A SHORT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON THE PASSING OF DAVID BOWIE

I’m a David Bowie fan. I am not a super-fan but passionate enough I guess.

Classic Rock is one of my favourite music formats although I can’t claim to know it as well as my radio friend Jeff Woods.


For many years "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" was, and still is one of my all-time favourite albums. After that I am a Bowie fan on a song-by-song basis. Most of his work after "Station To Station" was too avant garde for me and I have heard most of it. I’ve followed him in the news stories over the years and I have seen him twice in concert.

A likely question from my Christian friends is, "Wasn’t David Bowie gay, or a transsexual?"

I can’t confirm if he was anything other than heterosexual. I know he was married, twice. And there are children. I am aware of his statements to Rolling Stone magazine about being bisexual.

I can’t comment on his personal life - I did not know him personally. I don’t have any right to judge his actions. Only his family and close friends have that right.

There are stories I’ve heard about Bowie that I don’t agree with but I could apply that to my friends. I don’t agree with everyone about everything they say and do but I can still appreciate their talents regardless of their religious beliefs. In other words, you don’t have to be a Christian for me to admire things you’ve done.

Did Bowie believe in God? To answer that would be a guess because I don’t know how he lived his nonpublic life. Based on his lyrics I would say he believed in God very much. There are many references to God in his songs. I also recall that at the 1985 "Live Aid" concert, he went down on one knee and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. I was not a Christian at the time and I was shocked that he would do that. Shocked that a great rock star had humbled himself to God before a stadium of fans and worldwide TV audience. Obviously, I have not forgotten it.

So, taking him at face value, I would say he believed in God.

But whether he did or not, and whether he was anything other than heterosexual or not, I don’t know. I am a music fan and he was a musician. His contributions and influence on other artists and their music are unquestionable.

I remember once he was interviewed by Dinah Shore. She tried to corner him and said, "You must admit, rock and roll has been very good to you." He replied, "Yes, and I have been very good to rock and roll." Touche.

Today, listening to "Changes," filtered through my Christian ears, has brought a few tears to my eyes.

"Turn and face the strange, Ch-ch-changes. Pretty soon now you're gonna get older. Time may change me but I can't trace time."

BAD MOTIVES

Boy, oh boy, there's a lot of condemnation and judging on Facebook. By Christians. You know - us guys who aren't supposed to judge people?  Of course I'm not talking about you - I'm talking about somebody else.


I'm talking about people who have found some dirt about someone famous and feel it's their responsibility to exposure the faker! I'm talking about Christians calling out (fake) Christians.

I'm embarrassed to be a Christian when people whom I respect are going on Facebook and publicly calling out the fakers - by name. Fakers are the people who don't live their lives in line with scripture OR are incorrectly interpreting what the Bible actually says. ("Interpreting" in this case means you think your interpretation is 100% correct.)

I should ask, if those people doing the "calling out" fully understand the Bible verses themselves, for sure - 100% sure. Oh, sorry. Of course they do.

I know that "calling them out" is the Biblical thing to do, but the contempt and distain in the tone of the words by the people doing the calling out, makes me sick. May I publically call you an arrogant big-mouth? May I use your name?

Listen, if we call out everyone who doesn't interpret Bible verses to mean the same thing we do, there's going to be nobody left.

Wanna know what I think?  Ok.  "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached." Philippians 1:18.

So what if their lives don't line up? That's between them and God. Mind your business. If they are faking it, eventually it will all unravel and you can say "I told you so".

Is the person you are calling out a lousy ambassador for Christ?  Maybe. But, aren't we all?

To me, it doesn't matter what their motives are, or if their lives are unholy. God's word is still God's word. It's about the message not the messenger. An unholy person isn't going to detrail God's word.  God can handle it.

I know people whom I don't consider to be serious followers of Jesus. I might even think they are fakers. One high profile person comes to mind, and because I know them personally, I know they don't mean what they say. But I also believe that the Philippians verse is bigger than the speaker and the message will still touch lives.

Having said all of this, you may be right. Maybe the speaker is a faker, or preaching it wrong. Maybe "calling them out" publicly is not the nicest way to do it.

You may disagree with me. And if you want to call me out for posting this, that's fine. If it makes you feel better, do it. I dare you.

That's what I think, anyway.

WHY I'M A CHRISTIAN

This blog is for my non-Christian friends who are agnostic or atheist, I thought I would share my reasons for believing in God and calling myself a Christian.

I became a Christian when I was 31 - it was a choice. I'm not a Christian because I went to church or believed a little in God or because I live in a Christian country.

Here's why I became and Christian.

GROWING UP

I did not grow up a Christian. I always believe in God but I never thought much about him, other than when my parents said grace before dinner.

Once in a while I thought about God, like because the sun rose every day and it's not humanly made. Something made it. Must be God.

