Remaking Empire Records

I think the music that you loved as a teenager ends up being the music that you love for the rest of your life. I can’t get past what I listened to in high school – 1990s alternative and 1960s rock. Movies featuring music of those eras are also perennial favorites. One of my favorite music movies from the 90s is Empire Records.

If Hollywood calls me to remake Empire Records, he’s how I would recast it:

Lucas: Rory Cochrane to JGL

Lucas is an idealistic, quirky music fan who is skeptical of the man. That is basically Joseph Gordon-Levitt in real life and in every role.

AJ: Johnny Whitworth to Robert Pattinson

AJ is artistic and moody and fixated on a girl. And he has great hair. This is what R-Pat loves to do. He’s pretty funny in How to Deal, and I think he’d like being in an ensemble movie.

Debra: Robin Tunney to Emma Watson

Debra is dark and sensitive, which seems to be what Emma Watson is getting into playing. Plus, she can pull off very short hair.

Gina: Renee Zellweger to Jennifer Lawrence

Gina allegedly gets around but also has a real heart of gold. She uses her looks as a shield. J-Law’s got this role in the bag.

Mark: Ethan Embry to Logan Lerman

Mark is kind of a cool dork with an innocence about him. Lerman nailed this in Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Corey: Liv Tyler to Brittany Snow

Corey seems like she’s playing alternative but is actually privileged, but secretly furious, which was Brittany Snow in Hairspray.

Joe: Anthony LaPaglia to Mark Duplass

Joe is still not a cog in the man’s machine, but he’s a little older and more cynical than the rest of the crew. And he’s a musician. Duplass is musical and is always ready to stick it to the man.

Rex Manning: Max Caulfield to Paul Rudd

Rex Manning is a washed-up creep who is good-looking and has strong features. Paul Rudd is not washed up, but he is old enough to play someone who is washed up.

Any suggestions? Who did I miss?

The Notebook

Fancy Cyclops, ha!

For Keeps

If you are neurotic like me then you probably have had dreams in which your loved ones have died. I have dreamed about friends and family falling off of buildings, getting murdered, getting in accidents, getting sick, you name it. I had a few of those dreams this week. (This is a thing that happens to everyone, right? It’s not just me?)

As I was driving around last night, I was reminded of the truth that even if our loved ones leave us in this life, they’re going home to God. Nothing can separate us from God’s love and therefore from each other. We’ll see each other again.

Growing up in the Church of Christ gave me a chance to hear a lot of the church’s older hymns. One of my favorites has always been When We All Get to Heaven by Eliza Hewitt. Here’s an awesome bluegrass version of that song (try not to tap your foot):

I thought I loved playing bass more than anyone, but obviously my heavenly sister in that video does.

Here’s Brad Paisley, slowing things down and keeping things cool with his own version:

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. – I Corinthians 15:26

SMH

Politics (Noun)
1. A competitive game in which one half of a population belittles the other half by labeling them as stupid, heartless, or both. The game differs from most competitive games in that no one wins.
2. Synonym for Dating.

Get a Backbone

Arian Foster is a running back on favorite NFL team, the Houston Texans. He’s an atypical football player in a lot of ways. For example, he’s a vegan and a Buddhist (I think). I wasn’t surprised to see such a thoughtful commercial from such a thoughtful guy.

Why God Demands Glory and Worship

For most of my life, I never understood why God wanted us to glorify and worship Him. It seemed to be narcissistic, or arrogant, or otherwise similar to behavior demonstrated by my comic book villains. For a God that wanted our complete attention and obedience, He didn’t seem to be a very selfless or humble being. He didn’t seem very loving. He seemed pushy. In short, it didn’t make sense to me why a supposedly selfless God would seem so greedy.

Now that God has led me up the road a bit, it makes perfect sense to me why God would want our adoration. It’s hard to explain because it’s a matter of perspective. You have to see it.

If you climbed to the top of a plateau overlooking an African savannah at sunset, you could tell me how gorgeous the view was. You could tell me it brought tears to your eyes and inspired you. If I was still sitting at the bottom, I wouldn’t really understand. How could I? I hadn’t experience your sunset on the plateau. It wouldn’t matter whether or not I believed you, I just couldn’t know.

If we climbed up to the top of the plateau together the next day at dusk, then I would stand next to you and nod and feel the goosebumps on my arms. “Yes, now I understand. It is gorgeous.”

Giving God glory and praise is the same way.

While I have spent decades studying God, it feels like only recently that I have gotten to know Him a bit. When I say “know” Him, I mean to participate in real fellowship and relationship. Knowing facts about God isn’t the same thing as knowing God just as knowing facts about light isn’t the same thing as seeing that sunset on the savannah. What I’ve seen gives me goosebumps and the urge to tell people about what I’ve seen, even if no one seems as excited as me (yet). God wants us to give Him glory and worship because he is beautiful, the source of all beauty, and He deserves it. And when we see that, we are so much better off.  Our lives will be more joyful and fruitful,we will know our place in the world, and we will know our place in His Kingdom. Even when he demands our worship, God is not being arrogant or selfish. He’s helping us.

If you are searching for God and you haven’t found the beauty yet, don’t be discouraged. If you ask, He’ll lead you up to the plateau and you’ll see with your own eyes.

Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the ocean depths.
You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.
How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your rivers of delight.
For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see. (David)

MLK Day: Blessed Are the Peacemakers

We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools. - MLK

In honor of MLK Day, I want to share a few resources that may be helpful to you in making peace in both your personal and public life.

The Peacemaker (Ken Sande): I read this book for a grad school class and absolutely loved it. It was transformative. The Peacemaker is a biblically based guide to resolving personal conflict. It has practical, Biblical advice on checking yourself (prior to wrecking yourself), deciding if a conflict is appropriate for confrontation, how to discuss conflict with others, and forgiveness. If you are married, have friends, or would like to interact with other human beings, please read this book! I think it was great for taming my Latin temper. In other words, it made me less of a jackass.

The Art of Forgiving (Lewis B. Smedes): I am lucky in that I’ve never really had anyone do anything horrible to me. If you have, I think that this book may be helpful for you in thinking through what forgiveness means, what it does and doesn’t include, and how it will free you. I’m basing that on in-depth group discussions that I’ve had with others who have read the book. One of the most interesting points in the book to me is that forgiveness requires a wrong, so it requires naming an evil. I think that is very powerful both for the victim and the offender. You can’t truly move on unless you have an event from which to move.

Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton, Heen): My main takeaway from this book is that “when we fail to share what’s most important to us, we detach ourselves from others and damage our relationships.” In other words, a failure to have a difficult conversations is a failure to value yourself and your friend. You’ve decided that the relationship isn’t worth the effort.

This book also has great practical advice about how to fight. For example, if your main point is, “I want to spend more time with you,” don’t start with or make subtextual arguments like, “Why do you have to go out with your friends all the time?”

I hope these are helpful for you. If you have questions about these or other resources, let me know!