Just Another Colton Dixon Post

"American Idol". I believe the show's name is unfortunately pretty accurate. The good thing is that it reminds me of how easy it can be for us to be consumed by something or someone other than Christ, and helps me to guard against that.

That said, I thoroughly enjoy watching "American Idol" early in the season. I've found that there's not much middle ground at that point. Viewers of the show either feel sorry for the idol wannabes or they take tremendous pleasure in the painfully off-key voices and the "he-didn't-really-just-do-that-did-he?" shenanigans of people who ought not be on national television. I fall into the second category and when that part is over I don't usually care to watch anymore. You know, when the good singers start.

This year, though, as my wife and daughter watched it, I would stop in the room to listen to Colton Dixon. Even if he'd had a terrible personality I'd have still appreciated his haircut and his vocal ability, but he wound up, apparently like most in the group of finalists, seeming to have a great personality.

I had to smile when he decided to sing his "favorite worship song" on one show. I reasoned that he would be the new Tim Tebow. Not that the first Tebow is old or anything, but we Christians like our publicly-adored, media-spotlighted figures. We point to them and say to the world, "See?! In yo' face! He's a Christian, just like me and he's way better than any of those dumb ol' secular singers (or football players or actors or inventors or authors or mimes or fountain pen repair people, as the case may be). I have to admit, I was kinda in that group with Colton Dixon on American Idol, which is pretty unusual for me, so I was actually quite deflated when he was eliminated from the show last night.

Dixon is apparently an honest-to-goodness, unashamed believer. Not because he sang a "worship song," but the way he lost last night was a great indicator of it. His closing comments contained an apology for flippantly dismissing the judges' counsel the previous night, stating that he would take what they said and learn from it. His closing song was a repeat of Lifehouse's "Everything" -- his favorite worship song. Only this time he was very deliberate in addressing the song to God. I'm sure the collective Christian community in America that watches "Idol" (wow, that phrase sounds really stupid) was cheering him on.

In an interview with HollywoodLife.com there were even more and direct indications of where he stands:

HL – "With your final song you kind of fell to your knees and sat there for a minute before you started, what were you thinking?"

CD – "It’s funny, I have been trying too hard to get a standing ovation from the judges that I didn’t need, I didn’t need it for confidence or anything like that, and during that song I wasn’t singing for them or my family or anyone in the audience or anyone at home, that song was between me and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We had a cool moment on stage for sure, but I wanted to end it the way I started it and told myself I would do this competition and I’m glad I got the opportunity."

Millions of "Idol"-watching Christians (zounds, there's another idiotic-sounding phrase) are probably bummed this morning. I totally get it. But the thing to do rather than waiting for Tebow/Dixon Version 3 (a terrible tendency of the average American Christian) is for you yourself to become the next follower of Christ that others will cheer on because you're bringing honor and glory to God.

Why is it our habit to try to use a figurehead or public personality to vicariously live out our own walk with Christ?

Enough musing. I'm just ready for the new Colton Dixon album to come out. Matter of fact, I think I'm going to pre-buy it at Amazon.com or iTunes whenever it becomes available. Dude rocked.

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SpongeBob or the Poor?

I went to a large, monolithic chain store the other day for a specific purpose. I'd promised myself never to go to this place again, but I did it anyhow. It unfortunately made sense on this item we needed.

While we were there, I picked up SpongeBob Season 5, Volume 2 on DVD for $19.98. Now, I personally enjoy watching SpongeBob, though I know some of you don't allow your kids to watch it (and therefore, I assume, don't watch it yourselves). I'm okay with that, certainly, and I hope that you don't think less of me for enjoying it.

After we'd checked out and were heading to our car, I had a horrible looming feeling. Out of the blue, I remarked to my 10-year-old daughter, "I think that was the worst use of $20 that I can imagine. There are people in this city who are starving and I just forked out $20 on a DVD for my own entertainment." (or something very close to that.) Apparently I didn't feel awful enough, because we continued to the car rather than returning it. However, I don't know that I'll ever be buying a $20 DVD again unless I have a massive stockpile of money (unlikely).

I actually feel ashamed admitting I spent $20 on a DVD, but that leads me to want to ask where you draw the line in your expenditures. Is there anything that you will always forego in order to have some liquidity so that you'll be able to generously give to those in need as we're commanded to do in Scripture?

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Movie Review: "Star Trek"

It's with some hesitation that I post a video from The Onion, an irreverent satire outlet. I doubt that this video will offend anyone's sensitivities unless they're a harcore Star Trek fan (I consider myself to be pretty close to that level, but kept laughing throughout).

I had removed the video because of an offensive word in the "crawler" at the bottom, but after some thinking, I've decided to leave the video embedded, but I've moved it to the bottom of the post. If you're offended by seeing a heavy slang word in print (in the bottom margin of the video), don't watch it.

I highly recommend seeing Star Trek. It was amazingly good. I'm used to seeing movies that I enjoy, receiving poor or average scores at sites like RottenTomatoes, but this one got a whopping 96% rating overall!

