Where Have I Been?
Yesterday for our anniversary Kristin and I decided to go on a bike ride. We didn’t know where we were going to go, but we knew we wanted to have lunch in Downtown Franklin and then go from there. First of all, let me say we had an awesome time and it was one of the most fun days I have had in a long time. But that’s not what this post is about.
We’ve lived in this area for almost four years now, and for as long as we’ve lived here Downtown Franklin has been ‘the place’. It’s the swanky area. It’s where the ‘high end’ restaurants are, it’s where the money goes, and it’s where people go to see or be seen. But even with all that, we love it down there. We love the little shops, we love the ability to walk around at night with other families, grab some Starbucks or ice cream and enjoy the quaint little downtown. In fact, we’d love to live there someday. We’ve even talked about it, we’ve looked at houses, but with the area being so desirable, living there isn’t much of a reality as far as money goes.
See, something like this house here is absolutely gorgeous and can be ours for one easy payment of $1,495,000. A little steep for our price range, but that’s not even what this post is about. Let me get to the point.
Yesterday while riding around and drooling over gorgeous Downtown Franklin houses Kristin and I took a side road and ended up in what felt like a completely different world. You see the red and blue line up there on that map? That was one of the circles we rode. And here’s what we saw. The house above on one street selling for one and a half million dollars on the red line and then this house literally a block away.
Now, what this is NOT, is a statement of housing prices, or how the market has changed or anything like that. While Kristin and I were riding down the ‘Blue Line’ I couldn’t help but think, ‘Where have I been? I thought Downtown Franklin was a ‘swanky’ high end area? How come I have never heard of this area of obvious neglect and poverty. We waved and talked to a few people down the street, shaking our heads at how run down some of these houses are and the fact that even after four years of living in the area we have never seen or heard of the people that live a block away from ‘where the money hangs out’. Do churches not want to talk about it? Do the folks on West Main just ignore what’s down the street?
I don’t even really have a solution for something like this and I’m certainly not being overly preachy about helping people out or anything, but I was completely blown away at the fact that this is a society and group of people that seem like they have completely fallen off the cities radar.
Any of you Franklin peeps been over there? Heard anything about this area? Any churches involved in helping this area out? Or are we too busy wishing we could walk to Starbucks from our one and a half million dollar home?
Peace Train
This song blows me away every time I hear it. Easily one of my favorites. Maybe it’s because ‘peace’ has become such a watered down word lately and I’m not sure we will ever see true peace this side of heaven, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. ‘Peace’, not the song.
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
That’s not an easy thing to do. Lately I have been quite literally blown away by the petty-ness of men. Men in business. Men in friendships. Men in communities. The insignificant things that so easily turn people into spiteful enemies and destroy what God has called us to do. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men.”
So what happens when it’s not up to you? What happens when you are making the ‘effort to live in peace’ and that petty-ness is turned against you? I suppose it doesn’t matter right? I suppose we are just supposed to make every effort we can to create that peace. If we are walking toward that goal it doesn’t matter if true ‘peace’ is ever achieved.
For now, I’ll hit ‘repeat’ on this song.
Whoops
This is no good. I don’t know why people do the things they do…. but then again sometimes I don’t know why I do the things I do.
Justice Is What Love Looks Like In Public
Tonight I had the privilege to attend a screening of a film due to release later this year called Call+Response. The screening was held in inside the Country Music Hall Of Fame in Downtown Nashville, so obviously it was an honor to be invited. Call+Response deals directly with human trafficking and slave trading including children sex slaves. I had heard quite a bit about the horrific things that go on but this documentary does an unbelievable job of bringing some of these tragedies to light.
CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
Director/Producer Justin Dillon hosted the night and said some pretty amazing things. One of the things that he said that really stood out to me was simple and clever, but I thought was brilliant. While talking about the need for us all to get involved in the abolishing of these thing, he said this, “It’s not called Awarenessism it’s called Activism”. Simple and brilliant.
My mind is still processing the images of a seven year old girl being sold to grown men looking for a good time. This is a very real and very local thing. I have questions like, why is it that the government can find out if I download a record illegally, but little girls are bought and sold for sex for less than an iPod? And this is happening right here in America. And it’s happening all over the world. Questions like, how far has the human race fallen when we are treating children with less value than cattle and making billions of dollars in the process? And questions like, where do I even start?
