LINKS: Identity Short Film, Rising to the Tap.

LINKS: Tap Legacy™

LINKS: Dallas Willard’s book, Renovation of the Heart, a teaching of Jesus Christ found in the book of Matthew, the Spiritual Formation for Artists Course, The Easy Yoke, spiritual formation is all about you.

In end, regardless of what we thought we were aiming for, we all get a spiritual formation. In this episode we explore exactly what this is.

LINKS: The Notes archive.

LINKS: the short, the longer talk, the renewing of the mind, love, the meeting of two worlds.

LINKS: writing talks, or shows.

LINKS: Peter Boghossian’s Street Epystemologies, a one-day retreat on spiritual formation and rest, the four great questions of life, conversation – the type that leads to deeper discovery.

LINKS: Sanctuary Ministries, Hillary McBride, Pheeroan AkLaff, Rashied Ali, DayBreaker, Henry LeTang.

LINKS: TiDii

Andrew and Esther discuss the journey of the creative person. We meander through conversations about dream, projects, prayer, and what growth looks like in the middle of the work.

LINKS: a song performed by Sammy Davis, Jr., Studio Notes.

LINKS: the last note, spiritual formation for artists course, Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart, John Maxwell's 4 seasons of change.

LINKS: Thoughts on anger in the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, the instagram video that started it all.

LINKS: Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story, Saving Private Ryan

LINKS: Starts With Us, Braver Angels, Gangstagrass, Cats Paying Dues.

LINKS: this article by Acton Institute, Ritchson's YouTube channel, The Acton Institute website, being mostly at war, Ritchson's response video.

LINKS: The movie TAP, the challenge scene, Gregory Hines, bringing each other into our worlds, Asking the Questions.

LINKS: Getty Music’s Sing Conference, John Lennox, an example of exploring different worldviews, and how language has a lot to do with how with think.

LINKS: Foo Fighter’s performance of “My Hero” with Shane Hawkins, Simon Sinek, in his book, Leaders Eat Last.

LINKS: the nature of language, Kevin Adler, Miracle Messages.

LINKS: C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, the communal nature of people.

LINKS: idea of love, moral responsibilities.

LINKS: The Define Love blog, the first poem in Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, letter to a group of Corinthians, wisdom of children defining love, a tap dance story about love, John 3:16, John 15:13, C.S. Lewis.

LINKS: Creativity, All things are permissible, but not everything is good, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, Love fulfills the law.

LINKS: Tap dance, Dallas Willard, Jesus Christ, What We Leave Behind.

2023 Gift Ideas now available at andrewnemr.com

Links: whenwewalkby.com, miraclemessages.org, kevinfadler, When We Walk By, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors, C.S. Lewis, Howard Thurman, The Fellowship Church, Dallas Willard, Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, Pierre Bourdieu, James Coleman, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Gerard described as scapegoating, Raj Chetty, 3D chess, Tick Tack Toe.

War is hell.

Paul could have chosen a number of other possible metaphors – nature (the ecosystem) or family (human relationship), for example. He did not. He chose the body, and spends significant time developing the metaphor. Generally speaking, Paul describes that the gathering of believers should function as a body. There are different parts, for example, neither one thinking itself more important than another and all required for the body to function well. He also offers guidance about what to do with the parts of the body that we don’t like or find unseemly – cover and honor.

The metaphor of the body does a few things quite powerfully. Namely, it connects the idea of interpersonal relationship with the physical and individual. We all have physical bodies. A key part of our individual lives is establishing how we relate to our bodies. How do we take care of them? How do we navigate their needs? How do we live with the bodies we have? This is one of the first relationships we have, and it is deeply personal. Each of our bodies is unique. It is ours. It is not someone else’s. While we may compare notes with others, share activities, even attempt to share our bodies, our bodies remain our own.

