…in case you were wondering.

I noticed today that there is very little on Wikipedia concerning Shaun Groves. I asked Shaun why he hadn’t put anything on there, and he explained to me that the rules are explicit. “Do not write articles about yourself, your company, or your best friend.” There it is. In black and white.

I thought about writing something myself, but was quickly distracted, and after refocusing, I realized that it would be way more fun and entertaining if you wrote about him. Obviously Shaun and I will have the ability to edit whatever is written, but I assure you, most content will be left on.

What do you know about Shaun? How much information can the general public, that knows him from his blog or otherwise, put onto a site about him? Can you surprise him and I with the amount of information that is really out there?

Let’s see it.

This site says I look like Johnny Depp, and a few other guys. I don’t buy it.

(HT:Todd)

Eternity is a long time. I have been thinking this week about spending an eternity in heaven, and what that could possibly look like to those that are there. I have been thinking about how long God and his angels were around before this world was spoken into existence and what caused the fall of Lucifer and a handful of angels.

The basic idea that I have is that Lucifer desired equality with God and became jealous (Isa. 14:12-14). He convinced thirty percent of the angels to rise up with him (Rev. 12:4) and were eventually thrown out of Heaven. (Isa. 14:12)

My question is, what is stopping this from happening again?

When this earth is over and all of the Christians are taken up, could there be a time in this new eternity where some of us rebel? I know the Sunday School answer is “no” because there can’t be sin in the presence of God, but why was there when Lucifer rebelled? What caused Lucifer to want to rise up and desire to be higher than God? Was it sin? And what is stopping someone from doing that once we are all there? What is stopping thirty percent of us from being “cast out”?

If you say there is no possible way that we could rebel in Heaven, are you saying that God will take away our “free will” when we get there? Or has he already? Does it destroy any thought that we chose to follow Christ?

If you are saying that we can rebel in Heaven are you saying that our “free gift of eternal life” can at some point be in jeopardy? Can we loose our salvation even when we have entered Heaven?

Or, has God created a different Heaven that is “more efficient” than the Heaven that Lucifer lived in, in order to avoid another uprising? And in doing that, acknowledged that there were flaws in a perfect eternity prior to Earth?

Any option that Shaun and I can come up with simply pokes holes in some of the basic beliefs of Christianity, and we were up until past 1 AM talking about it. At least we have a long drive tomorrow to talk more.

What are your thoughts?

I don’t like cliches, and I really don’t like cheesy sayings that we have all heard a million times, but sometimes there is a reason some “sayings” have stuck around. “Money can’t buy happiness.” That’s one.

It’s not just happiness that money can’t buy. Money can’t fill your house with people that love you and are waiting for you when you get home from work. Money can’t keep a husband from visiting his girlfriend before coming home to you and the kids. Money can’t keep a daughter feeling like a princess when you have lost interest. Money can’t keep a marriage together, or keep kids from wanting a dad. Money can’t stop you from feeling alone at the end of the day when all the noises and distractions have been turned off.

The, now, single mother of three won’t be “just fine”, once the divorce is final because she has a padded bank account. The recently retired man won’t feel less alone after years of working for a comfortable future. There are more important things than things.

I know we have all heard it a thousand times, but sometimes it needs to be mentioned again.

I rarely use an alarm clock because I have kids and they work just fine, but when we are on the road and need to be somewhere early I have to set one. Most of the time I wake up before the alarm even goes off but still set it for those instances that I might not. I recently downloaded this new alarm clock thing from Apple and t works great. You can choose what song from your iTunes library that you want to wake up to, set it and it will wake your computer up, and start playing at the right time… assuming you set it for the right time. This morning, I didn’t.

Shaun and I went back and forth with what song to choose. “Back In Black”? No. “My Humps”? No. Anything Tomlin? Nah. I think we finally decided on Cake’s “Sheep Go To Heaven”, and went to sleep. I woke up this morning to no “Sheep Go To Heaven”, but to silence. I looked at the clock and once my eyes focused they saw “8:32 AM”. We were supposed to be at the church at 8:15 AM but at the latest 8:30 AM. Neither of those happened. I woke Shaun up, brushed my teeth and we ran out the door. The service started at 9:00 AM and we walked in the lobby of the church at 8:56 AM.

See it turns out that my computer is set to Central Time. North Carolina is not Central Time. I’m still recovering.

Guess who was at the table next to us at lunch today?

I don’t know where dissatisfaction comes from. I don’t know why people with seemingly fulfilled lives feel the need to want more. And I don’t know why I do that same thing.

First of all I, in no way intend for this post to be a “look at me” post. It’s just me being honest with a few hundred people. I also, in no way, intend for this post to down play anything that is going on in my life and come across as a pity party for me. I love the position that I am in and wouldn’t change a thing.

