YONDER BREAKS

I started a little blog series called Jah Works a couple years ago, where I wanted to recount all the times God has shown up in my little history of 30-something years. Though this blog in general is often about God and what he is saying/has said, I'm ashamed to admit I haven't done a "Jah Works" in 100 blogs! Crazy...well, no better way to mark 300 total blogs on YonderBreaks.com than do pick it up again. This one is about my complicated history with the City of Angels ...Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles is a big part of our lives now, which is something I never expected. As a kid, and even through college, I always thought I'd end up in the mountains somewhere, North Carolina or Tennessee. I wanted a small town, just about as close to Mayberry as I could. Still, being a skateboarder , California always had its lure. I remember watching G-Rock as a kid, which was a compilation show of skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and BMX videos with Christian punk, sk...

A few more thoughts on this book I've been reading... In his commentary on the Parable of the Serving Master ( Luke 12:35-38 ), Kenneth E. Bailey presents a profound truth that has really stuck with me: "Christians are called on to be faithful, not successful, and obedience is more important than production." (Page 375) I have to confess, so much of my life (or at least my intentions) is consumed by productivity, or at least  wanting  to be productive. There is something strange about this idea though, because I think we all derive a certain degree of satisfaction from a busy day full of accomplishments, even as mundane as paying bills or a DMV visit . I truly feel accomplished when I set out to wash the dishes and  do the laundry, and actually do it. If I can then accomplish something creative...? I go to bed feeling so satisfied from something like finishing a video or writing a blog. The problem, I think, is that this "good feeling" often overrides p...

I've been reading this great book the past few months called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey . The purpose of the book is to place the life of Jesus in its proper Middle Eastern context, which of course is very different from our Western culture. One of the themes that has been popping up more as I near the end of the book is that we often view some of the parables of Jesus through a capitalist lens, when the culture he spoke through was far from the economics we experience today. This shift of lens changes things, so I'll start by asking, what is the typical American seeking these days? It used to be to work hard, take care of the family, buy a house and eventually retire someplace comfortable. Now it seems to be to develop an app or a business, and then sell it to a larger company for an exorbitant amount of money in order to live easy, or maybe invest in something else. The motivation has shifted from a nice life in a solid community to a huge chunk...

As soon as you hit the homepage of this website, you see a big, "Album Coming Soon" banner, right? Well, this is the first song off the album, and was the main song from the Kickstarter campaign that made it all possible. It has a pretty cool story behind it as well... I have a friend who has an awesome voice and a great gift for melody. He came over one day to play some music and we went to the garage to jam. I started playing a pretty simple chord structure with some hammer-ons to add effect, and he jumped on a floor tom just to bang on something. Some mumbled melodies came out that just fit so well, and so we went with it. As for lyrics, we both were struggling with the idea of pursuing creative projects while balancing God's involvement in them. Questions like, how much time is this art worth verses investing in God's Kingdom? Are the two mutually exclusive, or can they work together? How much of our identities are wrapped up in creating art that may be mis...