Thought I would share my current desktop image.
I’ve been finding some cool space art online and this one I decided to use for my desktop. I love science fiction scenes, and have ever since Star Wars caught my attention when I was a kid.
Found anything cool for your desktop image?
I found another portion of the open or closed question. What about open and closed software licenses?
Here’s a quick rundown of the license categories (check here for more details):
The more open your license, the more innovation you generally have. WordPress is licensed as GPL. Anyone can see and edit the WordPress code, and thus, a very diverse, dynamic, and versatile platform has emerged.
The problem with the GPL type licenses, that I see, is the return. I can’t really reap the rewards for my work when anyone else can make a tweak and give it away. Also, if you were to combine a GPL licensed work and any non-GPL work, according to the license you’d need to release the whole larger work as GPL. Effectively, you’d have to release your closed source code to abide by the license. It doesn’t sound very “free” to me.
The liberal licenses form the middle, allowing open source innovations but with the option to combine works or the option to redistribute with different licenses. They tend to play nice with GPL (as in the work can be licensed under GPL without breaking the other license), and might allow greater return.
In recent times, closed source hasn’t had the best run. Just take a look at the state of the music business to see what happens when you overuse the “closed” idea. But yet, closed source still generates the revenue.
I’m not an expert with these licenses, nor am I a lawyer. But this I do know: forcing people to use a particular license is not freedom. That part of the GPL rubs me the wrong way. I do understand the desire to not be ripped off, as in the case of a closed source project essentially stealing open source code. That isn’t right either.
So, where do you stand? I don’t know at the moment for myself. As a content creator, I want return on my investment (or at least control of it). As a content user, I want to be able to use and improve what is there. Is there an answer? Let me know what you think.
Here’s a quickie for the start of the week.
I’ve taken a little break from tweeting and blogging for the last week. Part was for vacation. Dusty and I went to Pigeon Forge, TN for a few days. We had a great time! No computers, no Twitter, just us. Wonderful.
But it did cause me to think about producing and consuming.
Lately I have been producing a lot. I’ve been blogging, Wordpressing, and Tweeting so much, I drained myself. I’ve blogged before on the value of silence before. I think I relearned that this week.
So, to keep it short: sometimes you need to just sit back and consume life. By that, I mean to enjoy time with family and friends, to go out and relax in the woods, to experience at art as opposed to creating art. When we overproduce, we empty ourselves. And when we are empty, nothing overflows. Our art, our work, our passions come from that overflow. Remember this next time you push yourself too hard. Take an hour, a day, a week to refill yourself. It’ll do you good.
So, what recharges you? What drains you? When do you need a break most?
The purpose of all art in the Church is to glorify God.
When the Church creates art, it is expressing what the soul wants to say to God. It is our expression of what God has revealed to us to be Truth (as in absolute Truth). This can be in a worship song of adoration, a novel based on a biblical story, or a painting of a sunset.
So how is it that we glorify God with our art?
From my standpoint, I see three big ways art from the Church glorifies God.
Building Up
When art builds up the community of God – His Church – then the art brings glory to God. Some examples include worship music and books dealing with our relationship with God. When a local church sings praises to God, the people get closer to God. When we read a book that shows us how to pray, then we are encouraged and given knowledge. These things build the community. As the community is strengthened in God, He is given the honor for it.
Reaching Out
When art reaches people outside of the Church – as in leading people to Christ – then the art brings glory to God as well. When the Church grows, the fame of God increases. He receives the credit. Examples here include movies or plays that intentionally reach out to people. If someone goes to a church Christmas production and realize that a relationship with God is what they need, then God receives glory.
Personal Expression
Art leads the soul to some Truth, and there God is given glory too. This category is quite broad, and it also gets into some gray areas. What I mean here are the works of art that point to God. Much of Christian music can fall into this category. Hawk Nelson doesn’t make music that is designed for worship. They play music from a biblical standpoint, pointing out spiritual truths, or looking at life through the lens of their faith. Much of literature (novels, poetry, stories, etc.) could fall in here. Thomas Kinkade paints a beautiful picture, but he doesn’t paint (I don’t think) to reach out. He paints because that is how he expresses beauty. And that beauty, in some way, reflects the beauty of God. When we see that, we thank God for beauty, and that glorifies Him.
This is most certainly an incomplete list. And many of the examples could fit into more than one category. Think of the Psalms. Most of them could fit into the first and third categories easily.
The point is this: each category has a place in the realm of art from the Church. Just because your music isn’t sung on Sunday mornings doesn’t mean it isn’t Church music! Isn’t it wonderful that we have so many ways to glorify God?
So go, create!
I just read a blog post yesterday that inspired me to say something about tools. I stumbled across this link on twitter in a search I have up in TweetDeck. So here goes.
