Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category

Moving Music

Posted 04 Nov 2007 — by nick
Category Blogs, Friends, Fun, Jesus, music, Spirituality

So I’m stealing this from Amy, check out her blog for the original post.

Music can have a strong emotional pull on me – invoking happiness or sadness, and not always related to a past experience. As I thought over my favorite artists I realized the ones a top the list have the strongest grip over me – Derek Webb, Counting Crows, Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, to name a few.

Sometimes a song in it’s completeness – music, lyrics, vocals – draws out a feeling of joy. For me, worship music often follows this line, but as my previous post showed, fun ska or punk music can do it too. Other songs just make me want to cry. Here are a couple of those types:

“Fix You” by Coldplay – Coldplay is an interesting band for me, the vocals usually pull me down but the guitar and drums make me want to move and sway which makes me smile. This song though just makes me teary.

“Colorblind” by Counting Crows – I’m a sap for a sad piano song, well any piano song I guess, but the start to this song causes emotion to well up and my eyes to fill. Then the violin sets in and I’m gone. This song is probably the most consistent tear invoker on the list.

“The Blowers Daughter” by Damien Rice – Soaked in pain, you can hear the hurt in Damien’s voice and it moves my heart to morn with him.

“Black eye” by Jeff Tweedy – This one doesn’t always get me, but on days when I feel alone and distant from God, forgetting his grace and love, this song reminds me of all the walls I’ve constructed and how good they are at isolating me.

“Let that be enough” by Switchfoot – So worshipful, so prayerful, it centers me on God and illuminates ways I’ve chosen my way instead of His. It strips me down to a simple child like faith and puts me back together.

This was a lot of fun for me, what songs make you want to cry. Or if you like, what songs make you joyful?

New Nooma – 018 Name

Posted 31 Oct 2007 — by nick
Category Jesus, Light, Ministry, Spirituality, Technology, Videos

A new Nooma was released today, the eighteenth in the series. Those of you that heard me speak at Illini Life Summer Church or at the Fall Retreat might find some of the material familiar. This Nooma is a bit of a summary of a couple of life changing teachings I’ve listened to frequently by Rob Bell.

For the next 48 hours you can watch the NOOMA for free on their MySpace page.

It was good to be reminded of these truths today.

I Shall Not Walk Alone

Posted 27 Oct 2007 — by nick
Category Light, music, Poetry, Spirituality

“I Shall Not Walk Alone”
By Ben Harper

Battered and torn
still I can see the light
tattered and worn
but I must kneel to fight

Friend of mine
what can’t you spare
I know some times
it gets cold in there

When my legs no longer carry
and the warm wind chills my bones
I reach for Mother Mary
and I shall not walk alone

Hope is alive
while we’re apart
only tears
speak from my heart
break the chains
that hold us down
and we shall be
forever bound

When I’m tired and weary
and a long way from home
I reach for Mother Mary
and I shall not walk alone

Beauty that
we left behind
how shall we
tomorrow find

Set aside
our weight in sin
so that we
can live again

When my legs no longer carry
and the warm wind chills my bones
I reach for Mother Mary
and I shall not walk alone

I’ve recently gotten into Ben Harper. He’s an artist I’ve heard a lot about and respect simply because friends I respect like him. Matt Wondra’s brother moved in with us a couple weeks back and loaned me one of Ben Harper’s Albums “Will To Live”. After listening through a couple of times I’ve come to really love this album. It’s beautiful and this track is pure poetry in it’s simplicity.

We shall not walk alone for the God of all creation walks beside us.

Retreating to the Wilderness

Posted 24 Oct 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Friends, Fun, Jesus, Light, Spirituality

Illinois has mountains too… well sorta. This is Camel Rock in the Garden of the Gods, part of Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois.

In a few short minutes I’ll be on the road with my twin brother Chris headed for Harrisburg, IL. We’ll be spending the next 3 1/2 days hiking a small section of the River to River trail – specifically we are destined for The Garden of the Gods.

I’m excited to have a chance to retreat and spend some refreshing simplistic time with God. I pray He meets with me as I walk through creation and communions with me as I drink deep of His beauty.

See you in a few days.

Sunlight

Posted 18 Oct 2007 — by nick
Category Darkness, Jesus, Light, Running, Scripture, Spirituality

Typically after a marathon I tend to struggle more with feeling down and emotional – some runners have a term for this, Post Marathon Depression. While I’m not sure I’d call it depression – certainly there is a great feeling of lose and emptiness. In one respect you reached the goal through months of training, uplifting. Then there is the emptiness of not having a goal to strive for, not having a motivation to get back on the road and put in the miles. In addition you have the physical limitation; your body simply needs to recover and your legs can be mad at you for sometime. Typically my body needs about 2 weeks to recover and feel up to pounding the road again.

Reviewing previous years it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the past weeks have been pretty tough emotionally and felt so exhausting. Periodically I’ve felt overwhelmed with emotion – making it hard to be around friends or even complete my work.

