Only the Strong Survive is Bruce Springsteen’s 21st studio album and second covers album, following 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The 15-song album was made during the COVID lockdown during “off hours” (Springsteen, co-producer Ron Aniello and engineer Rob Lebret called themselves “The Night Shift” due to their working hours). On the album, the 73-year-old Springsteen covers a selection of his favorite – many of them obscure – soul songs. Springsteen actually tossed out the first album he completed, and ended up with Only The Strong Survive, which is listed as Covers Vol. 1, giving the impression we’ll hear more songs at a later date.
Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono. Knopf. 576 pages. 2022 ****
U2’s Bono was born Paul David Hewson in 1960. He grew up middle class in a Dublin suburb, the son of a Catholic father Bob (whom he refers to as his “Da”), and Protestant mother Iris. His mother died of a cerebral aneurysm when he was 14. Living with his father, and brother Norman, his mother was never spoken of again in their home at 10 Cedarwood Road. Bono writes that it stopped being a home and was just a house.
This massive (nearly 600-page book) about faith, family, music and activism, begins with an account of Bono nearly dying in 2016. The forty chapters, each titled after a U2 song, and beginning with an illustration which is explained in the Appendix, tell Bono’s story as a member of U2, a Christian, family man and activist. During the COVID lockdown the band reimagined these forty U2 songs for a Songs of Surrender album that was recently released.
Bono’s best friend is his wife Ali, his childhood sweetheart. They have four kids. He writes that family has always been at the center of who he is.
The book generally moves along in a chronological manner, with Bono writing about each of U2’s albums, events such as Live Aid and apologizing for working with Apple to put the band’s 2014 album Songs of Innocence on every iPhone free, which the band was roundly criticized for.
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Dad at basic training. He took tank training at Fort Knox, KY.
My granddaughters and I were recently looking at pictures of my dad as a very young man entering the Army in WWII. His uniform was crisp and new, and his shoes very shiny. At the time, I’m sure he had no idea what that uniform, and his future, would look like.
Shortly before he went into the hospital for his last time, at age 91, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “You don’t ever want to be on the battlefield.” I thought at the time, what an odd thing to say. But later, I realized he may have been “making his peace” with whatever experiences he had in the war, knowing his time was short.
As a young man, he had been musical, and wrote fun, creative little poetry. One of his dear friends also told me that he had a sentimental side, which I didn’t really see as a child. Thinking about the extreme experiences he had as a young tank commander in France, Italy, and Germany, what he must have seen, and how it changed him forever, I suddenly saw a parallel to the Christian life. Continue reading →
3 Advantages of Understanding Identity Politics. Understanding the history of identity politics helps us to understand how we as Christians are complicit in that. And it’s useful for helping us to avoid a Pharisaic attitude towards others. Check out this short video from Carl Trueman.
Meet The Resurrected You. Randy Alcorn writes “Resurrection — Christ’s and ours — is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. Yet how many of us ponder what our resurrected selves will be like? You might think Scripture doesn’t say much. In fact, it tells us a lot, and gives us solid reasons to deduce much more.”
What is Transgenderism? Rosaria Butterfield writes “Transgenderism, from the perspective of Scripture, is related to the sin of envy. Specifically, transgenderism is, at root, sinful envy of the sexual anatomy of another.”
Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles
Why Don’t We Take Our Spiritual Gifts to Work? John Pletcher writes “Subtly or not-so-subtly, church leaders communicate that our special, Christ-given abilities should only be relegated to Sunday services, ministries within churchy walls, and officially church-sanctioned missions in the community or ‘round the globe’.”
How Should Christians Respond to the Current Worker Shortage? Russ Gehrlein writes “Undoubtedly, among these millions of Americans, there must be a large number of Christian men and women who have opted out of the workforce. I want to plead with and challenge my brothers and sisters in Christ with this word of encouragement: you have unprecedented opportunities right now to add light to the darkness and salt to a decaying world by bringing God’s presence with you to work.”
Stop Running from Rest. Steve Graves writes “What everyone wants is the very thing that we need more than we realize. Rest. True biblical rest. A real break from the weight and pressure of life and work.”
Working Our Jobs as a Way to Love God and Love Our Neighbor with Russ Gehrlein. In this episode of The Kirby Laing Centre podcast listen to a conversation with Russ Gehrlein, author of Immanuel Labor–God’s Presence in Our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work. In the book and in this conversation, Russ seeks to bust some of the myths that many of us have received about our work, like: ‘the only truly important work is paid church or missionary work’, and ‘for the rest of us, our jobs are only valuable as an avenue for evangelism and to earn money in order to tithe’.
