The Right Tool for the Job

I walk around and talk to people of quality everyday. Some people are exceptional at art or music, while others are great at math or science. Some are geniuses at one or couple things, while others are the “jack of trades” type people. The list could go on and on. People are talented, but talented differently. The trouble is people, myself included, tend to have the “grass is greener on the other side” mentality. We celebrate and covet our neighbor’s talents and gifts, and forget the qualities that make us great.

I’ve never really been the handy man sort of guy, though I can’t help to be impressed when I see a well stocked man garage, complete with a wall full of tools for every occasion. Naturally, when I find myself in that type of situation, I like to talk shop with the guys, doing my best to blend in and add to the conversation, while at the same time try to learn a thing or two.

There's a tool for every situation, every project. I love that. I love finding the right tool for the job. One day, I hope to own my share of tools, and just maybe consider myself handy. Some guys just seem to know they can build or fix anything, while others know they can’t. I am a part of the latter, and that’s okay.

To be honest, I might not know a lot about building or fixing things, but I do know my way around the kitchen. I’m no chef, but the kitchen is my garage, my haven; and the pots, pans, and other kitchen appliances are my tools. Having the right tools makes cooking that much better.

So today I wanted to share two simple kitchen appliances I have, the apple cutter and the French press. Both are very practical and capable tools that produce solid and consistent results, but both the means to and the results themselves are incredibly different. I wouldn’t say one appliance is better then the other, just different.

The apple cutter is rad. I don’t know how else to describe it. It takes a whole apple, and with a little bit of force, instantly cuts the apple into clean crisp slices, and removes the core of seeds. Simply incredible! Whoever invented this is a genius, and probably had a lot of apple obsessed kids.

The French press is the instant coffee haters dream! It makes my mornings complete, providing me with quality cup of coffee without the hassle of filters or machine confusion. Simply add the coffee of your choice, pour some hot water in, press down the filter, pour, and enjoy your cup of goodness. I love this tool and use it all the time.

See the problem today is that the apple cutters of the world might feel good about themselves one day, and then the next day they see the French press, forget about what makes them awesome and useful, and wish they were more like that incredibly hip and righteous French press. The French pressers do the same. One day they’re on top of the world, and the next, all they want in life is to be an apple cutter.

We have things backwards. One of my professors likes to say, “The key to leadership is knowing yourself. It’s exactly that easy and exactly that hard.” *

So to all you French pressers, apple cutters, and other kitchen appliances, get to know what makes you great and useful, and remember to love that. If you do so, it will help you love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Until next time,

Ernie

*Matt Browning

A Cup Half Full

This is my attempt at some poetry. One of my first. I wrote this tonight during chapel...

"A Cup Half Full"

The cup is half full and we are content to settle,

We climbed our hills and call them mountains,

Like a raging river constricted to a trickle,

Or a mighty lion, once wild, We're tamed, living mild,

The cup is half full, sadly this is normal.

The cup is half full, but I won’t settle,

We climb ours hills, but I WANT MOUNTAINS.

I want to RAGE like a river and BREAK through walls,

To live like a lion, not tamed nor mild, but once again WILD,

The cup is half full, but I want more.

The cup is half full, keep it coming,

We’ll jump off your cliffs and break through your walls,

All the roofs that hold us in, we’ll go through them.

We know God has so much more and we mean to have it.

The cup is half full; I won’t stop until we overwhelm it.

If All Your Friends Were Jumping Off a Bridge, Would You Jump Off Too?

To truly have courage, one must choose to rise against the fears that constantly seek to tame him, for a man who fears battle will win little or no victories.

What is it that causes us to play it safe? Why are we content to flirt with the edge, but never dare take the leap into the unknown, the unsafe, or dare we say it, unwise? Is it fear? What is it do we fear and why?

-Fear of getting rejected…

-Fear of change…

-Fear of the unknown…

- Fear of failure…

-Fear of public awkwardness or simply not fitting in…

-Fear of not being able to provide for those you love and are responsible for…

- Fear of (Fill in the blank)

How can we rise against our fears? How did David rise against the fear of Goliath, even as he taunted the entire Israelite nation? How did Moses overcome his fear of public speaking and lead a nation? They were able because they had someone greater then themselves, more powerful then their problems, and someone who was able and willing to pick them up when they fell or failed. They had the LORD God Almighty, the God who is without equal in both strength and love. They had a mentality that matched their lifestyle, a mentality that said, “If my God is for me, whom then should I fear.”