Is a tool inherently good or evil? How about a fork? Is it good? Bad?
Seems a kind of silly question. Let me rephrase it a bit: Is a weapon inherently good or evil?
Now that will get some responses. A weapon generally is used to harm. Most people would say that is an “evil” purpose. But how about when it defends something from evil? Is it now “good?” Most would say that defending the innocent is good. Why the difference?
It’s all about how the tool is used! The intent of the heart decides what is good or evil.
The original post, if you didn’t read it, were about contemporary worship music and how the inherent quality of certain kinds of music (extreme paraphrase). As a musician and as a Christian, I am deeply passionate about this subject. So here are my thoughts in response.
Musical style is a tool. Musical instruments are tools. Tools are not inherently good or evil. Therefore, no musical style should be considered good or evil. If a musical style reaches a portion of our culture in such a way as to bring them to Christ and repent, then why should we not use said style? If a musical style brings us to worship our Creator God who wants nothing more than to fellowship with his people, then why should we not use it?
My biggest problem of the “Which musical style is the best for worship?” debate is who gets to be arbiter and judge? Who decides that rock music is evil and that folk music is good? Or that classical music is worthless and rap is relevant? God is the only one who can judge the heart and soul of a man. Period. If you don’t understand why someone is moved by a certain genre, try to understand. If you still don’t, try and find out why. Agree to disagree, but don’t say one style is better for worship than another.
I think I need to put a disclaimer in right here. I am not condoning a “Whatever works for you” brand of theology. That gets into some dangerous waters. God is the judge, so go to Him for your answers. Listening to questionable lyrics that talk about sex explicitly, or have rampant profanity, or hold to very ungodly ideologies is probably not a good idea. We are to be holy as God is holy, so what we take in needs to be controlled.
That said, how does instrumental music (i.e. devoid of lyrics) become sexual? Or filled with profanity? Or rebels against God? How do drums depict wrong affections whereas piano depicts right affections? If I remember my music history correctly, the piano (or the fortepiano as it was originally called) was not accepted into the church rapidly. It was seen as an evil instrument, and that the organ should be played in church instead. Sounds familiar… And what do we see today? Piano is considered an acceptable instrument. Funny how that works.
All art, I believe, is viewed through the lens of one’s own values, views, and experiences. That means, if you think that the electric guitar is not an instrument to be used for sacred music, you won’t like modern praise music that uses it. There’s nothing wrong with not liking something, or saying that you feel the presence of God better if you listen to Style A than Style B. I don’t like pickles, but my wife likes pickles. I love fish, but my wife does not. Both were created by God. Which one is better? Who is more right? Neither. It’s a preference. But to say one is holy and one is not makes a statement I don’t want to make.
And I can’t understand how one style can be acceptable and one cannot. Art is subjective. It’s not concrete. Offering sacrifices was a concrete deal. There were certain animals you were to sacrifice for certain things, at certain times, in line with your means. So how do we make the jump that music for worship has the same concrete ideas? It’s the same thing as saying only one set of chords are acceptable. Boy, wouldn’t that be boring! It’d become a ritual! Not an overflow.
So here’s an extreme example. If we take instrument restrictions to the logical maximum, then we should only play with instruments that the Bible mentioned. Which would be, I think, basically the lyre, cymbals, and our voices. I’m probably leaving something out, but you get the point. Our God is creative. He is the Ultimate Artist. Therefore, why should we stifle our creativity for worshipping Him? I think God, being the lover of our souls that He is, enjoys hearing all of our ways to worship Him.
The blog post did make some good points. It urged us to pay attention to how we worship. Worship is not just music. It is us responding rightly to all that God truly is. If we go to musical worship and just follow after the cool emotions of being in a crowd, watching a show full of lights and pictures, waiting for the fuzzies to come over us, then we are there for the wrong reasons. But if those outward expressions of love and fear are flowing from a truthful realization of who God is, then that is true worship. It doesn’t matter if that style is classical, rock, rap, folk, blues, jazz, metal, pop, or whatever! If God is truly at the center, then He will be praised.
And it doesn’t have to be music! It could be a painting where you see the true suffering of Christ on the cross, bearing the weight of our shame to save us from our sin. You see that and thank God for his grace, and praise Him for it. Or it could be a work of fiction, where you see God’s eternal pursuit of His children no matter the cost, and you realize that you have been running from God and turn back to Him and praise Him. Or it could be a film, where you finally see the gravity of your sin and the fullness of God’s holiness and glory, and you realize that one day you will not have the option to turn from it, so you turn to God and praise Him for it.
