That was Sam’s question this weekend after he watched our youtube goof-fest.

The music was by Kenny Greenberg. He is a guitar stylist who does some work in audio tracks of this kind. I think he called them “mood tracks,” though he (or his wife or assistant or fulfillment service) hand wrote “Instrumental Music” on the CD he sent me. How cool is that? Kenny is king of cool. Ashley is queen. They generously offered us those few tracks for Laity Lodge programs to use. I can’t tell you how much I love these people.

Kenny and his wife Ashley Cleveland are going to be leading worship at Laity Lodge this summer in a retreat with Gordon MacDonald, an editor-at-large for Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal.

They led the worship at the first full retreat I ever attended. I barely remember who the speaker was because the music ministered to me more than you can possibly imagine.

If you haven’t heard Ashley’s new album, Before the Daylight’s Shot, it won a GRAMMY last year. (Her third.) You can sample nearly all of her music on her site. I especially like the track “Broken Places” from Second Skin. And my wife and I listen to Men and Angels Say all the time. (It’s all funkified hymns.)

Also, you can read my interview with Ashley and Kenny on TheHighCalling.org.

But you have to watch this ridiculous video to find out who it was.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoiKfonono[/youtube]

Future videos will up the production value quite a bit, but we don’t have firewire cards yet. (Durn it.)

We’re going to draw the winner of our free retreat this afternoon! Check Chris Cree’s site to make sure he’s got you listed as a participant in “retreat, retreat, retreat!”

…and Children, Television, Recreation, Relatives, Food, Pets, Automobiles, Bugs, and Bibles

You see, Robert Hruzek is hosting a group writing project where people write about a mash-up of 18 fun topics. I added bugs and Bibles to his list just for good measure and polished up a poem for his group. He says it’s the first ever poetry entry. Yea, me!

First, the poem itself. You can hear me read it on the Evoca recording, but you’ll have to skip ahead to 1:20 remaining because I get long winded in my intro. (Be sure to check out my sweet musical intro/outro. Royalty free audio is fun!)

Welcoming Summer

Two love bugs mate on my leg
Until I draw them off with this
#2 pencil. The pair crawls past
my thumb as I write—then up
to the pink eraser which must taste
funny to tongue buds on their feet.
They fly away, black-legged snow-
flakes. We think of Christmas specials
where painted children catch snow
on tongues to welcome winter.
“Open wide, kids,” I say. “There’s
never snow in South Texas.”
My son plays along and we run
up and down the blacktop lot—
heat rising in waves around us—
we must look a pair of Baptist Johns,
prophesying protein in the desert.
A voice of two calling between
parked cars: “Prepare the way
for summer bugs. Make straight
your tongues for them.” Push that
play too far and bugs become God.
All mankind finds salvation in bugs.
And why not? God can raise up
children from rocks and bugs—
even cars with bug-splattered bumpers.

Second, here’s how the poem fits the mash-up rules.

A few weeks ago, we drove (automobiles) to a family reunion (relatives) where my children and I found ourselves surrounded by bugs on our little vacation (recreation) to decorate the graveyard at the Hebron Baptist Church. In fact, the bugs were so thick, we talked about how it was like a blizzard of black snowflakes with legs. My son loved this because he keeps bugs as pets (which means he puts them in bug cages over-night and holds a daily funeral for the ones who don’t make it). You can see from the picture above what so many bugs do to a white car (automobile—again). The snowstorm made me think of the peanuts gang catching snow on their tongues (like food) in the television Christmas special. At that point, my mind took off, and I started writing this poem.

I have to ask, though. Who uses the word automobile anymore, Bob?

Also, Gordon, you asked about W. P. and decoration. I provide a long answer in the audio file above. And you can see W. P.’s grave there on the right. He is my kid’s great-great-great-great granddad. Or maybe just great-great-great, I can never remember.

One last thing about poetry. Bob’s project “What I Learned From…” suggests that I’ll have answers for you here. But poetry isn’t very good at providing answers in the traditional sense. Nevertheless, I hope you’ve found some things to think about in my mash-up of mashed-up of bibles, bugs on my windshield, the subsequent discussions that followed us that weekend, and Writing, Children, Television, Recreation, Relatives, Food, Pets, Automobiles.

