3. Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?

I'm a big fan of heavy metal and rock music. I like the extremeness, the speed, the expressiveness (Well, that's taste! And everybody got his own one).

Every now and then, there are discussions like: Rock music, drums, electronical guitars - that's stuff from the devil! (Did you realize something? That's not a discussion, but a statement. However, people think they are right and won't be willing to listen to you!)
Then, I say: WOW - wait a minute! Why do you think like that? Is there anything in the Bible like that? Well, there were no eletronical guitars at the time of David, but have a look at Psalm 150: "Praise him with the sounding trumpet (I mean, that's loud!) ... praise him with resounding cymbals (that's the ancestor of todays cymbals or a drum set!)."
So, I don't think that it's about the instruments or the volume that Rock music is from the devil.

The next thing is: what are rock bands singing about, what's the lyrics? Well, there are bad ones I have to admit. When you start, you wouldn't be able to stop! However, let's have a look at Christian Metal and Rock bands (Yes, there are a huge number of!). Let's take Larry Norman, one of the dinosaurs of Christian Rock music, and his song "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" Larry had to fight with many prejudices and in 1972, he published this song as a clear vote in favor of Christian Rock music. Hundreds of other bands followed. One of my favorit CD titles is "To Hell With the Devil" by the bad Stryper. I mean - that's message, right? ;-)

Therefore, I want to challenge people not to condemn person for their taste of music and especially not to claim that they are from the Devil or worship him when they listen to such kind of music. You have to watch out for the lyrics, that's right - and it's about the heart of a child of God and the relation between a Christian and his Lord what a person can hear and what he or she can't. As Paul says "Everything is permissible - but not everything is beneficial" (1. Corinthians 10, 23) - so therefore, every person is responsible for his or her life.

Rock for the King - that's the message (Scandinavian band Narnia)
Metal missionaries - that's Bloodgood.

Experience the GOOD music :-)

2. A Roaring Voice " T H E P A S T! THE PAST! The Past! the past! thepast! ... " (slowly fading away)

In my class "Mississippi History" we covered some weeks ago the encounter of the first European with the Indian tribes of today's area of Mississippi. This was somewhere in the 1540s and this guy was from Spain and called Hernando DeSoto (I really like the sound of this name!). Well, dear and nice DeSoto wasn't dear and nice at all because he used some very unkind means or torturing people (cutting their tongues, sometimes even heads) in order to get information about places where the huge amounts of gold could be found he was searching for (actually, it's a good question how people should answer his investigations if he had cout out their tongue! But that's the topic of maybe another entry).
However, DeSoto returned to Europe in 1542 and even though he was a really bad and crazy person, it wasn't actually him who was the most severe disaster and catastrophe for these tribes. It was the diseases he brought over from Europe - probably not by any intent (kids, NEVER forget to wash your hands before lunch, ok?)! The Natives' immune system never had to pay attention before to such kind of germs - and the result was that about 90% of the people had died when a French guy (who answered to the nice name René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle) came to this area 140 years later. This already being crazy enough, the people who had survived had completely forgot about their past, their culture, their customs, why they had built these mounds, and even that their own ancestors had built them! They had forgot everything!

That reminded me of what I had written the other day when we were asked by Mr. Howell what education is and what's the reason of it. One of my thoughts was that education is learning from the past. Things that had a really bad outcome, you probably won't do again - ok, at least you shouldn't! But there are other things that went pretty well and you might want to repeat them.
There are people who wish for a new start in their life - I guess sometimes if some really bad things have happended this wish is understandable. But, just try to imagine what your life would look like, if you had to restart it every new day: Imagine how many people you hadn't met before! Your best friend you're together with since kindergarten. Imagine that you weren't allowed to drive a car because you hadn't taken your driving license.
Ok, that was more of the fun stuff. But imagine that you would have to fight your way through life again every single day. You wouldn't know where Jennings is or that you live in the U.S.
You wouldn't be able to learn from your faults in the past because there would be no past at all and you were condemned and cursed to do these faults again and again. Every single stupid word that comes from your lips and hurts your friend. Imagine there would be another Hilter - because nobody had experienced the first one and all his cruelties!
Yes, I do think that this is a curse!

