Today I wanted to talk for a minute about the music industry, particularly the difference in motivation between those in Christian music and secular music. In short, I am intrigued by the difference between these two categories of musicians. 

Over my years as a budding musician and now avid lover of worship and worship music, I have experienced time in the Christian music mindset from being involved in my church worship praise bands and the Rock-N-Roll mindset during my years in high school. The main difference in motivation between these two is one thing: self. The last band I was in during my senior year of high school dealt with this a lot. 

The band was made up of me, my friend John, and another guy named Ryan. We never had a name, and by the end of the whole experience, it was just me and John left. But regardless of us not having a name and only having a guitarist and drummer, the idea of self as a motivator still came into play. One night when John and I were trying to write a song about our experiences, we got to talking about how we got into music. I told him about how it was all God who blessed me with this and it's been snowballing to my love for worship music and he told me that he just wanted to play and practiced to be better for himself.

Hopefully you can see what motivated me and what motivated my friend John. I was into music to glorify the Lord and use my gifts for Him and John was out to be good and someday get fame and the like. Unfortunately, it was my motivation for the Lord (and my faith, really) that broke us up that night. Our conversation to try to write a song led to John telling me he was about sixty-six percent sure there wasn't a God and he was pretty much an atheist. Now, I don't write to hate on my friend John. He's an awesome guy, Christ-believer or not. I can only pray and hope for him that he would come to know God in a real way someday.

Anyway, all stories and rambling aside, there's a motivation to glorify God with music and there's the motivation to get money and fame and glorify yourself with music. I fall with glorifying God with whatever music I'm a part of. But what intrigues me about this clash of motivation is that I'm wondering where secular artists come up with their ideas for songs. It sort of seems easy for Christian musicians to write about a mountaintop experience they had or a time when God was there during a dark time in life, but that's not exactly a bitter breakup or hangover after a one-night stand that some rock songs are about.

It's easy for us as Christians, and Christian musicians, to take for granted what we have: the hope of Jesus Christ. But what about everyone else? I wonder if we really understand what a life that looks fine on the surface yet there's emptiness is like. I don't know that we can relate to that completely. Well, maybe in one sense we can because we were lost at one time in our lives. But, I think it's also true that once we know Christ, we sometimes forget what life used to be like; we forget what we came from.

Here's a song from one of my favorite secular bands, American Hi-Fi. This song's called "Lost" and I feel it may relate what a life with the God-shaped void looks like. Either that or he's lost without that special someone. I'll let you choose, but my challenge to you is don't forget the dark places you've come from in your life. Remember what life without Christ was like; understand that there are people still filling those voids in their lives with things that will never satisfy them. I pray that our hearts would break for everyone who's like this. I pray we'd be concerned over anyone who doesn't have the abundant life we have with Jesus. I pray we would really care about people and what those people are motivated by. I believe that's part of our calling as Disciples. Jesus wishes that none would perish, that everyone would have everlasting life. What about you?

Here's what my facebook status said today: "there comes a time when you have to choose whom you will serve, which master you will serve. Today for me I truly repented of how I have been living recently and laid my all down for Christ. It's a great feeling everyone!"

If you're wondering where part three of my bro's series "Confessions of A Coward" is, it's not here. I chose to post something that was on my heart instead. If you'd like to see part three, my brother's blog is here. I'm really thankful to him for guest posting for me this week, and you guys have left some awesome comments which he so rightly deserved. Etiher way, I'm sure he'll have his third and final installment up soon for you guys. so keep checking in on him.

Over the last week, my brother's series has been resonating with me just like its been resonating with you guys. Even this past Wednesday night at the youth group that I help lead, we talked about whether we honor God with everything that we do. With all of these ideas on not hiding about the things we're dealing with, living a life that honors God, and living a life that's open and transparent, I was disgusted with the sin  I've been drowning in. 

For me, it's not drinking. It's not smoking and it's not partying. No, my sin is lust. The sin that affects the inside of a man or woman. The sin that leaves images that won't go away. All of my actions this past week have been lust-driven and not honoring to God, and today I became nearly nauseous over it. 

Like my brother getting his DUI which was a wake-up call for him, my actions with porn and lust this week compared to the life I want to live was a wake-up call for me. A wake up call to truly chase after Christ; to have Him as my one and only master.