About a year ago, a movie called “Observe and Report” came out. Though the movie was absolutely terrible, the trailer was incredible and about midway through, the protagonist of the story (a mall security guard) makes a statement that hit me between the eyes and spoke to my soul, “The world does not need another scared man.”

In response to this, I wrote my own proverb, a short observation about life that in my experience has been true. I want to share it:

“A man tamed by fear, poisons his soul,

Such a man, the world has its fill”

A friend of mine always says, "you have to get uncomfortable to become comfortable."* I believe one way we grow as men is to bounce back from failure. This used to be modeled through apprenticeships. A master would teach his apprentice the ways of the trade and allow the apprentice to learn. Through repetition of tasks, soon enough, one would learn the trade and his master would give him journeyman status.

I believe with all my heart that God is who He says He is, and absolutely will keep His promises. Can we trust Him? Yes! Will life be easy? NO!

-Will we be rejected? Yes!

-Will we fall or fail? Yes!

- Will we get cheated? Probably!

-Will our plans not work out sometimes or completely fall a part? Yes!

-Will we still have problems and hardships? Yes!

Though life might not turn out the way we want and we get knocked on our asses, one truth remains the same, “It’s not that we get knocked down that matters, it’s how we get up again.” How we respond to hardship or fear is the true test to our character and faith. It’s easy to give or take risks when everything is going well or your future is secure. Personally, I think God not only wants to take us to the edge, but He wants us to trust Him and follow Him off.

One of my favorite speeches about fear and identity:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”**

Going back to the question I posed in the title of this entry, I would hope we would answer with big YES! Personally, I hope I’m the guy who jumps first, because I know God has got my back. However, if I look at my life honestly, I find myself in the safe zone a lot, content to live in my own comfort, satisfied with my surroundings.

I don’t want play it safe. I want to live, fail, and get up and try again. My life will be the evidence of my faith... hopefully! I’ll jump, because I know God will catch me I want to leave you with two other questions:

1. What if you were the only one jumping off the bridge? Would you do it?

2. What if NO ONE jumped off the bridge? Kind of a sad thought isn’t it?

“The key to change is to let go of fear.”***

Ernest Johnston

*Brandon Polley

**Marianne Williamson- I love this speech and it will no doubt get more air time on this blog.

***Rosanne Cash

Birthday Updates with Heroes and Swords

I’m now 26 and it’s a little peculiar,

But as I look at it, life is still pretty familiar,

I’m still that same man, just a bit older,

Hopefully that means I’ll be smarter, wiser, and bolder.

On the other hand, I’ve come a long way,

I’m not the same man I was four years from yesterday.

A lot of the same hopes and dreams remain,

But they go deeper, wider, and are far from the same.

Today I wanted to post something I wrote when I was a freshman,

It’s a little something that shows my love for hero’s and weapons,

But more then that, it was a young man’s desire for manhood,

So I’ll post it for all, then add to it after, now with ideas better understood.

Ernie “To Use a Sword”* 2006

Tonight was pretty rad. Super cruise night with the boys. Anyways, we were talking and the question came up, "What's a movie or movies you can watch over and over again without it getting old?" Instantly movies like Gladiator, Brave Heart, Last Samurai, Cinderella Man came to mind. So I said it. My friends thought those movies are so intense, and wondered how I could watch them over and over again. I thought about it and answered simply "Cause I want to be a hero."

William Wallace, Maximus, James J. Bradock, those men are hero's, those men are legends. I want to be the guy that's in the front of the battle, leading the charge, and fighting for God and His kingdom.

When I watch these movies they give a glimpse of what a man could be if he had purpose. They had something to fight for, something bigger then themselves. By God's grace I have just that. I don’t ever want to give up. I don’t ever want to surrender. Robert the Bruce, in the movie Brave Heart, makes this statement after he betrays William Wallace, "I don’t want to loose heart...I will never be on the wrong side again." That's the story of my heart at the moment. At the end of my days I’d like this said about me, " Ernest Walter Johnston Jr, A man known in heaven and feared in Hell." Kind of dramatic I guess, but these heroes I see in movies had a flare for the dramatic, a flare for the extreme.

Ever since I was a boy, I’ve had almost this obsession with swords, loved them and wished I owned one. But the closest I ever got, was a broomstick, a backyard, and a lot of sore knuckles. However, my whole life I’ve been taught the word of God and hid it in my heart. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. It's awesome to think about how now I’m in college and I’m learning how to use it.

