As life seems to become busier and busier, while also becoming more beautiful, I decided I want to start placing thoughts that go through my head each day. I also understand that I in no way should think that my words are more important than the next guys. It just seems that on a day to day basis, at random times during the day, I find myself reflecting on different issues, both meaningful and useless.
Placing my thoughts on a page for people to see is definitely uncharted territory for me. But my hope is that maybe someone will read the words that are placed here throughout the week, and that maybe conversations can be started because of it.
I suppose the more I mature and reflect on life and all that it is made up of, I long to have meaningful deep conversations that seem to benefit all those who are involved.
I am a follower of Christ and a Youth Pastor at a church in Grand Prairie, TX. I've been a Christian for a long time and it seems that I'm only beginning to see the importance of a conversation between those of us who believe. I definitely haven't arrived, and never will. The past couple of years I've begun to see that there really is no distinction between the spiritual and the secular. I believe that when God created us in His image, He wanted us to see that everything we do, everything we are wrapped up in, everything that we are a part of, can be a meaningful part of our spiritual journey.
As you see, the title of this blog is Dissonance and Beauty. I am a music business major at Dallas Baptist University and will graduate in December of this year. In music, dissonance plays a very important role. It is important to shake it up and provide an atmosphere of dissonance, (maybe even ugliness?), for the listener, before resolving back to the root of the key that we so love.
However, more than music, this blog is about dissonance that seems to surround us all in life. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, dissonance can be defined: "a mingling of discordant sounds", or "a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord". Man, that image really seems to apply to life in a major way. It's all around us. Dissonance definitely finds its way in my life, and I have a feeling it's in yours as well. Sometimes life gets messy. Sometimes life blows up. Sometimes things just don't seem right. Things happen and things change and they leave us all wondering why? Christian or not, life has a way of dealing some major blows. It also has a way of dealing some not so major blows that just leave us asking, "Why? What is that?"
More than dissonance, I am learning to see the BEAUTY in life that surrounds as well. I am amazed at the God that I serve and live for. I've seen some crazy amazing cloud formations, and sunsets, the day my new nephew was born, the day I asked my fiance to marry me, the love that my parents have for me and I for them, the beauty of a person understanding that there's more to life than working 9 to 5. There is beauty that surrounds us. And it's amazing. And thought it may not seem like it, I believe there is just as much beauty as there is dissonance in this life. The point is this:
The dissonance and the beauty that surround us work together to create this really amazing life that we get to live with God at the forefront. My flesh wars with the Spirit of God in me. I want things that I know I shouldn't have. I crave for things that are in no way healthy for me. And at the same time, I have this longing for more of God and more of His presence in my life.
Dissonance and beauty.
I've been rambling, but this will be fun.
One final thing about beauty: I'm getting married in June of this year to the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. And it's going to be beautiful. Not just the ceremony and reception, though those things will be amazing. But the marriage itself will be beautiful. It's this beautiful picture that takes place on that day. It's me looking at Chrissy and saying, "Out of all the other girls on this planet, I choose you." And her saying the same thing to me. And it's this beautiful commitment that both of us will make on that day before God. And I can't wait.