Our culture think that a man who views pornography on a regular basis or masturbates regularly is normal. That's a lie. I Corinthians 6:18 screams that we're to flee from sexual immorality. I think flee is a very fitting word here.

I don't know about you, but when I think of fleeing from something, I think, "Hey, I've got to run away from this because it's a monster; it's HUGE and I can't beat it."

If you thought that,too,  you're right. That's something my battle with porn has shown me. It's a sin that is huge and one that can't be beaten on our own. Te verse in I Corinthians also puts sexual immorality (porn and the acts associated with it)  into a certain "category" of sorts by saying that it is unlike all other sins in that with this one, man sins against himself, or "sins against his own body" (NIV). 

Too many times I thought I could beat this monster on my own. I tried and I tried, and I would be fine for a day or two, but then the middle of the week would roll around, I would have some time to kill, and BOOM!, I was back into lust. The truth is we as men of God cannot beat this sin on our own. We MUST rely on the Lord to get us past this. It means memorizing scripture verses like I Corinthians 10:13 which says that we're not tempted beyond more than we can bear and that God's faithful to give us a way out. It's about knowing those verses and using them when we're faced with temptation. It's about LOOKING FOR THAT WAY OUT!

In essence, this week I have been brought to a true sorrow and a true grief over my life with pornography and lust. For far too long I've thought I could beat it on my own. I've been telling half-truths. But now I have truly repented and desire to take on the true meaning of repentance, from the Hebrew metanoia which mean "after/behind one's mind" (thanks Wikipedia!). I want to have true forgiveness from this and move past this chapter of my life and embrace a life that honors God. I am an example to those around me, and I want those around me to see the real me, not someone putting on a show. 

If you're a guy or a girl who's dealing with this, too (no one is immune, it's not a guy thing), I would encourage you to do three things:

• Confess your sin to God and to someone who you can be accountable with and someone you can trust, then be an INTENTIONAL accountability partner with them (e.g. be honest, do NOT sugarcoat things, be real with them; cry and hit things if you have to)

• "Write the words of the lord on the tablet of your heart;" Find verses like I Corinthians 10:13 and commit them to memory so you can use them as a weapon (the Bible is the sword of the Spirit after all, Eph. 6:17) when Satan tempts you

• If you repent of your sin, MEAN IT. Don't just say, "I repent" and then go back and do the same things you did before. Romans 6 asks, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? BY NO MEANS!" In short, should we do whatever we want do just because God can forgive us? No way. If we do, than we put little value on God's grace and mercy. If you repent of your sin, put the sin behind you, change your way of life from one that is focused on your pleasure to one that's focused on pleasing God.

I talk about wearing many hats in the paragraph that talks about my blog. I say that the hat I am known for (or want to be known for) is the crown of life, shimmering with jewels that has the words "Follower of Christ" on it. Well todays marks the day of a new beginning. Today is the day I begin the quest for that crown of life.

Here's part two of my brother's series. In this edition, Scott speaks the truth on where our identities are and he challenges us to put them where they should be: in Christ.

Christian: Literally means “ Christ’s little ones.” Early Christians were given the name Christians. No--they did not have a meeting in their homes or the fellowship hall and come up with a catchy name for themselves--they were given this name by the non-Christians around them. The term is not demeaning--it described their lives--which mirrored the life of Christ. For they were children of Christ.

We all make mistakes, we all have moments of weakness, lapses in character and moments we are not proud of. My life has been full of them. Since middle school I have called myself a “Christian” but for most of my life have not lived up to the name. Instead of clothing my self with the blood of Christ, I just learned what to say and how to say it to my church, my pastors and my family. I should have just called myself “hypocrite.” Instead of picking up my cross daily and following Jesus, I have spent much of my life picking up bottles, chasing women and hiding my sin.

In my first post, I mentioned that my hidden sin, all my weakness, all of my endless toils and all my cowardliness came out with a DUI. In a moment my sin was brought out from the dark and into the light. Every drunken night, every party, every sin and every character flaw in my soul was forced violently into the open. There was no more running and no more hiding. I could no longer hide my sin from my friends at church and my family. I no longer had a choice. I was hurting, lost, broken and I needed them. I wouldn't be able to talk myself or lie myself out of this one. This was serious. I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. I couldn't fix this one my own--but that is what God wanted. All of the time I spent being identified by being the guy who loved girls and who loved to party only gave me one thing--a night in jail. In an instant, life was different. God gave me a cross road.

