all shapes and stripes

Bullies come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and religious affiliations. I have experienced people trying to push me down who were females in my life; people who were much shorter than me and taller than me; people who were supposed to be leaders or teachers of faith; people who had or were working on more advanced degrees than I had and people who have had less education, too. I think I must have an invisible sign on my forehead that says "Bully me, please. I won't care." Nah. The reality is that bullies are just insecure or mean people who think they have some advantage over me or you and try to use it against us.
I believe anytime we use a supposed or real advantage we have over someone to gain power, gain pleasure, manipulate, hurt, belittle, or use someone for our purposes, and to their detriment (hopefully that is obvious), we are acting the bully. They might even consent to it. That does not matter because the advantage we think we have nullifies their willingness to submit as being free choice.
During junior high and less so in high school, a guy I knew attempted to be a bully to me, even though he was by the end a good 6 to 8 inches shorter than I was. But he was mean, and brash, and thought that because he had the "right" friends, he could get away with hurting or belittling me. The older I got, the less he did it. I think he at first thought I was a dork from a wealthy family who needed picking on, who maybe curried too much favor with teachers and maybe was too nice or naive. But as time went on and I grew taller, and he didn't, as I proved I was a good athlete, and he was adequate, and as we grew less entangled in terms of not really being in the same classes or spending much time together, his bullying decreased. And I probably had tried to do some things initially to get on his good side or be his friend; maybe he took that into account.
So, size doesn't matter. The saying goes something like this: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, it's the size of the fight in the dog." This guy had a lot of fight in him, and maybe due to his brothers picking on him and having to find a way to survive. I am sure that is at least partly where he learned it. It doesn't make it right. But beware, just because I guy is small does not mean he won't punch you in the nose.

I hate bullies

When I was in the 4th grade, a kid much bigger than I decided for whatever reason he didn't like me. He threatened me one afternoon on my way home from school, and then punched me in the chest. I don't remember doing much, and he simply walked off, probably calling me a choice name or two. I don;t remember him ever bothering me after that. This is the classic bully, though, a coward who simply uses extra size, or strength, or verbal venom to hurt someone else because they can, or because of some need to or desire to get some pleasure. I can't say I have never been one, I know I have. But that is for another time to talk about. Right now I want to go on record as saying I hate bullies, and I hate me when I am passive around them or have been passive and not willing to stand up to them. In the movie "Wanted", the hero of the story is a bullied and passive man whose life is horrible because he refuses to stand up and be taken account of; when he finally does, the world around him is turned upside down, and many people who are bullies wish he had never been awakened. In the movie "Taken", a man's daughter is kidnapped and is being sold as a sex-slave in the Middle East. The sexual bullies who do this have just unleashed on themselves a man whose whole life prepared him to destroy such bullies, which he proceeds to do throughout the movie, to get his daughter back. Everything about the hero character played by Liam Neeson makes you want to stand up at the end and never back down from this sort of bullie who takes a man's daughter for evil purposes; oh I want to me that kind of man.
Bullies: beware. I am here to say I won't tolerate you anymore. You are forewarned.

music form vs substance

I recently heard an older person speaking to put down some of the more modern music because it was so electrified. Thinking back, I can't believe I was hearing this. Why can't some older people get past the form of the music to what it is saying? And I don't think this put down was just to say he didn't like it, it was to say it was bad or wrong.
I am here to affirm all of you younger musicians to keep making good music in all of its forms, electrified, acoustic, digitized, sonified, beat boxed, and any other form. God is not scared of music that awakens or expresses the passions of humans, for He is wilder and much less civilized than anyone would want to believe, and much more so than any human, excpet one, has ever been. I think that is one reason Jesus was born in a food trough in a barn; God was quite at home there and not ashamed or feeling put out or frightened at all. After all, He is the creator of the wilds of this world, and if we cannot make music that reflects our passions, we are not expressing something of the depth of the human spirit, and our music is all the more shallow for it. So electrified music is able to get at a power and passion and volume of life that acoustic music just can't do.
Right now I am listening to one of my favorite songs of all time: Sleeping Awake by POD. Electrified, yes, loud, yes, powerful, yes, worth hearing, every time.
So to you musicians, keep making good music of all kinds.
To those among us who believe the only holy music is soft and somber and acoustic, wake up. You are wrong. The bible in fact recommends music of praise with resounding cymbals. Those are loud and not everyone likes them. No where can we find the Bible saying music must be soft, but we do hear it telling us it should be loud, at least at times. And it should be skillful. God is much more interested in the heart or content of the music than the form. Period.