Buddy Greene plays Harmonica like nobody’s business. Just open his site in a new browser and listen to his music while you read this. I was reading through the lyrics on his site this morning and was struck by these lines from “Jesus Has Left the Building”:

There’s a big crowd gathered at First Church
They’re dressed up and lookin’ so fine
They lean forward in their pews to hear the good news
And get a handle on God’s design

Isn’t that just like Christians? I go to First Baptist Church Kerrville, so these lines hit home. And they remind me of something I read in Christian Century at breakfast. In his essay “Reasons to Join,” Garret Keizer talks about the importance of paradox and ambiguity as agents against heresy in the church. (Whew, suddenly this post got all theological on me!)

Seriously, though. We try so hard to “get a handle on God’s design,” we turn church into a collection of religious autodidacts who are seeking the way to know God’s will and stick to the letter of the law. We turn into people of jots and tittles. We prefer the “pseudo-clarity to the many sidedness of truth, tidiness to the mess and complexity of reality.”

That’s the same warning I hear in Buddy Greene’s song–though he makes it all folksy and fun. The warning is still the same. And we need to know where we’re headed if we fall into this trap. Garret Keizer explains it well:

The fate of most  autodidacts, a fate I happen to understand only too well, is to be perpetually reinventing the wheel, and in the course of that needless reinvention, never to achieve the wing, the propeller or the time machine.

This is another reminder why it is so important to retreat. Retreat! Retreat! When we step back, when we slow down, we have a chance to hear voices other than our own. Sometimes we just hear the crickets. Sometimes we hear the wisdom of our neighbors. Sometimes we may eve hear God in the stillness.

# # #

If you missed yesterday, Laity Lodge is sponsoring this month’s High Calling Blogs Group Writing Project: Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! You could win a FREE retreat just for participating in the project. But get hopping—you have to post before noon on Friday to be in the drawing. We’ve already had some good entries from L. L. Seedling, Carl Gyrovague, Gordon Real Live Preacher and Kathy Beyond Words. Also, Jacob Share is helping us promote the project again. Thanks Jacob! You’re welcome to participate too.

Yesterday, I promised to talk a little bit about the three retreats we’re featuring during this writing project. Buddy Greene is coming up first, May 29 through June 1. That’s right around the corner, and it’s going to be awesome.

Here are the details:

Musical Conversations with Buddy Greene and Company
(REGISTER HERE.)

May 29-June 1 (Thursday-Sunday)
Buddy Greene (AWESOME HARMONICA!)
David Dark (AWESOME WRITER!)
Sarah Masen (SUPER COOL SINGER!)
+ Raku Japanese pottery Larry Matthew (there’s a kiln and everything!)

I took a retreat of sorts this weekend. We loaded the family in our tiny Toyota and drove half a day to Victoria, Texas, and then the Hebron Cemetery just outside the small community of Yoakum. (Yoakum is semi-famous for the Double D Ranch clothing.)

I’m not sure I expected it to be a retreat, but that’s what happened. I left the computer at home and retreated from the net. This is something I haven’t done in a long, long time.

More than that, our trip to the Hebron Cemetery was a retreat from the breakneck pace of life.

Tomorrow’s deadlines don’t seem so cosmically important when I’m standing at the grave of Rev. W. P. Carroll. He was born in 1936. He brought the cedar trees that tower over the cemetery now. (You can see the trunk of one growing up right next to his tombstone.) And W. P. built Hebron Baptist Church where the Carroll family worships every Decoration Sunday before they eat on the grounds with sawhorse tables and cold potluck dishes like homemade whitetail sausage, pinto beans, broccoli salads, and fresh dewberry cobbler if the weather’s been right.

The weather wasn’t right this year. Dewberry’s were still red. And the lovebugs were out something fierce. Walking around the cemetery with my daughter, Carroll, we fought the bugs in our hair, on our arms, on our faces, in our ears, on our clothes. We retreated to the car, me laughing, her screaming, only to find that the bugs followed us into the car.

Speaking of bugs, I found my muse again and wrote a poem about the bugs. That’s what happens when I experience retreat. On retreats, I see the glory of the creation. On retreats, I remember that I’ve been created in the image of a Creator. On retreats, I find my muse again, and feel the Spirit breathing again into all of the ordinary places of my life.

The Spirit always breathes in the ordinary places of my life, but retreats help me remember how to feel that breath.

