Choosing the Highest Road, Messing Up, Choosing Again

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches, Weekly Lectionary

The Deuteronomy passage—in which Moses tells the people of Israel that obeying God’s commands will bring blessings, but disobedience will bring death—popped up yesterday in a devotional book that I am reading. And the gist of the reflection was the standard to which Moses calls the people was unattainable, but that it was intentionally unattainable because it all eventually points to Jesus.

It didn’t sit right with me. I know that it is a riff of something that Paul does where he discusses how a person’s inability to follow God makes one aware of their sin. Yet that also makes it look almost like a long con on God’s part. As if God knew the mistakes that were going to be made, let them play out for a few thousand years while human beings suffered just to make the point that they couldn’t do it. It seems insulting to the Jewish people who genuinely tried to follow God to make them props in a massive point.

And maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like when Moses says “Choose” or when Jesus says “Follow me” that this is a legitimate offer on the table. It’s not just a setup to demonstrate how messed up we are but a calling to be the Good that we are intended to be. That capacity exists within each person because they are made in the Image of God.

Now will we always choose the right? Good Lord, no. In the Gospel passage, Jesus raises the stakes and says that calling a person a fool is like murder or lusting after someone is akin to adultery. He does not just want his followers to take the high road, he wants them to take the highest road.

Body in Motion, Soul at Rest

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

Technically, I don’t have a problem with stillness and quiet. I can do it. I have told my students that I can live in an awkward silence (so they might as well say something). I welcome the opportunity for quiet and reflection. I have been reading a great deal recently about the importance of stillness in our busy lives. Anytime someone discusses prayer and meditation, quieting your world is bound to be part of the discussion. I do not have a problem with stillness.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuut…

There are times when stillness has a difficult time finding a home inside my head and heart. I can be physically still. Being spiritually and mentally still is far more difficult. I live in my head. I have a vivid imagination, which is either awesome or terrible. When I lay down at night, my brain begins to whirr like a fan on a 90s desktop computer: coming up with ideas that eluded me during the day, replaying conversations I wish had gone differently (or creating imaginary conversations), swatting away insecurities, or coming up with ideas for the book I’ve always wanted to write. I am often silent on the surface, but quite disquieted underneath.

I have learned that movement is strangely the thing that often stills me. It’s why I write so often about what I experience on runs and hikes. It is why I love praying labyrinth. If I am anxious or getting tripped up by writer’s block or not sure what to do, moving my body will help. It won’t solve everything, but it will help in that it quiets my mind for just a bit.

Monday Mixtape: Sunday

Chris Cox
Monday Mixtape, Sabbatical Sketches

Sunday
A little bit of a switch-up. For about as long as I could connect an iPod (later iPhone) to a car stereo, I have been creating and continuously updating a Sunday playlist. This is typically what we have listened to as we go to and from church. It is due for another update, but I wanted to make note of what this ever evolving playlist is at this point in our lives. These are in the actual order in which they appear.

1. “Oh Great God, Give Us Rest” by David Crowder Band

This one is honestly kind of prayer for me since Sundays are rarely my most restful day of the week. The lyrics of this one have touched a chord within me especially in the last five years or so.

2. “I Need Thee Every Hour (20th Anniversary Edition)” by Jars of Clay

Before iPods and iPhones, we had these things called CDs that played songs. If it was a Sunday in my early 20s, there was a pretty good chance that the CD in my car would be Redemption Songs, Jars of Clay’s collection of re-recorded and reimagined hymns.

3. “Your Love is Strong (Live)” by Jon Foreman

This is a song that I would love to hear in a church context at some point; a beautiful, straightforward song that touches on teachings and parables of Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer. This version from Foreman’s Roll Tape: Live from Melody League Studios is my favorite with the exception of the Switchfoot frontman exclaiming, “I love playing with you guys!” at the end. Kind of messes up the vibe, but that’s how good the rest of the version is.

4. “Till Kingdom Come” by Coldplay

This song has been on the Sunday playlist from the very beginning. My favorite Coldplay song and one of the most personally meaningful songs in my life. I know technically it is not a song about God, but it has become one for me. I even preached a sermon about it this past year.

