Shawn McDonald

There are very few books, very few movies and very little music I will say I don't like. Each is a piece of art to me, and therefore has taken time, effort and talent to produce (although I have to argue Reggaton takes very little of any of those). I'm new at reviewing these modern paintings, but after hearing Shawn McDonald live last night at First United Methodist Church in downtown Charlotte, I saw something in his artistry that I've never seen before in a singer/guitarist.

I felt many things: I felt the similar amazement that I did two years ago when I saw a live Flamenco performance in the heart of Spain. I felt like I was an intruder watching a painter color a blank canvas. I felt like I wanted to dance, even though no one around me was doing so. The kind of dance you do alone with no one else around, closing your eyes and eventually falling onto a big fluffy mattress. I felt like the words I know so well from the Bible were coming alive to a sound they were meant to reverberate. I felt like art and poetry and wisdom and grace were all meeting in a conference room mixing themselves to create a sweet-smelling aroma, hoping to please the King.

In the hip hop movement of his shoulders as he played the acoustic guitar like a drum and a piano, in the ups and downs, ins and outs of his sweet yet momentarily sour voice ... it all hit me in ways I didn't expect. The audience was packed, but he was singing to his King, and I felt I should hide behind a curtain in the great hall. Each song had a story behind it, every thought-provoking lyric was premeditated, yet free.

I have a lot of favorite artists, Christian and non, and if you ask me I'll send you the long list. But no artist expresses me as a whole person like Shawn McDonald does. His music has an authentic grab and distinct sound that is augmented by words expressing a true relationship with Christ. There is a passion, a child-like simplicity (with lyrics like "Your love is like eating a slice of apple pie, it's like sugar on my tongue so pour out your mercy clear my busy mind") and a very real sense that you are watching/listening to an artist, not a puppet being controlled by green popularity.

If you just check a few songs: look into Shadowlands, a modern version of Psalm 23, and Greed, a look at what society tells us.
You can check him out at www.shawnmcdonaldmusic.com

The Shack

This book may be one of the most talked about in recent Christian circles. It opens the mind of the reader into a realm where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist in the easiest way humans can understand them: as humans. The plot is compelling, although if you've already heard from someone else what it is, the first two or three chapters seem unnecessary.

The writer at the beginning lost me in his somewhat showy way of writing, but once the plot picked up the writing solidified and the book was hard to put down.

Get a few other friends to read this at the same time and then get together and talk about all the theology (or claims against status quo theology) that pops up inbetween pages.

Bella

The main character is a former professional soccer player whose daunting past won't let him stay silent when a coworker expresses interest in an abortion. This selfless figure revisits his past to change the future of a child. This is almost a romantic film, but not like one expects. Set in NYC and amidst a Mexican family, culture flows freely in the movie.

Must be one of my top ten favorites.

Finally, the potter and the stone

It will give you one less reason to stare at me.
My brother in law got me the Harry Potter books for Christmas last year. It wasn't until a week or so ago that I could pick up book #1. I've gotten so many dropped jaws having not read these stinking books until now. Correction, they are not stinking at all.
There is a first for everyone, and for me, this is the first time I have EVER read a book after seeing the movie. Someone bake me a cookie, or rather, pop me some popcorn because I really want to watch the movie again, and plan to TONIGHT. Woohooo.

I remember the swarms of people yelping about how Christians shouldn't read this book. I say wingardium leviosa to that. I remember in college writing an article against a freak-a-zoid Christian church out west who had a Harry Potter book burning shindig. The arguments against J.K. Rowling couldn't ever cover only her, when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (both Christians) had their magic and wizardry stories coming out in movie form.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, along with Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, for me, portray the gospel each in their own creatively brilliant ways. With Harry Potter ... it is the story of redemption. He is the chosen one who comes to fight evil. Although Harry finds favor among authorities, he also has to fight authority to battle evil. He realizes there is a bigger plan, bigger than his life with the Dursleys, bigger than his schooling at Hogwarts. He understands his purpose is not merely to die a "muggle" in the shadows of his horribly wretched cousin. He learns to put his life on the line to do the right thing. He matures more through experience than through head knowledge.

