it’s time for your weekly farkast. just a few tunes for you to listen to to get through the next week. this week the theme is “secular christian songs”. basically, all of these songs (as far as i know) are by non-christian artists. the meanings to these songs are not necessarily “christian” or views held by me exactly, but they all have heavy and deep meanings that i feel many christians choose to overlook or ignore since they don’t fit in with the religious requirements. sometimes i think we’d rather just listen to music talking about how much God loves us (not that it’s bad) or how “together” our lives are (not that it’s true). the issues in these songs are real. they are ramped around the world in all people whether it be hypocrisy found in us or skepticism found in them. they aren’t going away any time soon. and our contemporary christian music isn’t going to solve all the problems either. in order to reach a “lost” world, we must understand it. and what better way than through the authentic cries of a lost world.
scriptures say that we aren’t to be “of the world” but rather “in the world” – and to do that we must understand the world that we are actually living in – even if the world does go against what we believe. why? because we are to change it as a light would in a dark room. darkness can’t get rid of light, but light can get rid of darkness. it’s not easy by any means, but it is a goal worth having.
and on top of that, these are all really great sounding songs by really great artists
i’m going to put the “theme” of each song in quotes under each link. i want you to listen to the songs, download if you want (right click, save as) and discuss with me your interpretation/thoughts (whether you are a christian or not) in the comments section. i think a lot of these artists “get” the teachings of christ better than many christians even if they don’t realize it.
A dark and gloomy day in the suburbs of Greenville, young Farkus and his best bro, Cornellius, were quickly running out of things to do. Lounging around all day as the ignorant weatherman predicted a few inches of snow which would almost certainly not fall, the two friends were on the verge of simply spending the day sleeping and watching The OC on DVD, something they had just gotten finished doing for 11 hours prior to Stumbling online to fill in that time gap.
“Man, there’s nothing to do. The weather sucks and I can’t believe my Xbox is still broken,” said Cornellius.
“Let’s just finish season 3. Marissa dies soon. I’m pretty pumped for that,” replied Farkus.
“Yeah I know, she is so annoying. What an idiot,” Cornellius said with a smirk on his cute little Asian face.
After lounging around a few more minutes of doing absolutely nothing except talking about doing something, the mail truck driving away from the house caught the eye of Farkus which was glancing out the window.
“I’m going to go get the mail. My mom will have a cow if I leave it there for her to get,” Farkus said with a long sigh and annoyance in his voice since he would have to get off the couch and venture into the 31 degree weather.
“Ok that sounds good. I’ll put the DVD in while you go do that,” Cornellius mumbled.
“What?”
“I said that sounds good. I’ll get The OC going while you get the mail,” Cornellius said clearly and rather annoyed.
“Ok good. Speak up next time,” Farkus said.
Farkus went outside and retrieved the mail. The weather, while rather chilly, wasn’t quite as bad as he expected, granted he ran as fast as he could and worked up enough of a heart rate to get his blood flowing in order to numb the sting of the cold. It was the first time he’d gone outside in a week or two. He hadn’t even gone out to get the mail, which was why he had to today. His mother had had enough of his sloth.
As Farkus entered the home once again, Cornellius asked in a sarcastically clear voice, “was there anything good in the mail?”
Farkus responded with a response in an equally sarcastic tone, “just eviction notices and checks for millions of Euros”
“Oh,” said Cornellius, catching on to what Farkus was doing.
“What the hell is the Red Burrito?” Farkus said with complete confusion on his face as he held a piece of cardboard containing coupons to the restaurant that was mixed in with the rest of the mail.
Cornellius got up to take a look. He stared at it for a few minutes before taking it out of Farkus’s hands and investigating it closer. “It looks like a new kind of Taco Bell or something. Doesn’t look any healthier though to be honest,” said Cornellius. “Address says its at the Hardees down the street. Must be like an add-on or something.”
“If it is Hardees-related, its bound to be disgusting. I can’t believe we haven’t seen any commercials for it yet to make us yak and feel like animals. You know, since we’re men. And stupid. And unable to cook,” added Farkus.
Farkus reached to take the cardboard back from the hands of Cornellius when Cornellius yelled “stop”.
“What?” Farkus asked, somewhat scared and worried that something significant had happened.
“The fine print of this coupon says it the coupon itself is worth 1/100 of a penny,” Cornellius said somewhat enthusiastically as if he had an idea.
“Oh wow. That’ll make us rich,” Farkus said sarcastically as he began walking away to watch The OC.