Yet, here comes Paul saying that the body is a good way to think about a gathering – a community. Notably, the gathering itself was physical. Without phones, or video, there was no telecommuting. People had to physically gather if they wanted to connect with each other. They had to expend energy – to move their bodies – to make the gathering happen. They often ate during the gathering – replenishing the body. In these ways the gathering reflects our own relationship with our bodies. Want something to happen? We have to spend energy – to move – to make it happen. And, we regularly engage in activities to replenish our bodies. We have to learn, as the gathering did, the rhythms of expenditure and replenishment – the management and regulation of our energies. Yet the gathering was not individualistic. It was interpersonal, with many people. Here the metaphor invites us to imagine a greater body. Not just our own, but the body of a people.

Whatever organization of humanity you might be thinking of – a church, a company, a tribe, even a family – the metaphor of the body can be helpful. The metaphor of the body can help us envision how we might be with one another, organize for action, and even rest together. The metaphor can help us work out how we see one another, our different roles, and the reconciling of differences as they are sure to arise between members of the same body. What I’ve been thinking about most recently, however, is how this metaphor can help us – if at all – when a member of the body passes away.

As a tap dancer I had to deal with death early on in my life. The first funeral I went to was for Lon Chaney (not the actor, but the tap dancer). I was around 12 or 13 years old. Such an early encounter with death – the loss of people, friends even, key to the craft I was immersed in – helped me develop an intergenerational mindset. Here was tap dance – this thing that I was immersed in, that my friends were also immersed in, that they gave to me in a way only they could. And now they were gone – and continued to go away. Jimmy Slyde was fond of saying, “They haven’t left you. They’ve left something for you.” My mind was set on the idea that I was tasked with applying what they left for me to my current context while maintaining their values and ideas. Why maintain their values and ideas? Because it was their values and ideas that informed their dancing – and by extension my own. There wasn’t so much of a separation even – their dancing and my dancing. Rather, we shared a connection to dancing by adopting a particular set of values and ideas.

When they began to pass away, the reality of my own responsibility to the values and ideas they had given me hit hard. Was I ready? Would I do a good job? The responsibility was high – it still is – but there really is no other way. Either I work out the responsibility or abdicate it. Values and ideas are only really as good as the output that comes when applied in real life. If I wanted my friends’ effect on my life to be evident, I had to engage their values and ideas in my dancing (if not my life as a whole). These weren’t ideas I could claim to know simply by memorization or recitation. I had to live them out.

I think it’s the same in every other area of life. If we believe something, we should be willing to act on it as if it were true. As we act, we will likely find ourselves part of a particular body that has been forming for a long time. If we are the first ones in our circle of people to happen upon a value or idea (through a book, a video, or our own experimentation), maybe we are the first part of the current body we are in to instigate change – the beginning of a rebirth perhaps. Regardless of our position or the age of the body we are a part of, we reap the benefit of the life of that body. The spirit that energizes every part of that body (and has over time) flows through us. Regardless of what part of the body we might be, the blood of that body now fuels our life.

Our individual lives occur on a timeline. Our bodies experience aging. They will, ultimately, come to an end. In aging organizations it is common to hear things like, “We need some new blood around here,” or, “What are we doing to rejuvenate our organization?” In the institutional church world, there is even language around dying churches – those with dwindling membership. In aging organizations, the intuition towards youthful vigor and new life is natural. We somehow inherently know the cycle of life – from birth to death to new life – is required to keep the organization going. In the body – not just my own, but the one of the gathering – this cycle is also necessary. It is necessary for individual transformation and communal transformation. It is necessary for a vision of the eternal. It is necessary for the intergenerational livelihood of the gathering.

This intergenerational livelihood is key to the ongoing manifestation of the belief of those who gather. Without the cycle of birth, death, and new life, the gathering would come to an end. But, in the case of Paul, the life which fuels the gathering is the life from above. It is life from a spirit that never ends. If it is, why would the body – especially the one of the gathering – ever die? This may be a radical proposal, but I don’t think the body dies. Reborn, yes. New life, continually. But death? No. If the Spirit of God that is to take hold, dwell in, and enliven every believer does so, in every generation, then the gathering of believers – the body that Paul speaks of – should never end. Individual members will pass on, but the gathering remains, as new members come to life in the body. This cycle of life, because of the Spirit in the gathering, should be eternal, never ending.

