theo|digital

There are rumors that the bluegrass trio Nickle Creek is breaking up. This would be a loss. They just keep getting better. My favorite song – it’s hard to tell whether musically or spiritually – is Doubting Thomas.

What will be left when I’ve drawn my last breath
Besides the folks I’ve met and the folks who’ve known me
Will I discover a soul-saving love
Or just the dirt above and below me

I’m a doubting Thomas
I took a promise
But I do not feel safe
Oh me of little faith

Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face
Then I beg to be spared cause I’m a coward
If there’s a master of death
I bet he’s holding his breath
As I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power

I’m a doubting Thomas
I can’t keep my promises
Cause I don’t know what’s safe
Oh me of little faith

Can I be used to help others find truth
When I’m scared I’ll find proof that it’s a lie
Can I be led down a trail dropping bread crumbs
That prove I’m not ready to die

Please give me time to decipher the signs
Please forgive me for time that I’ve wasted

I’m a doubting Thomas
I’ll take your promise
You’ve always kept me safe
Oh me of little faith

A programmer a Google created a piece of interactive art/java application that aggregates quotes throughout the web from the KJV version of the Bible, and shows you visually what is quoted the most. The site is called exegesis.

Yeah, it turns out Revelation is quoted a lot. Judgement, etc.

The project was commissioned by Turbulence, a New-York-based fund that commissions, exhibits, and archives new hybrid networked art forms.

It takes a minute to understand, but you can click and drag the cursor in areas to scroll through the text quickly. It also allows you to search for terms and uses small blue or orange arrows to indicate results. Orange is direct word-matches, blue are matches that finds using the text of the website the scripture was quoted on.

So there’s this truck with red flashing lights and a guy wearing an orange-vest-thing on I-65 that’s called the “Hoosier Helper.”

That’s a freebie.

I’m on the road with Ty, Brooke, and Stacey. We’re listening to Kaki King in Ty’s minivan and making jokes about chain smoking. Oh, and Brooke is doing the New York accent.

We’re off to Ann Arbor, MI for GCM staff conference stuff. See you later in the week.

I’ve been writing these for a little while, but now I’ll start posting some here. Short reviews of music, literature, and media that I force into 75 words or less. They’re a fun exercise, and you get more of what I think about, for instance, the things that graduate from my “Currently Reading” box on the right.

D.A. Carson
Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church:
Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (2005)
(genre: Church and Culture; Theology; Critique)

The New Testament research professor’s appraisal of authors Brian McLaren and Dan Kimball opens with olive-branch humility and qualified praise of emergent church emphasis on experiential and ecumenical spirituality. Carson’s historical and academic breadth (well-footnoted) brings must-read cautions to the dialogue, but turns in later chapters, carrying an increasingly shrill tone that eventually misses the point, ironically calling theological fouls too fastidious for the works he critiques.

Vertical Horizon
Go (2005)
(genre: Pop Rock)

Five years after Everything You Want, Vertical Horizon reminds us that they still exist with the John Shanks (Michelle Branch) produced Go. Stereo-surround harmonies still trump the ’69 Marshall guitar amp, tipping the scales to pop hooks over any real thrash. I’m a sucker for catchy, but until mid-30’s Matt Scannell rises above his pre-teen lyrical constructions (I need you ~ I want you), Vertical will rarely find my playlist.