Music: Still Crooked by Crooked Still

This is an incredible album… if you like progressive/alternative bluegrass. There’s plenty of fiddle and banjo, but absolutely no twang. Aoife O’Donovan’s vocals are incredibly smooth and captivating. Combine those smooth vocals with solid instrumentation on banjo, cello, and fiddle… you’ve got some beautiful arrangements and stunning sounds.

I’m a huge fan of Nickel Creek, but Crooked Still gives them a big run for their money… right now at least, Still Crooked is my new favorite bluegrass album. Granted… I have very few favorites in the bluegrass variety since I’m a bluegrass neophyte. For years, I was pretty sure I hated bluegrass, but then I encountered Nickel Creek and the Avett Brothers and I thought to myself that this is not the bluegrass I was familiar with. And, well, it isn’t… it’s “progressive” or “alternative” as some call it.

Honestly, I think we could just call it newgrass or contemporary bluegrass - these are all young artists keeping a good bit of the old, but bringing in some great chord progressions, instrumental combos, and compelling vocals. Still Crooked offers all of this with striking variety. There’s some numbers that can almost pass for blues, some that can almost pass for soft rock or jazz, and some that are most certainly folk-oriented. With that variety - they still hold it together and never sound like a different band.

Even if you aren’t a bluegrass fan, I would recommend you give these folks a listen. It’s good stuff.

Note: They do some old-time gospel on this album, but this is not an album inside the Christian music bubble. Some great stuff on here.

The art of meaning

What do you talk about? Take a moment and think about your favorite topics - whatever those might be. Now, see if you can remember the last really good conversation you had about one of those topics. What parts of it excited you, angered you, challenged you, or caused you to think?

In these great conversations something dynamic happens, doesn’t it? My favorites challenge me and introduce at least one moment of mind-expanding wonder. Each person involved is fully engaged - actively listening and contributing.

Sadly, these moments tend to be few. Most conversations are superficial. If we’re honest with ourselves, we keep it that way intentionally (or, at the very least, we do nothing to change it). We’re busy, hurried. We have no time for deep conversation because there is much that needs doing in the now.

I believe, many of us (myself included) have fallen into the lazy habit of saying as little as necessary so we can keep going. Now, let me pause with the caveat that I’m not talking about “work” conversations here - those have their own sets of problems. I’m focusing on the conversations we have with friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers outside of work.

Due to this tendency, we rarely say what we mean. Probably because we have given very little thought to what we’re saying because we’re only kinda listening. My mind tends to be focused on myself on an almost continual basis… you know: where I need to be next, what I need to do next, what point I want to get across, what’s happening to me, how I feel, etc. So, I’m not actively listening to you… I might even think I am, but my brain is so wrapped up in my own world at that moment, that I can’t.

How can I change this? Pray. Pray that God will help me get my head out of my own world and start looking at the one He put me in. Listen. Listen again. Listen some more. I am so out of practice when it comes to listening… pretty sure I’m not alone there. This atrophied state has a tragic side effect - we’re supposed to listen to the Holy Spirit every day - but many of us are not sure how. Maybe listening to people is supposed to be practice.

What does this have to do with the Gospel? For starters, how can we hope to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we aren’t paying attention to the desperation hidden in every voice we encounter? How can we speak of the Gospel in a meaningful and fully-engaged way if we aren’t actively listening.

Of all the topics we can possibly consider discussing, the Gospel is the weightiest and most important topic of them all. It should garner our greatest attention, enlist our fullest concentration, and spark the most fulfilling conversations. But, sadly, for most of us, the Gospel is rarely on our lips. Why? We aren’t listening to the cries of quiet desperation with ears that truly hear as the Spirit hears so that we would be moved to be the ministers of reconciliation we’ve been called to be.

Say What?

1 Timothy 1:15(ESV)

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

The crazy things we say
There are times we say things that just don’t make any sense. I heard a comedian recently talking about Christians praying for a “hedge of protection” around someone. He observed that it might make more sense to ask for a brick wall to protect someone rather than asking for them to be encircled by bushes.

Sometimes we say things that we just don’t mean. Like saying “bless you” to someone who is leaving when we actually mean “goodbye” or “I’ll be praying for you” when we really mean “good luck with all that” (with no real intention of prayer). My personal favorite is when we quote scripture in this way. For example, when someone shares with us something they are experiencing that is so painful or hard that we have difficulty even imagining it and we say “don’t worry…all things work together for good” when we really mean “you are scaring the crap out of me and I have no idea how to respond”.

What they were saying
In this passage from 1 Timothy, Paul is addressing something that was a common saying among them. The saying, namely “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” was a phrase they would have all been familiar with. They may have been a little too familiar with it. The problem with that, of course, is that this is not just a “saying” to be used in a flippant way like “bless you” or “I’ll be praying for you”. This is a declaration of the gospel itself.

Christ Jesus – His title expressing His divinity and common name reflecting His humanitycame into the world – showing His incarnation and preexistence to save sinners – declaring His mission

What is Paul saying?
The gospel is not just a saying. In Romans 1:16 Paul says “…it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” It’s not data to be memorized and parroted back. It’s not a mantra or magical incantation. The gospel is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance! Paul wouldn’t have to remind them that this expression of the gospel was trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance unless there were those who were not trusting in the gospel and accepting it fully. We need to be certain that we aren’t taking the gospel for granted, that we haven’t become too familiar with it. That it is not just something we say but that we are trusting in and accepting the gospel fully.

Why Paul can say it
Why does Paul seem so confident that the gospel can be trusted and accepted – because he has experienced the reality of the power of the gospel first hand. After declaring that Christ came into the world to save sinners, he describes himself as the foremost sinner (a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent). I don’t think Paul is saying that he is the worst sinner ever (relatively speaking, I think there’s a list of people who had him beat). I think this is Paul’s way of saying that he is the biggest sinner he knows. Paul is able to say that he is the biggest sinner he knows and that he is living proof that the gospel can be trusted and fully accepted. The foremost sinner had become the foremost example of Christ’s mercy and patience to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life (verse 16).

What can I say?
It’s funny. I have a few things in common with Paul. For starters, I’m the biggest sinner I know. I don’t know what anyone else has done to transgress God, but I know what I have done. I have also experienced the transforming power of the gospel and know it to be more than just words. Because of this, like Paul, I’m able to say to others that the gospel is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. If you are the biggest sinner you know and you have experienced the transforming power of the gospel, then you can say the same thing (and should as often as you have the opportunity).