Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 23, Shake It Off, Taylor Swift

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 23, Shake It Off, Taylor Swift
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. - Jesus Mt 5: 10-11
This is a great song to sing out loud on those days when you are feeling reviled and persecuted. Haters are going to hate, players are going to play on us when we walk in the way of the Lord. And we can still rejoice and be glad, our reward is great in heaven. More over when we shake off the negativity of and wholly embrace forgiveness and new life in Christ we can dance and sing like Taylor in this video.
I wonder what you have to shake off today? What do you think?

Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 22, Sledgehammer, Fifth Harmony

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 22, Sledgehammer, Fifth Harmony
When you encounter God's presence in your life it can be wonderfully startling. God's miraculous love is like a startling surge of adrenaline that gets you heart beating like a sledgehammer.
Job 37 The storm makes my heart beat wildly. Listen all of you to the voice of God, to the thunder that comes from God's mouth.
Sledgehammers are great for a construction site. They build up and destroy in very powerful ways. They make seemingly impossible jobs possible.
I wonder how you have experienced the presence of God that make your heart beat wildly? What do you think?

Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 21, Style, Taylor Swift

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 21, Style, Taylor Swift
We are at the 21 day mark of Lent which means that we are just over half way to Easter. I pray that your spiritual disciplines have pulled you closer to God and helped you to reflect the image of God.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Cor 13:14
Today's song reflects on Taylor Swift's song Style. The video is shot in a beautiful smoky haze, and features reflections through shattered mirrors and projections throughout. This got me thinking about the image of God is a sort of style of heaven that we are all created to take on. Ironically this image is unique for each of us. And when we reflect it we give people glimpses of heaven.
How have you reflected God's style? What do you think?

Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 20, Don't, Ed Sheeran

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 20, Don’t, Ed Sheeran
Philippian 4: 6-8
[Don’t] worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Sheeran’s Don’t is a ballad of poor choices and infidelity that left his heart exposed and broken.
“Trust and respect is what we do this for
I never intended to be next”
“And I wasn't looking for a promise or commitment
But it was never just fun and I thought you were different”
Our hearts are designed for optimum performance under the conditions of “trust and respect”. As we entering into relationship without promise or commitment we expose our hearts in ways that can be damaging. Sheeran’s experience inspires him to create an anthem of warning “Don’t fuck with my heart”. He does this out of fear and worry that someone else will repeat this heart attack.
The letter to the Philippians calls us to offer our hearts to God who is the one who will guard our hearts and minds. We don’t have to worry about that, if we pursue God’s love. What do you think?

Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 18, Waves, Mr. Probz

‪#‎ldat40‬ day 18, Waves, Mr. Probz
Psalm 42:7
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
This song reminded me of psalm 42, which begins with an illustration of a deer who longs for water to describe how a soul longs for God. “Waves” like most other songs on the top forty is about relationship specifically someone who longs for a relationship (with a lover). I wonder how we are overwhelmed by waves of despair and grace when we stray away from the one who is the lover of our souls.
What do you think?

Lenten Devotional AT40, Day 17 Stuck on a Feeling, Prince Royce

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 17 Stuck on a Feeling, Prince Royce
This song features ever so cool Snoop Dogg. His riff and the groovy beat get my head bopping every time I've listened to it. It's the kind of tune that sticks in your head and fixes your attention. Usually we use the word fix to describe repair. It's fallen out of fashion but another definition is to fasten or stick. There are five instances of “stuck” in the scriptures and they are generally used to describe an arrow piercing something. So fixed captured my imagination for this mornings song.
The Psalmist writes:
Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. Ps. 119 6
Our hearts, minds and eyes can get stuck on a variety of things. When our attentions are fixed on the work of God in the world we operate at our best selves.
The writer of Luke captures that moment when our imaginations are stuck to Jesus as a fulfillment of God’s promise and presence.
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Luke 4:20
So what have you been stuck on? Has your attention been fixed on Jesus this Holy Season? What do you think?

Lenten Devotional AT40, Day 16, Animals, Maroon 5

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 16 Animals, Maroon 5

"Yeah, you can start over you can run free
You can find other fish in the sea
You can pretend it's meant to be
But you can't stay away from me
I can still hear you making that sound
Taking me down rolling on the ground
You can pretend that it was me
But no"

I can imagine God singing this lyric to Jonah, when he ran away from God's call. I wonder how God has relentlessly pursued you, when you turned away?

What do you think?

