“This action of God surely requires a response. And the response extends over the lifetime of the one baptized, expressing itself in a desire to die in order that one might live. For the life that is ready to die is the kind that lives by faith in the forgiving and life-giving Word of God”  Luther’s Works: 35.34

Why is it that when Christians talk about “surrender” it usually means doing something? I’ve been guilty of this.

According to the dictionary, to surrender means to yield to possession by a greater power. The act of surrender is yielding for the purpose of  being acted upon. Pop-Christianity has redefined it to mean to demonstrate one’s love and devotion to God. What if true surrender had less to do with convincing God of my love for him, and a whole lot more to do with him convincing me of his love for…me?

Luther’s quote above calls for a response, but the kind of response he calls for is different than we might expect. The response is a desire to die to sin and self so that there can be a resurrection. The resurrection is all God’s work.

I have no issue with the biblical mandate that we bear fruit in good works. However, there’s something wonderfully refreshing about God being the subject of the sentence, rather than all that I’ve done to surrender my life to Him. Could be I’m not as important as I’ve imagined all these years…

If we get uncomfortably honest [which is the whole point of this blog] too much attention paid to surrendering leads to some weird stuff. You create a spiritual class system. Sooner or later there will be more and less surrendered people: folks who’s lives would be a heck of a lot better if the would just SURRENDER MORE. The really surrendered folks will gravitate toward leadership, and the rest of us are the dead weight they’re dragging toward enlightenment.

If all of us were spiritual beggars, think how much less time we’d spend diagnosing someone’s gimpy walk with God, and how much more we’d be struck down in heartfelt worship.

Guilty as charged and in need of grace.

There was a time when I was more “understanding” in my response to those who felt that Jesus was asking too much of them. The signs of the times have made me less so. As our culture spirals out of control into consumeristic hedonism, this has become a matter of conscience for me. Do we have the luxury of remaining silent while the world continues to rob and murder souls?

It’s always been troublesome that Jesus calls us to come with him and die. Remember the rich young man from the Gospels? Jesus asked him to sell his possessions and come follow. The young man couldn’t do that…his heart was buried deeply in his stuff.  The Christian life is not meant to be convenient, or easy, or entertaining. Our reward is not in this life-and though the Lord does give us many blessings and a few wonderful surprises along the way-the best is yet to come. The trajectory of a life lived in Christ is toward sacrifice and self denial for the sake of a dying world. Yes, it is hard. It is a path spattered with blood, sweat and tears. But those who take this road less traveled see more of Jesus: because we need more of Jesus.

I propose that we need to boldly [and honestly] proclaim that the Kingdom of God brings us outside our comfort zones. Sects within high-profile American Christianity have made the Gospel into a “quality of life” choice, and have birthed a no-commitment spirituality. We need to tell the truth about losing our lives for Jesus. We need to tell our people to seek first the Kingdom of God, and trust Him to take care of the rest. God help us to be faithful.

There’s been quite an improvement in guitar strings in recent years. Quality has gone up with more sophisticated string winding and better quality wire. We have our choice of strings that capture a particular tone for a particular use: bluegrass, fingerstyle, dropped tunings, etc. Some are warm, some are clear, some have longer sustain, some feel more or less stiff to the fingers, and some are more musical sounding. Depending on the top of your guitar, some strings will sound “great” and others not good at all. Let’s start with matching tops to string gauges.

On the continuum of guitar top woods, softer woods need less string energy, while stiffer tops need more energy to produce sound. Western red cedar is on the softest end of the scale. From there: redwood, engleman spruce, sitka spruce, the hybrid spruces like Lutz spruce, european spruces that grow stiffer as you go up in altitude, and then adirondack spruce at the high end of the stiffness scale. For example, my cedar topped guitar just  needs light strings to get the top moving. My Goodall jumbo has a tight grained German spruce top that absolutely must have medium gauge strings to get it moving. Otherwise, the bass overpowers the mids and trebles. Pay attention to manufacturer recommendations. Some softer tops cannot deal with the higher tension of mediuem gauge strings without warping at the bridge!