The tools are a means to an end. I don’t believe that they carry with them an inherent value of good or evil. And just because someone does something evil with a particular tool does not make that tool evil. Neither does it make the tool good if good comes from that tool. The tool is subject to the heart of its user. And the heart is subject to God. If God can use us as tools to advance His Kingdom, surely he could use rock music for good.
If you have any thoughts or scripture to share, please do. I always want to be learning about my passions. And if you disagree, please post some comments about why, but do so in love. Thanks.
Here’s a question for all of you to answer: What kind (or kinds) of art moves you? And why does it do that? What are you passionate about? What stuff do you read/see/hear that makes you understand something deeper? You get the idea. I had been thinking of how I love music and writing. Naturally, I wondered what other people liked. So I thought I’d start a little conversation about it on my blog.
And to start off, here’s mine.
First and foremost, I’m a music guy. I think music is the best art form on the planet! Anything from John Williams to Kutless will get me excited. I feel like music is a universal expression (any human can understand a song). Every culture has it. Also, merging that universal aspect (i.e. the non-lingual portion) with poetic words can express meaning or revelation better than anything.
That said, reading a book still gets me. A great storyteller can capture my imagination and send it off to places I never knew to look for. Movies apply here too. I love Star Wars (all six!) for its story. It’s an epic, and it deals with deep human emotions. Babylon 5 also has that kind of story (although I’m only through season 2).
Okay, so what kind of art do you like and why? I’d love to hear from you all.
I recently watched this video a few days ago and it got me thinking.
We as a church body have gotten behind when it comes to art.
When was the last time you heard of an awesome piece of music that moved the genre in a brand new direction? When did you last see a painting that pushed the way people painted?
As a body of artists, it feels as if we have become followers. In music, we have Christian versions of almost every kind of music. Rock, Rap, R&B, Pop, Urban, Country; you name it, we probably have it. This is good, and we should express the Gospel message and Christian ideals in these forms. Yet, when I hear a band or artist with a new sound I’ve never heard before, it’s not a Christian artist. Why is that?
Now, granted, I have a few Christian groups on my playlist that I can’t compare to anyone else. Anberlin, for example, I love, and I just can’t seem to put them with anyone else. The Classic Crime, while they don’t call themselves a Christian band, have decidedly Christian overtones, and are on Tooth and Nail, which carries mostly Christian artists. These guys have brilliant writing, in my opinion. The exception that make the rule, I guess.
Here’s the point: We as Christians carry with us the greatest news of all time, we know the God of the universe and can speak with him every day, yet we generally only follow others in their artistic methods?
This just feels odd to me. If we truly know God, shouldn’t we be able to find new awesome ways to glorify Him? Should we not be leading as well as following?
I am a Christian artist myself, as I have said a few times on this blog. I don’t have the answers. But as a Christian and an artist, I want to be moving in a new direction. My influences are all evident in my art, so in some ways I will always be following them. My goal is to create something new that no one has quite heard before. I may never get there, but I’m sure going to try.
I want to see all Christian artists doing something a little different. I want to see the church become a center of another arts movement. I want God’s glory shown in different ways than just what’s already been done before.
Does any one else feel this way? Got any cool Christian art to share? Leave a comment, let me know.
In our daily lives, there is little silence. Almost every moment is consumed by something; whether it is music, work, radio, television, the list goes on. However, we should still remember the importance of silence.
Silence can be deafening.
It’s ironic, but life is full of those ironies. Like being alone in a crowd.
Example: In music, a composer will write in silence to emphasize a loud part immediately following. Hey, John Cage wrote 4′33″ with a lot of silence. Interesting tune.
Most important, silence forces us to think. It forces us to listen, both to God and ourselves.
I think we should take some time to be silent. Take time to quiet what we do most often. If we can take a step back from our projects, from our daily grid, you never know what you just might find.
For example, I took some time to myself (partially because I got sick, but we all need a push sometimes) and sat down to read a book. It was a book I never thought I’d enjoy. Boy was I wrong. I finished the whole novel in less than 3 days. Usually it takes me a week at least. I’ve found another book I love, and I’ve found a few more tricks to use in my own writing.
You can’t run forever. If you constantly pursue without relent you will burn out. This is not changing focus or loosing passion. Those are different. Endurance runners don’t run every 100 meters in 10 seconds. They would never make it the whole way.
Give yourself a little time to just sit. Go to a park and watch the animals. Go read a book you didn’t see before. In order to be honest in our art, we need to overflow from our hearts. If we’ve drained everything from our hearts by never taking a moment to be silent, we will not achieve anything but adding more noise.
If we are to be real in our art, then it should overflow from our hearts. If our hearts are never silent, we will only add more noise.
Copyright 2009 Joshua Wagner Online. Powered by WordPress. Built for Firefox.