Yesterday I noticed the hours of sunlight dwindling, like they do each fall, and that made me sad. Soon it’ll be dark when I go to work in the morning and dark when I get off. Over the years I’ve heard claims that sunlight helps fight depression, so I’ve made it a point to get outside today – visiting some of the buildings I’m networking. Surprising how much better I feel just from getting to see the sun a bit – how much more hopeful life seems. It excites me and reminds me of this idea of God being light and us as followers being salt and light.


I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. ~ Jesus (John 12:46)

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Now playing: Derek Webb – This Too Shall Be Made Right
via FoxyTunes

Fall Retreat Reflections: Part 1 The Intro

Posted 25 Sep 2007 — by nick
Category Jesus, Ministry, Scripture, Spirituality

This weekend marked our annual Fall Retreat. Each year Illini Life heads off to a little camp near Peoria to get away from the busyness of campus and the chaos of year’s beginning. In the past we’ve brought in a speaker to teach the 4 or so main sessions – this year our teachers were all in-house which aided a more family centric feel to the retreat.

The topic of focus: Insecurities – Physical, Emotional and Social.

I felt the weekend was very accessible and left me with a great deal of hope. Sharing honestly about our insecurities – what is really going on behind tearful eyes, or a joyous smile – breaks down walls and makes me feel less alone. Sharing in others insecurities removes the isolating and crippling power they have over us.

I’d like to try and write a series of posts on this weekend, reflecting on each of the teachings and the things God has shown me through them. I say try because we all know I’m not so consistent with posting.

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Now playing: Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
via FoxyTunes

"Everything must change"

Posted 17 Sep 2007 — by nick
Category Books, Jesus, Light, Spirituality, Videos

“If Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. Everything must change.” ~ Brian McLaren Everything Must Change

As I sat at my desk today, my mind straying to thoughts about this coming weekend, I found myself more and more pulled to God. Talking to Him about anything and everything. This video quenched some of my thirst for something deeper today – something more than computers, networking and music.

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Now playing: Over The Rhine – Born
via FoxyTunes

Blog Samples: Sin

Posted 14 Jun 2007 — by nick
Category Blogs, Jesus, Light, Spirituality

I came across this post by Scott McKnight on Jesus Creed, I thought it worth sharing.

Letters to Emerging Christians
“Now my final point: the biggest issue that I see with the Romans Road approach is that once the sin problem is resolved (sin almost always understood as guilt before an all-holy God, which is true but not true enough), salvation has been accomplished. Frankly, this isnโ€™t biblical: the sin problem of guilt, to be sure, has to be resolved, but sin is bigger than guilt (it is distorted relationship with God, self, others, and the world) and therefore the resolution (salvation) is bigger than forgiveness (it is resolved relationships with God, self, others, and the world โ€” and it takes a lifetime). Only a kingdom vision makes the sin problem fully clear and only a kingdom vision makes the solution fully clear.”

Ready… Set… Start Marathon Training

Posted 04 Jun 2007 — by nick
Category Fun, Running, Spirituality

I’ve been signed up for the Chicago Marathon for awhile now. I was lucky this year and got in before registration filled up. Race day is October 7th, which, if I can still count to 18, means I need to start training this week. My training thus far has involved eating a lot of cookies, playing Nintendo Wii and watching movies – a very rigorous schedule. These coming weeks are guaranteed to be painful, tiring and tons of fun. Let me know if you want to join me for a run at any point or for any portion of a run.

Running has been a great release for me in recent years – a way for me to clear my head and get alone and think. As the road stretches out before me and the miles pile up behind I find myself drifting in and out of conversation with God. At times it seems easier to pray when I’m running than at any other point of the day. I welcome the spiritual renewal that has traditionally come with training.

Here are some pics chris took last year when I ran Chicago.

Marathon History:
2005 Indianapolis Marathon 3:52:19
2006 Chicago Marathon 3:44:00
2007 Chicago Marathon 3:3-:– (Hopefully)

Returning to the Wilderness

Posted 22 May 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality

It’s official!

I’ll be returning the wilderness of Colorado for an 8 day trip oriented around connecting with God in a uniquely distraction-free way. We call the program Wilderness LT or WLT. Part of the GCM Network, WLT takes a group out into the wilderness for an extended period of time focused on the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence, Fasting, Prayer, and Simplicity.

There is a strict list of equipment we are allowed to bring – only the essentials, NO Coffee ๐Ÿ™ The food rations are small for the few days that we will be eating. Five days of complete solitude. No music, TV, or computers to distract me. Just God, me and my issues. It breads intimacy that forever changes how you follow Jesus.

We’ll be returning to the same remote wilderness we stayed in back in the summer of 2005. Pictures of that excursion can be seen here. The dates of this summer’s trip are July 6-14. I’m eager for it to arrive.