The first was the life I had always found comfortable--the booze, the girls, the partying and the running. The road I was comfortable with, the road I was good at. The second one of openness and honesty--a new life in and with Christ. It was almost like God was telling me, “ this is your last chance Scott, it is now, or never.” I wasn’t strong enough to completely run away from the sin that still enslaved me and God was sick of it. If I wasn’t strong enough--God was going to break me and make me strong enough.

This whole experience has taught me two things :

• We are not strong enough to run from sin on our own. It takes sacrifice and a strength that is only from our Heavenly Father.

• We must put ourselves out there--all of us. James 5:16 says: ”Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” We have to be completely open and honest to our families, friends and pastors. They will never judge you. They will do nothing but love you and help you--I know this for fact

I’ll leave you with a question: Where is your identity, where is your heart?

Alright, as I promised, my brother Scott will be taking the reigns of my blog for part of this week as he provides some "guest posts" for your enjoyment.

This series will delve into the deep dark parts of my brother's life; the parts that he has only begun to wrestle and deal with only recently. I hope this series will get you to think about your own dark areas that you may be hiding from and hopefully embrace a life of openness and transparency. Well, without further ado, I, Randy Mahoney, proudly introduce...

Coward: A person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things. The word coward is a strong, negative word and I am sure a word that no one wants attached to their name, but the truth is many of us are indeed cowards. If anyone is coward, it is me. I have been a coward in many areas of my life and this series is about those areas.

For most of my adult life I was drowning in sin. I sat of the fence between my social life full of partying , the girls I chased, the porn I was addicted to and my life as a believer in Christ. I put up a convincing facade of a well put together and righteous believer, but in fact on the inside I was drowning in sin and dying. I hid my sin from everyone--my pastors, my friends and my family. I would occasionally tell a close friend or pastor half of my struggles, but never fully opened up to anyone about the sin that I was enslaved to. I did not have the courage to surrender my sin to my Heavenly Father nor the courage to confess that sin to those who cared most about me. Recently my sin, my lying, my lack of courage, the sin I was hiding and the inner coward in me was brought out. I will further discuss these areas and exactly what happened later in this series.

The bible is clear about the concealment of sin. Proverbs 27:17 says that as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. God puts men and women in our lives to confess our sins and struggles to. These people will not judge and will not abandon you. They may be disappointed, but they are placed in your life by God for one thing--to help you become everything that God made you to be.

Proverbs 28:13 says whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. You will never get victory of your sin unless you confess it to the Godly men and women in your life. If you continue you hide and ignore your struggles, they will be brought out of the dark into the light. I carried my sin and my struggles for so long, hiding them from the people in my life who loved me the most. When I finally was forced to share these struggles with my friends, pastors and family it hurt, but I was set free. The weight off my heart that was lifted by finally surrendering to those closest to me has left me feeling nothing but alive on the inside- and this is what God wants for us.

Scott Thacker
2 Corinthians 5:20-21

This week at Confessions Of A Follower, there will be a special guest blogger.

My brother and fellow blogging enthusiast Scott will be posting a special three-part series called "Confessions Of A Coward." In this series, my bro speaks on how he's been challenged to be real and truly honest about the sin that has been engulfing him over the last few years of his adult life.

Am I biased because he's my brother? Sure. But I could care less about any bias here. I appreciate his honesty about his struggle with sin and I think living a life that is open and transparent is something we ALL can be challenged by.

Click the image below to view my brother's blog...

No, you're not seeing things. BeautifulPeople.com is a real website with real problems. I first saw this site when I was watching a rerun of the Colbert Report this week. When I saw it, I, too, thought I was having vision problems. Now granted, Colbert had some funny things to say (I admit I chuckled when he said that the site needed to raise a certain "filter" of sorts). But what concerns me is not Colbert's need to compete with the site by launching his Formula 401. No, I think I could save that for another post at another time. What really concerns me here is the site itself and its "business model."