I want to pray for the men who read this far. Here's my prayer over you. "1 Corinthians 16:13,”Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Let God lead you through grace by faith. Be on the alert. Stand for what you believe.

Act like a man. Be strong. Don’t give up. Amen.

Ernie- Updated 2010

I still love all those movies because they speak to my soul. They, like myths and legends, give me a hope of what a man could be, should he be willing to sacrifice, persevere, and work for. I guess the right now only other man I’d at to the list is Tyler Durden from Fight Club.

I still want to be a hero, but I see now that these men of history and fantasy I looked up to were more then bad ass everyone was afraid of, but were men of character, who knew who they were, what they believed why they did what they did, and caused people to follow. The Bible describes the greatest man as the servant of all, the man willing to lay down his life for his friends. This man is no coward and oozes strength, offering it to those that need it.

I still love swords, though my obsession with them might have dwindled into the normal realms love. Over the years I’ve begun to understand the power of words and ideas. Words and ideas have shaped the very world we live in, influencing both the masses and the individual.

The Sword of Truth is the Word of God, the Bible. It is the hope that sets us free. It pierces the heart and soul, exposing our thoughts and intentions. This is the sword I carry, the sword that brings hope and arms us with righteousness, courage, and love. This sword has changed the world. Jesus once told Peter, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” The Word of God is the one sword I would be willing to live and die by.

In Revelation, Jesus is described as the returning and conquering King, leading the Heavenly Hosts, mounted a horse, with fires in his eyes, and a sword coming from his mouth. I always read that literally, seeing Jesus as God returned, ready to punish those who defied him, ready ruling by the sword.

But what if this sword we read about is not made of metal or sharpened to slay the infidels, but this sword that comes from Jesus’ mouth is his word, not sharpened to dominate, but delivered to lead. What if this sword is one we already have, the one that sits on the shelf collecting dust, serving and protecting no one.

I’m further down the path I started down four years ago, but still have a long way to go. For those of you who read this far, and to those that have journey with me, much love and thanks for walking with me. Thanks for the birthday wishes.

-Ernie

* I wrote this late one night in 2006. The grammar was astonishingly atrocious. I fixed it a little. I couldn’t help it. Don’t worry, as you saw, it’s still pretty bad. I couldn't leave it up as it was, too embarrassing.

Where's Waldo?

I saw a “Where’s Waldo” book the other day and instantly found myself looking at the book with a child’s eyes. So I decided to write a little something about it.

I wonder what Waldo feels like as he travels around the world, jumping back and forth through time, experiencing cultures and adventures we can only read about or imagine? One day he could be in ancient Japan, seeing ancient traditional Japanese culture clash against the inevitable modernization of a nation. Then with a turn of a page he might find himself taking a stroll around the great coliseum of Rome, dodging and turning as Maximus, Spartacus, and those other poor souls exert their dominance upon each other.

I guess the common theme that runs through each book is that Waldo is in an environment he just doesn’t belong to, yet he’s there, and mostly just blends in. He’s trapped within transition, the constant outsider looking in. Do you think he ever gets lonely? Is he simply lost, or is he searching for something, moving from place to place, time to time, until he finds it?

So I just graduated college and find myself in a period of transition. I still live around school and hang out with all my friends. Once a week, I even crash a class!* However, even through I blend in with the best of them, I still feel like the outsider looking in, walking around in a culture I just don’t quite fit into anymore. I guess sometimes I feel like Waldo.

But then again, who am I kidding? Everyone loves finding Waldo! I mean what’s the purpose of these books if not to get stoked when you find Waldo, and in the process see what kind of adventures he’s cruising through this time. Is Waldo ever lonely? Probably, but who isn’t sometimes. When in doubt, I’m sure he finds his wizard friend, that rad looking Waldo girl Wonda, his dog, or that other guy in yellow and black, his best friend/nemesis.

Waldo is living life large, and he’s doing it with his friends. I love when my friends find me. I love when I find them. Sometimes I feel like just another face in the crowd, an outsider looking in, but then I pull my head out of my ass, and realize that there’s adventure all around me, people that love me, people that need love, and so much life to experience. Usually, when it comes to life, I don’t really care what we do, as long as we do it together.

Yeah, I might be in a place of transition right now and searching for direction, but life is happening all around me, right now, and I mean take it and live it. Life is good.

