I could probably go on for a full week based on the material Tina Underwood gave us Thursday. I'm just now getting unwound from the workweek, so I might get around to a fraction of it all. First, a bit of an interlude, though.

A nice little blogfind to plug: Better Living: Thoughts from Mark Daniels.

What I like about Mark's blog is ... well, several things. Mark is a blogging pastor who takes some time to put his sermon notes into blog form. Usually, there's three passes through the passage being taught from and each one usually offers up something great to dive into. The rest of the posts are usually quality stuff, too. Except the baseball posts. Sorry, but I've never been a Reds fan. Ever. Astros all the way here ;-)

Anyways, back to Tina's class. I'm taking a few of the easy projects from it first. Primarily because it's late, I'm tired, and yadda yadda yadda. But I kinda took a special interest in how Tina referred to having a theme song for herself, covering a previous one and a current one. All very spiritually related. It reminds me of a time early in my walk when I used to lean on a few lyrics like a crutch trying to get away from me. That was back when I didn't have a church home, so my faith was pretty much built on music and books. One of the first stops after payday was a big Christian bookstore in Bellaire that no longer exists. I'm pretty sure the staff thought I had mistaken it for a library back then.

But one of the first songs that stuck with me was Stryper's "Holding On" ...

So if you're hurting and wanting more
No matter how it seems you can have it all
If you will just believe

That someone is there for you
To catch you when you fall
To make your life brand new
To give you all

Another crutch back then was a band called the Altar Boys. The very first song I got hooked on by the band was one of their mellower numbers: "You Are Loved" ...

To all the hearts that have been broken
To all the dreamers with abandoned dreams
To everybody in need of a friend now
You are loved! You are loved!
To all the rebels wounded in battle
To all the rockers that have lost that beat
To all the users all used up now
You are loved! You are loved!

I'm not really sure what I'd pick for a recent example. I think that, for about the longest time after I landed at Lakewood, I just respun my old Altar Boys music, loaded up the MP3 player and never deleted anything. Good music, to me, means it doesn't grow weary over time. I get into occassional fits of disagreement with friends who listen to music for it's ability to transport them mentally in time to a younger year, a simpler time, whatever. There's really nothing wrong with that. But I've always been a bit of a rock snob in the sense that I think there's an artistry in the music that gets lost when we simply attach it to time.

I'm reminded of that listening to the latest addition ... Michael Sweet's reworked hymns. Listening to "Calvary," "Take My Life," or "Alleluia" is as fulfilling as anything. But then again, there's a whole variety of music that moves me each week at church as well. So, in short, I guess it's a jump ball right now for pinning down anything resembling a theme song. I'm a bit more inclined to opt for a Greatest Hits package now.

Anyways, far more to go over from the class. More later ... I swear.