# # #

A special note to readers: This post is part of the HighCallingBlogs.com Group Writing Project “retreat, retreat, retreat,” sponsored by Laity Lodge. As part of their sponsorship, Laity Lodge is offering a 25% discount to all readers of High Calling Blogs for three retreats. (Just ask for the “HighCallingBlogs.com discount.”)

If you are a blogger, participate in the writing project yourself for an even bigger discount, plus a chance to win a FREE retreat if you get your post ready before our drawing on Friday, May 9, at noon Central Time.

Full disclosure: Since Laity Lodge is a sister program of TheHighCalling.org and HighCallingBlogs.com, I’m going to be discussing the three retreat options in the coming days. Here they are if you’d like to explore yourself before then:

• Musical Conversations with Buddy Greene and Company

  May 29-June 1 (Thursday-Sunday)
  Explore relevant questions of living faithfully in today’s world with singer/songwriter Buddy Greene, writer David Dark, and musician Sarah Masen.
  + Raku Japanese pottery with Larry Matthews

• Conversations with Marva Dawn and Mark D. Roberts

  June 5-8 (Thursday-Sunday)
  Discuss practical implications of God’s timeless truth with author/theologian Marva Dawn, author/blogger Mark D. Roberts, and jazz musician Charlie Peacock.
  + lessons in oil, acrylic, and water color; Raku Japanese pottery; and tennis!

• Conversations with Dave and Jan Stoop - Couples’ Retreat

  July 10-13 (Thursday-Sunday)
  Refresh and enrich your marriage with scriptural truths for everyday challenges couples face, featuring Dan and Jan Stoop and 2006 Australian Artist of the Year Nathan Tasker.
  + lessons in wood sculpture, precious metals, and pottery

Susan prompted me in the comment section. We’ve almost got the email ready to go out to High Calling Bloggers, but here’s a preview:

Win a FREE Retreat!

I’m pretty excited about this! This month’s Group Writing Project is sponsored by Laity Lodge, and they are offering us some big discounts and prizes. Here’s what we’ve got on the table:

• 50% off selected retreats for participating members of HighCallingBlogs.com.
• 25% off for YOUR READERS if they mention HighCallingBlogs.com.
• AND one blogger will win a FREE retreat for a married couple or an individual.

The discounts are worth $75-$400 depending on which retreat and which discount. And the free retreat is worth $390 to $780 depending on whether you come as an individual or a married couple.

Since we aren’t quite ready to send the email to our bloggers, here’s the actual writing project for people who want to get a headstart. We’ve got a quick turnaround on this because our first retreat option comes at the beginning of June. So you have to post by Friday at noon to be entered in the drawing for the FREE retreat. (ALL CAPS ARE FUN!)

Write About the Importance of Retreating

This month we’re writing about the importance of retreat. Getting away. Doing the Walden thing to simplify, simplify, simplify. Learning to hear the still, small voice of God.

I’m not just talking about vacations. I’m not even just talking about short term mission trips. (Those things can be a kind of retreat though.)

I’m talking about Elijah in the wilderness with ravens. I’m talking about Jesus in the garden early in the morning. I’m talking about L’abri. And Yaddo. And Walden. And that Tom Hanks movie where he’s stuck on the island talking to a soccer ball.

Well, maybe not that last one. But you get the idea.

Write about the importance of retreat. If possible, think of a specific retreat you took. Where was it? What happened? What did you learn about yourself and your identity? What did you learn about the world and your priorities? What did you learn about the heavens and the person of God? (Don’t feel compelled to answer all of these questions. They’re just to get the juices flowing.)

L. L. Barkat, author of the new book Stone Crossings, even made some cool logos for the writing project that you can use in your post..

Because Laity Lodge is sponsoring the writing project, we ask that you link to them. And Chris Cree is compiling all of the entries at his blog SuccessCreeations. If you want to be included in that list, you’ll need to link to him too so he’ll know to add you.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that Laity Lodge and HighCallingBlogs.com both fall under the umbrella of the H. E. Butt Foundation where I work. That’s how we got them to sponsor the writing project. It’s also how I know that Laity Lodge is really the most incredible retreat center I’ve ever been to. And I’ve been to a bunch of them… Nothing beats swimming in the headwaters of the crystal clear Frio River bubbling up in a deep water hole between cliff walls. (You can see a picture of the stairway down to Blue Hole in the bottom of the picture above.)