This isn’t to say that every relationship and every gathering of believers will last forever. But I think there is a necessity in aiming for the right vision here. Is our vision fueled by a sense of time that is eternal, or is it grounded in the matter of the temporal. If eternal, then life is unending. This is not to undermine the real hurt losing a loved one can cause. For anyone reading this who has ever experienced loss, the separation is real. The grief and pain of the separation is real. And, the separation in this vision of life is counted as temporary. Of course, many more important questions come up as we scratch at this idea, and they should be thoughtfully addressed. For now, maybe sitting with the idea of an eternal body is enough to start.

A note on the alternative: What is the alternative? That every gathering ends. That death wins. That the ultimate separation has the ultimate last word. No. That’s not the way. In this proposition of reality (the one exemplified in Jesus Christ – and his body), the ultimate separation doesn’t have the last word. It doesn’t even carry a sting. That’s the vision of the life from above, lived out from the here and now, into the ever after. Imagine that.

Quick Links: Cats Paying Dues, Gregory Hines, Rising to the Tap, Identity Short Film, Tap Dance Notes.

About Christian Harbin // Xndrsn D’Artist

Christian is self-taught in the disciplines of realism, abstract painting and digital art. Born and raised in Mobile, AL, he honed his love for music and art from a very young age. In 2019, he moved to New York City and, soon after, began working in hospitality, serving the homeless. He now pursues a budding career in fine arts, utilizing his influences of music and visual design. Having triumphed over years of depression through his art, he creates with the mission of sharing its joy and healing with the world.

Connect with Christian

Website: xndrsnart.com

IG: xndrsn_art

QUICK LINKS: Identity, Ray Angry and the Council of the Goldfinger, Dr. Brené Brown, Dallas Willard, The joy the Lord is your strength.

LINKS: Andrew's coaching servies, Simon Sinek.

For a deeper dive into the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

LINKS: Book of John

Explore powerful questions based on the themes of Talking Notes by visiting, Asking the Questions.

Mentions: Florence Mills, Bert Williams, the Tap Legacy™ Foundation

Originally published at andrewnemr.com on April 2, 2020.

For a deeper dive into the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

Mentions: Veritas Forum's wonderful conversation, Makoto Fujimura (visual artist), Lecrae (musician), Alissa Wilkinson (writer), and Andy Crouch.

For a deeper dive into the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

Mentions: Wonder (a new school),the Acton Academy, and The Book of Acts.

For a deeper dive into the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

Episode Links:

The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson

Flipping Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

For a deeper dive into the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

• the idea of communal imagination • a workshop for teams •

For powerful questions around the theme of this episode check out, Asking the Questions.

• The Beatitudes• Sermon on the Mount (or hill)• Who citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are• current religious law• Matthew 5:21-24 KJV• Book of Matthew, Chapter 18, (NKJV)• Anger is worth putting away •

For powerful questions around the theme of this episode check out, Asking the Questions.

For powerful questions along the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

Mentions and Links:

DryBar – https://www.youtube.com/@DryBarComedy

Jim and Phil Wharton – https://www.whartonhealth.com/

The Bomber Mafia – https://a.co/d/58isQXI

The Splendid and the Vile – https://a.co/d/5xjYNQV

Training me up in the way to go – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2022:6&version=KJV

For a deeper dive in the theme of this episode visit, Asking the Questions.

Asking the Questions

Want to go deeper? Check out guided questions available to paying supporters here.

Originally recorded on April 8, 2023.

And here we are, feeling that way again.

Related Links

* A tour in Vancouver

* Dam Short Film Festival

* Idaho High School Theater Awards

* Dive deeper with Asking the Questions

How might we think about our role in all of this?