I could go on and on about how the night went, and all the terrible things that I learned, but right now I’d encourage you to go check out the trailer and at the very least find out when this film is released in your city, then bring as many people as you can. There’s all sorts of amazing music mixed into it and some great artists that are also involved. I have already sent an email to the director asking him how I can possibly help with some stuff online. I know that there are plenty of organizations out there dealing with everything from water to kids to shoes, but if this is something that you don’t know about or haven’t heard, it’s time to get educated and get involved.
Has anyone else really studied this? The numbers seem too staggering to ignore.
Tragic
By now, most of you know the story. My mind won’t even allow me to comprehend what the Chapman family is going through today. Keep them all in your prayers. I don’t think there is anything that could possibly be harder in life to go through.
Late last night, after I heard the news, I got up to check on the boys. I stood there a little longer than I normally would have. I realized how much I take for granted in my life and the lives of my boys. Hug your kids a little longer today.
When It Rains…
You know the rest.
I just wanted to throw a quick post on here to ask for some prayer for a friend of mine who is currently sitting in a doctors office waiting room, twenty-minutes after his appointment was scheduled, waiting to speak to a neurologist to find out if he has something wrong with his brain.
For several weeks now he has had severe headaches, and after a bunch of visits to “regular” doctors was referred to see a specialist. This on top of several other things that have added stress and tragedy in the lives of our friends. So if you are a praying person, now would be a great time. Thanks.
Powerful Community
Blogs are a powerful community. I think most people that are in to blogs get that, but sometimes there are stories where a blog quite literally is more of a community than a regular one. Just this week I heard of a musician diagnosed with Leukemia and with no medical insurance raise nearly double the amount of the medical costs from his online community. Another funny story but one that spoke loudly to me was when I joked about needing money to keep me out of jail. I received several phone calls throughout the day from people telling me that they were organizing fund raiser things to find me the cash. And these don’t all have to be associated with money.
Just today I got an email from a frequent commenter, Melody here on my blog. I have never met Melody but because of the community here she felt comfortable enough to share. She writes:
I posted a brief special “prayer request post” on my blog for my precious aunt, Stacey Adams (in Texas) who is undergoing a massive brain surgery today to remove a tumor. I know that the surgery and recovery are going to be very difficult and intense and I was hoping to have lots of people out there praying for her. I’d also like to have some of those same folks go to this special prayer request link and post an encouraging comment for her to read as she is trying to heal and recover throughout this trial. It’d be great for her to know people from all over are praying for her.
With all that said – you and your family came to my mind as someone special I could ask to help. So, thank you for taking the time to read over this and God bless.
I think it would be great for all of us to head over there and offer some encouraging words and obviously keep Melody and her aunt in prayer. This is really what it’s all about.
This is the same mentality that I try to explain to these bands when I am taking to them about blogging and it’s especially true within the Christian music industry. These are the communities that are so amazing to be a part of and I believe have the ability to bring people closer together. They are also the communities that have the ability to do great things for the industry, great things for people personally, and great things for the Kingdom.
Experiencing “Saturday”
Every once in a while in life it seems like there are more questions than answers and more chaos than peace. Lately it seems like the questions and chaos are stronger than I have seen before, and not just in my own life, but in the lives of so many people around me.
In the past month, a friend of mine lost his brother to suicide, another friend is loosing their house to the poor economy, another loosing a business, and all loosing faith. Not only is their faith suffering, but because of the difficult times, their marriages are suffering, their children are suffering, their friendships are suffering, and even their hope has all but disappeared. And all of these people are Christians. All of these friends have at one point or another been on their face in front of God begging for answers.
I don’t begin to think that I have answers, and I am realizing that I have just as many questions, today as anyone else, but I am realizing that maybe we aren’t supposed to have answers. No one had answers on this day years ago after Christ was killed on Friday, and had yet to rise. What did they think the day between? The “Saturday”? Did those close to Jesus even have the ability to pray? And if so, who were they feel like they were praying to? Everything they had ever believed had been shaken to the ground and there were no answers. How many of us are experiencing “Saturday” today? How many of us are looking to the sky for answers and hearing nothing but the quiet?
The only thing we can do is keep that strand of hope that is “Sunday” and know that things have to change. Anyone else already experienced “Saturday” and made it through to “Sunday”? I know there are plenty of people reading this that need to hear what “Sunday” is like.
