The next Connect Cast is up and ready to be listened to. In this edition of Connect Cast, I am thinking out load on some of the issues of race that has been brought to our attention through the controversy of Barak Obama’s pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright. I am still working my way through this issue, but thought I would share some of my thoughts. The Connect Cast is about 20 minutes long. Listen to it, and then come back to this blog and let me know what you think. You should be able to find Connect Cast in the left column of the church’s website.

In the Atlantic Ocean, 40 miles off the coast of Miami, Florida, south of Bimini, lies the great Bimini Wall. The Bimini Wall faces the Gulf Stream, starts in 120 feet of water, and drops 1,000 or so feet straight to the bottom of the ocean. Scuba diving along the wall is an exhilarating experience. At about 80 feet, you swim through a beautiful choral reef system, full of aquatic life. Look carefully into the distance and you might see a hammerhead shark. At the edge of the reef is the beginning of the Wall. At 120 feet, you can look over the Wall, into total darkness. Looking down into the pit is one of the eeriest things I have ever done. …[read more]

Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, together they are the “Three Tenors.” Now you know everything I know about the opera. My musical ability stops with playing the radio, but somewhere—I think it was a Seinfeld episode—I heard about Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti. So too me, the three always go together.

While I may not know a lot about the opera, I do know that music is composed of three parts—melody, rhythm, and harmony. Melody is the flow; rhythm is the speed; and harmony is the blend, or color, of a song. When put together correctly the resulting music is pleasing to the ear; and while all three are important, without the melody all you have is noise.

Three other things go together—faith, hope, and love. Faith, like rhythm, controls the speed in my life. Hope, like harmony is the blend, or color. Love, like a melody, makes my life flow. When I demonstrate all three, my life produces a concert more pleasing than the Three Tenors. But without love, faith and hope are nothing more than senseless clatter.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).