the team that he felt had abandoned him. He must have momentarily forgotten that HE was the one that retired. Old age will make you forget things.

So anyway, he played for the Jets last year and this year, after much waffling, signed with the Vikings. He has now led them to a 3-0 start after a miraculous last-second touchdown pass on Sunday. And this Monday, the Packers come to Minnesota. This will be a good game, but the even better one to watch will be when the Vikings go to Green Bay on November 1st. I honestly don't know what will happen in Green Bay that afternoon. I feel like the people there will be under unbelievable stress, especially the ones with "Favre 4-ever" tattoos, the ones that have named their children Brett and Favre (Note: I made this joke to a Wisconsin resident and he said: oh yeah, I know someone whose children are named Brett and Reggie-- after former Packer great Reggie White. This is not a joke). What will they do? How can they bring themselves to hate the man they adored? But how can they not hate this man who left them for a hated rival? I feel like the whole universe might just get sucked into a vortex that day, right at Lambeau Field.

I do think the Vikings look like they are Super Bowl bound, which pains me to say as a Bears fan. They have two of the most explosive players in the league in Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin. They have solid receivers, and a monster defense. The key is whether Favre's body can last all 16 games, plus the playoffs.

But I feel like Favre should legitimately fear for his life because there will be a deranged Packers fan who will gun him down before they see him lead a rival team to the Super Bowl. And when it happens, it won't even be a shock in Green Bay. It will just be like "In other news, former Packer Brett Favre was gunned down by an angry fan today. And we turn now to weather: Kevin, how much snow will this system bring us?"

U2, Live in London

As U2 get set to kick off their North American tour at Soldier Field Saturday night, I present you thoughts about my experience with the tour. Four weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to take a trip of a lifetime. My childhood best friend moved overseas a year ago. When U2's tour was announced in March, we talked and decided that seeing them somewhere in Europe together would be amazing. We decided on London, Wembley Stadium, August 14 and 15. And our amazing wives agreed to let us go! Below is my journal of our day at Wembley (August 14), recorded immediately after the concert ended, at my hotel in London.

Some background: Many of you know that Britt and I have been lifelong U2 fans. I first remember hearing the album “October” when I was in seventh grade, a tape that he had gotten from his brother. The tape impressed me mostly because it had the entire album on both sides of the tape. So you could listen to the whole thing all the way through without having to turn it over (this was the 80s, people). I didn’t care much for the music, but when the Joshua Tree came out in 1986, I loved it. In the spring of 1987, Britt heard from a trusted source that the tickets for their fall date in Austin were going on sale that day. He called me to tell me that he was going to the HEB grocery store (where the radio stations would announce when these wristbands called "visa bands" were being distributed. Visa bands guaranteed your place in line when tickets actually went on sale-- again, the 80s. No internet). I met him there later and we took turns waiting in the little deli section until we finally gave up about 8pm. I got there the next morning at about 8am and we took turns waiting until they finally announced it about 4pm that day. I can still almost smell the fried chicken and potato salad of the deli section, and the walkman earphones on my ears. True fans had been birthed. We got tickets for the 11th row of that tour, and were in awe. I traveled down to Austin in ’01 to see them with Britt there, then he came up to Chicago in ’05, where I had secured floor seats by trading someone on Craig’s List for Cubs-Red Sox tickets. That is of course another story, but suffice it to say that that day was one of the best of our lives, culminating with our ending up with Bono’s and The Edge’s guitar picks.  (Some day, you should hear the story about how each of us ended up with which pick).

We got to Wembley around 10:30am and quickly found what we thought was our line. We even got a number written on our hands by some organized fans, and sat down. I was 171 and Britt was 170. It seemed a little strange that only that many people would be there that late in the morning. I decided to just take a little stroll to look around and discovered that the group we were supposed to be in was on the other side of the building, and we were about 700th in line. A little discouraging, but we also heard that the first 2000 people got inside the "Claw," so we were hopeful. Now the waiting. (That's me in front of the stadium. It's a beautiful stadium).
  
The weather was just perfect, about 75 degrees, and mostly cloudy with what the BBC quite accurately calls “sunny intervals.” We waited a good while and then I began to make friends with the people around me. I met a couple of women from Austria, one of whom had seen U2 17 times. I then spotted a foursome sitting nearby, three of them decked out in some impressively vintage U2 shirts. There’s definitely a hierarchy of shirts at these concerts. I was of course wearing my 1987 Joshua Tree t-shirt, with a giant hole in the back. So I trump virtually everyone around me. Elevation Tour of ’01? Please. Vertigo Tour of ’05? Don’t waste my time. But ’85 Unforgettable Fire? Well played. And an ’82 shirt from some place called Gateshead? I’m not worthy. 
 
So I went over to this group and we began to talk about t-shirts. Turns out the guy collects them, and his fiancée was wearing his newest addition, the aforementioned ’82 classic (turns out U2 was the opening act for the Police that night!) We hit it off, and soon began plotting how we would make it into the middle. They ended up moving up in line but Simon (the t-shirt guy) looked back and saw me while we were queuing up as if to say: you OK back there? I appreciated it.

It was finally time to move. As we got closer, it got more and more tense. But people were quite orderly. We got in and then received our blue and white wristbands signifying our entrance onto the floor. As we maneuvered our way into the Claw, we looked up to find none other than Simon and the other 3, who welcomed us warmly to the middle of the pit, not 10 feet from the edge of the stage. We were in perfect position.

We stood for the opening bands (The Hours and Elbow: I really like Elbow) and when they started to play David Bowie’s Major Tom, that was the cue that it was time for U2 to take the stage.