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The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
My Review of Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results by David Green and Bill High
Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic
It is very important to get off to a good start in any job. Why? Because people begin making impressions and forming judgments about you – your attitude, your work ethic, your approach to your work, how you handle yourself, your relationship to your boss and teammates, etc. – the minute you walk in the door and show up for work. In her book Crush Your Career: Ace the Interview, Land the Job, and Launch Your Future, Dee Ann Turner writes “The first ninety days of any new job are critical. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and that is exactly what the first ninety days are – a first impression.” She goes on to state that “The relationship with your new boss is the most critical element of success in your new job.” It’s very difficult to overcome a rocky start with a new boss. Dee Ann adds “Of all the reasons I have seen people fail in their career, by far the most common is the inability to build positive and productive relationships in the workplace.” Continue reading →
Bellsburg: The Songs of Rich Mullins – Various Artists ****
Rich Mullins went home to be with the Lord following an accident near Lostant, Illinois on I-39 on September 19, 1997, on the way to a benefit concert in Wichita, Kansas, where he lived. Mitch McVicker was also in the vehicle, and though badly injured, he would survive. To commemorate the 25th year of Mullins’ homegoing, a new double-length album of his songs has been released. The album (and future documentary) was recorded in the living room of Mullins’ old house in Bellsburg, Tennessee, where he often crafted songs on the same piano that his parents acquired by trading for a cow from the family farm. Each of the 16 new folk/acoustic interpretations of recordings are by artists who were greatly impacted by the original versions. Each of the artists featured in the project has a personal connection with Mullins or has been deeply influenced by his music. Each side of the project ends with an original, never commercially released demo from Mullins.
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Song of the Week Lyrics ~ Unconditional by Matt Redman, featuring Matt Maher
Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton. Crown. 396 pages. 2007 ****
In this book, Eric Clapton writes about his incredible life as a blues musician, an addict and ultimately as a happily married man and father, a man who is sober and helping others to achieve sobriety.
I read this book when it was first published, and decided to read it again after seeing the now 77-year-old guitarist in concert for the first time last year.
Clapton begins by telling us he was raised by his grandparents, though for many years he grew up thinking that they were actually his parents. He was nine years old before he met his mother. As a child, he attended Sunday school, which is where he first heard a lot of the old, beautiful English hymns, his favorite being “Jesus Bids Us Shine.” Music became a healer for him, and he learned to listen with all his being. He found that it could wipe away all the emotions of fear and confusion relating to his family.
He taught himself how to play guitar. He writes about listening to the blues music of Robert Johnson, saying that following his example would be his life’s work. He writes about his work with the Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos and as a solo artist.
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The enjoyable film, about the true story of Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan, was directed by Ben Affleck (Argo) and written by Alex Convery. Set in 1984, the film is about shoe company Nike and their fledgling basketball shoe division, which is doing so poorly that it may soon be shut down. Nike basketball shoes, with just 17% of the market, are a distant third place behind Adidas and Converse.
Rob Strasser, head of Nike’s basketball shoe division, played by Emmy winner Jason Bateman (Ozark), has a relatively small budget ($250,000), and he is working with his team to identify three lower tier players in the upcoming draft to divide the money up with. The top players are considered out of reach for Nike. But the slightly overweight sales person Sonny Vaccaro, played by Oscar winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), who as part of his job goes to high school basketball tournaments and then adds a stop in Las Vegas, comes up with his own gamble that could put Nike basketball shoes on the map. His idea is to give their entire basketball shoe budget to Michael Jordan from North Carolina. Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight, played by two-time Oscar winner Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting, Argo), thinks that is a crazy idea that the board will never go for. Strasser and Howard White, played by Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) try to discourage Sonny. In addition, Jordan, through his agent David Falk, played by Chris Messina has made it clear that he will be signing with Adidas. Continue reading →
God’s Wrath and Human Sexuality in a Romans 1 Culture. Alistair Begg writes “When a culture finally reaches the place where even manhood and womanhood, gender itself, is deconstructed and reconstructed according to whatever agenda an individual has, whatever ethical set of norms they’ve decided to embrace, then that culture is in deep trouble.”
I Sing My Way Through Pain: Three Lessons in Resilient Joy. Joni Eareckson Tada writes “Whenever I feel downcast, I ask a few friends to pray, and then I worship Jesus with robust hymns filled with solid doctrine. Hymns that focus on the worthiness of Christ have enough spiritual muscle to barge into my discouraged soul and shake awake a hopeful response.”