Todd Agnew

Great after-Christmas deal! Todd’s albums Need AND Do You See What I See? will be on sale for $5 each on Amazon MP3 Dec. 25 – Jan. 31, 2012. This is a part of Amazon’s “Fuel Your Kindle Fire” promotion…just visit AMAZON.COM.

What is your favorite Christmas carol?

Who does you favorite arrangement of said carol?

What is your favorite newer Christmas song?

Just curious. Thanks.

Todd

I’ve heard comments from a number of people about the fact that I don’t answer my own questions. I usually start a conversation and then let you guys discuss it. I always enjoy reading your comments. But today I thought I’d participate as well. For those of you who haven’t chimed in yet, the question was, “What person in the Bible do you identify with the most? And why?”

So my answer is probably Jacob. I have always been favored and most of the time undeservedly. I have learned to trust deceit and control rather than finding peace in God’s sovereignty. But God has kept me on His path. A crazy path a lot of the time, but still His blessings are undeniable. Like Jacob, I found a wife in an unlikely place. Fortunately I didn’t find two. I’m glad I missed that part of the story. And God has been gracious enough to continue to wound me to bring me to the right place. A fairly constant pain in a hip has been a long term reminder that I have been touched by God. And His touch is a blessing, but it also often hurts. Holiness cannot meet unholiness without causing something dramatic. Pure flame cannot encounter the flammable without combusting. But it leaves us in a better place. Well, it’s leaving me in a better place. Every day, a better place.

Todd

What person in the Bible do you identify with the most? And why?

Thoughts?

Todd

I know, I know, I just posted day one yesterday. But it’s really day five and I’m really working on a song called Found In You. But here’s the one from yesterday. I went in a different direction. Yesterday was a country song. Yes, really. And yes, it actually started out as a joke. I mean, I intended to write the song, but it was just supposed to be funny. But it actually turned out all right. Anyway, feel free to laugh if you want to.

TEN YEAR REUNION

I haven’t worn a cummerbund in a decade
And I’m afraid what everyone will think
Will they notice that I’ve gained a few or maybe…
What if no one’s left who remembers me
I still feel like I’m 15 at the dance

But it’s a ten year reunion
Turns out beauty fades
But intelligence and kindness
Seem to bloom with age
It’s a ten year reunion
The math geeks and the prom queens
Look different in the rearview mirror
We might have missed a few things
These are the truths you’ll find
At your ten year reunion

I never knew one of the cheerleaders was funny
Or that angry kid had grown up without a dad
My biology partner grew up to be stunning
And even some of the jocks aren’t half-bad
Time is a great equalizer

A ten year reunion
Turns out beauty fades
But intelligence and kindness
Seem to bloom with age
It’s a ten year reunion
The math geeks and the prom queens
Look different in the rearview mirror
We might have missed a few things
These are the truths you’ll find
At your ten year reunion

The life I have is better than the dreams I had back then
I won’t be voted most popular but I’m loved by real friends
I have found a freedom in the miles I’ve walked since then
Some of you have walked my way too
I recognize the dirt on your shoes

At the ten year reunion
Turns out beauty fades
But intelligence and kindness
Seem to bloom with age
It’s a ten year reunion
The math geeks and the prom queens
Look different in the rearview mirror
We might have missed a few things
These are the truths you’ll find
At your ten year reunion

Or you can just listen here: http://soundcloud.com/agnewsdei/ten-year-reunion

For those of you who don’t know, 7in7 is a great time of songwriting started, I believe, by Aaron Ivey, a friend and worship leader at my church, Austin Stone Community Church (which has a live worship record coming out December 6, quick plug). Anyway, the goal is to write 7 songs in 7 days. You have to start and finish a song every day. You can’t start from something you already have, no lyrics, no guitar parts. So it’s an exercise. One we do together. This year over 300 writers are a part of 7in7. And I’m behind already. I mean, I’ve written songs each day but I haven’t had time to post, so here is number one.

