Hello, hello! How are you doing today? Wait…sorry! Don’t answer that. Well, you can but if you are in a public setting perhaps you don’t want to answer any questions I ask out loud. I would hate for this blog to be the reason why people begin thinking of you as a crazy person.

Then again, I can’t really say that talking to your self is the definition of crazy. I have been known to fervently argue with my computer screen when in the throes of homework or when technology is not allowing me to manipulate it in the way I desire. Then there are those moments in which you’re with someone or in a group and you get kind of lost in thought. Meanwhile, you’re oblivious to those around you when all of a sudden a light bulb comes on and you just happen to chime in with a random comment that doesn’t fit into the current conversation at the exact moment that everyone else stops talking. Or has anyone here ever enjoyed the embarrassing moment when you wave to someone you thought was waving at you to and then quickly the awkwardness of the moment catches up to you? Then you try and act like you were doing something else like swatting at a fly or flagging in a 747 but you’re stuck and clearly caught in the middle of awkward-ville. And now because of technology, awkward-ville has claimed new ways of roping people in. My new favorite embarrassing social interaction is when you hear someone say something and you give a response only to find out that the person who addressed you has a Bluetooth headset clamped to his ear and is now staring you down like “Who’s crazy pants talking to?!?”

I am a fan of those awkward moments and when it comes down to it, all awkward moments. I’m a fan of disc golf; I’m a fan of cruising around with the windows down and music blaring; I’m a fan of star gazing. This could be a long list but I’ll cap it off with two more things that are synonymous- I am a fan of music and a HUGE fan of The Beatles (I won’t expound on my love for The Beatles because this blog would then turn into a dissertation). The first blog I wrote for the Lighthouse Collective was about music. Since then I’ve wanted to write another one about another aspect of music, specifically what I call the “life song.”

You know how couples have their song? It’s the song that defines their relationship or is linked to a specific memory, the type of song that sings of promises of true love and growing old together, a song of definition. So a life song would be a song that poetically describes how you live life or how you desire to live life. A song that you take to heart and beats to the same rhythm of yours. Now when choosing a song whether a life song or a love song or one that touches upon both aspects, don’t ever feel as though you have to be limited to one song. I don’t ever want to just have to choose one song that defines the love I have for my wife; I want her to know the love I have for her through so many ways. The love I have for her will be so deep that it will be absurd even to think that one song could ever clearly define the depth of that love. Don’t ever be confined by one song when trying to convey the depth of your passion and love.

I have two life songs. The first one you may think of an odd choice because, well, it kind of is. Not too many people have ever heard the song before even though it is done by a very popular musician. The song is by David Crowder Band and is entitled “The Lark Ascending or (Perhaps More Accurately, I’m Trying To Make You Sing)”. Now for anyone who has ever listened to The Beautiful Collision album in which this track is found, you know that the last two tracks of the CD consist of Crowder in a conversation with someone who is interviewing him. If you go to the last track on the album, the one listed above, and skip forward to about the 1:48 marker in the song and give it a listen, you will find the gem I am talking about. The conversation begins to fade out and the music begins to build and then Crowder passionately bursts forth with beautiful lyrics.

“..and I’m just trying to make you sing,
from inside where you believe!
Like its something that you need,
and it means everything!
And I’m trying to make you feel,
that this is for real!
That life is happening and it means everything
I’m just trying to make you sing…”

This song depicts what I so desire to do with my life. Something simple and yet so deep. I desire to live a life that directs people toward God. I desire to make people sing, to sing out songs of glory and praise to God. For people to come and know that what they are singing about is real and that it means everything. To cry out to God and know through it all, good and bad, moments of joy and moments of brokenness, that all we can do is cry out to God. He is good and He is holy and He loves that. And when I am in those moments, the ones in which I can glimpse God, I am undone. All I can do is join in with all of creation and sing out songs of praise to glorify a mighty and powerful and loving God, because what else can I do?

The second one is simple and needs no explanation.

“all you need is love…all you need is love…

all you need is love, love, love is all you need…”