Halfway There

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

Whenever I run into someone who knows that I am on sabbatical, they inevitably will say something like, “Hope you’re getting lots of rest!” And I’ll respond with something like, “Ha, that’s the plan!” But internally I am saying, “I actually still feel tired. Oh crap, am I doing this wrong? Am I screwing up a one in seven year chance to rest?!”

In my more sane moments, I remember that tiredness does not vanish overnight (or over the course of a little over two weeks). I also remember that I am still very much on the clock for one of the more demanding parts of my life: being a parent. Before I took off, I had a lot of people ask me where I was going to go for sabbatical which was always somewhat confusing because most of these people know that I have a wife and two sons. It’s not like I’m going to say to my wife who is a high school Spanish teacher and say, “Alright, I’m off. See you in a month and you guys have fun!” That would be a surefire way to turn a sabbatical into something more permanent.

It probably sounds like I’m complaining and that’s not my aim. A great deal of my time has been restful and I have been grateful for it. Halfway through, I am bumping into the limitations of what a sabbatical can truly be. In the romanticized version, everything just stops. I have been reading about and listening to some podcasts that talk about both sabbath and the monastic lifestyle. Frequently in the discussion of these ideas, the conversation comes back to the desert mothers and fathers: early Christians who went out to the wilderness to dedicate their life to prayer and meditation. And there is part of me that would love to take a stack of books and journals and retreat to a cabin for a month.

Yet life doesn’t work like that.

Let's Talk About the Big DC Movies/TV Announcements

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

If you know me then you probably know that I am an enormous fan of DC Comics. Two or three times a month, I head to my local comic shop (Rick’s Comic City; it’s a great place) to pick up several of the titles that I follow. In the world of popular culture, it has been a tough run for DC fans. I enjoy the MCU; it is fun, great world building, and I’m looking forward to where it goes next. But DC movies could be so, so, so, so much better. And while there have been bright spots here and there, it just looks paltry in comparison with the behemoth led by the Avengers and Spider-Man.

But now, at least, there’s a plan. Tim Gunn (director of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy) and Peter Safran have taken the reins of DC Studios. Just a couple of days ago, they announced their first projects of their 8-10 year plan for a brand new DCU. I’m cautiously optimistic (I have been hurt before), but I am excited. So let’s rundown what we’ve got.

Superman: Legacy
You need to know that one of my deepest hopes and dreams once we get past all the important stuff like raising my children, being a good husband/son/brother/friend, taking care of my youth at church, etc. is to see a great Superman movie on the big screen. It is a popular saying amongst a circle of my friends that the best Superman movie we’ve gotten is the trailer to Man of Steel (seriously, it’s hair-stand-up-on-end awesome).

How I Fight Everything Everywhere All at Once

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

Yesterday I took advantage of a gap in my schedule and finally went to go see Everything Everywhere All at Once, which last week landed 11 Oscar nominations. My amateurish review: It is really, really good and deserving of all those nominations. I had a broad idea of what the movie was about going in but I was in no way adequately prepared for what awaited me. As such, I am going to need awhile to fully digest a movie so deeply bizarre, funny, and moving. Also Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness should have its title stripped because EEAAO has way more multiverses and way more madness.

Yet I did want to write for a moment about something that deeply resonated with me while I was watching the film. Ke Huy Quan plays Waymond, the husband to Michelle Yeoh’s protagonist Evelyn. Throughout the movie, Waymond (the first one we meet anyway) is not taken very seriously. He is kind, but seems goofy and is perceived to be less responsible than his wife. Yet on the margins, you can see all the ways in which he is trying to better everything around their family.

Late in the movie, (another) Waymond acknowledges how others perceive him and gives a short speech about how he sees the world. It floored me to the point that I had to go find the film’s screenplay when I got home to make sure that I got down what he said:

Monday Mixtape: 2002-2009

Chris Cox
Monday Mixtape, Sabbatical Sketches

2002-2009
Who says we have to go in chronological order? We’re going to fast forward from the 60s to our playlist from last week: 2002-2009. Why not just the 2000s? Well, EA wanted to curate a special playlist for 1998-2001 (not so coincidentally our last two years of high school), which meant our decade journey took stops in 1990-1997 and 2002-2009. So welcome to the 21st Century. These are in order by the year released.