Just over two years ago I was working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department in Sacramento, California. I hated every minute of it. I would go to work for ten hours a day listen to the lowest members of society complain about stupid situations that they had gotten themselves into by purchasing drugs from a guy they couldn’t trust, or stealing a car and now the owner was at their door with a gun… and the stories went on. Looking around the room, I knew that before long I was going to become the callused, angry person and needed to get out. I came home, told my wife we needed to move and I didn’t care where.

We chose Portland, Oregon. We found a house, packed our things, and were two weeks away from moving when I got a call from a friend that asked if I would be interested in going on a tour as Assistant Tour Manager for a band called Third Day. It wouldn’t necessarily require moving to Nashville, but would make the time home longer so my wife and I decided to head East.

I had no idea what to expect moving across the country, but I figured this was where God was calling us. Besides, there are worse jobs in the world, and most likely I have had them, but that is another post altogether. I finished the tour and started asking God if this was all he had for me. I wanted more, and was frustrated with the feeling that I wasn’t able to do what I was passionate about. Playing music. When we left California, I was playing weekly in my church, and other times during the week with amazing musicians and really growing musically. For nearly three months I never touched a guitar, other than to move it out of my bunk on the bus.

After the Third Day tour I was asked to help out selling merchandise at festivals for another band called Audio Adrenaline. I drove a van all over the country selling t-shirts to kids, and cultivating relationships with other industry folks. I made a bunch of friends and connected with some people with opportunities for the future. Another two months without a guitar.

As soon as the summer ended I got a call from a friend of mine asking if I would be interested in helping out on another tour with a band called MercyMe. I would be doing the same administrative things that I did on the other tour, but would have a little experience under my belt and hopefully figure out what I wanted to do as a career in this industry. The MercyMe tour was great. I made several other friends and contacts, and loved working with the people in their camp, but knew the time would come where I would, again, want more. And yet another three months with no guitar.

Toward the end of that tour Shaun asked me about coming on with him as his road manager. Our wives were friends and Shaun and I hung out in the cul-de-sac, so I knew it would be a good fit. We started in January and haven’t looked back. These last few months I truly believe that there has been an awakening in me to real poverty in the world, and the importance of dedicating our lives as Christians to ridding the world of evil, sickness, hunger and death. There have been few moments in my life where I have learned so much valuable information in such a short time. Shaun and I are a great fit and things are going well, but creeping inside me is still this passion to play music.

I know there are plenty of people who come to Nashville with big dreams and are eventually beaten down and spit out. People that are far better than me at music. People with real talent. I have seen them. I have hung out with them. And I have listened to their stories. I don’t believe I came to Nashville to do any of that.

This afternoon I was talking to Shaun about why God puts desires and passions inside of us, and why some things are easy to attain and others take unbelievable amounts of work. Shaun can sit down and write an amazing piano piece and melody on a dare about a flea market, but his passion is somewhere else. I can take a four-year old digital point and shoot camera and click pictures that people want to buy for some reason, but my passion is somewhere else.

I brought our conversation home and started talking to my wife about why desires are in us even if they seem like they are only there to frustrate us. I love all the things I have been able to do in the past two years. I love all the people I have been able to meet and now call friends. I love that today I was able to sit down and have lunch with someone who’s music I have listened to for years and respect. But there is still a desire that I feel needs to be fulfilled, and that drives me crazy.

My wife had some interesting insight and honestly spurred me into writing this unbelievably long post. She asked me if I thought the desire was there because that was my way of worshiping God. Not the music itself but the offering that it becomes. She has always wanted to become a nurse and go to third world countries to help people. That is her desire, and she feels close to God when she is doing that. She asked me if playing music was my way of getting close to God. He gave me that desire and even though I have been blessed with having a pretty cool job, in an industry that most end up hating, it will not fulfill the desire to be close to him through playing music.

It won’t matter how many cool places I go, or cool people I meet, or amazing jobs that I have. My desire is to be close to God, whether that is in my bonus room or on a stage. That perspective shift, to me, is as important as the desire itself. It gives me a whole new look on the dissatisfaction of living. I may always be dissatisfied with the amount of time I get to play music, but at least I can look at it as a gift from God, and my continuous scratching to get closer to him.

Today at noon, Shaun has a has a “recorded sit-down” with Derek Webb. I call it a “recorded sit-down” because it’s not necessarily an interview with questions and answers, but more like two intelligent, outspoken, opinionated artists hanging out… and I’m excited to watch. I’m sure there will be some pretty interesting topics discussed and obviously the audio will be posted eventually on Shaun’s site.

Speaking of Derek, I bought his new album, The Ringing Bell, last week while we were in Ohio. In my opinion, I think it’s his best solo album since She Must And Shall Go Free. This album is more pointed at American politics than the others, but also addresses poverty which his other records didn’t do as much. I think the best line of the album is the very last…

“I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who I choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right”

**I know this is a crappy review, but it’s too early in the morning to be interesting. It’s worth buying… how’s that?**

LYNCHBURG, Va. —

“I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved,” Falwell said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.

This reminds me of a story.