The guy above - his name is Chris Simpson. The first thing you might notice about him is that he looks (at least in this picture) like that guy named Charlie on the T.V. show "Lost". (The actor's name is Dominic Monaghan) Chris is pretty well known in music circles, at least in independent music circles. He was in a band named Mineral, who along with Sunny Day Real Estate are credited as a couple of the pioneers of the "emo" music style. Later, after Mineral disbanded, he and the bassist founded the popular independent band The Gloria Record. Now he's doing some solo stuff, from what I've heard.
Chris and I were in a band together in the early 90's, called Mortal Enemy. That band, alas, did not survive (we were real close to signing with R.E.X. records, well, I should say they because by that time I was out of the band due to being in California in college), but obviously Chris went on to bigger and better things. I bring Chris up because not only was he a friend of mine (every once in a long while I'll hear from him, most likely I'll hear about him from another friend), but because he really taught me how to pray. I had learned in my home church to pray, eyes closed, face towards the ground, with as many KJV sounding words as I possibly could. Chris didn't pray that way. He had his eyes open, face towards the sky, and he simply prayed like he was talking to a friend. And he was.
Why did I start thinking about this today? I have no idea. Maybe it's because as a minister, I feel like I need to impress people with my prayers on Sunday mornings during the worship service. Or even because I want to make a good impression on my fellow staff members by praying powerful, wordy prayers - focusing my whole attention on the crafting on the prayer than the relationship behind the prayer. I want to become more like Chris. I guess I'm going to have to start doing some worship songs with an emo sound, though.
2 comments:
Looks like you need the spam killer :) Dig up the email I sent you :)
I led a small group 3 weeks ago with 15 women When I asked them who felt uncomfortable praying out loud almost every hand went up Why is that? Why are people self-conscious ? I like the way your friend prays Just pray from your heart and talk like you normally do I've never kept my eyes open and looked up..maybe I'll try that :) What is an emo sound?
a few years ago i had a friend who introduced me to something called "conversational prayer". i found it to be one of the most revolutionary spiritual forming moments in my walk.
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