1. “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton (2002)

That piano line. Apparently Vanessa Carlton was working on the riff in her home and her mom told her it was a hit. Mom was right. That thing is imprinted into my brain and I love it. I am also fully convinced that any guy in the early 2000s who could play the riff from “A Thousand Miles” on piano had an unfair advantage in the dating realm over the rest of us.

2. “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé (feat. Jay-Z) (2003)

Twenty years on, the horns that kick off this song feel like an announcement and a coronation.

3. “Hey Ya!” by Outkast (2003)

A stone cold classic. The internet is still arguing over what time signature this song is in. Polaroid had to release a statement asking people not to shake their instant photographs. Plus there’s the music video with 8 Andre 3000s, which I promise you aired about 50 times a day on MTV International when I was on foreign study my junior year of college.

Simple is Not Easy

Chris Cox
Weekly Lectionary, Sabbatical Sketches

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.

The prophet Micah describes what God asks of us in the most straightforward way possible. Three steps with little room for interpretation. Though I imagine as a prophet, Micah had a decent amount of experience with people trying to shoehorn interpretation into any crack of daylight. Yet at the end of the day, it is all very simple: Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God.

Pastors frequently go to the well of Micah 6:8. I have quoted this verse to my students more times than I can count. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song using this verse that I absolutely could sing the chorus to right now despite having not heard it in like two and a half decades (with a Kentucky twang, “You can run with the big dogs…”).. Do justice. Love kindness, Walk humbly with God. What is so hard about that?

Well…apparently everything?

The Power of Ritual

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

On Wednesday, I went to the midweek Eucharist service at St. Bart’s Episcopal. It was a short, simple, and meaningful 30 minute service. Guided by the Book of Common Prayer, we stood up, knelt, read scripture, and prayed together. As the one non-Episcopalian in the room, I was always a beat behind but not in a way that made me feel embarrassed.

One of the aspects of these rituals that I appreciate is that it does not allow those in the pews to be passive observers to the service. We do not just hear someone offer up prayers from a pulpit, but we all kneel in prayer. We do not simply listen to someone speak of God’s grace, but we say words of confession and then are reminded that God forgives us. The liturgy of the service was a literal work of the people.

I am a bit of a worship omnivore. I love the use of creative arts and spontaneity in church. Indeed, I often miss the high energy of bands leading in worship that I experienced for so many years serving at summer camps. But I also feel a deep connection to these ancient practices of reading and kneeling together. It allows me to jump into the river current of the church and be moved with those around me. There is something in those rituals that can resonate deeply.

Monday Mixtape: The 60s

Chris Cox
Monday Mixtape, Sabbatical Sketches

A few months back, I realized two things: 1. My sons get along a lot better when we listened to music on the way to school; 2. They have not had wide exposure to music. So we started doing theme weeks where would listen to an artist, genre, or decade in the car on the way to and from school. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I am going to whittle down one of those playlists of 40-60 songs into a 12-14 song playlist. This is Monday Mixtape.

The 60s
The 60s playlist was the first decade that we did in our car-based music education series and it is our youngest son’s absolute favorite. There have been times when I’ve had to go run an errand and asked Liam if he wanted to go with me. If he waffled, all I had to say was, “You can listen to the 60s playlist” and he was in. As such, his favorite song will be on this list. These are in order by the year they were released.

1. “Runaround Sue” by Dion (1961)

On one hand, I feel bad for kicking off this list with this song since it follows the tired trope of the girl who dates a bunch of the other guys. If a guy went around dating a bunch of girls, he would get a song celebrating his magic with the ladies. But the music just moves; doowop evolved into something actually cool. When I was growing up, our family would typically listen to either Christian music or the Oldies station and even as a 6 year old I would have told you that “Runaround Sue” was a jam.

2. “My Girl” by The Temptations (1964)

It’s the first song EA and I danced to at our wedding. It’s my ringtone for her (even though like a good millennial, my ringtone has been on silent for about 12 years). It is simply a pop masterpiece. When those strings take off right before the key change and the last verse? It’s magical. Plus “When it’s cold outside / I’ve got the month of May”? That is the month of my wife’s birth.

3. “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” by Stevie Wonder (1965)

This song is on the list purely for the reason that the jubilant horns in this song are how joy sounds in my head. It’s really hard to feel down when those things hit.

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