I Want...

One thing I really like about musicals is that it's quite easy to figure out what the main character's primary goals are. The reason it's so easy is because must musicals use a plot device called an "I Want" song. It usually occurs fairly early on in the musical and is sung by the lead character (after all the song IS about what they want). Whenever I'm listening to a musical that I'm not familiar with, I pay special attention to the I Want song.
I've been listening to the soundtrack from Shrek The Musical, and it seems to contain several such songs in there. There's one for Fiona (I Know It's Today), one for Shrek (Who I'd Be), there's kind of one for Donkey (Don't Let Me Go), and one for Lord Farquad (What's Up Duloc). From these songs, we learn that Fiona wants to be rescued from a tower by her prince and future husband to be, Shrek wants to be a hero who gets the girl, Donkey wants a friend, and Lord Farquad wants a perfect utopia (think The Giver). See how much we can learn from an I want song?
The text Dad used for his sermon today is Mark 10:35-45. This is where James and John ask Jesus if one can sit on His right and one on His left when He comes into glory. It's pretty easy to figure out what James and John wanted, and they were not afraid to ask for it. Dad ended his sermon by asking us what we would ask for. Since then, I've been wondering what my I want song would be. I really feel called to missions, and I really want to do that. But I also really like just about any form of art involving glass. And don't forget music! It'd be awesome to be a good arranger. Oh! And chemistry is really interesting too. So my answer is that I don't really know. What would be your I Want song? If only life were as simple as a musical...

Music

In my first VOM (Vocation of Ministry) class, Dr. Marmon had us do some different association exercises where she would give us a topic such as "What is important to you" and have us jot down everything that came to mind. Then she pointed out that music is very important to most people and proceeded to have us spend about 60 seconds writing down our favorite songs. She then asked us to see if there were any unifying themes in what we just wrote down. The first thing I noticed is that I really like music that is in a time signature of 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8. I also seem to really like music in minor keys. So if a song is in a minor key and in 6/8, I'll probably like it. The next thing I noticed is that I like Celtic music, especially celtic music that fits the above pattern. this led me to the conclusion that this was a rather useless excerciese. But it really wasn't.
For the past three and a half weeks, I've been paying more attention to what kind of music I listen to. I've also been looking back over the list of songs I had jotted down, and I've found something else. I really am drawn to songs about love. But they're not just songs about love, they're songs about God's love for us and our love for Him. One of my favorite songs of all time, Life For Love, is by Enter The Haggis, which is a decidedly non-Christian group. So I've been thinking about why I like this song. It talks about giving your life for love, and one of my favorite lines is, "Arms stretched to catch the next horizon..." What does this remind you of? Hmm...let's see, you in the back, what's that you said? It sounds like something Jesus did for us? You are correct!
I know that the song is not written to talk about the Incarnation, and that it only really fits if you take certain lines out of context. I'm ok with that. I still really like the song. So what are some of the other "love" songs I jotted down? My next two favorites are "The Church" and "Lover" from Derek Webb's CD She Must and Shall Go Free, which is probably in my list of top ten favorite CD's of all time. I think the reason I love songs like this is because it reminds me of God's love for us. When I'm feeling really stressed or I find myself questioning why in the world I ever decided to go BACK to school, I listen to these songs for a reminder.
So I guess Dr. Marmon was right. We can learn a lot about ourselves from looking at what music we listen too. Give it a try, you might be surprised at what you learn.

Wild At Heart

About a year ago, the college age guys at Northside read and discussed Wild At Heart by John Eldridge. In the book, he talks about how all guys are hardwired with three major desires; adventure, battle, and to win the beauty. Now I can believe this for two reasons. First, I'm a guy. Second, every guy I've ever met seems to express these desires at some point, even the biggest pacifist at some point seems to want adventure and battle, even if it's just sword fighting with those cardboard tubes leftover from wrapping paper.
Now some guys actually like musicals, and I'm one of them. I'm ok with it. Shrek the Musical is a fairly new musical to Broadway. So new, in fact, that the cast recording won't be released until the end of the month. BUT, thanks to the wonders of youtube and the internet, I've seen and heard most of the major songs. Brian d'arcy James, the man who plays Shrek, was on the Today Show recently and sang one of the songs, "Who I'd be." I promise I'm going somwhere with this. In the song, Shrek expresses those three desires that Eldridge talks about in his book. You can tell from the lyrics that the lyricist was probably a man, and it was. Anywho, I kind of lost my train of thought...
oh! Check out the video. The actual singing starts at about 1:50.

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While there's a lot more to Wild at Heart than just those three desires, they're a big part of it, and this song seems to capture them well. Now back to writing that paper that's due in 9 hours...