Tops have tonal color. So do strings. Softer tops are often characterized as warm, while stiff tops sound cool to our ears. I suggest using strings that complement the inherent tone of your top wood. Some of this is trial and error: try several makes of strings, and find what you like. Phosphor bronze strings tend to sound warmer, and have a more complex sound that includes more overtones. Bright bronze or 80/20 bronze bring out more clarity and individual string separation, while sounding less warm. For example I tried a set of the excellent Newtone strings on my adirondack [very STIFF]  top Lowden. They sounded cold! The extreme clarity of this topwood needed a warmer string to bring out it’s best. The tonal signature of this particular brand of string would likely work better on a softer top. Many folks believe that sitka spruce is rather neutral, and will tell you that the string choice contributes more to the tone of your guitar.

One final thought. If you like to experiment with open or dropped tunings, consider using medium gauge strings. As you detune, string tension decreases-and it’s easy to get flabby bass or buzzing treble strings. Medium gauge strings have a higher tension and help avoid these problems. I use medium strings on my Lowden and tune it half a step down from standard. This is what Phil Keaggy does…who can argue with that?!

My favorites in no particular order:

1. GHS Laurence Juber Signature…warm, wonderful loose feel, rather bold sound, really cool brass plated trebles
2. Wyres Pierre Bensusan DADGAD…long life coating, complex sound, nice feel, long sustain
3. Elixer Nanoweb phospher bronze…long life coating, very delicate sound for quiet passages, warmth and sparkle
4. DR Sunbeam phosphor bronze…super sustain on a round core, VERY nice feel…really unique tone

Rather glorious, don’t you think? I found that I just wasn’t playing my Goodall classical much-fine instrument…but I’m a steel string player at heart. So I traded. Adirondack spruce over honduran rosewood, arm bevel for playing comfort and a 25.65″ scale for low tunings. The voice is powerful due to the adi top, but the guitar is so responsive that I can go from clouds [brushing the strings] to thunder [really digging in] in the same song. In a word HUGE DYNAMIC RANGE. [Okay that was three words.] I’ve not been inspired by an instrument this much in years: firm, tight bass with crystal highs. DADGAD tuning will make a grown man cry. 

This may be the most complete guitar I’ve ever played. The fundemental notes are pure: the stiff adi top and the flame maple neck bring out vast sustain. The overtones are a sweet halo…present, but not overbearing. The sound is complex, but it all works together well. After changing out the stock saddle to fossil ivory the clarity and overtones increased. There’s no mud in the bass until I detune to B.

I recorded it last night: Baggs IBeam active into a solid state presonus mic preamp. Very wonderful results. Later today I’ll mix the pickup with my Rode tube mic. I’m guessing this will be my “go to” recording guitar.

Isn’t it just like God to drop something in your lap while you thought you wanted somethig else? After some rough years where Lowden Guitars struggled, the new workshop is producing incredible guitars.

Simply breathtaking.

I found out yesterday that my baptismal song “Heaven’s Story” will be published and marketed [short term] by Concordia Publishing House. I had just about given up on this project after the reorganization of the national leadership of our church body. I was working hard at being philosophical about promises that would not be honored. But then…bidda-bang, bidda-boom: the whole thing gets resurrected.

The deal is that the song and lead sheet will be posted on-line and also sent to the 6000+ congregations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Concordia will market the song for 3 months with the hope that the contributing artists on the project will get some exposure and a few nibbles. Super-special thanks to David Johnson and his energetic committment to this project.

My song “Christ My Treasure” won a national worship song competition and I got invited and flown out to St Louis to spend time with a small group of writers April 21-23.

Best idea from the conference: write a very simple song. Great exercise! Say it with fewer words.

Best encouragement: permission to call myself a songwriter. Along with this has come a desire to write every day-but with a new freedom. Writing as a process is about writing whether or not lightning strikes or the Spirit moves. Instead of jealously guarding a creative moment and hermetically sealing it into plastic…we can edit, re-write, whatever.

