“How often are we inclined to ask for the removal of trouble from our path? And yet He told us clearly that trouble is a constant companion, a tool for character growth, during our earthly life:

‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33 NIV)”

-Hugh Ross

Every time that I hear somebody say that they want to meet someone who will just accept them as they are I feel a buzzing sensation in the back of my head (we’ll name it after an arachnid later). I can’t help but feel that this statement is wrong somehow. Not being the dating, or even the social, type I cannot claim expertise on this subject but it seems to me that a relationship is something that needs to be worked for, on, and with. It isn’t something that just pops out of nowhere and makes life instantly better, curing all worries to come. I don’t see why some people in their twenties can be so complacent in their lives. Don’t get me wrong, life is good and all but I hope that it gets alot better down the road. I don’t want to settle down with someone who is all-accepting of who I am and doesn’t expect me to change one bit. I want to meet a woman who pushes me to be who I want to be, who I need to be, and who God chooses me to be. And I should do the same for her. A relationship should be a back and forth work in progress whether it be with another person or with God. We should never accept anything the way it is if it is not right. We need to strive for better lives.

I apologize for two posts in a row on similar subjects but I am just so sick of reading all the whining that’s going on on Facebook about being single. Maybe there’s a reason for that! Maybe you need to sort out some things in your life before you can be ready to share it with someone else. Maybe you need to move out of your parents house. Maybe you need a job that can support more than your video game habit. Maybe you’re just not prepared to be the spiritual anchor/support of a household. Or maybe if you just didn’t spend so much time on Facebook you would meet someone new. Facebook is fine for when you are bored but if you’re bored all the time then maybe you should be doing something with your life.

Of course everything that I know only works in theory … much like my conversation skills.

“Perhaps we ought not fixate on the call to lifelong singleness. Some people, of course, are called to lifelong singleness, but most of us are called to singleness for a spell, if even a very long spell. Often, our task is to discern a call to singleness for right now, and that’s not so difficult. If you are single right now, you are called, right now, to be single – called to live single life as robustly, and gospel-conformingly, as you possibly can. The problem comes when the assumption that these are lifelong callings creeps in – panicked single folks think they must discern, at some given age on some given date, whether or not they are called to singleness forever. Again, consider professional callings. We are often called to certain vocational or professional paths for periods of time – one is called to be a doctor or a teacher or a waitress, but to discern a call to go to dental school at age twenty-four is not to assume that one will be called to work as a dentist forever. Perhaps at thirty-five, one will be called to stay home with small children. Perhaps at forty, one will be called to open a stationary store. Perhaps at sixty-three, one will be called to retire. Indeed, even calls to marriage are often not lifelong – not because of divorce, but because of death. Jane may be called to be married to Peter right now, but if Peter dies, she will find herself called, for a season, to singleness – to widowhood.”

- Lauren F. Winner from her book Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity

“The kingdom of God doesn’t throw all guilty people in jail; it doesn’t execute every one of us who have made mistakes or tell us we’re just getting what we deserve. Instead, it brings us forgiveness, reconciliation, a new start, a second chance. In this way it mobilizes us so we can have a new future.”

yea, I totally stole this.

“Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossip, Mary was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead. God can still use us and love us despite who we’ve become.”

What bothers me the most is the lack of internet coverage this band has. From what I’ve picked from the general fan vibe, these guys were beloved for their music yet almost no info on them exists online except for countless lyric pages. While they may not sound like much to the new listener, Die Radio Die’s songs came out at the height of this style of music when emo rock was being recognized as something more than a post-grunge experiment and people were latching on. It has its many flaws but attached to these songs are memories: of growing up, friendships gained and lost, and the discovery of even more music. This appeared some time back giving an interesting second hand look at the band and piqued my interest in finding more songs that I knew had been missing. In my search I noticed many people mentioning that they had a song or four laying around or had lost their physical copies and I thought to myself, “I have more than four songs (17 to be exact), maybe I can help.” So here are almost all of the songs that I have. iTunes has a different version of New England Sunrise released on a Militia Group sampler called Stepping Stones Volume 1: The Best Bands You Have Never Heard. My problem now is that I’m a sucker for sorting and organization and would love to know what songs are part of Die Radio Die’s first EP so any help would be greatly appreciated. Also if there are songs that I am missing I would love to be told what they are and, if you have them, would like copies to add to this collection.

>>DOWNLOAD Die Radio Die

As I have mentioned many times before, what attracts me most in music is lyrics rooted in honesty and great storytelling and All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost has them both. While not the most innovative music, Mosquito Fleet gives us a loose story of a back and forth between doubt and faith. Well, maybe not doubt but more an acceptance of hopelessness. While it works well overall it does feel odd singing along to a song about holding onto sins.