In short, the site is a place where "beautiful" people can get together with other beautiful people to chat, flirt, and/or mingle. Moreover, it's a site that has a ridiculous definition of what is beautiful. Just look at the picture on the homepage of the site. We've got people sitting on a psychiatric-esque couch, people sitting next to ferocious and scary animals, and even a guy dancing like Michael Jackson and hurling an apple in the air! Talk about standards! I never knew that I had to look that good, be that skinny, dance that well, or juggle that kind of fruit to be accepted.

If you didn't watch the Colbert link, he reported that the site banned over 5,000 users because they gained some extra weight, something site founder Robert Hintze said would be a threat to his "business model." Man, this IS just like the cliques from my high school days. They are so conditional; everything is fine, your loved and accepted, AS LONG AS you don't do anything stupid (e.g. talk to the weird kid or gain a few extra L-B's). Something about that rubs me the wrong way if I may sparingly use a cliche'. I guess since I'm not like that myself, I can't really relate all that well to users of the site or their creators.

But, I was a nerdy guy back in high school who happened to be a Christian. Also, I was observant and had some friends who did fit this mold. Here's what I observed from them:

• They pretended everything was fine, but on the inside, I knew they were empty and alone.


• They had a lot of friends, but truthfully their friendships were shallow and only mattered as long as they got something out of it.

On the one hand, I look back and feel really sad that people lived this way. It's tragic, really. Doesn't that seem like an empty life to live, having your glory days fit into a small four-year window of time, and in some cases, that window being filled with sorrow and regret? That sure sounds empty to me...

The truth that I know, being a nerdy Christian guy who made it out alive from a high school that had its share of suffering, I know that everyone has a choice. Some of my classmates chose to live that empty life that high school brought them. I do understand some of them couldn't help it and others were just unaware of what was going on. Either way, it still bugs me that I didn't do more to reach out to them.

I think I'm so concerned with this website is that they are spreading this lie that to be cool, to be accepted, and to be beautiful you have to fit this certain profile, this certain hight/weight, and you have to have completed this list of debauchery. In essence,the site is making more of these people I went to high school with. It's creating more of these people who get sucked in to the mindset of the world that's fallen and misguided. If that's a Christian go-to answer, so be it.

I know that I don't want to see anybody fall victim to the lifestyle of this world or adopt their values because, frankly, their values are crap. The truth is everyone's beautiful in the Lord's eyes. He made them in HIS OWN IMAGE, and I believe that God NEVER makes mistakes; He only uses ours. I believe there's life and life to the full with the Lord as well as true forgiveness for any debauchery anyone's done. I myself may have not reached out to my friends back then, and part of me regrets that, but I know now that I don't want the world to take anyone else the way they took those friends of mine. If there's one thing you get from reading this, it's this: don't ever hesitate to respond; don't ever leave it someone else. BE that someone who saves someone else!

To begin my new blog series MeEqualsConcerned, I wanted to take a look at a new game from the Hasbro Toy Company. You know, the people who brought us games like Monopoly and Connect Four (it always felt so good to win at those games!) Anyway, the Hasbro team has hit the market again, this time with their new game called "Cuponk." Here's the logo below:

Before I say anything else, let me say that I took this logo from the Hasbro website. It's theirs and the copyright is theirs. All I did was mess around with the color scheme a little to help it match my banners for the series.

Okay, now that that's done and I covered my bases to avoid any jail time, let me share about the game. It looks pretty simple to say the least. As the logo says, all you do is put the ball in the cup. I, for one, find the dashed arrow incredibly helpful. I mean, how else would I know that the cup had a giant hole in it? Ha. All kidding aside, this game appears to really be taking off. I first heard about this game from a commercial I saw on TV last week and then found some videos for it via YouTube

After watching some of their videos, even one with skater Bam Margera as a pitchman for the game, I'm left feeling concerned. My concerns intensified after I saw other Twitter users see the game as I did: a game of Beer Pong for little kids.

After some serious thought, I was thinking about all the possibilities that this game has to reach little kids. Here's what I came up with:

• The name "Cuponk"--It's like Hasbro just changed one letter (pon"G" to pon"K") just so they could distance themselves from the collegiate party passtime.
• The "Trick Shot" Concept--On the TV ads, when you order your Cuponk game it comes with thirty different "Trick Shot" cards. You can even see some of them in the YouTube vids. Some of these shots are awesome looking, which I think could be a reason for them to appeal to kids and college students. Give them to a guy at a state school and you may as well given him a Beer Pong Playbook. I think kids would jump at the chance to watch a ping pong ball fly around a room very fast.
• The Flashing Light--This has to be the most obvious. KIDS LOVE ANYTHING THAT FLASHES!

