Important Lessons From Vinyl Records...

It's no secret that I love music... I have a collection of vinyl records (kids, records are like giant, black CDs... ask your parents :) that has steadily grown since my college days to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500...

I know, right?

Believe me, in the beginning I heard it from my wife... a lot.  But after 13 years I think she's resigned to the
fact that this is who I am and music is a big part of me.  And even though my hobby takes over half our living room she loves me enough to be OK with that...

Whenever someone comes over to our house they are immediately bombarded with what I like to call my little "reintroduction to retro".

Here, it's easier for me to show you in pictures...

And yes... those are more LP's on the back wall.  By the way, thank you Ikea for creating shelves perfect for holding records! No more cinder blocks and plywood :)

This is where the magic happens!  You can always see what's "currently playing" on that shelf above the player... in this case, England Dan and John Ford Coley :)  My wife made the other art!

I LOVE listening to music on vinyl.  There is just something about the tactile, analog, hands-on process of listening to a  record that appeals to me.  In this day and age where we can literally type a few words into Google and have millions of songs at our fingertips, the slower process of choosing an album, pulling the record out, putting it on the player, adjusting the spin, and lowering the needle is SO satisfying to me.

But the most enjoyable thing about listening to vinyl is being able to hear and hold the history that is encapsulated in that unassuming 12" disc of plastic.  Think about that for a second... as I write this I'm listening to The Doors' first album from the 1968.  The sounds that are travelling from the vibrating needle, bouncing around the small grooves in the rotating piece of plastic, up the tonearm, and out my speakers are the EXACT sounds that my very young parents and countless others heard more than 40 years ago!  The sound is original... not processed to death or made to sound new... it's raw... it's real... it's how it was.

I mean, just look at some of the historical events of 1968 that quite possibly unfolded while the music I'm listening to right now was being listened to:

• the Vietnam war rages on
• President Lyndon B. Johnson does not seek reelection; Richard Nixon ultimately becomes president
• the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
• the first live television broadcast from space from the first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7
• the signing of the Civil Rights Act
• Columbia University shut down because of student protests of the Vietnam war 
• Saddam Hussein rises in political power in Iraq
• Pope Paul VI condemns birth control
• Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced
• Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is aired for the first time
• the Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series
• The Beatles release their White Album
• Elvis Presley makes his concert comeback after a long hiatus
• San Francisco is terrorized by the Zodiac Killer

It's amazing to me that even though I wasn't born yet, I can still vicariously experience a small taste of what 1968 was like through the wonders of things that were actually there... like The Doors' first album.

As I sat and pondered these thoughts a huge revelation began to form in my mind.

The revelation is this:  Just like vinyl records are a small piece of history that we can hold, enjoy, and learn from, the Bible is a tactile, analog, hands-on, and historical record of our Faith Family that we can hold, enjoy, and learn from. Inside this unassuming book is a collection of divinely inspired writings that were recorded by the people who were actually alive before, during, and after Jesus walked this earth... they actually lived it!  They were alive WAY before any of us were born so that we could vicariously experience a small taste of what they experienced and learn from them.  

The Bible is original... not written solely by men but divinely inspired by God... it's raw... it's real... it's the history of US.  It's the story of OUR ancestors... of their triumphs AND their failures.  And it has been passed down, generation after generation for us to use and learn from.

God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right.  2 Timothy 3:16

Yes, I love listening to music from vinyl records because it's an accurate sampling of a specific period in history... but all of my records and the history contained therein pale in comparison to the unbelievable depth, breadth, and wealth of Faith Family history that is contained in that book on our shelves called the Bible.

It is my story.  It is our story.  It is His story.  It is the word of God.

Why would we not want to read it?

On the journey with you,

Pastor Beau