My absolute favorite track on this album is Times Are Changing

I can’t let go of whats holding onto me.
this is just for show
because you don’t want to see who I am.

I am surprised that this isn’t talked about more often as it reflects who I’ve been in the past as well as who I continue to be and I know I’m not the only one who sometimes feels like this. I’m a firm believer in that if no one addresses something then how will we ever be able to overcome it.

The song Back And Forth sums up the album and leads into the conclusion Oh Indiana, a song you wouldn’t expect to hold such redemptive lyrics just by looking at the title. One of my favorite parts of All Who Wander Are Not Lost is that it is self referencing by hearing bits of other songs, like hearing God’s Not Listening during Back And Forth and the little rewind effect at the end of Oh Indiana used earlier as well. It makes the album more cohesive (something I find lacking in popular music’s constant search for singles).

The tone of the album reminds me of Die Radio Die but I have no spot on comparison for the music. So many bands play like this but none do it as well as Mosquito Fleet.

You can get All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost and Swings & Cloves EP on their website, Amazon.com, iTunes, or the Zune marketplace.
Their absolutely intoxicating version of Come Thou Fount of Ev’ry Blessing can be found on Indie Vision Music’s Passionate Hope: Songs of Worship vol. 1 for free along with many other great songs.

As a Christian I believe the truth that is told through the Bible but as an American I stand by the freedom of, or freedom from, religion allowed in our Constitution. Like many Christians I accept the (literal or literary) creation story recorded in Genesis but unlike many outspoken Christians I do not think that Creation should be taught in public schools. I strongly believe that this is a violation of the religious freedom promised in the first amendment. I often hear of outrage from Christians over the teaching of evolution in public schools and their desire to have the idea of Creation tacked onto the curriculum. This is what I don’t understand: if someone disagrees with a teaching so much why do they offer an alternative to be taught alongside it? Would it not be easier to pull evolution from textbooks than to add Creationism? I am often told of the holes in popular evolutionary theories (which I refuse to go into because, honestly, Evolution vs. Creation does not interest me at all) but never hear of any practical movement to prove such holes and remove evolution teachings from schools. Whether evolution stays or goes doesn’t matter to me. What matters is how I see Christians represent the church in unappealing ways whether it be ignorant, inclusive, or just downright mean. We need to remember that as we represent Christ we need to be accepting of others and their beliefs. We also need to remember that the country that we choose to live in offers freedom and we need to respect that freedom. Just as many of us would be outraged if our students were to be taught the religious practices we don’t live by we must too not force what we see as true onto others.

It all started one night at work when I was humming to myself and it got me praising God right there I was sweeping the floor. After closing I put in my earphones and continued to pray while walking home, then standing in line at Taco Bell, even sitting down to eat my chicken burrito and it reminded me of of the many times I’ve heard someone mention “prayer without ceasing” in the Bible. Every time that I had read that or heard someone speak on it I thought it would be amazing to live life in constant prayer but I ever realistically thought that l would ever be able to do it. The only long periods of prayer I’ve had were either at the altar or during prayer meetings. I mean, I had put on music and would sing along and pray but I wasn’t always focused. I would go from singing praises to God to imagining what it would be like to be in whatever band it was that I was listening to and would then find myself acting out stage movements in my living room. Then it was back to prayer. I wasn’t necessarily lacking a prayer life but what I was doing was praying only on my own time, never God’s. I had turned prayer into something to pass the time. I would fit prayer in before breakfast or before I fell asleep at night (many times falling asleep before I could utter an “amen”). I would put in a few minutes here, a few there, in between the end of a TV show and the time I would have to leave for work or I would save it for the walk home when I wasn’t doing anything else. These past few months I’ve learned not to measure time in 44 or 22 minute increments but to work in God’s time. Prayer isn’t something that needs to have time set aside for (that does need to be done but there’s more). It is something to live in. In these recent months I’ve been learning to live in prayer and it has helped me work through some issues that I have been struggling with.

So That’s what I’ve been trying to do.

Live my life in prayer.

So far its working out great. Lets just see what happens when something crazy comes along to shake up my world.

“Through Jesus, then let us keep offering to God our own sacrifice, the praises of our lips that confess His name without ceasing. Lets not neglect what is good and share what we have, for these sacrifices please God.”   Hebrews 13:15,16

For more information on The Ember Days or to download Emergency for free visit Come&Live!