So for those of you who live in the same world as me, if you happen to spot me as you you go through the daily grind, come say hello and we can cruise. And for those of you, who always feel like the outsider looking in, know that you are loved, and people are probably trying to find you too. It just might be hard for them to see you sometimes, because life is crazy and busy, distracting us from what’s really important.

So do your best to go out and find someone who’s just blending in. Show them some love. Give them some life.

Go find Waldo,

Ernie

*I'm taking this rad class called Missions in the 21st century. Well, i'm sitting in it at least. I figured, I might as well keep my brain alive, and keep learning. I love it.

More Then a Preacher...

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and today we are living within that dream, and yet continue to strive for that dream. His dream was a hope that this nation would one day live up to its statement that “All men are created equal,” “that his four kids would one day be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” and to live in a world where the people would have the strength to love as God loved, acting for those who can’t act and loving those in need of love.

This past semester, I had the privilege doing an independent study on the man that I would quickly come to respect and admire. A man who constantly battled oppression, bitterness, racial hatred, and all manners of evil with hope, perseverance, and love, leading a people and a nation. He was man who believed because God is a God who deeply loves His people and is actively involved in the world, both in history and today. In light of this, so should we deeply and aggressively love the people of this world, those that love us and hate us, oppress us or oppress others, and actively be involved in bring hope and love to the world.

He was a man of action, despising apathy and cowardice. King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Later he would write, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” In his famous speech, A Knock at Midnight, King illustrates the parable of the persistent neighbor, knocking on his neighbors door to ask for food to feed a visitor. In the parable, this neighbor refuses to be denied, continually knocking until the help he seeks is given to him. Tragically, King comments that the church has ignored the knocks and cries of the African American people, but comments that the cries would go unheard no more. King led a movement that refused to be ignored.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Do you have a dream? Do you see oppression or hear the cries of the voiceless? I challenge you to make it a reality, love the unloved. “Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step… Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” King believed, “The time is always right to do what is right.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy… The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

What are you doing? What am I doing? If you’re doing something, what are you intentions? How are we serving, giving, loving?

Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who gave hope and direction to a suffering, lost, and directionless people, calling them to action and freedom, out of a life that loved. “It is not enough to be silent and simply hope for a positive situation, or simply ignore it and have it go away. Change must be deliberate, and action focused.” The Civil Rights movement was very deliberate and its action would not be ignored. White communities, the nation, even the world began to see that “Hatred and bigotry could and should be confronted, exposed, and dealt with.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader who sacrificially served his people, inspiring in them hope that led to action. This movement continues today. He was a man who found confidence in his African heritage, truth in his quest for knowledge and wisdom, courage in the face of danger and self-sacrifice. He had a deep love for God and all peoples around him. When the histories are documented from now until forever, humanity will find a man that brought hope to a hopeless world.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

-Ernie

* ALL QUOTES and Ideas credited to Martin Luther King Jr.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Ernest, and Ernie

Someone once said, “Words have meaning, names have power.”* Words are the building blocks of language, acting as audible symbols describing society’s thoughts. In the same way, names help define our world, ascribing symbols that describe and separate different people, places, or things.

People have always believed that names had power. Ancients believed that to know a person’s true name gave you power over that person. For this reason, people often had two names, one people knew them by, and another secret true name, kept hidden, except to those they trusted.

The Native Americans believed a person’s name was synonymous with their identity. In some tribes a person’s named changed as they changed. As a boy became a man or did something brave or especially significant, so their name would change in reflection of their deed or character. In the same way, as a new Pope is elected, they take on a new name that represents two things. First, it represents that action of dying to one’s old life. Second, the name a Pope chooses is a symbol of what their reign as Pope will look like.

My name is Ernest Walter Johnston Jr, named after my dad, Ernest Walter Johnston Sr.** Growing up, everyone called me Ernest, my family, friends, everyone. I introduced myself as Ernest, and knew myself as Ernest. On the other hand, though my dad’s name is Ernest, everyone, except my mom, called him Ernie. I never understood why, that’s just what people called him.

As I got older, heading into high school, coming into my own identity, I began to notice more and more people calling me Ernie. I didn’t mind and took it in stride. Today, the only people that call me Ernest is my family, my oldest friends (elementary school friends), and the random person that wants to be different, making it a special point to say, “I’ll call you Ernest.”*** Everyone else calls me Ernie. I even introduce myself as Ernie. My facebook name is Ernie. I’ve become my father’s son.