“You don’t understand,” said Cornellius, “we can just go to all the mailboxes around town and get these coupons and redeem them for money.”
“Are you serious? 100 equals one penny. If we got 1000, we would have a dime. If we got 10,000 we would have 1 dollar” Farkus said with false enthusiasm in attempt to make Cornellius feel stupid.
“Yeah, but it’s better than nothing. Plus it is something to do,” Cornellius responded as he gave Farkus a puppy lip of sadness much like the ones Stephanie would give Uncle Joey on Full House.
“Alright. Whatever. I’m starting to go insane in this house anyways,” Farkus said.
“Cool deal, well let’s go now before people get their mail,” Cornellius said with excitement in his voice.
“Ok let’s go,” Farkus said as he turned off the television and searched for his black American Apparel hoody and his Urban Outfitters torn denim jacket.
The boys walked out of the house and down the neighborhood road from mailbox to mailbox in Suburbia. Taking Red Burrito coupons valued at 1/100 cent as they treaded. After thirty or so minutes of tampering with people’s mail and committing felonies, the boys had a stack of 67 coupons.
“This is getting boring,” Farkus said. “Plus it is super cold. American Apparel isn’t all that warm. Definitely not worth $50 for this hoody.”
“Yeah I am getting sick of this too. Possibly sick as well. Illness-wise,” Cornellius said with a sniffle of snot running down his face.
“Well let’s just head home and watch Marissa die,” said Farkus with a relief in knowing they would soon be escaping the cold weather and getting back to what they do best.”
The boys began walking back towards home. They had ventured a mile and a half from the suburbian home when they noticed the United States Post Office building at the end of the road perpendicular to the highway. Farkus looked over and suddenly he was enlightened. “Dang. I just had an idea.”
“What?” Cornellius asked eagerly.
“The Post Office is over there. I wonder… I wonder if they have stacks of these cards in the sorting room or something. Wherever the mailmen organize the mail and stuff.”
“That is genius, Farkus. Pure Genius. Let’s go check it out.”
“Awesome blossom, but how will we get in there to the mail room. They don’t just let people back there I’m sure,” Farkus said with a little bit of newfound doubt in his plan.
“Well… some guy my mom knows works there I think. Maybe he would give us a tour or something if we asked. It’s worth a try, you think?” Cornellius suggested.
“Might as well. We’ve come this far,” Farkus said with a glimmer of optimism remaining.
The boys continued to the end of the road and proceeded to enter the Post Office. They went to one of the counters where you would pay for stamps and shipping and such and asked the nice old man with a Dale Earnhardt hat on if a ”Mr. Pippins McGee” was working that day. The old man was eager to seek and retrieve Mr. McGee from the back room. After a few minutes of waiting, the older man returned with Pippins McGee.
Pippins was a short overweight black man with a goatee, naked woman tattoos on his forearms, bald head, and dressed in Fubu brand apparel. Looking at the two young men, he asked, “what yo wants yall?”
Farkus looked at Cornellius and signaled him to speak by clearing his throat. Cornellius looked lost. As if he had no idea who this man was. Truth was, he didn’t. He’d only known who he was through stories his father had told him about the man.
After a few seconds of trying to remember why they were there to begin with, Cornellius finally remembered and spoke up. “Uh hi sir. I am Winston Chowski’s son. You were both in Alpha Sigma Pi together in college.
“Well I’ll be a monkey’s Uncle. How’s yo daddy doin’? Pippins said with a smile.
“He is dead sir. Died of Swine Flu. His dying wish was always that I get a good government job with health benefits to avoid a death such as the one he experienced. I figured the Post Office was a good place to start. Do you think you could give me and my friend, Farkus, a tour of this place?”
“For Winston? I’d do anything fo’ that boy. Yalls come with me ya here?”
Farkus and Cornellius set out on a quick tour of the Post Office with Pippins McGee. The Post Office wasn’t all that interesting in the eyes of the boys. They passed through an enormous room full of packages of all shapes and sizes, a room of incoming mail which was being sorted through by a dozen or so minorities, and a final room – the destination center which held the key to their wealth – the outgoing mail room.
As Pippins showed Cornellius the various different sections of the room, Farkus went out on his own and searched around for Red Burrito coupons. There was so much mail. It would be like looking for a usb drive in a sandpit. After a few minutes of searching, Farkus finally found a stack of coupons with a redemptive quality to them. The coupons didn’t belong to Red Burrito however, rather they belonged to another low-quality fast food chain with disgusting food – Taco Bell.