#ldat40, Lenten Devotional American Top 40, Day 15, Ghost, Ella Henderson

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 15 Ghost, Ella Henderson

On the surface this is a song about how the specter of a complicated relationship haunts someone. Ella sings,

Each time that I think you go
I turn around and you're creeping in
And I let you under my skin
'Cause I love living in the sin

This seems like a bad thing. Ella uses baptismal images through the chorus. 

I keep going to the river to pray
'Cause I need something that can wash all the pain
And at most I'm sleeping all these demons away
But your ghost, the ghost of you
It keeps me awake

So I wonder, what if the ghost were the Holy Ghost? How does that change the song? There have been plenty of times when I have been pulled by the relentless nature of the Holy Spirit.

What do you think?

#ldat40 Lenten Devotional AT 40, Day 14 Centuries, Fall Out Boy

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 14, Centuries, Fall Out Boy
As Fall Out Boy sings,
Some turn to dust or to gold
But you will remember me
Remember me for centuries
I hear Jesus say, "This is my body, given for you, do this in remembrance of me"
The thief on the cross asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. Jesus said that that day, the thief would join him in paradise. Jesus resonates with the lyric.
'Cause I am the opposite of amnesia
I wonder if we were truly able to remember Jesus like he remembers us how much of paradise could we embrace here and now?
What do you think?

Lenten Devotional AT40 Day 13, Time of Our Lives, Pitbull, Ne-Yo

#ldat40 Day 13, Time of Our Lives, Pitbull, Ne-Yo

I was feeling fatigued on my Lenten discipline this morning.  And today I get to deal with Pitpull!  As I read the lyric I feel like slipping into a rant about run away reckless consumerism.

"This is the last $20 I got
But I'mma have a good time ballin' or out"

How can you spend the last of your money on a party, when that money could have been used for the poor.  Then as the funky beat lifts my spirits I hear how my thoughts echo - Judas' in John 14: 4-6

"But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,  “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) "

John lays the blame on Judas for this indignation but Mark 14 and Matthew 26 say that many of the disciples if not all were thinking this.

Celebration is up lifting especially when we are facing tough times.

This for anybody going through tough times
Believe me, been there, done that
But everyday above ground is a great day, remember that

Thanks Pitbull! For the celebration on this Wednesday two weeks into my Lenten journey.  I needed that.

What do you think?

 

‪#‎ldat40‬ day 12, Hanging Tree, James Howard Newton

I'm reading Nadia Boltz-Webber's Book Pastrix. Pastor Nadia reflects on hanging tree of the cross and how this one of only two times when Mary the mother of Jesus is mentioned in the Gospel of John. The other is at the Wedding of Cana, where Jesus performs his first miracle.
In both Johnine Mary sightings she is referee to as "woman". As the wedding of Cana she points out to Jesus that the wine is out and the people thirst. Jesus points out that his hanging tree time is not at hand, and Mary just tells others to follow what Jesus says.

At the hanging tree when Jesus time is at hand, Jesus tells Mary that he thirsts. I found this linkage powerful. In that the life and death of Jesus connects the thirst of the world with that of God. In Christ God shares creations thirst and in Christ this thirst is quenched.

What do you think?

#LDAT40 Day 11, Heroes, Alesso

It's stunning how God can work even in the American Top Forty.  On the Valentine's day 2015 this song was ranked number 11 right after Lilly Wood and the Prick's Prayer in C.  While Prayer in C is in the tradition of the lament, electric dance song, Heroes (we could be) takes a more optimistic approach.  I think God wanted us to consider these songs together.

In my last devotion we considered the problem of theodicy, or why a loving God permits the manifestation of evil in creation.  I offered three of what I thought were less than satisfying answers to this mystery.  Struggling with this question and other seeming unanswerable questions is the first part of a classic Lamentation. "Why are You doing this God?" And the last part of a Lament typically lets go of the mystery and offers praise.  Basically a Lamentation is like a good cry that you just need to get out so you can get on with your life.  Heroes is the kind of song that gives glory to God and see and opportunity to join God in mighty acts of salvation that take place every day in the midst of quotidian pain and suffering.  

Day 10 of this devotion was the first part of a Lament.  Day 11 is the next.  What do you think?

Lenten Devotional AT40 Day 10, Prayer in C, Lilly Wood and the Prick

‪#‎ldat40‬ Day 10, Prayer in C, Lilly Wood and the Prick
This song deals with the problem of omnipotence and theodicy. In other words why does a good and powerful let bad things happen. I have several less than satisfying answers to this mystery.
1) bad things happen to us because the our sin and brokenness not God's
2) bad things can be tests for us, that lead to testimonies.
3) bad things can be opportunities for us to be agents of God's grace.
What do you think?