Related links

* DALL•E

* Robots dancing

* The 2002 movie Minority Report

* The Butterfly effect

* The old idea that we should love our neighbor as ourselves

* Curt Thompson’s recent book, Anatomy of the Soul

* Some people lead more isolated lives

* The documentary, The Social Dilemma

* A death to the old ways

* Paul’s letter to a group of Corinthians

* Deeper dives at Asking the Questions

Related Links

* Poverty (read or listen)

* Mourning (read or listen)

* The Meek (read or listen)

* Hungry and Thirsty (read or listen)

* Mercy (read or listen)

* Pure In Heart (read or listen)

* Peacemakers (read or listen)

* Very real costs that can come with following Jesus.

* A Journey Through the Beatitudes – Live Presentation

Now what about the children of God?

Related Links:

* a previous note about the two wars

* our last position in the beatitude

* Go deeper with Asking the Questions

If I traded it all // If I gave it all away // For one thing // Wouldn’t that be something

My heart resonates with the singleminded intention. It reminds me of the focus of pursuit that great artists and athletes endure to reach the heights of their craft. It reflects the discipline I’ve seen in people of integrity – even successful people in business and life. As an improvisational tap dancer, a lot of my time is spent discovering possible choices, and then training for the selection of the choices that I would be happy with. For any given piece of music, a tap dancer could dance through it in a near infinite number of ways. Yet, in any given performance of a particular piece, the dancer gets to say yes to one way. A single set of choices. One choice per moment. One yes, so many no’s. There is a loss of all the other possibilities. For everything we say yes to, there are a multitude of no’s that are implicit in the choice.

This got me thinking about what it means to be pure in heart…

Related Links

* Good trees can only bear good fruit

* The Journey so far:

* poverty

* mourning

* meekness

* hunger and thirst

* show mercy

* Shifting from ourselves to God

* Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength…Mark 12:30

* Seeking of the Kingdom of God

* Go deeper with Asking the Questions

Related Links

* The definition of righteous

* The definition of judgement

* The definition of discerning

* What happens before we are able to act in new ways by nature

* Accounting for every word

* The perfection of loving our enemies

* Go deeper with guided questions

Related Links

* Poverty (read/listen)

* Mourning (read/listen)

* The challenge of gentleness (read/listen)

* Moving up Maslow’s triangle

I read this line a few weeks ago in a lovely book by Charlie Shedd. He was describing a friend’s reaction to moments in his life when he had essentially been put in his place. Meekness is a funny word. It isn’t common in the current English language. We don’t see it in print, or hear many people use it in public with any frequency. Yet, here it is, just three lines into the propositions Jesus is setting forth about what life in the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Meekness is often thought of as something having to do with humility. But there’s a little more to it than that. The word is more literally translated as mild, and by extension, having a mild disposition, or gentleness of spirit. One can envision humility being a part of that, but meekness is much more than being humble.

Related Links

* The lovely book by Charlie Shedd

* How we are like children

* Just ask the father

Related Links

* A man of constant sorrow

* Jesus speaking on the hill

* The Fertile Crescent

* We are children in God’s eyes

* A video I watched during my burnout

* A book I read during my burnout.

Related Links

* Book of Matthew

* Book of Luke

* A note about Maps

* A note about The New Thing

* Learning how to tap dance

* My convictions

* The way, truth, and life

* Seeking the Kingdom of God

Related Links

* EXPLORE – Projects

* The Notes

* the Breakdowns – short deconstructions of the weekly Tap Dance Notes

* Asking the Questions – question-driven deep dives into The Note of the week

* Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story Watch the live performance and talkback here

* What We Leave Behind

* Rising to the Tap

* CREATE – Services

* Tap Dance + Empathy Building

* GROW – Courses and Coaching

* Spiritual Formation for Artists – now open for registration.

* Want Professional Mentor Coaching? drop me a line.