My favorite quotes come from wise old Dumbledore.

1."To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
2. "The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."
3. "Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

It is sad that Christians underestimate the power of Christ. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. Yes there are evil forces in the world, but the total truth is that God is Lord over it all. His truth will come forth from any story, I'm sure of it. We must not fear more than we seek. We must not judge more than we compassionately understand. We are called to stay level-headed and not accept unsound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-5) — even when it comes from ourselves.

the Prayer book

Andrew Murray and A.W. Tozer must have come out of the same bean pod. They are strikingly similar to me — the kind of authors that say simply what it means to be Christ-like. I sit and read and shake my head along with all they say, wondering all along why I did not see such simple-but-profound insight before.

I borrowed this copy from a friend/co-worker/pastor. I might just have to get one of my own. I've never been one to get my prayer life in order, and I have to admit I came to this book hoping it would do so.

I was reading a pamphlet sent out by Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org) which quoted some of Murray. I shared it with my pastor-friend and the next day he brought me the book.

This is the quote that caught my eye. Hope it catches your heart:

"... He is waiting patiently while he listens to (God's own elect).
"Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter
rain" (James 5:7).
The farmer longs for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full
amount of sunshine and rain, and he has long patience. A child so
often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the farmer knows how to wait
until the proper time.
And it is the Father, in whose hand are the times and seasons, who
knows the moment when the soul is ripened to that fullness of faith in
which it can really take and keep the blessing.
The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the
corresponding dispositions: patience and faith, waiting and
anticipating, are the secret of his perseverance. ...
... Christian, give God time. He will perfect that which concerns you."



Andrew Murray (1828-1917) served for 60 years in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa.

Judith's Pavillion

My newest read was recommended to me by a car salesman. The kind of car salesman that doesn't fit the normal prototype. I really like meeting those kinds of people. I haven't gotten far into it yet, but it is the like the vault room of a bank ... the bank being the mind of a neurosurgeon. Somehow it feels like I'm reading something I shouldn't be.

I certainly don't understand all the medical terms, but his fluid and concise writing allows amateurs in the medical field the ability to understand the story without the medical school training.

more to come

el cielo

This hefty piece of nonfiction is in the works.

It's stretching my mind more than it has been stretched in a long time. Some of it is hard to take in.

The concept of eternity when you really think about it, is difficult to comprehend. Driving to school today, I thought about how hard it is to think that the life we live in eternity will last forever. Time won't affect it like it does here. I wont grow old. I'll remain where I am always. That in itself is tearing the sides of the boxes in my head.

and then ... there's so much more

Cautiva

Imagine finding out you aren't who you've been told you are. You were actually adopted, your mother was blind-folded and beaten up when she had you. Your parents, those people you thought you were born to, have lied your whole life. And your real parents have been missing, and are proposed dead.

This is what Christina is told one day at school.

Her best friend turns against her and her godfather is partly to blame for sending her real parents to a concentration camp that existed in downtown Buenos Aires during the 1978 World Cup era when Argentina won.

This tale, although one of fiction, is based on true events and real stories from those who lived under the leadership of President Jorge Videla.

At the end of the film, viewers are told that nearly 30,000 people are said to have disappeared during the Dirty War of Argetina. Many political dissidents where drugged and then pushed out of airplanes flying over the Rio de Plata which runs into the Atlantic Ocean. Some dissidents were sent to torture camps in the hands of the country's naval mechanic school in B.A.


Anyone who has listened to Mana (their version of the original by Rubén Blades) or U2 might have heard the story of the "desaparecidos" or the disappeared. U2's song is about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a still-active human rights group of mothers of the victims of the dictatorship.

