Bring On Your Wrecking Ball
Hold tight to your anger, and don’t fall to your fears. ~ Bruce Springsteen, “Wrecking Ball”
This Sunday night, Bruce Springsteen kicks off a brand new world tour in Atlanta, GA. I am lucky enough to have tickets to this monumental occasion. When I first saw The Boss in concert three years ago, I savored the opportunity because I did not know if it would be my last.
Bruce is only 63 years young. Artists like Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney are touring well into their 70s and aren’t slowing down. But once an artist crosses into senior citizen territory, you can never be too sure of when their last hoorah is going to be. Everything has to come to an end at some point. There’s no escaping it.
As fate would have it, that concert in 2009 would not be my last chance to see Bruce, but it would be my last chance to see the “Big Man” Clarence Clemons play saxophone for the E Street Band. Clarence has always been the soul of Bruce Springsteen’s band, and when he died last summer many were unsure of how Bruce or the band would be able to move on.
As Bruce has said in interviews since Clarence’s death, losing Clarence was like “losing the rain.” Bruce and Clarence have always leaned on each other to form the sound of the E Street Band (figuratively and literally). How do you move on from the loss of something so integral and ingrained in your life?
We can indeed make our sorrows, just as much as our joys, a part of our celebration of life in the deep realization that life and death are not opponents but do, in fact, kiss each other at every moment of our existence. ~ Henri Nouwen, Creative Ministry
The key to moving forward from death is in understanding the connection between life and death. In the creation of something new there is always the destruction of something old. In the destruction of something old there is always the creation of something new.
When hard times come and go and come again, we have a choice: we can let the hard times conquer us and stay down for the count, or we can rise up and begin to rebuild.
If you look back through the Springsteen songbook, it becomes clear that The Boss probably never thought twice about what he would do without The Big Man. Springsteen’s music, especially in the past decade, has always carried a theme of hope in the midst of despair. Bruce sings consistently of rising up, typically through the coming together of a community. If ever there was a time for Springsteen to gather his band back together again it was now. The E Street Band could not go quiet from the loss of one of their own. It’s not in their nature. It’s also not in the nature of Christ.
The life of Christ cannot be separated from the death of Christ. And the death of Christ cannot be separated from the resurrection of Christ. The power of new life in Christ comes not only from His death, and it comes not only from His rising. These two events kiss, to paraphrase Nouwen, and are intimately connected. If Jesus only died for us, or only lived for us, then He would not have won the victory over this world for us.
We must face death in every aspect of our life. Not only do we face the death of the people we love, we often face the death of beloved institutions.
The future of The Hill Baptist Church is uncertain. There’s no ignoring that. Even though it’s been around for over 80 years, there are no promises that it will exist for 80 more. One day the doors on this church building will close though, and it could be sooner than later.
Should we then sit back and accept defeat because the future is not clear before us? Or do we press on to spread the gospel of Christ in the community in the time that we have? That is the choice our church must make, because that gospel message will not die – no matter how many buildings fall.
Struggles, doubts, and disputes will try to bring the wrecking ball against the church prematurely, but as a community of believers we must stand together and not fall to our fears. Our job is to proclaim the love of Christ to the world for the time that we have, and not worry about how long that time may be. What lies ahead is not for us to know. All we can do is have faith and keep fighting.
We can’t back down in uncertain times. We must press on. We must place our hands in one another’s and pray. We must hold tight to righteous anger when the enemy tries to impede our mission. We must let the sting of the fight inspire us to keep moving forward. We must refuse to give in to the fear of the unknown. We must keep shining the light of God in the darkness of the world whether our building stands tall or whether we are rising from the rubble onto a new journey together. We must celebrate life, and we must celebrate death, for they are intimately intertwined.
We must gather the church together and say to the world, “Bring on your wrecking ball. Take your best shot. You may bring down our buildings, but you will never crack our foundation.”
Introduction To Marketing Principles 101: Brand Loyalty
There are few things people are more fiercely loyal over than their favorite brand of soda, especially here in the south, which is pretty much Coca-Cola country. If you dare serve only Pepsi in your house or restaurant, I know many a friend who won’t even bother setting foot in your establishment.
It’s funny how people get so attached to a brand, even going so far as to tattoo themselves with their favorite drink. This past Wednesday at The Hill, every student claimed to have a preference between Coke and Pepsi and that they could tell the difference between the two. Yet when our students tried a blind taste test, only half correctly guessed which soda was which.
Pushing the experiment even further, we then conducted a triangle taste test on the half of the students who were successful in the first test. In this experiment, each person was given three cups – one with Coke, the other two with Pepsi. The goal was to correctly guess which soda was different than the other two. Out of this experiment, only one student was able to correctly distinguish the drinks.
What do these experiments tell us about our brand loyalty? We say we prefer Coke or Pepsi, but really we can’t even tell the difference between them. (Don’t believe me? Try the experiment yourself. Have a friend give you a blind taste test. If you get that one right, try the triangle taste test. I think you’ll be surprised by the results.)
So if it’s not the taste that connects us so strongly to Coke or Pepsi, what is it? I think it has to be the branding. (more…)
"But It's A Talking Dog!"
Stepping into my office, you would assume a few things: Alex is not the most organized person, Alex is a Bruce Springsteen fan, Alex really likes Ramen, and Alex really likes the movie “Up”. Most of those would be correct (I have many boxes of Ramen in my office, but they’re actually for outreach purposes – I can’t stand the stuff myself).
I love the movie “Up” because it is a delightful movie about adventure, imagination, and making the most out of life. It’s also a movie about a talking dog.
Dug is in my opinion one of the sweetest and most endearing cinematic creations ever crafted by Disney, which is saying quite a bit. Besides being an adorable invention, Dug is also an impossible invention. A talking dog could never exist!
Seeing a talking dog would probably be one of the most amazing things any of us could ever see. If any of us ever saw a talking dog, it would be impossible to keep our mouths shut about it. The same could be said for those who saw Jesus perform impossible miracles during his time here on earth. These men found it impossible not to tell everyone they knew about the great acts they were witnessing, and we ought to follow their example.
