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It is time for the final installment of October quotes. Since the final quote is being posted on Halloween, I decided to use a quote that dealt with humans being converted into machines. It sounds very random, but you’ll see, it will all make sense by the end of this page.
Before I get to the quote, I would like to set it up with a verse.
Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
With that being said, C.S. Lewis says…
“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automation -- of creatures that worked like machines -- would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for his higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to him.”
It sounds a little redundant to hear Paul say “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” If you consider C.S. Lewis’ quote, it makes a little more sense to include the redundancy. Lewis imagines a world with a selfish God that would seek to control his creations. In this regard, the verse could be changed to read, it is for control…or, it is for rules.
Sometimes when we believe we are giving our loved ones freedom, there are strings of control attached. Our God has set us free for the sole and unadulterated purpose of freedom. Because of OUR tendencies, it is often difficult to understand true freedom. The more we learn to live in freedom, the more we will be able to give that freedom to the ones we love, and the more we will be able to feel love “worth having”.
As Wyclef says, “I’ll be gone ‘till November”,
Jacob
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Continuing with the quotes of October…
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt -- the 26th president of the United States
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. Much of how we implore others to live passionate lives was inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s thoughts. I don’t ever want to look back and regret not participating in life. The bitter taste of defeat is far sweeter than the tasteless, starving view from the stands.
Jacob
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For the month of October I am going to share some of my favorite quotes with you. I’ll elaborate a little on each quote, but for the most part the quotes speak for themselves.
A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
G.K. Chesterton 'Orthodoxy'
The fall of man is often difficult to stomach. Because of our sin we have grown old and our world has gone awry. Sometimes it feels like God set the world in motion and then turned his back, but the truth is that God is not only the creator, but also the orchestrator.
He not only creates each daisy separately, but also creates each child uniquely and individually, thus we are each special to our Father. Every night God pours out the stars and hangs the moon and every morning He raises the sun. It is comforting to think that after a storm has crippled our spirits, God is there to lift the sun in order to renew them.
Jacob
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Several months ago I was talking with a friend who is pursuing a dream. The more we talked, the more I realized how his dream wasn’t happening. I had to stop and consider the fact that we (the band) might want to be careful in how we encourage people to pursue lives of freedom and passion. Does God really want us to encourage people down a path that often ends in failure and heartache?
Several days passed and I kind of forgot about my conundrum. I sat down one night to watch “Rudy”, the true story of the small, untalented guy who worked and worked until he made the Notre Dame football team. The big crescendo of the movie happened when they finally let Rudy in for one play (after they were up three touchdowns with one minute left). Rudy made a tackle, the whole stadium cheered, and he was carried off the field by his teammates (no player has been carried off the field since Rudy and that was in the mid seventies).
Rudy had failed, he had worked his tail off, and years of efforts had resulted in a single play, but even though he hadn’t achieved success, he still inspired those around him. Rudy was thrilled at what he had accomplished; even if it didn’t look like success to others, it was satisfying to him.
Why is it that we view success differently than how God views success? We serve a loving father who isn’t wrapped up in wins and losses, but is concerned with our journey and what our hearts learn and become on the way. Rudy’s journey had taught him great things about himself and far more than the over talented athlete who never has to struggle or fail. Sometimes we learn more in failure than we learn in success. If we wrap our emotions and our hearts around the negatives associated with failure, we’ll never learn what God is trying to teach us. Learning to lose is an important part of our journey and our walk with God.
My friend may never achieve his dream, but his heart will learn so much on the journey. We need to learn how to see past the wins and losses and to gauge success with the same regard as our loving Father. We don’t always have to be right and we don’t always have to win.
“Learning to lose with the best of them.”
Jacob
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The other day I heard a quote that stuck out to me. The quote is from the Buddhist culture, so I hope everyone can look past the origin and see the truth. Bits of truth come from all walks of life; we must look beyond the errors of thinking and apply what is relevant to us. Enough dancing…
“Before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment you chop wood and carry water.”
I often find myself “above” certain tasks. I am a paid musician, why should I have to move tables and chairs and do all the other tasks that I find so mundane? Once we achieve a certain level in society or a certain education, why should we reduce ourselves to such lowly undertakings?