The Word became flesh, and spiritual abstraction was done away with. God appeared with a name and a face. The intentions of God were made clear by sending his son into the world to become the complete sacrifice to purchase us back from death. Nothing abstract here. It’s all so very objective and puposeful.

This is where I want you to be. You ask that I deliver you. Then do not be uneasy about it; do not teach Me, and do not teach yourself; surrender yourself to Me. I am competent to be your Master. I will lead you in a way that is pleasing to Me. You think it wrong if things do not go as you feel they should.  But your thinking harms you and hinders Me. Things must go, not according to your understanding, but above your understanding. Submerge yourself in a lack of understanding, and I will give you My understanding. Lack of understanding is real understanding; not knowing where you are going is really knowing where you are going. My understanding makes you without understanding. Thus Abraham went out from his homeland and did not know where he was going (Gen. 12:1). He yielded to My knowledge and abandoned his own knowledge; and by the right way he reached the right goal. Behold, that is the way of the cross. You cannot find it, but I must lead you like a blind man. Therefore not you, not a man, not a creature, but I, through My Spirit and the Word, will teach you the way you must go. You must not follow the work which you choose, not the suffering which you devise, but that which comes to you against your choice, thoughts, and desires. There I call; there you must be a pupil.

#1: Shane and Shane’s Upstairs. Passionate vocal, tight harmony, and splendid acoustic guitar pretty much define their work. What sets them apart is how they sing scripture-particularly  the psalms. They speak to the heart with eloquence. 

 #2: David Baroni Finger Paintings. David’s piano playing is very emotive. The Fingerpaintings  series is all instrumental. The music has a winsome and thoughtful quality that makes it a  great backdrop for meditating on the word.

 #3: Jars of Clay Redemption Songs. Just when you thought these guys have disappeared, they come up with a body of work covering classic hymns of the church. The hymn lyrics are deeply personal and theologically rich: a fitting reason to delve into our hymn heritage. 

 #4: Phil Keaggy Beyond Nature. Acoustic guitar playing of this calibre reminds me that God is the inventor of music. Whether you want to call it a soundtrack to your soul or not, his music takes me places. The purity of wood and steel is quite moving and inviting to reflection.

 #5: Bach, Mass in B minor. This towering classic is one of the great works in baroque classical worship. Part of it’s beauty lies in how it maintains a grand reverence while changing tempo and texture: from sweet solo passages to thundering chorus. It was never used as liturgy in its entirety due to its length. 

Sometimes we need to shut out the world and listen to God. Well…a lot of times, actually. When the headphones go on and the bible opens there’s such an awesome opportunity for focus and holy convergence. We become single minded and attentive to the Spirit.  Little details become big as they spring into focus…such is the sweetness of fellowship with God.  A dear friend of mine used to say, “I’m going on vacation for an hour this afternoon…” Same concept. Time away with God is closer than we think.

In the words of Os Chambers, We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.

I think I’m finally sick of faking it…or at least sicker than the last time I resolved to give up on self-sufficiency. I used to be pretty up-tight about multiple “new starts”-now I depend on them. The great challenge of life is not to be all I can be. It’s to be all I can’t be by surrendering my right to myself to Jesus and wholely depending on him. The curse of “competence” is that we become satisfied with ourselves…and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for God. Witness Jesus’ words: “Why do you call me good? Only God is good!”  While the next Christian self-help book hits the stores I think of the old hymn “help of the helpless, Lord, abide with me…”

To consider myself to be a good Christian is to assume that my faith is something I can be good at. It assumes that either God needs my help, or that he never intended to carry me-only to give me a hand once in a while. Perhaps the heart of wisdom  is a deeper acceptance that in Jesus all things hold together. If this is weakness, then bring it on. I’m not arguing for an unremarkable life, but that a remarkable life starts when we admit to our brokenness. This is the jumping off place for worship. When we approach God as broken people, the only way out is up. All that’s left is a wholesome dependence on him to put us back together. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”