I don't really like folk music

My friend, Misty, and I love the movie "A Mighty Wind". It's from a genre of movies called mockumentaries (as opposed to documentaries) and is intended to mock something that most people take too seriously. In the case of "A Mighty Wind" it's the folk music industry as evidenced in three legendary groups. But, in the process of making the movie, the writers made some excellent songs. I think I've highlighted a few in this blog like "A kiss at the end of the rainbow" and the title song, "A Mighty Wind". To be honest, despite the title of this post (which is a paraphrase of a line from the movie, I really do like folk music.

And that brings me to the point of this post. I was listening to CMT this morning as I was getting dressed and I heard this song from a group called Old Crow Medicine Show called I hear them all. It really made me happy to hear it because it just has a catchy tune and a good message. Go hear to read the lyrics as the song is playing. Aside from the Universalism at the end (the image of Jesus sleeping at the feet of Buddha and some shaman being in the same sentence as Elijah is preposterous) the song is pretty good with great imagery. And it's catchy...

I hear them all
I hear them all
I hear them all

Are you as annoyed as I am?

A certain politician has called me three times (at least) in the last two days and called me four times last week. I'm so annoyed that I can guarantee that I will not vote for the person under any circumstances. I come home to a message on my machine saying something like, "Hi. This is Debra Francesca for the _______ campaign and I want to give you a 49 second survey. (pause) It sounds like you're not there. I'll call back later. (Click)"

Ordinarily I wouldn't say anything about it but the message seems to imply that she will keep calling until I participate in the survey. I'm now screening all the calls that come on that line because I don't want to answer the darn survey.

I wish I could just pick up the phone and say, "I'm a religious. Leave me alone you state employee." and they'd have to stop calling. But, instead, I'll just keep getting annoying messages.

And we have over a year more of this!

Relax, eat, drink, and be merry

I preached this weekend about how the rich man, despite receiving from God more than he deserved, didn't give anything to the poor but decided to hoard it for himself.

If I were going to preach again, I would have focused on this phrase. The man really has lost his sense of stewardship, meaning that all we have and all we are comes from God. He thinks that abundance means he can relax. But God's expectation is that, with tremendous gifts come tremendous responsibility. This is why the gospel of prosperity, that believers should expect to be "taken care of" by God, is so preposterous. True believers shouldn't expect God to take care of them, they should expect God to give them responsibilities to take care of each other. God loves us, we must love one another.