Doug Van Pelt

His mind is not for rent...

...to any god or government.

That line has always kinda bothered me. It's one of those statements that is defined or coloured by the voice of the speaker -- if a believer makes this statement, it has a different meaning to me than if it comes from a non-believer. That's interesting. It makes me want to turn it over and over in my mind, like a chicken being roasted. What is it that makes a statement like that feel bad and judgmental coming from one mouth and yet constructive and educational from another? I think it's a loaded statement. No one wants to be known as someone who "rents their mind to another." That would be like surrendering the one thing that can't really be taken from you (your will, your intellect). No one wants to be brainwashed. Yet the Scriptures instruct us to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Jesus Himself prayed that He'd like to not have to go through with His arrest, beating, and torturous death when He prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane; yet He surrendered His will when He said, "Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done." That's not brainwashing or an example of a poor, misguided, brainwashed puppet. It is actually a very powerful exhibition of strength. He could have commaned (COMMANDED) an army of angels to dispense with the Roman cohort (an army of men, armed to the teeth, probably numbering from 600-700 if my studies are accurate). He used restraint. It's like a really smart man keeping his mouth shut when he could humiliate his opponent in a spontaneous debate in some public setting.

The verse to the song about a "modern day Tom Sawyer" makes the point that this guy "thinks for himself." He doesn't let someone else think for him. That's quite different than the believer who exercises and uses his or her mind. What's cool about apologetics isn't that it just gives the amateur some ammunition with which to argue with opponents of the Gospel (or someone simply taking an opposing side to a spiritual conversation); but it also affirms the intelligent believer that faith in Christ isn't some easy-believism or dumb allegiance to a fairy tale. I'm convinced that anyone's intelligence can be satisfied in its search for truth (specifically in the direction of Christianity).

So, I went to see the band Rush last night in Austin, Texas.

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES:
I'm pausing here to pop a chocolate-covered Altoids peppermint into my mouth. mmm-mmmm

I started my day yesterday waking up in a hotel in Nashville. I washed and went down to the exhibit hall to use the free wireless hotspot one last time while in the music city. A couple girls came by with Red Bull backpacks on and I showed them the curtsy gesture I saw in Uganda for saying "Thank You." I ingested two cans to jump start my day. I sat and typed next to the Scripts booth, by the way. They make high quality tennis shoes in vibrant colors and prints with Scriptures sewn on them. Later on I met with John J. Thompson and the lovely Erin Lee to have an HM Magazine advertising pow-wow session. While showing John two of our new HM commercial spots (I'll have links up soon, I hope), I noticed some guy sitting close to us with a wireless router set up on the table. The hotel charged a high price for internet (it should be free, folks) and this guy must've bought it and set up his wireless router to share with others up there. Very nice. This person was part of a new Christian social network (you know, like myspace or aol, but with Christian guidelines, safeguards and a marketing push to recruit Christian members). I can't quite remember the name of this place and, because of the story I'm about to share, that's probably a good thing. My roommate for part of the week is one of our better writers and he was telling me a story about joining this network and choosing the username of Jesus Christ. He started sending messages or comments to people, saying stuff like, "I appreciated that prayer," or "It's been awhile since we talked," and funny satiristic comments like that. Within about ten minutes he was bumped off and the network had posted a special bounce or splash page to let him know he couldn't log in anymore. "This isn't funny, Bob," the people told him (except, of course, they used his real name which I am going to hide). He decided to rejoin with another name. He wanted to see what kind of reaction he'd get as a Christian celebrity, so he chose Frank Peretti and he copied and pasted the author's bio information from his site on this new profile and ... within another ten minutes or so he was getting emails from the same ruling party at the network, but instead of being told that he wasn't funny and forbidden to log in, he was told "...what an honor it is to have someone of your caliber join us," blah blah blah. And then ten minutes or so later he was bounced off again. I guess the parties in charged noticed that it was the same IP address on this account as the one with the "Jesus Christ" username. I hadn't laughed so hard all week when I heard that story.

So, when I arrived in Austin, I kept my eye on my watch to make sure I could catch the Rush concert. My good friend, Paul Q-Pek, treated me to a ticket for this arena show. He even let me have the ticket in advance, so that I could keep it in my wallet and show it to my friends in Nashville and brag that I was going to see Rush that night, instead of staying in Nashville. Well, the real reason I had it in advance was so that I could see the show as the other guys might get there ahead of me. I walked up through the gate, kinda hungry and tempted by the airport restaurant for Mangia, who make a delicious Chicago-style deep dish pizza called the "carnivore." It takes a good 20 minutes to bake, so I bailed on that idea. Then I went by Amy's ice cream for, perhaps, a nice coffee ice cream with oreo cookie "crush'n" in a cup. The line was too long and I wasn't sure I wanted to have dessert before dinner. Old habits are hard to break. Then I headed down to baggage claim and waited and waited and waited for my two checked bags. Then I went outside to look for the shuttle buses that run regularly to take me to the long-term parking lot to get into my car and catch the concert. It was about ten after 7pm already, and this show started at 7:30, so I was getting a bit concerned. I felt an urge to hear the Bob Seger song, "We've Got Tonight," so I fetched my old iPod out an listened as I waited. Five "EMPLOYEE" buses came and went, but not a single "LOT D" bus. Several minutes went by, but finally it came. When I got on I cued up a travel playlist on my iPod, where I went through all the artists alphabetically, and pulled at least one hit song from each album (if there was one...there was some skipping of artists), which gave me a nice 8-hour playlist. Hearing a good song, like The Alarm's "No Frontiers" (from Change) reminded me how wonderfully a good song can lighten your mood and ease tension. I always try to park in the "D" lot, because it's easier to remember where I'm parked at (my first name beginning with the letter "d" and all). I drove from the airport to downtown Austin, which isn't too far, but it looked like I might miss the first part of the show if they were starting on time. There was no opening band, so I was expecting a nice and long 3-hour show -- the type of show legendary bands should put on (I'd expect no less from Led Zeppelin if they ever tour again). None of my usual spots were open and even the UT stadium lots were marked with signs that warned of towing if you did not have a UT parking permit. Some event must've been going on. I ended up parking a good mile and a half away, down by the Capitol building and Texas Museum. I ran to the Frank Erwin Center and entered. I could hear Rush rocking loud to the song "Limelight." They then launched into a brand new one from Snakes & Arrows. By the time I got to my seat I was told by my smiling friends that this was their second song. So, if you count audio, I hadn't missed a single song.

Rush sounded great. They played three hours. Alex Lifeson had several full stacks of speakers behind him. Geddy Lee (instead of bass cabinets or washing machines) had several tall rottisery ovens with roasted chickens spinning around under bright heat lamps. Nice touch. They played a ton of material off Snakes & Arrows, yet mixed in tons of hits from about every era of the band. I did miss hearing a song from the Presto album, like "The Pass," but we heard "2112 Overture," "Witch Hunt," "Red Barchetta," "YYZ," "The Trees," a drum solo, a brief break ("to eat chicken," they said), "The Spirit of Radio," "Natural Science," "Subdivisions," and much more. Good times, yeah.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at April 24, 2008 02:29 PM