So, members of HighCallingBlogs.com, watch for that email in a bit. Bloggers who might be interested in what we do, now is a good time to join the network! And readers of GoodWordEditing.com, you can receive 25% off the Buddy Greene retreat, the Marva Dawn/Mark D. Roberts Retreat, and the Couples retreat, just because you read my blog.

Check back for details on getting your discount in just a bit. I’ve got to go edit a Eugene Petersen video for a minute. Too many hats this week…

Work has been completely awesome lately.

In case you don’t know, my day job is with the H. E. Butt Foundation as editor to Mr. Butt as well as editor for TheHighCalling.org, FaithInTheWorkplace.com, and HighCallingBlogs.com. I edit other stuff too, but that’s the bulk of my time between those four duties.

Calling them duties makes the job sound like an obligation. But it’s really more of a joyful responsibility.

Rabbit trails. Rabbit trails. So last month, HighCallingBlogs.com had great success with the Odd Jobs writing project. Presumably, that’s why G. L. Hoffman gave me this award:

Thanks, G.L.! Too often it feels like I’m posting this stuff into the ether. That great joy of the net is the world wide reach. The great tragedy is that reach often reduces people to mere numbers. That doesn’t mean we are touching and changing lives though. And it doesn’t mean we aren’t making an impact.

That’s why I appreciate what G.L. has done here. He’s a number that stepped up and introduced himself with a little peace-flashing dog graphic. You rock, man.

AND stay tuned for a super cool, super awesome new writing project. It’s got a short turn-around, but we’re going to be giving away a LARGE LARGE SUPER COOL PRIZE. You won’t want to miss this. I’m serious. Check back on Monday.

That’s all you’ll hear for now. My lips are sealed until we finalize the details…

There’s been a lot going on lately. And yet I still stumble across these poems from time to time like I was telling Heather this morning. This particular poem came from my son. He likes pirates. A LOT. Every day we play pirates at lunch. Nearly every night we play pirates.

We hung cheap hammocks in our backyard, not because we want hammocks, but because pirates sleep in hammocks.

Then one day on the way to church, I discovered the pirate stickers on my son’s Gideon Bible. Hmmm.

Is this sacrilegious, I wondered. A jolly roger Bible? Of course, to my son, pirates are everything that is infinitely cool. He doesn’t understand the ins and outs of theology and ethics. A pirate sticker on a Bible is just his way of playing pirates with God.

So I figured there was a poem in this. I was expecting something like the little boy version of “Barbies at Communion.” Instead I got this darker poem…

Freedom

The pirate gospel pleases people
so anchor your soul with profit.
Make your own hope. Bite diligence
like a steel blade and swab the deck
until your face burns with zeal,
a red effort to promote yourself
first mate. Most pirates swear
by stuff of earth. O Man. Holy flesh.
Blast it all. Sex and defecation
words destroy. Anyone who signs up
can board and learn the tongue
that preaches this bloody hope.
Atonement anchors pirate priests:
I will bless you. Follow me.

And because poetry is an auditory art, you can hear me read the poem by clicking play below.

Recently, a friend asked me, “Are you frustrated with God?”

Always. Part of it is a frustration with myself for not having the discipline to listen for him more. But then I think, I am a disciplined listener. I’m good at listening to people (good compared to some, anyway).

But listening to God is different. HE DOESN’T TALK BACK. Not like a regular person. And I get frustrated with that. It’s probably tied up with freewill in some complicated philosophical way, but I just want God to cut through the crap at some point.

I know, he cut through all of the mess in a powerful way when he sent his son 2000 years ago. He still does this through his Word. Through his Holy Spirit.

But darn it. You can’t touch the Holy Spirit! I want to put my hands on it. I want a Holy Spirit hug. A Jesus kiss. I won’t say all of the things I want because they feel a little shocking, suffice it to say I get tired of faith sometimes. I want a real connection with God, but it always eludes me. At night when everyone is asleep, sometimes I’m just a little suspicious that the whole thing is a self-delusion and a scam.

Like my friend said. I’m frustrated. I want agape love, and I don’t know how to find it.

It’s a long dark night, “without light or guide, save that which burn[s] in my heart.” When? When? Will the night ever join Beloved with lover?