Pra sempre x Eterno

Pra sempre ou eterno - na perspectiva dos verbos:
sentir, saber e viver (May/10/07)

Posto que sabemos o que sentimos
E sentimos que sabemos
Vivamos o que sabemos, em nome do que sentimos
E saibamos que ao viver pode-se mudar o que sentimos
E os novos sentimentos pode mudar o que sabemos
Nada e “pra sempre”, mas cada momento e eterno
Na lugar eterno do amor nao existe futuro, nem passado apenas o agora.
“Pra sempre” e finito, pois pressupoe a imutabilidade da cena e do cenario
Cada vez que algo muda, o “pra sempre” acaba, frustrando a expectativa . . . doi
Eterno nao tem fim, pois preserva o momento em sua gloria, feito retrato
As estacoes mudam, o corpo muda, a mente muda
Nada e “pra sempre”, pois nao somos os mesmos amanha
Temos as marcas de hoje adicionadas ao homem de ontem
E por isso somos quem somos, pois vivemos o nosso passado
Sentimos as nossos experiencias e sabemos licoes aprendidas
Todas as nossas decisoes nos trouxeram ate aqui

Concordemos entao, amado leitor,
Que ha um sentimento de liberdade no saber viver com a mudanca
Pois ainda que amanha soframos, por causa de hoje, depois de amanha
Seremos mais fortes, melhores, mais completos e mais felizes.
Integros, vivendo com a as marcas de nossas decisoes tomadas de acordo com o que sentimos e sabemos agora.
Entao porque esse medo de viver o presente por falta da certeza do futuro ?
Porque esse medo de perder tempo outra vez na vida ? Porque esse medo de sofrer de novo ?

Porque essa condenacao precoce e preconceituosa mas tao vazia de certezas.
Porque nos preocupamos muito em sentir que o que temos e “pra sempre”, assim nao nos sobra tempo par viver momento . . . . ainda que saibamos que esse e a unica coisa verdadeiramente eterna

For my fellow Christian artists

Here is a little thought for my fellow artists, independent of what form of art you are engaged; music, cooking, sculptures, literature, poetry, talking, scrapbook, video game, your job, whatever is that helps you to express your feelings . . . I deeply and consciously deny the idea that all forms of art should be seen as ministry and that I should limit the message of my heart to be the one of Christ on the Cross. And I know that all my Christians friends are thinking about 10 different verses that tells the opposite. Don’t think I don’t know them, believe you me, I know all of them, I just don’t agree with the interpretation that we have been taught. There is a lot more inside of us to be shared and to be discussed than our understanding of the Bible and our experiences with God. We have our traumas, fears, desires, love, things that we think are beautiful and things that we hate . . . all of that can produce real music, real poetry, real sculpture, real art . . . If you are an artist that have to make your art and live out of it, like a lawyer does and like a trader does. Than you better be good at it, like we all have to be in our jobs. You have to be able to mirror what your society is with the filter of who you are. That is art, it needs to show your version, your sincerely, creative, pure and open version of the reality that you live in. Art is not ministry, art is expression of who you are. If you can leave with that, than go and be an artist. But ministry is totally different, ministry is relationship. If you can have a relationship with someone that buys your CD or your painting, if you can go to someone’s house every week after they went to your outreach concert and cry with them, talk to them, cook for them, than you may call it your ministry. We need to start giving the right names to the right things.

Being Brazilian I get a lot of calls to join this or that mission service, to “Latinize”, make our service more real, show a little of our culture, etc . . . (most times they want to pay) but when I talk to them is more like, could you come with your Latin face and play pasteurized Brazilian guitar solo that Michael Smith had in that one song called abortion in Africa, and show our 3000 members that we are serious about mission. I get so frustrated and I feel like a gladiator, a slave of the big emperor that wants me to play at a certain way, and if I don’t fight/play that way I’ll die playing. Because they will never invite me again. If I don’t play exactly like what people hear they will invite someone better them me. So just like in Rome it’s not about who I am but how much entertainment can I give . . . until I die. And the saddest part is that all the gladiators were already dead, because the only reason to win the battle is so that you live one more week. Same way, our music is empty and dead if expectation is on how I perform (read imitate), oh sorry, I forgot, we don’t perform we worship. So basically our art is dead because its not an expression of the people in the community but the imitation of the Christian radio station, that is a poor and sad imitation of the pop music radio station with the cosmetic change in lyrics plus the proud attitude against the very thing that they imitate. How deeply sorry this is, sounds to me like schizophrenic mind set. So my answer to this invitations are always the same, if you want me to play Brazilian music at your church I will but I’ll come with the voodoo rhythm and instruments that are the root of my music. Ill sing the chants that they used to sing in their “ceremonies” with the words that they use to say. So you can imagine ho many “gigs” I get with that speech so I keep playing outside of the Christian world, where I can play my music the music from my soul where God talks to me and creates something new and unique, right or wrong, expresses my who I am. In other words: art to be shared and discussed in the streets with people instead of performances to be showed up at the coliseum.

I still don’t know why it’s happening but I see a lot of those ministries, very successful in the past, shaking and survive, changing their strategies, shrinking their bands and staff. And wish it was that people were awaking for the reality of the para-market-mask we have created. But truly and sadly I think, one more time, it’s just a reflection of what is happening in the outside. We live in a new world and people has less money and the first thing they cut is entertainment, so there you have it.