In the end, I just don't feel right about things like this hitting the market. Yeah, anybody can buy this game and have fun with it, but its target seems to be towards little kids, kids whose sense of judgment isn't fully developed yet, kids who are still impressionable. They might see this and play with this toy now and later in their lives (maybe around college-age) see a game like Beer Pong and think, "Hey, I played with a toy like that when I was a kid. That looks like fun."

My goal is with this series is to get you guys to think about things like this. I don't want any of us to have a stigma to people who drink or anything like that. Christ calls to love EVERYONE, and if I'm correct, kids who play with toys and people who drink count as everyone. My desire is that we would be alert to what our culture is up to, what ideas and message they're sending to us, and how those message line up with God's Word.

What do you guys think?

• Would YOU buy Cuponk and play it yourself? Would you buy it for your kids?
• Do you think this game is something harmless?
• Am I way off base here?
• What other messages do you think our society is sending us, and how are they sending them?

Coming this week...

THIS WEEK AT CONFESSIONS OF A FOLLOWER, A NEW SERIES BEGINS...

This series takes a look at ideas, products, media, or anything else that makes me stop and take another glance. All of this while trying to avoid the Christian go-to answers and get YOUR opinion. Pop by this week for my new series...

Blog Revamp & How (or Who) Do You Follow?

BLOG RE-VAMP
If you haven't ever visited here before, let me first congratulate you on finding me. Secondly, let me share that my previous blog "Randy's Thoughts" was for a Media Scriptwriiting class I took last year in college. The class was great, but the blog was a fail. I would go as far to say that it failed EPICLY So why would I revamp my blog? There a few reasons. One is that I just wanted to move on past the last blog. Another is that blogs and the idea of posting what you're going through online is normal now. It's widely accepted and dare I say expected! (cue dramatic prairie dog)*^{That means play the video.}

Ha! Come on, you know you laughed a little on that one. All kidding aside, I want to update my blog so I can stay up-to-date with where technology is heading and learn to use it well to display a message that is unlike anything else: the message of Christ as told through the keystrokes of one of His broken vessels.

How (or Who) Do You Follow?
In the midst of touching up my blog, the idea of following came to my mind and I found this pretty funny cartoon.

When I re-named my blog, the questions "How do you follow?" and "Who do you follow?" popped up in my head. When you think of how to follow, I'm sure your first thought is something like "following" someone on Twitter or adding a friend on Facebook. I know I do.

Following also brings to mind people on those sites with a ton of friends who they never talk to. I'm sure we can all of think of someone who's done the annual "Facebook Purge." Twitter seems like it could be the same way. The blue bird site has all those "real" followers (I'm talking about you SAMIapartments and LowerYourDebt) that are stand-ins for companies and products. I'm sure people just add and add to boost their follower numbers so they could be a Twitter trend.

My question in all of this is,"Why?" Why do we have hundreds and hundreds of FB friends and thousands of followers but never talk to them? I think the cartoon showed an interesting point with the guy actually following the other guy home. Yeah, it's funny and borderline stalking, but unlike some of us on these networking sites, there was a legit follow-up. There's no deleting your great aunt off of your friends list without her knowing or not talking to your best friend from high school for three years despite seeing them in your "Reconnect With..." box every week. There was real connection. There was a thriving relationship.

I'm not trying to be mean or condemn anybody. I'm not saying you're going to the lake of fire if you've got 687 friends and you only talk to 100 or so. No way. All I want to do is to get you guys to think about your relationships and how valuable they are to you. Would you add your Mom on FB and ignore her? How about a boyfriend or girlfriend? What if God had a FB or Twitter account?

I guess to me when I see people doing this, it sort of relates a hollow idea of a relationship, that a friend is someone you talk to every once in a while, exchange a few words with, but never really go deep with and get to know them. Yeah, I know that realistically we can't get get to know the ins and outs of everyone we meet, but I think when they're called your friends, there's a sort of implied responsibility to get to know that person well. Otherwise, I'd call everyone else an acquaintance. A core group of friends you know very well, and then acquaintances.