This song came from a couple of places. One is some conversations we’ve been having about worship at church. We’ve been talking about how some songs are very relational and some songs are very theological. So we talked about wanting to have both kinds of songs in a service. But as I thought about it, I wanted to start to write songs that were both. Either a verse that was relational and a chorus that was more declaring who God is, or vice versa. So that’s been on the back burner for a few weeks. Secondly, I’ve been reading “George MacDonald” by C.S. Lewis, which is a compilation of MacDonald thoughts on theology. It’s really an incredible book. I came across his confession, “I am poor, blind, wretched, miserable and naked.” Immediately, I thought, “This is day one song.” So here it is.

What This Beggar Needs

I am poor and blind and wretched
Miserable and naked
And I need… I need You
I am choking on the shame that makes me
Long to run away
But I know I need… I need You

‘Cause You’re the Fountain that fills my emptiness
Your Light in this darkness shines
You’re the Comfort in my loneliness
What this beggar needs, Your wealth supplies

I am wrestling with conviction
Probably running from correction
But I need… I need You
I am losing all the battles
No matter what side I am on
I know I need You

‘Cause You’re the Fountain that fills my emptiness
Your Light in this darkness shines
You’re the Comfort in my loneliness
What this beggar needs, Your wealth supplies

I come in filthy rags
Not because they’re beautiful
They’re just all I have
I want to bring You more
An offering for this poor, needy one
But it’s all Yours anyway

You’re the Fountain that fills my emptiness
Your Light in this darkness shines
You’re the Comfort in my loneliness
What this beggar needs, Your wealth supplies

You can take a listen here:

http://soundcloud.com/agnewsdei/what-this-beggar-needs

Thanks,

Todd

This past weekend I played at an event supporting The Bridge in Lubbock, TX. I was so encouraged by what they are doing that I wanted to share some of it with you. They bought an old school building in East Lubbock, in the middle of a struggling part of town. Their mission statement is “With God’s guidance and grace, our mission is to RESTORE the foundation of hope, body, soul, and spirit, to our community, to bring community agencies and ministries together under one roof, to promote sharing resources to more efficiently meet the needs of those we serve.” And so they have many ministries inside this one building. Seasoned With Love feeds a couple hundred homeless three days a week. Tammie’s Closet provides clothing a couple of days a month. A side ministry of the clothes closet is a prom dress ministry. They take lightly used dresses and provide a girl with the opportunity to have a beautiful gown for prom. But the heartbeat of the Bridge is called Bridge 2 Success, where they enable and empower at-risk teens. In their own words…, “Bridge 2 Success (B2S) is a free Christian mentoring program for at-risk students in the 6th grade and higher. The goals of B2S are to mold students into future leaders through the development of their minds, bodies, and souls as well as to empower students to make better choices so they can become healthy, productive members of our community. We strive to give students the tools they need to recognize opportunities that lead to future success.” B2S is a two-days-a-week after school program and also puts on a four week summer camp. One of my favorite parts of talking with the students was to hear them talk about college. It was so encouraging to hear a student from a difficult background talk about their hopes and plans for the future and to believe that they were possible. You can find out more about this ministry at www.bridgeoflubbock.org. There are many ways to be a part. You can sponsor a kid to camp, donate a meal, be a camp counselor, mentor a student, donate clothing, take some of your time to volunteer. Or maybe their story will spur you to do something in your city, with a vision God has given you.

Thoughts?

Todd

“Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
– Psalm 29:1-2

(The rest of the psalm talks about the voice of the Lord being like thunder and lightning, shaking the foundations, and so on. Might make a good song.)

But back to the word “ascribe”. I always assumed it meant something like “give”. Give God glory and strength. Give Him the glory due His name. That made sense to me. But it turns out that’s not actually what it means. Merriam-Webster defines “ascribe” as “to refer to a supposed cause, source, or author.” In other words, “to attribute to“. That really changes the idea of ascribing glory to God in our worship. We are not giving God glory or strength; we are searching and finding glory and strength and recognizing that it belongs to God. We discover an example of strength and realize that its source is God’s. We are not asked to give God the glory due His name. What glory do we have that we can offer Him? We are supposed to study and come to new and deeper understandings of His name, and then recognize the glory in that and attribute it to God.