Just like when I cut my finger and a scab grows and then it heals with no marks. And when I drop something, it always falls to the ground, not sideways or up and down. No one can explain why these things do what they do, but we trust and hope that the sun will rise tomorrow like it's supposed to and that a scab will grow and that stuff keeps falling down, not up. We just trust.

I didn't get married in a church. I didn't think had anything to do with marrage. I could do it without him. And I did, at the Holiday Inn in Toronto.

Through my 20's I was happy. I wasn't hooked on drugs, I barely drank, my marriage was good. I owned a house, had a dog, wife and daughter.  My career was going good. I had a small celebrity status at CKLC in Kingston. Life was good. God was not in it.


WHEN I DECIDED

After a couple of radio moves I ended up in Pembroke and I was working in secular radio. Still, everything was good.

Our seven year old daughter Crystal found something to do on a Wednesday night with a friend - they went to a kids program in a church. She was on a team and one of the ways her team could score points was to memorize Bible verses, which she was very good at. And if she brought a friend to church.

Crystal saw Janice and I as two points so she took us to church!

It wasn't creepy or boring. At church we found friends our age,and there was something different about them and we found out it was because they were Christians and there was a lifestyle change.  They were kind, didn't swear, always encouraging, and went out of their way to be nice.  We liked that, and wanted to be the same.

THE JESUS DEAL

I didn't decide to be a Christian as a last resort, because as I said, everything was good. I had control over most aspects of my life. But still, my new friends were talking about God like he was a friend. I mean, they really knew what they believed.

We were asked if we believed in a historical guy named Jesus. They said, 2,000 years ago he taught about God to anyone who wanted to listen. Then, when he was the age of 33, a group of angry people didn't like what he stood for and the politicians felt threatened by him so they killed him on a cross. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?!)  Then, after three days of being stone cold dead, he rose.

But he came back to life after three days?  Come on!

I already believed that the sunrise and finger scab were creations by God, so why not?  There were 500 people who saw Jesus face to face after he was dead, so it's a historical fact. So ok - I'll believe that.

It was a step of faith. I can't prove the Jesus deal.

Then I was told two basic Christian benefits:

1. I will have the Holy Spirit of Jesus in me, all the time, giving me guidance, now, in this life. It is a logic that I won't find on my own.
2. When I die, I will go to heaven.

I thought everyone went to heaven unless they were really bad people like a murderer. But who decides who is so bad they don't go to heaven?  Really, even murderers do good things, so where's the line?

I was told that God draws the line. Heaven is his house. He decides who gets in. We don't get in because we think we're nice people. We have to believe it.

So, I said, "I believe in God. What's the Jesus thing?"

When Jesus died, he took all of the badness with him. And if I believed that my badness was taken by him too, he would forgive all my junk, and when I die, I would go to heaven with him.

I chose to believe it.

My pastor asked me if I wanted to be a Christian. I said 'ya'. So did Janice. I didn't know what to pray so my pastor prayed and asked me to repeat it. It went something like this.

"God, I want you in my life. I'm sorry for all the bad stuff I've done. Thank you for loving me so much that you died for me. I accept your forgiveness. Help me be like you." That was it. That's what I said to be a Christian.


THEN WHAT HAPPENED

Even after I was a Christian I didn't want to hear about God in music. Mostly I loved the Rolling Stones and Christian music was probably all junk. Two years later, I listened to a Christian song by Geoff Moore. It was pretty good.

One day I was in the car with my Rolling Stones cassette and my new (Christian) Geoff Moore cassette. Was I crazy? I chose the Geoff Moore album over the Stones and I remember thinking, "God what are you doing to me?" (Holy Spirit guiding me.)

I was hooked. The music was equally professional but the words to the songs were encouraging me in my faith. They reminded me that God is real. Since being a Christian was more than a religion but was changing my life, I fell in love with Christian music.

Other stuff changed. My movie choices, my choice of friends, how I treated my wife, how I worked for my boss. I just decided that if I put God's choices before mine, he was would be happy. And because of that, I was happier!


SO NOW

Being a Christian affects everything I see and do.  What movies I watch, who I hang out with, how I feel about homosexuality and abortion and weed and many other topics that have become controversial.

I'll confess, I don't believe everything my pastor says or everything my friends believe. And that is why there are different denominations like Baptist and Pentecostal. But we all believe that Christ died and rose after three days and we're forgiven. It's secondary topics where there are differences.

Today, I think that as a Christian, this is as close to Hell as I'm ever going to get. If I wasn't a Christian, this would be as close to Heaven as I would get.

So, my non-Christian friends. That's my story. Christianity is not a religion I've made up or I follow because it makes sense. It's a step of faith.

When I get depressed and feel like "this Christian stuff is just one big coincidence, I think of two important things. I think about the miraculous sun rise. And I think about Geoff Moore - he's a smart guy. If this Christian stuff was all made up fantasies, Geoff would have given up his faith and so would Billy Graham.

You make your decision.

