My Drug

Many times over the last four years I have often joked about needing to go take my drugs.  Life with a continuous headache will cause you to take meds frequently.  Sometimes it was a prescribed med, and yet other times it was just a quick dose of some OTC meds I have sitting in my desk.  It was during those times that I often joked with Janda and coworkers that there was, "Better living through pharmaceuticals."  Yes, I said, and at times still say this in jest.

I am fully aware that many people suffer addictions to drugs.  Street drugs, prescription meds, OTC stuff.  Friends and family alike have nearly died and/or destroyed families because of these addictions.  I have an uncle who is a trained counselor who has dealt with the healing of said addictions.  So yes, when I make that statement, I'm fully aware that reality isn't a better life with pharmaceuticals.  Yet, at these times, it does help deal with the headache.  Or, it can help relieve pain, cold symptoms, allergies, etc.  Used correctly, pharmaceuticals are great.

Anyway, this post is not about pharmaceuticals.  Actually, it is the drug that I consume daily through my ears.  Music!  Music is my drug of choice.  To me, it heals, soothes, encourages and basically anything else you can think of.  It elicits emotion.

I don't care the genre, mostly.  I'll listen to just about anything.  My mood depends on the genre or even artist.  Even the genres I don't particularly care for I will listen to if there is something meaningful in a song I've heard.  Yes, that even means country, and if really desperate for something different I'll pull out the classical genre.

I've been like this my whole life.  I drove my parents nuts with some of the stuff I listened to.  And yes, I drive my wife and kids nuts as well.  But, as with most drug addicts or alcoholics, it doesn't matter what the intake is as long as it is entering my system.  Thankfully, the music is not destructive (I know for others it has been recorded it can be).  It is not something that takes over my being.  It is a relaxer and encourager.  I can share and not feel guilty about sharing.  I can play it loudly or quietly, listen alone or communally.

So, if you ever need a good pick me up, change of pace band, encouraging word, calm down tune, something to bang your head to or get a little hood into you head, hit me up.  I'll help as much as possible.  If I have to, I'll even get my brother involved in your quest to discover what to listen to if I'm not able to help.  Yes, growing up I somehow passed my love of music to him.  His love of music and variety of music is even greater.

Good night world, and may you enjoy your favorite song while you read this.  See, not all drugs are bad.

Worship - When, Where, or is it?

A couple weeks ago I challenged some friends to tell me what worship was.  The responses I got were great.  Mind you, I was a little bummed that I didn't get some of the answers I was expecting and some people I didn't expect to respond did.  I guess, that is just the cynical side of me desiring some confrontation (only for the sake of discussion) from some and that is probably not good.  Oh well.

So, after some much needed and necessary thought, discussing it with a couple people, I decided I should probably get a few things off my chest.  What better way to do that than to write.  Besides, I haven't posted a blog lately, and writing is something I need to do more of.  I also need to exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables and a few other things, but that is not the meaning of this blog. No, worship is why I write.

Before I get to far into the blog, what is worship?  Where should we worship?  How should we worship?  Most importantly, when should we worship?  Believe me when I say, there are some really good opinions, but then there is also the right answers.  Somethings here may blow your mind, because when presented to me, they blew my mind.  So, here goes.

How many of us were taught to take our hats off when in the church?  I know I was.  Raised in a very conservative church that was admittedly more conservative than the denomination itself, I took my hat off the second I entered the door (not that I wore a hat that often).  But the Bible doesn't mention anything about hats, does it?  Well, not exactly.  At least in the manner of whether to wear it in a building, despite the courtesy of keeping it off while indoors.  What the Bible does say in 1 Corinthians is that man should not cover his head when worshiping God.  I guess then that removing my hat when in a sanctuary, or during prayer (organized or personal time), or during the worship music at church is indeed necessary.

As for where and when to worship, Romans 12:1-2, Hebrews 12:28-29 and 1 Timothy 2:1-3 all state what worship is.  I add that worship is an anything item, anyplace time.  Additionally, we are to pray as our worship, pray all the time and pray with all we have.  We are to honor God with all we do - be it driving, work, school, sports, home, etc.  Well, who can say they are giving everything to God and doing so in an honorable way?  Yeah, me neither.

My next question is, does your worship focus only around music?  Are you focusing your worship time as being only at church?  Either way, according to scripture, we are doing it wrong.  I think we have done things an injustice to the word and following as the word says.

So, please do yourself a favor.  When you discuss worship, think about all of what worship is, not just what you think it is.

In my next post, I might just ask about when your day of rest is.