A short gratuitous lewd part was in the flick. I understand that it was part of character development (really), but would love to have seen the movie without that kind of suggestiveness ("suggestive" isn't the right word, really, but for a guy sitting there it will be rather easy for the mind to wander).

Die-hard fans will surely leave the theater a little annoyed at the way some things play out. One showcased relationship, in particular, was just dumb, but there is no denying that this movie breathes new life into the franchise while respecting (though tampering with) its history.

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Leaving Guntersville...

I think "Leaving Guntersville" would be a good name for a book or a movie, except for the fact that "Guntersville" is a really clunky-sounding name.

I thought I'd make a short post so you'd all know that I'm safe. Yes, you may stop worrying now. On Sunday afternoon our pastoral staff all loaded up and headed from Madison, AL to the neighboring town of Guntersville, a water-side pseudo-resort-ish burg. Our goal was to engage in prayer, Scripture reading, discussion, and long-range planning. We've definitely done all of the above, and today we're heading out with plans to golf before returning home.

Hoo-rah.

I'm not a golf nut. The reason I'm not is that I never practice, yet I firmly believe that I should be an excellent golfer, and since I'm not, the game makes me mad. I love sports -- all of them, I think -- and there is simply no excuse, ever, for coming in second or worse. This is what my brain says. I don't get angry at other people for beating me; I get upset with myself for not doing better, or not doing what I feel is my best.

If you haven't picked up on the obvious spiritual parallel(s) by now, I might have to hit you. If I'm expecting to "know God's will," for instance, yet haven't spent more than an obligatory five minutes reading a devotional in the past week or two (or horrifyingly longer), it's laughable to think that I can know what He's preparing me to do or where I should plant my foot next. The same goes for any number of things: resistance to temptation, love for God, love for others, being ready "in season or out" to share the Word, etc.

Final note: my golf swing feels very unnatural (and probably looks that way, too). This is because I'm not used to putting my head knowledge (how to hold the club, eyes on the ball, left arm straight, yadda, yadda...) into practice. Again, it's ludicrous to think that my golf swing would feel "normal" if I never practice it.

Enough for now. Go have a great day!

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"Creepy" Christian Worship CD Commercials?

Over at revelife.com (a Christian blogging community) there's a post that's worth checking out: Are You Creeped Out By Commercials with Creepy Christians? It talks about the crowds of worshippers and participants in those "Blockbuster Trendy Worship Hits You Must Know or Else Feel Inferior" CDs. Speaking about the crowds of people in those commercials, the author (can't find who it is!) poses this line of questioning and observation: "What makes it different from hordes of people screaming and swaying with hands raised at a KISS or Aerosmith or Eagles or Styx concert? I'm not entirely sure. I think it's the fact that their eyes are closed. Or maybe I'm just being weird. Maybe I'm just embarrassed by it."

To me, the comments are every bit as interesting as the post. Have a look at these clips:

A commenter with the handle GodlessLiberal says, "I don't see much of a difference between the completely swept up people at these Christian concerts than the tween girls completely swept up at a Jonas Brothers concert."

IamKellyK writes, "Maybe I'm in the wrong for the way I feel. I mean, I love God, I get excited about stuff God does, but I don't feel the need to dance around and stuff."

A response by SWAurora was refreshing to me: "I find it completely normal. I get creeped out by people standing around with hymnals in their hands NOT raising their hands and praising God."

The thing that's probably going to bother most people I know is the point made by commenter ecoutering, who notes, "The raising hands doesn't bother me, just the fact that it doesn't seem real, that it seems like they're selling it. "

I think that the last two responses referenced above do a great job of summarizing my feelings about those commercials and about worship services in general. Never, ever forget that our observations of those around us are greatly affected by our own points of view and our love (or lack of it) for God and for other people.

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The Baseball Code

I used to love collecting baseball cards. When I started, I just liked to collect cards of great players and enjoy the hobby because of my love for baseball. As I progressed, I began to hunt the Special Gold Foil Diamond Power Homerun Limited cards and what-not, as did the rest of the card-collecting community. Not only did the number of limited edition cards get laughably insane, but I couldn't afford to collect that stuff, so I eventually stopped. (Hey, I could probably make that into some analogy...)

One of the sets of cards I collected along the way was the 1963 Fleer set. I loved this one! Relatively few cards in it (a paltry 67), chock-full of great players (Bob Gibson, Bill Mazeroski, Brooks Robinson, Willie Mays, etc.), and one card spurring a quest for everyone to find it in good condition (Joe Adcock). And through the years, I've come to find some interesting parallels. I present the following for your consumption:

'63 Fleer set: small set
The book of James: small book

'63 Fleer set: relatively easy to collect
The book of James: relatively easy to study

'63 Fleer set: lots of super-stars
The book of James: lots of heavy-hitting passages

'63 Fleer set: Topps sued Fleer over the set
The book of James: errr... no good parallel

'63 Fleer set: sometimes difficult to find favorite cards in good condition
The book of James: sometimes difficult to find people living out favorite passages


Know of any undeniable parallels I've missed here? Better yet, do you have any of your own not-very-obvious associations? (For instance, I mentally associate road intersections with the old Atari 2600 version of "Asteroids" -- a boring story for another time...)