Larry walked out first, and began the beat for Breathe, one of the singles off their newest album. It was a fine start, and Britt and I were in awe that we were here. Wembley Stadium, London, England. In the pit. 88,000 people all around us (largest crowd ever to see a concert at Wembley), providing an unbelievable backdrop for what felt like a private concert for the lucky ones of us so close to the stage. Here's some video to give you a little glimpse of what it was like.

The show was absolutely remarkable, from the technical elements which were jaw-droppingly sensational, to the musical excellence. They have absolutely designed it so that it can be enjoyed from the back row or from the pit of the floor. You’ve seen the stage in the commercials, but you haven’t seen what the stage does. It’s phenomenal, and you simply have to experience it to fully understand what I'm talking about. Some pics from the show:

 
What I was struck by more than anything tonight was the commitment. Bono in particular is 100% committed to the music. He gets inside of every song he sings. “Let me in the sound” is a real thing for him. He is the consummate showman, and he invites you in and takes you somewhere with every song he sings. You simply don’t see that in every performer. During Where the Streets Have No Name, I got a good look around the stadium. 88,000 people, some of whom were several hundred yards away, were absolutely swept up into the song. There’s just something very powerful about being in one place with that mass of humanity, all fully bought in to the beauty of the moment of The Song. The same thing is quite beautiful when it happens in worship, incidentally. When a group of people fully connects and commits to being in that moment, unified in the worship of God.

It’s of course normal to compare this tour to previous tours. But comparing it to Elevation and Vertigo is almost not fair because those were in indoor arenas, while this is in outdoor stadiums. So the best comparison is to the Popmart tour. It’s no comparison at all. Popmart was about the spectacle: the giant video screen, and the band’s bizarre characters, outfits, and sets, including emerging from a giant lemon. It was like a big inside joke that you weren’t ever let in on. This time, they invite you in. After Popmart, I wasn’t sure that they could ever pull off a stadium tour again. But they have most certainly pulled it off. This time, the visuals are dazzling, but they exist to augment, support, and help interpret the music. Bono and Co. are done being esoteric entertainers. They are content to simply being the best rock band in the world, and they continue to put on the best rock and roll show one could imagine.

Highlights from the concert: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (Bono let us sing the first verse...LOUDLY), The Unforgettable Fire (I've never heard that one live before), Stuck in a Moment (acoustic), Elevation (such a party song), Unknown Caller (karaoke style so you can sing along), Ultraviolet (wait till you see what Bono is wearing for this one!!!), and Beautiful Day (he took the shades off, and ended with Blackbird). More photos can be accessed on my Facebook page.

 

Going to see the show? Please come back here and leave your comments about what you thought!

Why does God allow suffering?

Click "continue reading" below to listen to the sermon I preached at Christ Church today on "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" It was the third week in a series on "Tough Questions." (Note: the audio, which had been missing the first couple minutes, is now fixed).

You can also listen at cclf.org.

Deep Thought for the Day

I was doing some Tozer-quote-searching, and stumbled on this quote that cut me to the core, published in Man: The Dwelling Place of God. (A.W. Tozer was a Chicago pastor for 30 years who died in 1963).

Almost every day of my life I am praying that "a jubilant pining and longing for God" might come back on the evangelical churches. We don't need to have our doctrine straightened out; we're as orthodox as the Pharisees of old. But this longing for God that brings spiritual torrents and whirlwinds of seeking and self-denial-- this is almost gone from our midst.

(Hard to believe that his perspective when he wrote this was that this was "almost gone" from his midst. Then he says this):

I believe that God wants us to long for Him with the longing that will become lovesickness, that will become a wound to our spirits, to keep us always moving toward Him, always finding and always seeking, always having and always desiring. So the earth becomes less and less valuable and heaven gets closer as we move into God and up into Christ. Dare we bow our hearts now and say, "Father, I've been an irresponsible, childish kind of Christian-- more concerned with being happy than with being holy. O God, give me three wounds. Wound me with a sense of my own sinfulness. Wound me with compassion for the world, and wound me with love of Thee that will keep me always pursuing and always exploring and always seeking and always finding."

I'm not sure why this stirred me the way it did. But it did. Incidentally, this song that I listened to today stirred me similarly.

In unrelated news, I'm preaching this Sunday at Christ Church on "Tough Questions: Why does God allow suffering?"

Forgiveness

Click "continue reading" below to listen to the sermon I preached at Christ Church on Sunday, July 26. The text is from Matthew 18. (Note: there are 2 clips I show from a movie and all the dialogue is in subtitles so you won't quite be able to catch what's going on. You can find more about the movie at www.asweforgivemovie.com)

You can also listen at cclf.org.

Cubs.com: Have you been paying attention?

I got an e-mail today from cubs.com asking me to sign up to receive free game-day photographs sent to my AT&T phone. I don't have an AT&T phone so this doesn't apply to me, but I love how they sell it: "Get pictures of Carlos Marmol closing out another Cubs win, Alfonso Soriano crushing another homer onto Waveland Avenue & more exciting moments...."

Wouldn't you think if this was sent by cubs.com that someone who had some knowledge of the Cubs would have been consulted before sending it out? Carlos Marmol doesn't close games out. He's got 3 saves, but our closer is Kevin Gregg. And Soriano? Hitting home runs? Onto WAVELAND? The guy hadn't hit one before last week since June 7th, and only 3 of his 16 home runs have come at Wrigley. And none that I recall landed on Waveland. I just want to throw it out there that I'm available for editing e-mails if anyone at cubs.com wants to not embarrass themselves anymore.