It is not my wish to beat something into the ground, but I think I have maybe the third and last (for now) part of what I began two entries ago.

Much of my thinking time occurs in my car driving between home and work, work and lunch and home again. This is the time that I plug in the Ipod and click around to whatever song seems to me at the moment, relevant. Like you, I go through cycles—today was a secular music day with yesterday being a mix between secular and praise and worship (otherwise known as sacred).

So, the first thing to allow is that my thought processes are somewhat determined or directed by what I am currently listening to. And what I am listening to is what I have programed into my music player. In other words if I was listening to your music I would be thinking different kinds of thoughts (albeit filtered through my head) than I would be by listening to my songs.

Stay with me—I am getting closer to what I originally planned to say in the first place.

I remember making the statement a year or so after I was born again that Fleetwood Mac would make an awesome Christian group. And this is the pea under my pillow pushing me to think these thoughts these past few days.

What did I really mean by that statement about Fleetwood Mac and how does it apply to being more artistically arosed by the secular singer songwriter than I am by what I have experienced in the contemporary Christian vein. And what is the difference between the two groups.

However, this is not an easy thing to explain or communicate because at some level I really don’t fully understand all that I am reaching for—but like a good researcher I am trying to loose the earth around the prize that is buried somewhere in my head.

So let me just say it: Is there really a divide between the secular and the sacred.

Many secular artists’ explain the world around us and the things that we work through on an everyday basis much better than their Christian peers. I guess this is why we have to wait ten years between overtly Christian movies that are of the “End of the Spear” or “The Passion of Christ” caliber. Yet when I view movies like “Elizabethtown” I am captured by the finesse in which the director guides us through the movies story line. Yes, I ache for the characters and wish they had Christ in their lives to give them the fullfilment that they are trying for in the worldly arena. Yet their lives and stories are not fake—they are real people dealing with the same types of issues that I deal with.

And ultimately I guess that is what I am really saying and believing—either we shape our culture or our culture will shape us. Yet we need role models that will stand up and take the Christian model to the streets. Prime time certainly isn’t interested in portraying us any more than the record companies are in signing up new Christian talent—whatever that looks like.

Have I said it all—probably not. Have I said enough—yes, for the time being.

Enjoy your ride.

A Note: A friend of mine Rodney Morris just began blogging a week or so ago. His blog can be found at:

http://hotrodsblog.blogspot.com