I've been convinced in my life that music makes things more beautiful. Lately, I've been spending time with an old friend...my iPod. As you might know, I go in waves of liking this piece of technology, but overall, I can't argue with it's portability or cuteness.

So, I've loaded on some music and I notice that when I sit on the train or walk through the streets, the tunes I'm listening to become a soundtrack to my own personal movie. Suddenly people look sadder or even in slow motion when I'm listening to Elliot Smith, but if Wilco's on then all of a sudden I've slipped into some independent movie about a talented writer that has deep secrets his asian girlfriend doesn't have a clue about. Or something like that.

Everything is fine until Tool comes on and I feel like I'd be able to stop a taxi by punching it. Regardless of my silly fantasies, music just makes this bland world seem more vivid, more worth giving another chance. When I see thousands of people getting killed in wars and random mall shootings and disease taking over Africa, it makes me want to plug my ears with music and let it paint the world over with better colors. It makes me want to give the homeless person sitting on the street shelter, but why am I only provoked when I have music inside me?

Anyway, just my Friday afternoon thoughts...Muse is on, so I have to go

I've been fortunate, I haven't been around death much in my life, but lately that's not the case. The mother of a good friend of mine passed away suddenly this past week after a brave fight with pancreatic cancer and it's called to attention some thoughts about my own life. Death has a funny way of doing that. I sat at the funeral service hearing about the life of my friend's mom and although I had known her for the past 12 years, I discovered I only knew a small of her. At 57 years of age, she left behind a serious mark on this world and in the lives of her family and friends. The service was a gift to all that attended, to hear about her life and about the significance she made to those around her. If I only walked away with one thought, it would have been, "Impressive".

I have only experienced the exact moment of change from life to not-life once, in the hospital room of my friend Justin after a long battle with leukemia. During his service, I again felt this emptiness of my life. Here were two people who lived extraordinary lives, but they were people, like you and I. It brought me into wondering how many extraordinary people you walk past everyday. And if there are that many extraordinary people, is it just simply ordinary to live exceptional lives. It makes be wonder what people would say about me at my life's end.

Life is amazing. My life and yours, no matter how simple or unimportant you think it is, is amazing. It gives me great appreciation for the creativity in all of us, the passion that lives somewhere within us...maybe it's our soul or spirit, but that life-force in all of us is something special. I am hoping I honor it enough by living worthwhile and making this small dash on Earth the most lovely race I run.

I was down at Notre Dame this weekend to visit friends and why not...go to the football game. Yikes. I don't really follow college football much, but I've seen Rudy enough times to know that Notre Dame is supposed to be pretty good, boy was I mistaken. I know they've had a rough year, but I didn't know that they are setting records...for the worst year they've ever had.

Luckily, that wasn't the only reason to be there, it was good times seeing people and enjoying a little tailgating. Lauren and I brought Jonathan's dog Nelly down with us and the dog puked on the way down...nice. Dog vomit is yellow and oddly chunky.

Not a completely exciting weekend, but it was a busy one, I felt like the only thing I wanted to do was to sleep for 10 hours that night...so I did. Good thing too, I think it's going to be another busy week.

Last night kicked off the beginning of Rob Bell's latest tour entitled The Gods Aren't Angry and I was fortunate enough to be amongst the sold-out crowd. It was interesting to see a line formed outside the Vic with the marquee reading "Rob Bell - Sold Out" it really felt like I was going to see a concert, not a preacher. Nonetheless Chicago was responsive.

I need to clarify a few things here, some people I talk to think that I don't like Rob Bell and I need to say that it's not a fair statement. In fact, I very much like his conviction, delivery, content and personality. As far as what kind of person he is, well, I don't know him – I have never met him and I am not going to be pretend like I have because I've followed his teachings for some time. The issue I have with Rob Bell is that I think it's just a shame that he is so radical. Now, hold on a sec, hear me out. I feel like the concepts and delivery he offers shouldn't be so unique, I mean what is the condition of our faith if a preacher can be considered radical when he can simply illustrate that God loves us and wants to be with us. Why haven't more pastors become intellectuals and desired to discover why our current culture rejects religion and want to desperately change that view because of the goodness God still shares? (Granted I realize there are people out there that are like this, but don't have the national influence Rob does) So along with this, I also don't like the celebrity-status Bell has. I don't like it just because it gets in the way, true, it allows him to reach further, but also people then start to think he can walk on water. The saving grace in all of this (yeah, yeah besides God) is that Bell has a gift to get right into it and make it about something besides himself...so anyway, I digress.

If you don't know, the latest tour is basically an "anthropological examination of religion." Looking at how religion fits into the human need of trying to understand the mystery of life around us. He explains, in great language, old world views on the gods and desires to appease them by making sacrifices, all while navigating around and about a prop of an altar. Identifying that the altar has the inherent flaw that the gods will always require MORE. Good season – show your appreciation, Bad season – make them happy. Always giving more.

He then brought us into the story of Abraham, making jokes along the way, and how the God of Abraham had compassion and interaction with humans in real-time. This God tells Abraham that you just need one sacrifice, then celebrate a meal with your family and you and I are good. What I appreciated so much about his delivery was that you felt educated along the way. He gave us history to understand the significance of the message. It gives you perspective and brings you into the story, a feature in my opinion which many preachers forget. To understand the power of the scripture it has to be taken within context, outside of that context it looks very unattractive and archaic, very few people can make scripture come alive like that for me.

So, after all of this background, he finally starts to rock the boat. He entered into the text of Hebrews, Psalms and Micah and suggested that this whole idea of sacrificing is not for God's sake, but simply for ours. To quote he said "Humans are very skeptical, especially of something that is good." He goes on to say that God doesn't need sacrifices, but we as humans need something tangible to know that we have peace with God, so we enter into these rituals. The part I loved most was when he declared that regardless of language...any ritual that does NOT help you understand the peace and love God has already made with us, is not Christian. These rituals/rhythms can be found in many different ways, but the basic fact is that God loves us and wants to be with us and we should begin celebrating that as soon as possible. His words were "There's never been an effective religious deed in all of humanity."

When he started going down this path I felt the heat and sweat of the pastors in the venue and if I could hear thoughts, I'm sure I would have been deafened at that moment. After the hour and a half diatribe, he gave a Nooma-esque benediction, complete with background music and all and everyone sat wondering if they should start chanting for an encore. I was asked why I thought he decided to do a national speaking tour on that content and aside from it being a clear and worthy message about God's love, I wonder too if it is intended to be a charge to church leaders (and us as well) to stop commercializing Christianity and begin getting back to the roots. For some reason, the part when he talked about Jesus coming into the temple to destroy it so it can be rebuilt, felt directed...maybe it was just me. Just like then, in my opinion, it seems like we (as the Church) are missing the point in so many levels. That the human being is getting in the way of divine being. That politics are killing Jesus all over again and that it's time our ears are opened again to be able to hear the news that is good.

Anyway, it was a good night, I am glad that Rob Bell has the language to help us along the journey, but I do have to say, I like him better with longer hair.

I love the idea of interactive art. It's always very interesting to me to see creative people, doing creative things and I saw this and felt compelled to share it. The project is called "She Loves The Moon" and it's being played out on the streets of San Francisco's Mission District.

Basically, it goes like this...you can start at one of two spots (his story or her story) and you make decisions along the way and eventually determine whether your romance ends happily or unhappily. Of course you can read all of this from the link, but thought it was a great piece of work.