I remember when my wife and I first moved to Nashville almost two years ago. She quickly found a job as a hair stylist at a nearby salon, but my job search was much harder. I couldn’t start a job in my field of study because it would require dedication and time that I couldn’t commit (since I was pursuing a career as an artist). My search for employment was left to everyday jobs at the mall or at the nearby restaurants.
I was actually turned down at Best Buy and Home Depot wouldn’t allow me any flexibility. After the two strikeouts, I was depressed. It was disheartening to think that I couldn’t find a decent job after I had spent four years getting a college degree…I was a grown, jobless man. After six weeks without a job, I finally found employment at a nearby restaurant.
I was more than happy to be working, but it often tested my pride. I found myself serving many different artists in the Christian industry, making sure they had enough Diet Coke. Yeah, Mr. Big Shot moved to Nashville to be a musician and he’s taking orders and filling drinks. Every night was capped off by the humbling clean up duties. We had to clean the carpet under our tables and since we didn’t have a small vacuum cleaner, we had to get on our hands and knees to wipe the debris out from under each table.
What does it matter what we do with our career? The important thing is that we further God’s kingdom and make a difference. We are forced to work because of “the fall,” so it’s not always going to be fun. Sure, we should find a career we enjoy, but we also need to find contentment and joy even when we are forced to do those seemingly self-deprecating endeavors. We should find ways to encourage and inspire those around us, whether it’s from the stage during a concert or while cleaning under the tables at a restaurant.
“Don’t you know who I am?”
Jacob
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A few months ago I decided it was time to trade in my old clunker and buy a new car. I had never purchased a new car, so I was pretty excited about the opportunity, especially considering the fact that I am a car enthusiast. I did some research over several weeks and found my car of choice. I was upset to find out that the car was in such high demand that absolutely no one had them in stock. I was going to have to wait for one to come in, so I paid a deposit and gave them my color preferences.
A week later my second color choice arrived at the dealership, but before I could get to the dealership, there was a mix up and they sold my car to someone else on the deposit list.
Two months later, I still don’t have a car, and the dealer seems to forget to call me with updates. I have to wonder if the dealer would be more responsive if I were harsh and demanding instead of being nice and understanding about the mix up.
So why do I tell you about my new car frustrations? I was thinking about customer service in general, and how the mean and demanding people are the ones that seem to get more free goods and discounts. It’s the jerk in the restaurant that pitches a fit over the undercooked steak that gets his entire family’s meal for free. The nice guy, who is understanding, gets a re-cooked steak, but no freebies.
I wish we could set a new precedent that would allow the nice patrons to receive the free meals and the discounted products, but we can’t. I encourage us Christians to be responsible when we deal with dining and retail establishments. I don’t expect for you to let people walk all over you, or to pay more than you should for a product. But I expect for us to be nice and generous; tip 20 percent, be understanding when your beverage is empty for a few minutes, and don’t beat up your salesman to save 5 bucks.
The other day my guitar amp needed to be fixed, and I thought “I know someone who works on amps, since he’s my friend, he’ll fix it for free.” I had to remind myself that what I should’ve been thinking is “I know someone who works on amps, I can give him my business (and pay him).”
Men and women of faith should be known for being kind, generous, and understanding; even if our food takes too long, or our car never shows up.
I’m making the most of hot days without AC,
Jacob
First we gave you the free download, now we're bringing you the chord chart! Click here for the FREE "Through All The Earth" chord chart.
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Let me be the first to welcome you to the “artist” blog section of SongTouch. I’ll try to use poignant and witty thoughts to make up for what I lack in journalistic prowess.
In another page on this site, I answered some questions about who I am and how the band formed. There is some good info in that section, but I also want to share The Turning’s mission statement with you.
The Turning exists to influence people through our music and our daily lives to love God passionately and others intentionally.
We seek to lead both young people and adults to find freedom by tearing down the walls that imprison our hearts, to be released from the fear of rejection because of our insecurities and to find comfort in allowing others to feel the weight of who God made us to be.
So many people hide their hearts behind a wall to keep them safe from rejection and from being “found out”. Yes, their hearts live more safely than those who expose their heart, but they are lost in the shuffle because they hide what makes them unique and special. They lose the ability to have influence and impact on other people because they are forgotten. It’s amazing to think that we are selfish enough to choose safety over influence.