Happy Birthday Steve Taylor - December 9

When I was living in Nashville, I ran into Steve Taylor, backstage at the Newsboys show.  (Hey, it's Nashville - stuff like that happens all the time.)

 

We made a plan to have breakfast the following week. Steve's favourite restaurant is The Pancake Pantry - it was him and me, just the two of us for about 90 minutes. We talked about music, God, family, everything.

 

Because of his deep, thoughtful, intense and witty lyrics, I thought he must have known something about God, that I didn't and I wanted to know his secret.

 

I asked him about his Bible study with friends - "Do you do anything every week? Meet with people?"  He said, no.

 

I asked - "What do you read in your personal quiet time - a devotional of some kind?"  He said, no.

 

I mentioned one particular song of his that meant a lot to me - "The Finish Line" and he said, "Hmmm...ya. I think I got it right on that one".  That was cool. Most artists would say, "You know, if I could do it again, I would have changed a line, or a guitar part."  But, Steve was pleased with that one song. The song that accelerated my walk with Christ.

 

After breakfast as I got in my car and reflected on this once-in-a-lifetime moment with a rock star, I felt disappointment - he doesn't do a Bible Study or a men's group or read a devotional. How is it that Steve is SO connected with God - so much more than me. I wanted a piece of that. I didn't get it.

 

Then, as I was about halfway home, I got it.

 

Steve is a songwriter - he's amazing.  God has given him the gift to write songs and express the himself with clever words. I cannot do that.  I am a radio guy. He probably doesn't know how to program a radio station - that's my gift.

 

More so, he is trying to find his way just like I am. Both of us seeking God using the gifts he's given to us.

 

I figured it out. Breakfast mission successful! 

 

And, by the way, when I was in the early of preparation for to start LIFE 100.3 and I was fundraising, Steve was the only Nashville rock star of those I approached, who made a donation.

 

December 9 - happy birthday, Steve!

THE LUCY MUSEUM - JAMESTOWN

Janice loves Lucy so for our anniversary last May I gave her (and me) a trip to Jamestown New York, the home of Lucille Ball, site of the Lucy Museum - a replica set of the I Love Lucy living roomt, her clothes and a mile or so away, the gravesite.

i'M TURNING INTO MY PARENTS

When I was in my 20's, my best friend Jordan casually said to me, "When we grow up we turn into our parents".  He probably doesn't remember, but I do.

And, it is turning out to be true.

At the time I felt - "Oh, my gosh - I hope not!" Which now I'm ashamed to admit. After all, since Jordan's theory has turned out to be true, my kids will grow up to be like me. At one time I would have said, "How lucky for them!"  I guess that may not be the case. (This last paragraph is meant in jest.)

I remember my Mom bending down and picking up little pieces of lint or tiny bits of unknown stuff off the floor. At the time, I thought it was kinda silly. Now, I do that. I am turning into my Mom.

Every morning at the cottage, my Dad would sweep off the bugs that laid there overnight.  Now, I do that every morning.

I think I may have inherited my Dad's impatience. Some may call it a short temper - I'm calling it "impatience."

Mom and Dad gave me (and Janice) two wooden cottage chairs. In my mind's eye, I can see Mom and Dad sitting on the chairs, on the cottage patio, overlooking the view of the Trent River, sipping on their morning coffee.  Well, I don't drink coffee, but almost everyday in the good weather, Janice and I sit on our patio and enjoy our view of Lake Simcoe - and we sit in the same chairs!

Both Mom and Dad are deceased. The good memories remain.

I guess Jordan was right.

Brett and Crystal - you have SO MUCH to look forward to! Bah ha ha!

MY WIFE'S OPINION

One of the problems with being the manager of a business is that it's hard to get someone's opinion on a decision I need to make.

Here's an example - say, I want to change LIFE logo from red to blue or green. (We're not doing this in reality)

Voice of reason on left.

I'll say, "We've used red for so long, maybe it's time for a change".
Employee might say, "Ya, it's tired. Another colour would be fresh".
I'll say, "How about blue - like the skies, like the heavens above."
Employee might say, "Yes that's perfect. I like blue - it's a passive colour".
I'll say, "But, you know, red is the blood of Christ - it's the most appropriate"
Employee will say, "That's true - stay with what works".

In the example above, I've gone from one idea, to a new idea and back to the first idea and the employee follows me. I'm guessing that nobody wants to have a different opinion from the boss because they want to be supportive. 

So, I'll go to my wife. Quite often, she's the voice of reason. She'll disagree with me and state her reasons or agree with my plan and reassure me I'm on the right path. She good at bringing clarity to my ideas. But, I'd rather have the employees' opinion about business ideas since it might directly affect them.

Hmmm. I'm just thinking...maybe if we changed the LIFE logo to purple, like an Easter egg. Purple is one of the Easter colours, right?  I think that would remind people of the Easter message.....

Sigh.