So I've come to the conclusion, which is contrary to popular opinion, that Ernest is the kid name and Ernie is the adult name. However, despite believing Ernie is the adult name and the name I now introduce myself as, Ernest is my true name that speaks to my identity.

One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received was, “Ernie you’re the most chill person I ever met, but you’re also the most passionate person I ever met.” I think that speaks a lot about who I am. On one hand, I am definitely chill; on the other hand, when it comes to something I believe strongly in like God and his Kingdom, the people of Hawaii, or Penn State Football, I can be incredibly passionate, incredibly earnest.

Earnestness is who I am and what strive for. My favorite passage in the Bible is Psalm 63:1-4, which speaks about earnestness, passion, desperateness, and desire for God, who’s love is better then life.

O God, you are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you,

my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

At the end of the day, my name is Ernest. I am my father’s son. I will always be Ernest, I will do all I can to live up to the name Ernie, and I will strive to be earnest in all I do.

-Ernest/Ernie

*Anonymous

**I love my dad and respect and look up to him. He love me, is loved by my family and the community, desires to help and serve, and works so hard. Sure he has his faults, but who doesn't. If I turn out to be a man just like him, I'll die a happy man.

*** I kind of like when that happens. Though it never lasts.

**** I've never seen the play or movie, "The Importance of being Earnest.... maybe one day.

So what's Cruising?

If you know me at all, you would realize that use the word “cruise” all the time, within many different contexts. It’s easily my favorite word; it has many levels of meanings, and is a constant life long goal of mine. I always tell people I'm "just cruising," and people laugh cause I'm so chill. But it's more then that....

Most people describe cruise or cruising as merely chilling, or at best, the act of walking, driving around aimlessly, or in my case, hanging out. Even I answer questions like, "how was you day?" or "what are you up to?", with answer like, “Pretty cruise” or “Just cruising.” So in a sense, the word cruise encompasses all of that, but it’s so much more. For me, cruise is more then something you do or how something was, but it’s a lifestyle lived, rooted in one’s identity.

Cruise more then something you do, it’s a mentality maintained, and its secret alias within the Bible is the Fruit of the Spirit known as peace. To truly cruise is have the Peace of God all over your life. The Bible commands those that know God as truth to be anxious about nothing, but in prayer and petition to give our requests to God. If we do this then the Peace of God, that passes all understanding, will keep our hearts in Christ.*

Where does this peace, which despite the odds stacked against us, come from? Cruise comes out of our understanding and belief of who God is and what He is like. Consider this statement, “One’s understanding who God is and what He’s like, will both directly and indirectly affect most decisions you make through your life.”

It’s like being in charge of a group project at school or work. Unless you’re the luckiest person walking earth, you’ve experienced the unreliable, lazy, uncaring, and all around terrible group member who cannot be trusted to contribute to the group, much less the project. So we don’t give that group member anything tough, someone else carries a bit extra, and the work gets done. Everyone gets a good grade, the terrible group member included.

I think sometimes we treat God like the terrible group member, showing with our thoughts, actions, fears, etc that God either doesn’t care and won’t act, or maybe does care, but isn’t strong enough, and cant act. We go through things that are tough, that constantly stabs at our minds, relentlessly causing us to stress out or worry, and go through the motions of “giving it to God” in prayer. Yet as soon as we say Amen, we take the burden back, and start worrying and stressing out all over again. Then when God comes through and saves the day, we give Him all the credit. However, when things don’t work out like we want them, we accuse God of not caring or not acting.

See I believe God is who He says He is. God challenged the Israelites with his name, “I AM THAT I AM, I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. The name itself is without true description, but God revealed Himself to His people (and to us) through Israelites history and actions. As Israel needed God to come through or be faithful, God's character was revealed. So will God reveal Himself to you, through your actions, if you let Him. He is the most reliable being in the universe that NEVER fails, the best group project member ever.

So cruising is more then something you. You can work hard, you can relax, or doe whatever else, but if you remember who God is and truly trust Him, then you won’t have to worry about anything ever again.** It's something that I personally strive to live out. When I do worry, soon rather then later, I find myself on my knees, begging God to come through for me. He has never failed to do so.

Well this is getting pretty long so I’ll end it here. I see my friend on the other side of Starbucks, and she likes poems that rhyme, so I’ll end with a poem.

