Sara Groves on TV Spot

Wednesday night, while being subjected to another episode of American Idol, I saw a spot for La-Z-Boy sofas with a familiar country-ish sounding song on it… “All Right Here”.

‘What is that song” quoth I? After wracking my brain for awhile I realized it was none other than my longtime favorite CCM artist, Sara Groves. She has been my favorite for several years now and is one of the bright spots in the CCM industry due to her profound lyrical ability, insights on life, and choice of producers. My brother & sister-in-law featured some of her songs in their wedding (they also featured songs by Rick Astley, but I won’t even go there).

Her songs ALL sound different and the form and instrumentation is so creative that her cd’s are a complete delight to experience. I can not write anywhere near this glowingly about any other CCM artist that comes to mind. One of her recently manifested passions is helping the poor in the 3rd world. Due to my “Bono Fatigue” (contracted while I was in the “young adults” demographic at a former church), I am looking for other artists to support and fill my mind with and Sara is at the top of the list.

So anyhow she has consented to selling this riff from her title track of a past CD for commercialization purposes. Why am I not condemning her for this? Because I’m pretty sure she did it to feed more hungry kids. Also I like that she didn’t “sell out” within CCM, she made some bucks and exposure in the corporate world, with La-Z-Boy. Shrewd. Did I mention that she also has a myspace page?

Who was on Keys at the 6-8am slot Thursday?

Any idea how hard it is to get any work done when you’re watching the GBF on the IHOP webcast? Well whoever was playing keyboard must’ve had some interesting stuff in his protein shake. It was reminiscent of good ol’ “Dr. Teeth” from the muppets particularly in the style of righteously groovin’ funk that was coming out of that instrument. I didn’t know that you could actually pray along with music of such high-octane funk caliber. Or to paraphrase a popular song… “If [praying along with funky music] is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!”

Unfortunately I really needed to get some work done, and so my webcast came to an end.

The Tuna Challenge

The Tuna Challenge is on! The only person taking up this challenge is ME. I was convicted of the Lord after reading the Book of Daniel that my normal work lunch diet of Tortellini, Vodka sauce, Hot Cherry Peppers, and Red Hot was not conducive in this time period with my prayers to receive wisdom and revelation for increased job performance as Daniel did. I would tend to go into a carb coma for the early afternoon.

I started thinking about a Daniel fast, and although this is fish meat, I think the Lord (and my metabolism) will honor this considerable sacrifice on my part during the 10 hours or so of my working day. My caveat is that the Red Hot stays. It makes this sacrifice bearable, because I would rather fast through lunch than eat dry tuna, and have done the former more often for the past 2 weeks. I have heard this type of “fasting” derided by others as the “I forgot to eat” fast, and am prone to agree that it holds little if any spiritual value.

Yes, this is a bit unusual, and I am going to open up this post for your comments regarding my prior working diet and your speculations concerning the new “improved” diet. This will be observed for the next 40 [working] days, through Holy week of “easter”. You are also welcome to join me on the Tuna Challenge, you do not need to visit the east coast either!

OK, let me have it… whatd’ya think of all this???

Thoughts On Daniel

I posted this over at Sean’s blog. Sean is a wanna-be winner of the Cheesesteak Challenge who lives in Iowa and is most likely not going to make it out here to Philly in the next week to win the challenge. He was talking about Daniel and it so happens that I am also studying his slick navigation of the corporate world. It was a bummer that the IHOP webcast was not working this morning because I was looking forward to the workplace intercession. Anyway here is a little about Daniel.
I learn a lot about his TACT and PERSISTENCE in navigating the corporate world (it was actually the palace/educational system but it works for the corporate world too).

1. Daniel has a Dietary conviction based on God’s word
2. The Powers that be and peer pressure are in conflict with this, and would not be sympathetic with a plea for “respecting my religious convictions”. The argument must be what’s in it for THEM.
3. Daniel is in association with other likeminded buddies with the same convictions. Between the lines, this undoubtably helps with standing up to the Man.
4. Daniel tactfully approaches the department head with the request and is shot down.
5. Daniel is not deterred, and he figures out another plan. I think this is a little bit shrewd of him.
6. Daniel goes Under that guy’s head (not Over his head) and finds an unsuspecting guard in a lower position who has less responsibility and less at stake personally.
7. Through persuasion (and I would kind of like to (extra-biblically) surmise, the “Jedi Mind Trick”) Daniel is able to talk the guy’s language, and this dude gets to look like the Man because after 10 days the guys he supervises are smarter, better looking, and stronger than the rest.

Actually I feel compelled to attempt an exceedingly wimpy version of a Daniel fast at work. Instead of my beloved Tortillini with hot peppers and hot sauce and romano cheese, I am going to eat Albacore Tuna right out of the can for a month, and see if that helps my improving job situation. The tortillini is really good but really lowers my energy level. So today I bought about 15 cans of Tuna and will bring a small closet’s worth of breath mints to work as well.

And that is just the start of the book! As a side note, I do not think even Daniel would consent to the Cheesesteak Challenge, because he invented the Daniel Fast, which is intolerant to Cheesesteaks. Fortunately we are not under the ceremonial law anymore, right?!? I do not claim that a cheesesteak will increase your intelligence! CBB