Farkus noticed the fine print stating that each coupon would be worth 1/100 cent and quickly grabbed a stack and stuffed them in his American Apparel hoody and denim jacket pockets. He signaled to Cornellius that he had what they set out to obtain and could leave whenever ready. Cornellius allowed Pippins to finish the tour. The boys thanked him for taking the time from his schedule to show them around and left the post office.
“Bro, that is awesome. We can get so much money now. How many did you get?” Cornellius asked.
Farkus replied, “I don’t know. Like 20,000. I just grabbed what was lying on the table”.
“Nice! Well that is like $2,” said Cornellius as he tried to make the best out of something seemingly minor.
“Where is the nearest Taco Bell?” asked Farkus.
“Kind of far I think. Let’s just go back to your house. I can drive us” answered Cornellius.
The boys walked the mile or so back home victoriously with their stack of Taco Bell coupons. They made it home as the sun was almost completely hidden behind the trees. They decided not to even go inside. Instead, they got into Cornellius’s 1998 Honda Accord and drove a few miles down the road to Taco Bell to redeem their coupons for the cash value.
The boys made it safely and walked into the Taco Bell. After waiting in line behind a few faggy emo kids wearing Hollister and Hot Topic, they stepped up to the counter to order.
“Welcome to Taco Bell, what can I get you” the minimum wage worker said in a less-than-enthusiastic manner.
Farkus cleared his throat and stepped up to the counter to deliver his victory speech, “we are here to redeem 20,000 of these coupons for their cash value of 1/100 of a penny each. Give us two five layer burritos at 89 cents each please. And you can keep the change.”
“Mmhmm,” the cash lady said as she began to scan over the coupons to make sure the boys were able to make such a costly demand and get away with it. “I don’t get this,” she spoke up, “Why yall wanna’ get two five layer burritos when each coupon is worth 1 free taco. Yall could get like 20,000 tacos with these or somefin’.”
Farkus looked at Cornellius and said “We are idiots. Let’s get the tacos, bro.”
Cornellius thought the idea over for a moment and responded back, “yeah but the five layer burritos taste a lot better to be honest.”
this week will be a focus on the decade “the 80’s”. it’s probably my favorite decade for music tbh. and i want to share some of that with you. funny story, my first blog was entitled “the human league”. named after the band. i had just finished watching top 100 songs of the 80’s when i made that and that band was stuck in my head. so yeah. uncle farkus came from that somewhere down the line. farkus has always been my alias or something since being a small child. so enjoy some 80’s this week. let’s discuss what you are hearing k? and as always, tracks are available for DL, but buy em if you like em.
Yesterday I went to church. Newspring. The 10 Year Anniversary in the Bi-Lo center in Greenville, SC. I’ve been going there off and on since late 2006. I’ve always thought it was a big church that is too big for me to be a part of, but a fun church worth going to none-the-less. Having always felt unable to “click” with the congregation due to it’s size, I have many times just settled for watching online, listening to podcasts, or not going to Newspring (or any church for that matter) at all. While live-internet services and podcasts are convenient and highly valuable, I realized yesterday that I am blessed to be able to physically go to the church and be with 2500 other people who are taking advantage of their blessings too.
Newspring is about 25 minutes from me, so I have many times used that as an excuse not to go, but I am blessed enough to have a car + gas money (due to a job) that can get me there and back every single time I want without even thinking twice or searching my pockets.
Sometimes I avoid going in person because it takes so much time and effort to go through the whole process of getting ready, driving there, sitting there, driving back, unwinding, etc. That is all bologna. An average service is around an hour and a half. Driving constitutes 50 minutes-ish. So is 2.5 hours a week too much? Most certainly not. I’ve already wasted that much time online tonight. And I’m sure I will tomorrow night as well. Rinse. Repeat. 2.5 hours is easy.
Other times, I have let people I know such as family and friands influence my opinion of the church. While most will agree that the message is dead-on, I usually hear complaints or criticisms on the way in which it was delivered.
Too loud of music.
Perry isn’t nice enough.
Too many people.
They don’t let kids in the service. (which I now understand why)
Sure it’s in the Bible, but he shouldn’t have said that.
A pastor is supposed to visit people in the hospital always.
I am sorry but none of those are viable excuses for me to not go or have bad perceptions any longer. All of those reasons I respect, but they are not Biblical tbh. If you can’t attend Newspring for those reasons, then that is your decision and I won’t hold that against you. It is all preference when it comes to those sorts of things. No church is perfect. That is a reality that needs to be accepted. As long as the message is the gospel and people are coming into a sincere relationship with Christ, then none of the other things matter.