A mentality maintained

A peace unexplained

Nothing is lost

But everything gained

I choose to have faith

And to follow his lead

I choose not to wait

For life's storms to recede

It’s not laziness

Cause I’m still moving

In the midst of the craziness

God’s still proving

This is the path I choose

This is my theology of cruise

Aloha,

Ernie

*Phil 4:6-7

** This is not saying don't work hard or be concerned about anything. We all have responsibilities, and should strive to do our best to fulfill them. What I mean is that we do not have to stress out or get overwhelmed about anything. God will come through.

*** I think if Paul Bunyan was in my group project, I could trust him with anything. Plus, I think he would be pretty cruise.

Rock and Roll

One of the aspects of Rock and Roll that continues to astonish me is its ability to continually reinvent itself, taking what was once the height of passion, creativity, intensity, drive, and all around rock lifestyle is constantly being challenged by someone more passionate, with mind boggling creativity, intensity that would put those old Surge soda commercials to shame, with drive that compels one’s feet or heart to start pumping, and a life lived at the edge, ready willing to jump off.

In my opinion, at the core of Rock and Roll is necessity to fight the inherent temptation of sameness, conformity, apathy, mediocrity, and complacency. When a dream is at stake, the essence of rock is the defiant refusal to be contained within any confining structure. Rock music ingrains the idea that what you thought was impossible is now possible. This mentality begins with authenticity.

Rock and Roll is, and forever will be, one of the major values of my life. I do not want to be confined by the social rules, expectations, traditions, or just simply "how things are" or "how they are supposed to be." I believe as future leaders of the world* we must strive for creativity and break the boundaries and structures set before us, and merely settle for the way “things just are.” The movement of Punk Rock in the late 60’s into the 80’s is prime example of this. “Punk Rock music was an agreement by a generation that the direction culture was going was wrong.”** Together, they changed that direction, and through that, changed their world.

Every year, more and more bands come out, each of them harder, faster, more creative, more innovative, and so forth, then bands before them, willing to challenge what was in order to create something fresh, something new. So should we open our eyes to the communities and cultures around us, realizing that sometimes opening others up to new ideas and taking them into new realms takes something extreme.

Rock and Roll is more then just music. It’s a movement that continues to change with each generation. It’s our turn. We can only do it together. Martin Luther King Jr writes, “History is a long and tragic story of the fact that seldom do privileged groups often give up their lives privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture, but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immortal then individuals.”***

In conclusion, I’d like to quote Jack Black’s prayer in one of my favorite movies: School of Rock. “God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. We are your humble servants. Please give us the power to blow people's minds with our high voltage rock. In your name we pray, Amen.”

Let's get rock'n!

Ernie

*When I say world, one must decide what his/her world is. Whether that be your living situation, family, church, work place, social circles, communities, etc.

**Punk Rock Attitude: Documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XI85jPbcps&feature=related

***King, Martin Luther. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.. SanFrancisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.

I DON'T Want to Make It On My Own

I’ve recently decided I don’t believe in the phrase or the idea of “Making it on your own.” Don’t get me wrong; I am in full support of success or “Making it,” but with the tag of “… on your own,” it seems so anti-communal*. But I guess that’s the point isn’t it? Whether we’re leaving our parents home or graduating college, we’re expected to come to a point in life where we do not need anyone but ourselves.

So many of my friends graduated college with little or no plans and went off into their futures. Some are very successful and while others didn’t do much at all besides fall into more debt, but one cause of distress I find common among most is that they miss college life, specifically, they miss everyone being around, the community. They struggle with loneliness, the lack of true deep connection. In the silence or the place of life where chaos momentarily slows, their need for connection surfaces. What surfaces is the fact that people simply need.

What is about graduating college that makes people feel like they need everything figured out or that they need to be complete, the super adult**? I agree with Tyler Durden (Fight Club) when he says, “Never be complete, stop being perfect.” In recognizing and accepting our imperfection, our incompleteness, we begin to understand our need for others. Simply put, we need. We need God, we need each other- we need relationship.

In our imperfections, God’s strength is made perfect. In our brokenness, true community is formed and strengthened. I want to succeed. I want to make it. But what I don’t want to do, what I think I'll be tempted to do, is make it on my own.

I'm broken, but aren't we all?

Ernie

* Anti-Christian?

** We pretend not to need anyone or that we got everything figured out. "Blessed is the man who realizes his need for God, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Mathew 5:3