I never want to be without memories of the past. I would be especially sorry about all the good experiences I had in my youth, at highschool, ...

Jesus forgives our sins and doesn't look to the past. They are gone and he will never again rub them in your face saying "See what you done!" He forgives AND forgets! That is the good thing about forgetting the past.
But we are to learn from the past and try to behave better, trust more, and becoming more like Jesus himself. And that's the blessing we have from the past: it won't count, but it's a really valuable thing.
So I'll try to learn from it. Will you join me?

1. Crazy American Guys - ???

What I mentioned in last week's paper (for people outside the 101 English Comp-World, the topic was "Why did you come to MC?") as a reason for my coming to MC was the "smallness" of this college. The last few days, I told people again and again that "In my home university, we have about 35,000 students!" and I still think that this is crucial. MC has got about 4,600 students (including undergraduate, graduate, and law school -good research, hah!), so it's only about an eighth of the size of my German university. Taking away the Christian basics of the college - what does it mean to be at such a "small" college? Is it different at all?

I think to answer this question, I will have to use a description of the experiences I make every day: in the mornings, all the way up to the Caf, millions (ok, maybe only thousands, but still!) of students are waving, smiling and shouting "Hey, how is it goin?" or "What's up, man?" (by the way: WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO SUCH A QUESTION???). Inside the Caf, after having accomplished the "which sandwich do I want and what's the names of all these ingredients?"-test, I meet Miss Daisy and she also asks me "How are you doin, babe?". When having lunch or dinner, I'll probably sit at a table with a couple of people I don't know. After I tell one of them my first name, maybe he or she will enthusiastically cry out "Wow, you are the German exchange student, aren't you? Miss Fokeladeh [a German professor, my advisor] told us about you. I really love Germany and I want to go there one day!" As I don't know how to react then, I just smile and be happy. And happy I am indeed!

You know, the combination of a) studying at a small college, b) in the U.S., and c) in the South (why the South? Fellow students told me that the North would be very different - I've never been there, I have no idea!) is a somewhat awesome experience! People definitely will be nice to you. They will ask you how you experienced your first days in the U.S., they will give you their cell phone number (my typical answer: "Sorry, but I still don't have a cell phone!") and offer you a ride anytime you might need it. They will ask you about your home country, about the food over there and and what's your major.
One of the best proofs that I really really enjoy it to live and study here is probably the constantly rising number of my friends in Facebook that are from MC - day by day!

To be honest, I was told a lot by people in Germany that Americans are nice at the beginning, but then, they will forget you soon. And I am really happy to be able to tell those people after having returned that my experience were quite different! That I really felt at home. That people would offer me any help that I could need. That people kept their promise when offering me a ride or something else.

For this reason: THANK YOU to all of you out there! Without you, maybe I would cry all day long.

I am so different - no, you are not - SO WHO IS SPEAKING RIGHT NOW?

You know what - I'm different. Different from American people.
But my point is that I'm different from what I would be right now in Germany. Now, on the 5th of September 2008 - not many years back in the past, not some years in the futuere - NOW.
Well, I got so many different needs over there. I'm not used to the things and the way they are proceeding, I don't know how much I have to study for the single test (you simply have to learn the study questions???), most of the time I don't know which people to bother with my problems and even I do so - I might don't understand them! Even in the caf - 2 out of 3 times I end up with a sandwich that was not done the way I wanted it - and I nearly almost miss the question for the dressing *argh*
So, I'm not used to the culture and the behavior on many occasions (do I have to wear a tie for church service? really? I DON'T HAVE ONE!!!)
And that's the reason why I feel that I have so different needs, especially concerning my faith. At home, I liked singing, but here, I really love it to worship the Lord in a community with others. Back there, I used to go to a small group of some Christian students, but I didn't give that much about it. In the U.S., I'm really longing andd craving for a community in the Lord, with people that know me and are interested in me. And that's a difference if I'm at MC where most people are "by chance" Christians or if I go to place where Christians meet by purpose!

Oh man - I get to know myself in a very different kind of way I used to know myself before. Right at the moment, I'm not sad, but really thoughtful. We'll see ...