The after-effects still linger, and the story of Sofia (turned Christina) reminds the viewers the old, scientific equation that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.



*The following is from Wikipedia*

Many women gave birth in captivity; they were then killed and their children given illegally in adoption to families and friends of military or police personnel. The task of locating these children and restoring their lost identity has been going on since the restoration of democracy in 1983. Legal proceedings were taken against those involved in these actions even while amnesties were in place for other crimes by the military since appropriating children from their mothers is a crime that lies outside the scope of military procedures, and thus also outside any kind of amnesty law or pardon that implies orders in a military context.

MLK Jr. Day in St. Pauls

ST. PAULS — Thirty-degree weather wasn't going to stop Annie Pearson from marching the two-mile walk in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. – she showed up at St. Pauls Elementary School. But the rest of the St. Pauls Bladen County Chapter of Las Amigas never arrived at school.

"I guess they thought it was too cold," Pearson said with a smile on her face. The Las Amigas president got back in her car. "Just come to the church at six – I'll see you there."

Pearson walked into the church and sat on one of the 56 bright blue-cushioned pews. As more and more people escaped the wind-chilling cold and entered the small brick building. Pearson moved from the left row of pews to the middle. She sat alone. Her black jacket that she draped over the back of the wooden pew coordinated with her shoes, her nylons and the color of her skin.

The choir began singing. The crowd was clapping and tapping; Pearson didn't move. Her right hand grasped her thin gold-framed glasses.

She walked up to the podium after the singing stopped. "You know the reason for us being here … remembering the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Pearson said, serving her role as the organizer of the 11th annual event. "We hope you will be blessed, we are blessed to have you here."

She took her seat, put on her glasses and scrutinized the night's agenda like a professor would a textbook.

The singing started again. She stood up. Her voice rose above the other 40 people in the crowd. But that distinct sound was only heard on certain words. The glasses had moved to her left hand and a tissue was scrunched up in her right hand.

The preacher, Rev. Curtis Barginere, stood up to speak. Pearson crossed her arms on her lap and kept her abnormally good posture.

"Like Moses in his day, God used King mightily to pave a better way," Barginere said with his voice maintaining one noise level – loud. "Let us remember the marches. Let us remember the jail time. Let us remember the water. Let us remember the dogs."

When Barginere referred to King with the phrases "by peaceful means" and "full of love for mankind," Pearson strongly nodded her head.

"King stepped out of that fear only on the foundation of Jesus Christ," Barginere said.

The crowd was no longer an audience, but a part of the show with shouts of "Amen" and hands raised – some people stood up.

Barginere spiced up scripture.

"You are my friends if you do, if you do, if you do what I command you," he said raising his voice to a level that made the microphone buzz. His hands remained in the air waving and shaking, as if they automatically did that when his voice reached a certain level.

He continued: "We are about something. We are about peace and love and happiness, not this violence state. Not drugs and crime … not breaking into houses … ."

After the service, Pearson said she thought Barginere did well.

"It was different from what we've heard," she said. "I liked when he tied Martin Luther King into biblical characters."

Pearson was a college student during the 1963 March on Washington. She said King's ideals are still alive.

"He set the floor for civil and economic justice," she said.

My Flesh and Blood

coming soon...
a little splurb about this intriguing documentary

The Glass Castle

Despite having a selfish mother and an alcoholic father, Jeanette Walls and her three siblings stay afloat amidst an almost-homeless lifestyle.

Walls has a knack for writing well as she tells a fascinating memoir of what it was like to live in a condemned house with no plumbing, no food, and no refrigerator.

Her father uses her beauty to get a few bucks, her mother wont wake up to go to work every day. Walls and her brother go "hunting" for food on a daily basis, sometimes sitting in the bathrooms at school to wait for other children to throw away their leftovers at lunch.

To read a real account of the different effects an impoverished lifestyle can have on American people in recent times from a page-turner of a book, pick this one up.