* Press

* My profile piece in AramcoWorld Magazine

* My ____ on Mondays

* All Places Together

* Mere Christians

* BONUS: Watch me dance with the impeccable Tommy Emmanuel C.G.P.

Related Links

* my previous note about suffering

* social post

* God is a spiritual being who is love

* An encouragement from Jesus

Related Links

* Training: Tap Dance and Empathy Building

* The Designing for Empathy Summit

* Coach Michael Bungay Stanier

* Book: Mortification of Sin by John Owen

* Jesus said we should take up our own cross and follow him

* The Sacrifice of Communication

* Asking the Questions

This week I’m using four words – tradition, innovation, disruption, and backlash – in thinking about what coming to a new thing in a good way might look like.

Related Links

* Answering the Questions

Related Links:

* What do we have to give?

* Rising to the Tap

* Asking the Questions

That has changed a bit in the past few years, thankfully. My experience of burnout, my life turning upside down on account of the pandemic, and a tactile encounter with a way of life that didn’t spin me out of order, all pointed to the real possibility of a different way. The grooves of intense productivity, singular focus, and high achievement are still there and often take significant work to not land in again. However, my experience of the alternative – a life of ease, lightness, peace, and rest – is strong enough within me that I know what it feels like. I have some sense memory of the difference between the two. Which brings me to thinking about thankfulness.

Related Links

* More about my experience of burnout

* More thinking about loss

Go deeper with Asking the Questions.

Related Links

* I gave a TED talk!

* What We Leave Behind

* The Fruits of the Spirit

* The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

* a hidden treasure

* special pearl

This is yours, assume no one else has it, and do what you’ve been taught is right with it.

That’s a thing – a thing worth thinking about.

Related Links

* Tap Legacy Foundation

* Asking the Questions

Related Links

* The original Snake Eyes figure

* My friend and mentor Gregory Hines

* The remission of sins

* Calling people to himself

* The joy set before Jesus

* The life that Jesus would have after the cross

Go deeper with Asking the Questions.

Related Links:

* Thinking about generosity

* The how of giving

* Iron sharpening iron

* Living sacrifice

* God giving

In the 1990 film Awakenings, Robert de Niro plays Leonard Lowe, a character we meet in a catatonic state. As the movie progresses, a drug is discovered that has the power to awaken Leonard, and some of his fellow patients, from their state of stillness. It is a miracle – an awakening of not only one, but many people ensued. But it was not to last. Soon the effects of the drug would wear off. Leonard would go through periods of being awake, and then, in dramatic fashion, the darkness would come for him. While he fought, he would be overcome by it.

What Lowe did in the meantime got me thinking.

Related Links:

* Awakenings

* Bonus: The Real Life “Awakenings” (ABC)

Related Links

* A note about deep joy even in hard times

* Being set before the face of God

* God is love

* A companion newsletter for those who want to go deeper – Asking the Questions

Now that is a good question.

Related LINKS

* Zion International Film Festival

* Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story

* Guided listening journeys

Go deeper with Asking the Questions, questions designed by Andrew to guide you deeper into the topic of the Note.

Share this note with someone who you think might enjoy it…

At different points in my life, I have taken on specific pursuits for the sake of understanding. I spent three years trying to define the word love (LINK), after failing to define it in a very important moment. In the past three years I've been trying to cultivate an understanding of my own life that leads to the kind of rest (LINK) that cannot be separated from who I am. Wouldn’t it be a thing if one of the ways I was recognized was as a person who rested.

This is what I’ve come to know about rest so far…

* Defining the word love

* A different kind of rest

* “I will give you rest.”

* Jesus’s knowing and revealing God to us

* Jesus having all power in Heaven and in Earth

* Jesus loving us

* Go deeper with Asking the Questions

Related Links

* Cats Paying Dues

* Listening journeys - by Goldenwood

* Set your mind on the things above

* Being caught resting

Related Links

* Being the Interruptor

* Being the Trusted Friend

Related Links

* The Sermon on the Mount

* Tap On Mallorca (tap dance festival)

* the Sagrada Familia

* Jesus claims to the be the way, the truth, and the life.

