Thoughts From the Van

Back in The Flash–as we have come to call our red, Ford Expedition– and on our way to New Mexico. We have only sang in New Mexico once, and the only way I can think to describe it to you is that it is Mexico…but newer.  

New Mexico Facts:

Statehood– January 9, 1912 (New Mexico is the 47th state of the Union)

Capitol– Santa Fe

Largest City– Albuquerque 

Nickname– “Land of Enchanment”

Population– 2,850,109(est. 2015)

State Bird– Greater Roadrunner

State Flower– Yucca

We get to see a lot of land in our travels. New Mexico is just a taste of the beauty God has created. Though most of it is desert, we find different shades of beauty in different places. But all creation is beautiful to the Christian who truly loves the Creator.

Like I said, we sing in New Mexico tonight, Las Cruces to be exact. It’s always a bit…scary, honestly when we sing at place that we’ve never been before. This is a relatively new state, a place we’ve only been once before. However, this time we are again one member short. Dad is in Virginia and thus we are doing tonight’s concert, and several successive concerts, without him. I think we calculated that after this current week we will have gone an entire month without all of our members there for a concert. 

It been wild: sickness, the bus, trips to visit family, and more sickness has deprived us of our normal concert routine. We’ve not just stepped out of our comfort zone, we have been living outside of it since the bus wreck. Now, headed to New Mexico where we’ve only been one time and without Dad this time, we are further stepping into uncomfortable territory. But, perhaps this is where God challenges us and grows us. Maybe this is where we need to be, even though it’s not where we want to be.

Things change, scenery changes. A new state of the U.S. a new state of mind. As the road winds ever onward, we watch the world change around us. But, let us not be changed by the changes around us. Let us be changed by the Holy Spirit working in us. Change from God always come from within, never from without. But, on that same note, God loves to use our circumstances to change our hearts and our minds, then the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work can take place in us.

Be sensitive to your situation and allow God to use it to change you from within. I say this often: we can use our trials or we can abuse them. Don’t let your pain, or discomfort, your situation be for nothing, let it be used to make you better.

Hello New Mexico! I’m excited to see how God will use you.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

A Song About a Sandwich

  This is another post that came from a failed song idea. You may discover why the song failed as this post progresses, but the concept is still worthy of note.

The inspiration for this song originated from a single line that randomly popped into my head. That thought was: who on earth would write a song about a sandwich? The irony of that statement was acute when the thought played itself out. 

Let me take you back in time to 80 years ago, when our great grandparents were young. Back in the days of horseless carriages, house phones, and vinyl records, people would have shuddered to think of what we listen to today. The question might have arisen back then: “who on earth would write a song about a one-night-stand?”. Yet, how far have we come since then?

Think about 40 years ago, in the days when our parents were children themselves. Even then, songs were far more conservative than they are today. In the 1970s people might have asked: “who on earth would write a song with explicit language and content?”. Yet we treat it like the non-ideal norm. It’s not what we’d want it to be, but it’s what we have; that’s our attitude towards music today.

So, we come to the title of this post. In today’s world, with the horribly foul and suggestive content of songs, pop culture might ask: “who on earth would write a song about a sandwich?”, as if that is so impossible to fathom. Really, we are questioning people who would write songs about sandwiches, and not those who write and sing songs that uplift sensuality and hate, songs that glorify human desire and animalistic instincts with no point or meaning. Why? Is it such an odd thing to write a song about a sandwich, and it is so normal to write songs about raping and manipulating people?

We’ve fallen into a pattern of worldliness, desensitized to right and wrong, blind to blatant black and white lines. Somehow it’s absolutely normal to sing about passion and lust, but who on earth would right a song about a sandwich?

Something simple, but yet profound. The goal of the song was to point out how people would think it was crazy to write a song about a sandwich, and yet think it’s completely normal what people are writing and singing about today. Thus, the point of the song would be to awaken people to the fact that it shouldn’t be normal to have songs like those that we have today. 

With all of the pointless songs people sing and write, why not have ones that are pointless and at the same time, harmless. Your standard bubblegum pop song is glorifying love or human emotions and pleasure. Why not have songs equally as stupid and yet with a wholesome premise? 
You get my point? No matter how you try to fit it, a song about a sandwich just doesn’t mesh with the world in which we live. Eventually the time will come, eventually we will realize that stupid, pointless music does not lift us up, it tears us down. So I ask you, who on earth would write a song about a sandwich?

As always, thanks for reading. And let me know what you want to hear about. Comment here on the blog, tweet me, or message me on Facebook. I look foreward to hearing from you.

Facebook: @JaredAllen

Twitter: @EJaredAllen

Instagram: @ejaredallen

–-the anonymous novelist 

A Song In My Heart

I’ve got a song in my heart,

Got a rhythm in my bones,

I’ve got a tune in my head,

And a fire in my soul,

I’m gonna sing it out, ’til the Heavens spark.

I’ve got a song, a brand new song in my heart.

Psalm 108:1 (KJV)

O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation.

Oh my soul, praise Him, for He is my help and salvation.

All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near.

Praise Him in glad adoration.

Psalm 96:1 (KJV)

O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.

Psalm 98:1 (KJV)

 O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.

He sought me, and bought me, with His redeeming blood.

He loved me e’r I knew Him, and all my love is due Him.

He plunged me, to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.

Psalm 118:14 (KJV)

The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

God wants to hear you sing, when the waves are crashing ’round you, 

When the fiery darts surround you, when dispair is all you see.

God wants to hear your voice, when the wisest man has spoken, 

And says, “Your circumstance is as hopeless as can be”.

That’s when God wants to hear you sing.

Psalm 149:1 (KJV)

Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

Sing, sing unto the Lord, open up your hearts, make a joyful noise in the sanctuary.

God is worthy to be praised! Even in the difficult times, even in the good times when we forget our need for Him. He is Holy, Righteous, Good, Just, He is Love, and Power, and Life. Praise Him. Make a joyful noise if He has given you grace when you were beyond saving or mercy when you were worthy of slaying. 

Ken Ham made a statement that took me off balance a short while ago. He said: “My sins were so great that it took nothing less than the son of God’s life to redeem them.”

Wow.

For your sins alone, the price of Jesus’s life had to be paid. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful, is my Savior’s love for me.

Remember this today as you hear the Word preached and learn about God’s great love.

As always, thanks for reading. Be sure to like, subscribe, and comment, I’d love to hear what you think. Also, look me up on Twitter, Instagram, and Periscope @ejaredallen .

–the anonymous novelist