The Student's Playlist

So Friday I spent most of my time with my Pastor. We spent a lot of time at Starbucks and Denny's doing some reading...We're starting a sermon series on the book of Mark at our Sunday services which is great because the reading assignment for my New Testament class this week is the Book of Mark. So I've been reading a lot history and context on Mark's Gospel. I didn't really listen to much music yesterday.

However, this morning as I've been reading for school I was listening to a playlist I made a few weeks ago for my time of studying called "The Student's Playlist," which consists mostly of scores from films. I'm not really sure to call this secular music though. (Hear my abbreviated argument before you conclude that I've broken my fast, lol). The purpose of film scores is to serve the story of the film. Stories are human's favorite ways of communicating which is why we find the Bible so full of stories. The Bible uses stories as ways of executing authority by communicating truths through the story. Jesus constantly told stories in the form of parables because he understood that stories were one of the most efficient ways of expressing the truths about God he was trying to convey... Thus my love for stories, thus my love for film scores, thus this godly playlist. hehe...

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Thomas Newman
Shawshank Redemption
Road to Perdition
Revolutionary Road

John Williams
Artificial Intelligence

Alexandre Desplat
Birth
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Yann Tiersen
Amelie

Bill Conti
Rocky

Gustavo Santaolalla
Motorcycle Diaries
Brokeback Mountain
Amores Perros



p.s. not sure I have time to blog everyday during this fast, but I'll try! =)

Build A Fire Under You

I was recently at a youth group service in the SF Valley. There were a few friends I had came to visit that serve as youth leaders, and one of them being the youth pastor. At the end of the service he asked the students to pick out some tasks from an envelop that would challenge their commitment of their confession that they are Christ followers. They ranged everywhere from doing more chores around the house to fasting from "secular" music.

One of the students I was talking to was reluctant to accept the challenge. So I told 'em I'd take on a challenge–maybe that would encourage them to follow through with theirs. As I was picking one up from the envelop I said aloud, "please don't let it be the music one." Surely enough, of all the 50 pieces of paper with challenges I could've pick, I pick the one that challenged me to fast secular music so I can focus more on reading my Bible.

As much complaining I did, I knew in my heart this had been something I needed to do. In fact, I had just discussed with my step-dad, an audiophile himself, that lately I've been in this phase of listening to just "worship music."

Five years ago I could have easily defined secular music for you; I'd have a hard time now–I've had a paradigm shift about this topic since then. (I don't really want to get expand on this thought-at least not in this blog.) However I couldn't help it, I was already making a list in my head of what secular music I couldn't listen to during this fast. But my friend, the youth pastor, had encouraged me to not look at my loss but rather to shift my focus to what I would gain. He added that many times as Christians we focus too much on our losses that it overshadows the endless gains we obtain when we attempt to deepen our commitment to Jesus.

This gave me an excuse to listen to and explore new "non-secular music"...haha...I can't say that without laughing...anyway, so I'll be posting up artists/bands that I've been listening to for the next three and a half weeks.


Thursday, 02.03.11
John Mark McMillan: The Medicine
fav tracks: How He Loves, Dress Us Up, Skeleton Bones

Various Artist: Shine Like Stars
fav tracks: You Are Faithful, Come Away With Me, A Little Longer

George Frideric Handel
Good music to listen to when working on theology papers!