Fan Mail - By Shaun Groves

I was twenty-four and I knew everything. I had a diploma from a university where I’d studied music composition.
I moved to Nashville to save the Christian music industry – starting as an unpaid intern wearing a tie, making copies at a music publishing company. But someday, I thought, I’ll ditch this suit, and get paid to write better music than what’s on the radio.
“It’s not art,” I’d preach.
Art was god.
Then, one day I saw Joel Lindsey in his writing room down the hall from my office, reading a piece of paper and sniffling. It was fan mail sent to him by someone who loved those radio songs. God had used a song Joel had written to comfort the letter writer – to partially mend what was broken inside her.
It’s a mistake to appraise the value of a created thing on the basis of my ability to appreciate it rather than God’s ability to use it.
“Art” is a moving target, with a relative definition at best. “…the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”
Significance?
Ultimate significance – Christian significance – isn’t found in chord progressions, simplistic or complex. Or production techniques, vocal timbre or range, instrumentation, rhyme scheme or metaphor. Ultimate value is measured in the secret spaces of the heart and mind, and across the span of eternity, by the Creator of us all.
How immature and unloving to turn love of “art” – however we define it in this culture and generation – into disrespect and disdain for one another. Or an entire industry. God, forgive me.
If only we could read everyone’s fan mail.

Actions Of Deceit

One of my favorite hip-hop artists, Andy Mineo, raps in his latest hit Whatever Comes, "I wrote this on Good Friday, but why they call it good? An innocent man was beaten and nailed into wood. It's only through the lens of grace we see, who that really should have been hanging from that tree, who the nails should have been put it...me." It's a reality that we often take for granted until this week every year. Those lyrics made me think a lot about how we deceive ourselves. It's only through grace that we see what Jesus did for everyone yet how often do we try to earn it? Actions are important but many times we can be deceiving, trying to prove to others that we are 'good' people. If you don't truly believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9), the cross means nothing to you. "Live the Cross, it ain't a chain or design cause sin is whack; don't wear one on your chest if you don't bare one on your back." (Andy Mineo, Pick It Up)


Dr. H. L. Wilmington puts a little perspective on it and paints it this way. "Imagine yourself in the vicinity of the Garden of Gethsemane on a warm April night 2,000 years ago. As you watch, a man walks up to Jesus and begins kissing Him. You would probably conclude, 'How this man must love the Master!' Shortly after this you are shocked to hear another man bitterly cursing Christ. Now your conclusion would be, 'How this man must hate the Master!' but both times you would be wrong. Judas, the man who kissed Christ, really hated Him, and Peter, the one who cursed Him, really loved Him." We've all made mistakes but grace is what brings us to the all-knowing, all-powerfull, all-forgiving Father. You either hate Jesus or you love Him. There is no in-between!