Related Links:

* Spiritual Formation for Artists Course

* Rising to the Tap (Theatrical Show)

* Identity (Documentary Film)

* My TED Talk on Labels

Related Links

* Read the whole story in the book of John.

Related Links

* Identity

* What We Leave Behind

* Rising to the Tap

* Spiritual Formation for Artists

* My Weekly Step

Related Links:

* A framework about Time

* A note about training

Related Links

* My first experience with severe burnout

* From the letter the Corinthians, a statement.

* A question about really good people.

* The experience of being with.

This week we dive into one way the arts can be used.

Related Links:

* Adjusting choices through training

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to attempt to draw out some of the connections I’ve experienced and experimented with in my journey. If they ring true for you, I’d love to know. I’m beginning with a connection between oral traditions and organizations.

RELATED LINKS

* The Broadway show, Noise/Funk

* A note about 2 bars

* Seth Gobin’s TED TALK about Tribes

* Simon Sinek’s description of infinite games.

Related Links:

* 10,000 to mastery recently debunked.

* Share your answers to the questions at the end of the episode with me here.

Related links

* The Sonny Rollins tune, Doxy

* Tap dancer Eddie Brown

* My recent performance at Dance Boise 2022

* Master improvisors Savion Glover, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Max Roach, and Jimmy Slyde

* Book recommendation: Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard

* What We Leave Behind

* Nuach, Rest for the Soul

* Drop me line

Related Links:

* Jessie Nilo

* Dizzy Gillespie

* Who is really good?

* With God

Related Links:

* The Challenge Scene

* Cats Paying Dues

* Rising to the Tap

Related Links:

* Rising to the Tap

* A note about immersion

* A note about the end

RELATED LINKS

* Rising to the Tap

* Burnout

* What We Leave Behind

* Psalm 16

* Resources I like for reading the bible

* “Seek first…”

RELEVANT LINKS:

* TED TALK - The Four Great Questions of Life

RELEVANT LINKS:

* The Roots of Tap Dance, last week’s note

* The pull quote in question

* “…the way, the truth and the life…” (the Book of John, Chapter 14, verse 6)

* The Book of Matthew, Chapter 5

* The End, a note about goals

* The Four Great Questions of Life, a TEDx Talk

LINKS:

* My Tap Roots Course

* My documentary film

* My live solo show

* Jimmy Slyde (website)

* Steve Condos (video)

* Gene Kelly (video)

* Mable Lee (video)

LINKS:

Bunny Briggs

EPISODE LINKS

* Andrew teaching

* Andrew speaking

* Lisa Marten

* Lisa Marten blog post on reentry

Enjoy!

Episode Links:

* Project Nuach

* Victor Wooten Interview on Apple Podcasts

* Victor Wooten TED ED Video

* My TED ED Video

Episode LINKS:

* Gregory Hines

* What We Leave Behind

* The Book of Matthew, Chapter 5

Here’s a link to my endeavor in defining love.

LINKS:

Positional Blessing - a note about relational position.

MORE:

Do you have a question you like asking? I’m curious. If you’re willing to share a question that has helped guide your journey, post it in the comments below.

Here are quick links to last weeks note and talking note, mentioned in this episode.

A Word of Thanks

This is my last note for 2021. I’m taking the next two weeks to rest from writing and recording these notes. Before I go, I want to thank each and every one of you for taking an interest in this work and your financial support. It is a humbling experience to see these notes gain some traction in a world full of better writers. Wishing you and your loved ones many blessings in this time and in the year to come.

LINKS

* The Psalms in Dialogue

* More writing about the context of relationship

* More about my experience of massive burnout

* Goldenwood - Listening Journeys

* A personal conviction of what I believe