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SongTapper

SongTapper.com is a few years old, but my son reminded me about it not long ago.

Ever get frustrated trying to remember a song for which you know a melody but can't remember the words? SongTapper.com is for you! Just tap the spacebar along with the rhythm of the melody of your song, and boom! Pretty good chance it'll spit out the name of the song you're hunting.

It guessed the theme from "Superman," the theme from "Spider-Man" (the 60's cartoon) and "Amazing Grace" correctly the first time, but I tried "Shout to the Lord" once and "Learn to Fly" (by the Foo Fighters) twice and it didn't guess them. I also tried the theme from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly," but I couldn't hit the space bar fast enough, so I can't blame that on SongTapper.

Just wanted to pass along the fun. I'll bet you wind up tapping in more songs than you intended.

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Substitutions

My daughter was supposed to read Little Women for school, but we thought that might be a little dry, so we had her watch Big Momma's House instead.

Not really.

I wonder, though, if that would be is akin to what we do when we partially obey God, or when we substitute entertainment for worship in our corporate meetings. I think it is. However, I believe it's an error most of the time to assess the style of music being played or the facial expressions of a vocalist (or any of a number of other things), and render a judgment based on those things. Worship vs. entertainment will come down to a matter of the heart of a worshipper (or entertainee).

Most of the time, questions like this are ones that we can only answer for ourselves; not for someone else. That is, "Have I come here this morning just to be entertained?" rather than, "Did that guy come here this morning just to entertain a crowd?"

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" (1 Samuel 16:7, NLT)

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Prince Caspian

You may notice that there is a new section on the right-hand side of the page here. This "widget" should give us all news of upcoming Narnia movies (as well as, obviously, "Prince Caspian Movie News").

While on our mini-vacation (the one where I nit-picked the elevator "flair" to pieces), we went to see Prince Caspian. I love to love my favorite books and characters being made into blockbuster movies. Matter of fact, I overlook faults on a regular basis -- I even bought the Superman boxed set (which contains Superman III and Superman IV, two flicks which are pretty much abominable, even to a staunch Superman fan like me).

Just as spaghetti sauce is occasionally missing "something," the lack of which makes us scrunch up our faces because we think it needs that certain something but can't quite put our finger on it, Prince Caspian, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before it, felt a little hollow. I wanted to offer some thoughts because I wasn't happy with my other ideas for blog posts today. I'm interested in knowing what you thought about the movie.

To me, the movie's lack of oregano (the "something") could be the result of any one, or a combination, of these elements:

• mental CG withdrawal after having seen the 10,000-monster armies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy that dwarfed (pun sort of intended) the armies in Caspian
• heavy-handed (and sometimes poor) puns scattered throughout the movie
• occasional wisps of mediocre acting, at which I was really surprised

[Warning: spoilers ahead -- do not read if you prefer to see the movie with fresh eyes]

Some artistic license must be taken in book-to-big-screen adaptations, but when the Narnians stormed Miraz' castle (just exactly like they didn't do in the book), I wondered how it added to the mystique and suspense of the story. As it turned out, my son found this to be one of the best parts of the movie. This kind of thing is where I need to learn to be open-minded. I didn't dislike this part, but didn't see its necessity. Of course, I am not a filmmaker and know little about how to pace a movie.

Tension existed between Peter and Caspian (the Spaniard) from their first meeting onward, and while this appeared a time or two in the book, it didn't serve the story well to keep it up the whole time, in my opinion.

Speaking of Caspian's apparent Hispanic descent (he's actually a Telmarine), I'm surprised we haven't heard any outcry about the movie somehow stereotyping the Conquistadors (aren't people supposed to complain about stuff like that?). I always imagined Caspian as having a British accent, and I don't know how I'll handle hearing Prince Rilian speak with a Spanish accent, either, if the films get to The Silver Chair. Don't get me wrong -- I love Spanish accents. Just not when they mess with my preconceived notions (this is why book-to-movie scenarios rarely work for everyone).

One personal disappointment: we don't get to see the part from the book where the mean ol' school teacher is spanking a child and is turned into a tree as punishment. Rats!

On a positive note, the movie could not have been cast better, and despite its length (two hours and 35 minutes), it rarely felt like it was lumbering along, except during the second and third sixths of the movie (see summary paragraph below).

So, my from-the-hip, non-movie-critic-sounding summary (again, interested in knowing if you concur) was that the movie could be divided this way:

The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth sixths of the movie were really good, while the second and third sixths were forgettable and made me want to go browse for popcorn toppings at the concession counter. It was certainly worth the price of admission, and is definitely a film that should be seen in a theater -- great sound and visual eye-poppingness.

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