Which leads me to the idea that…, worship doesn’t start on Sunday morning. Every moment of every day we are seeking the strength, the person, the glory of God in the scripture, in the world, and in our lives. On Sundays, we merely get the joy and blessing of joining together to ascribe the glory we’ve seen during the week to our Savior, Redeemer, Creator, and Friend. Tomorrow, let us look throughout our day for strength. Let us look for glory. Let us find His names, Healer, Provider, the One Who Sees, Almighty, Comforter, Love, and recognize when He is being those things for us. Every time is an opportunity to worship, to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.

Todd

This was another favorite that didn’t make the record. In fact, it was one of the songs that led me to the title of this record, which I do not believe has yet been announced. So I guess I can’t explain too much more about that. So let’s just jump to the song.

The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) has always been a favorite of mine. Obviously, I’ve already written one song from this text, Still Here Waiting from the Grace record. But I have grown much more fond of this parable after reading The Cross and the Prodigal by Kenneth Bailey. He is a scholar in Middle Eastern peasant culture, and so he reads the Bible with a different background than most. I really enjoyed his insights and it brought this story back to the forefront of my thinking.

The song specifically deals with three moments in the story: the son’s choice to return home, the son’s journey home, and the son’s arrival at home. In the first couple of verses, I dug into some of the thoughts that might have been going through his head, some of the feelings he might have experienced while deciding to go home and while traveling home. I tried to look at it through his eyes, but also through mine and yours since we have all walked this road of regret.

But today I want to look at one thing specifically. In the bridge, we get to one of the most powerful things I found in The Cross and The Prodigal. Dr. Bailey says this, “First century Jewish custom dictated that if a Jewish boy lost the family inheritance among the Gentiles and dared to return home, the community would break a large pot in front of him and cry out “so-in-so is cut off from his people.” It was called the Kezezah ceremony. The son had betrayed his family and his community by losing their wealth to others, specifically Gentile “others”. So when Jesus’ story happens to mention a pig farmer, he was very intentionally pointing out that the inheritance was lost among the Gentiles. So when the son returned home, he would be mocked, berated, abused, and publicly cast out, all before he ever actually got home. As soon as someone saw him, the village would turn out against him.

But the father is looking for his son. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” I don’t know how to phrase this delicately… have you ever seen an old man run? It’s usually not attractive. Especially when the old man is wearing robes and has to hike them up over his old wrinkly knees to run down the road. Shame was coming upon the son. The kezezah was coming. The village would cut him off. But before that could happen, the father shamed himself, running down the road, not acting respectably, not making the prodigal return in shame. The father ran down the road and embraced him. He declared him as a son, putting a robe on his back and a ring on his finger, before anyone could cut him off. The son deserved the shame, but the father shamed himself, so the son could return to the family. Such an amazing picture.

I’ve already moved on to other books by Dr. Bailey, but you should start with this one. And maybe you’ll even hear the song someday.

Prodigal

Long, so long have I wandered far from home
Hard, it’s so hard to lay my pride down and turn around

But You say You’re waiting for this prodigal son to come home
But I hesitate till I see You running down the road to me

Far, so far have I fallen from where You are
Scared, I’m so scared that You won’t love me when I get there

But You say You’re waiting for this prodigal son to come home
But I hesitate till I see You running down the road to me

Calling out my name, taking all my shame
My humiliation turns to joy
The prodigal’s embraced, my excuses all erased
By an overwhelming, unrelenting love
Your love

And You say You’re waiting for this prodigal son to come home
But I hesitate till I see You running down the road to me

c.2011 Ardent/Koala Music All rights reserved

The problem with poetry, or at least one of them
is that everyone has already decided they don’t like it
Before they’ve listened to a line
Before they’ve embraced a rhyme
They’ve decided they don’t like it.
Before they’ve read Billy Collins
(They’d rather listen to Phil)
Before they’ve read Charles Simic
(They do however like Charlie Brown)
They’ve decided they don’t like it.
Imagine if you will going to your first day of middle school,
with so much to offer, so much potential,
But everyone has already decided they don’t like you.
Because of what someone else has said
Because they heard you were boring
Because some of the time you match.
It’s not fair, is it?
Now you know how poetry feels.
But I think you’ll both overcome it.