Additionally, I have always somewhat judged Perry, Lee, other leaders of the church, and the congregation. I’ve always had a notion that they think they are “holier than thou”. That the leaders are super famous in the church world with a huge church that gets bigger each year. And that the congregation is complacent in going to a big church that they can slip in and out of without being noticed as they go to church for Perry, not God. Well I can’t help but know that I was completely wrong in that judgement. Yesterday was proof. The entire service, while a celebration of numbers such as age, salvations, and attendance increases, was not in celebration because of what any of these people had done. It was all about a call. A call from God to start a new kind of church. A call that was not ignored, but instead acted upon and blessed beyond all imagination. It was a celebration of God. He got all the glory yesterday. Nobody else.
I wasn’t sure what I expected from yesterday. Actually, I know exactly what I expected. A few songs to pass the time, a documentary on the church’s success, and no message incorporating the gospel-rather just a pep talk. I was tempted to not even go. Maybe watch it online. There would be too many people trying to find a seat. Traffic would be awful. I’d be tired. A high chance of rain. Too much homework. All fantastic excuses. But I went because I wanted to be a part of history. My heart wasn’t right. And my expectations were not met at all. Instead I was greeted with songs containing incredible substance and sincerity by the musicians as they fell to their knees and couldn’t help but raise their arms in worship and put the performance aside, a documentary that gave God the glory for it all that brought tears to my eyes as I felt the sincerity, and 370+ people who came to know Christ which I still can’t completely grab a hold of. Judging by the organization of seats and space on the floor, I don’t even think the planners and volunteers expected such an outcome.
Needless to say, church was amazing. Never have I felt God’s presence more than I did yesterday in a building of 15,000 people. A civic center none-the-less. But as Perry said, this is church. A building is not church. The church is the people. And I want to be a part of that church. And I most certainly will.
Perry revealed the new campus yesterday, and it is none other than Charleston, SC. It’s an excellent location no doubt, but what makes it so meaningful for me is that I will be living and studying in Charleston the semester that it should begin getting off the ground. So the opportunities to help are endless! It is very exciting and I feel there is a purpose for me in it’s establishment.
The service was also a time for me to reflect on where I’ve come from, who I am, and where I go from here. I accepted Christ in July 1999… just over 10 years ago. Probably during the time that Newspring was first becoming a vision. So in a sense, I’ve only been a part of the family as long as Newspring has. And as I look back ten years in my own life, I too have grown significantly. I was never a “bad kid”. I was only 10 years old, what all could I have done wrong? But I certainly didn’t understand near everything that I do now regarding what a Christian is. I didn’t really have a concept of a relationship. More of just a “don’t do bad things so you don’t go to hell” type of mentality. Definitely not what it’s all about. But when Perry asked, “what is the change percentage that you would go to heaven if you were to die right now?” All I could see in my head as my eyes were closed was:
I had never felt so close to God before. Like nothing else in the world mattered. I knew/know for a fact that he existed, and that he loved me more than I could ever even try to comprehend. And not only that, that he felt the same way about the other 14,999 people in the building. And that “the best is yet to come”.
It was during the end of the service that God revealed to me what I need to do: think, write, and do.
Think: never stop questioning why I do things and why society does them too. Always asking the questions that most people avoid asking whether it be investigating end-times prophecy or current Christian faults.
Write: tell my stories. Express myself. But keep God as the reason for doing them. Not for my benefit but his, in whatever way imaginable whether it be to plant a seed or to harvest. That is up to God. I just have to get the words out.
Do: Act. Volunteer. Dream. Do. Whether it be through architecture or a just being there for a friand, I must do for others and not myself. The compassion is inside me. The potential is there. It always has been since I was a tiny lad. I’ve never been great at carrying it out though. That changes.
I’m not perfect. And I know I won’t be. But I know that with Jesus as my guide, I can at least be closer to that goal than without him. And that makes the difference.
Yesterday was probably the best church service I’d ever been to. And what really gets me so much about that is that I really do believe the catch phrase they had, the best is yet to come, and I can’t even imagine what that could possibly even be after such an amazing past 10 years for both myself and my church.
The next 10 years are going to be even better tbh.
so here is my farkast for the 3rd week of january. just some songs that have particularly caught my ears over the last week or so. listen to them well. and then let’s discuss them well. music is a great thing. let’s exploit it. let’s do this before it’s too late.