This is my journey, learning to sacrifice safety in order to have an impact on God’s kingdom. It’s not a puzzle that you put together and then leave on the shelf, it’s a daily struggle that you constantly work through. God has created us in His image, and has made us each unique for a reason. How audacious of us to hide the person that He has created.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Galatians 5:1 (The Message)
Jacob
Download Learning To Loose by The Turning right now in the SongTouch Music Store!
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Jacob McGinnis
Guest Blog Q&A
Meet Jacob McGinnis. This 26 year old is the lead singer from new band The Turning. Over the next few weeks, Jacob will be checking in with SongTouch to share a little about his life, where he’s come from and where he’s going.
This week, we caught up with Jacob to learn more about this former worship leader.
Stay tuned for Jacobs’s first blog…coming soon!
Where did you grow up?
Being a preachers kid, I have had the opportunity to live in many places. I was born in Memphis, TN because is was the closest hospital to Cotton Plant, AR. Shortly after I was born my family moved to Bristol, TN. We later moved to Chattanooga, TN for the first time.
It got interesting when my family decided to become missionaries. We spent 6 months in Ft. Worth, TX, and then 3 months in Virginia at the Missionary Learning Center. We apparently had to wait to go to Costa Rica, where we would learn the language, so we spent a few months in Birmingham, AL. Our 18 months in Costa Rica were spent between 6 or 7 houses. The Southern Baptist Mission Board decided that they wouldn’t allow us to move to Venezuela to be missionaries, so we moved back to Birmingham, AL.
Three months later we moved back to Chattanooga, TN, where my Dad would eventually become the pastor at Eastwood Church. At age 9, we moved to Chattanooga for the second time. By that age, I had moved at least 16 times, covering 7 cities.
How old are you?
Twenty-six.
When did you first start leading worship?
I wanted to write songs and play music ever since I was in middle school. Matt (our guitarist) and his family started coming to Eastwood (our Church in Chattanooga) when I was 16. Matt was nice enough to show me a few chords each Wednesday night. Many months later, Jeremy’s dad (Jeremy is our bass player) convinced me to sing a song in front of the youth. Between the help of Matt and Allan (Jeremy’s dad) I was able to grow into the role of leading worship.
I was probably 17 when I started leading on a regular basis.
Growing up a preachers kid...how has that affected you?
I realized that being involved in ministry is a very difficult role. There is a lot of responsibility, but there is also a lot of heartache. People can be cruel and mean, especially in a church.
Moving so frequently also had an affect on me. Instead of learning to connect with all the new people I met, I learned to hold back. I was careful to assess the situation before I dove into the new friendships. I built up a wall in front of my heart so that I could be safe from the fear of rejection. This battle has been a long journey that I am still on, and I will go into greater detail in a blog…stay tuned.
When did you form The Turning?
The four of us have been playing worship together for many years, but the band wasn’t formed until the spring of 2001.
What were you doing before The Turning?
I was in College getting a degree with a major in the Recording Industry. If I wasn’t going to play music, I was at least going to be involved in the industry.
Did you always want to be in a band?
I was a solo singer and songwriter during my College days, playing in coffee houses and cafés. I really had no desire to be in a band until it came time for me to record a band for a class project. I knew Matt had a few guys he was playing with, so I asked him to come up to MTSU so that I could record them.
I really enjoyed the dynamic that the three guys shared, and I wanted to become a better songwriter and singer because of the strengths of those around me. So in the spring of 2001, I petitioned to be apart of the band, and after a few weeks they said yes.
Any other random tid-bits about you that a SongTouch customer would find interesting?
I am not an athlete and I can’t really play any of the major sports (baseball, football, basketball, and soccer), but when it comes to random sports (Tennis, Volleyball, Racquetball, Ping-pong, Ultimate Frisbee, etc.), I can almost play/compete at every single one of them.
I am a little bit of a techno geek. I enjoy downloading music and collecting DVD’s. I think that TiVo is one of the best inventions in the past several years. I also enjoy a good video game every now and then, and I wish I had the time to be a photographer, video editor, and Photoshop wizard.
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