It's a Beautiful Day in Nebraska

Some Fruitful Changes...

2012-02-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, February 3rd 2012, Abe and I were pleased to announce a newly designed Fruitful-Design.com! The site was a delight to work on- and we're really happy with the result (although we will continue to tweak it for the next few weeks). Along with the re-design of the site, Fruitful also took some time to refine it's own image a little bit. We hope you like some of the changes:

New Logo

For some time, I had been wanting to make the Fruitful logo a little more illustrative and "scripty". So when I saw the lower case "f's" in Georgia's bold/italic typeface, I knew I had found a winner! In addition to it's "scripty" feel, Georgia is also recognized as one of the original "web-safe" fonts. Now that Fruitful is offering both illustration and web-design- we felt like this mark was a natural representation of our growth.

Pantone Colors

Our original company branding was based on an orange and green found in the basic CMYK palette. And, on closer reflection, they were actually quite dull. Along with our web design, we have switched every orange to Pantone 130 and every green to Pantone 376. These brighter colors really help to convey the vibrance of our work a little better.

Design?

You may notice that we now refer to ourselves as simply Fruitful, and not always Fruitful Design. This is just an additional attempt at simplicity- and an attempt to keep up the tradition of cool, ambiguity that some of Omaha's finest firms have established: Eleven19, Secret Penguin, Grain & Mortar, What Cheer etc.

Gill Sans

We're proud to announce that we have subscribed to fonts.com's web font service- and now feature our company font, Gill Sans on our website!

Wordpress

Please don't laugh, but... we've finally taken the plunge and joined the rest of the design world in using the Wordpress Content Management system. Previously we have created static sites, Joomla based sites and have even used CMS made simple. Fruitful-design.com is our first Wordpress based site- but we have been pleased with the experience thus far! We're excited to start offering this service to our clients.

Simplified

Because I did not start out as a web designer- our previous site was based on a purchased template from ThemeForest.net and hooked up to the web by the amazing ClinchMountain.net. That site served me well for the last two years- but as we moved more into interactive and web services, it became clear that we needed a simpler, more custom site. The new Fruitful site is very clean and straight-forward- just like us! There are almost no frills- we hope our work can speak for itself.

Wait- no blog?

Actually- you're on the blog now! This blogspot blog is a collection of my 5 blogs that have floating around in cyberspace ( Xanga, Blogger, BenLueders.com, Fruitful-Design.com, God Made This Thing). I found that the more blogs I had- the more unlikely I was to ever update them. I also discovered that blogger has an all-new, customizable interface that I really enjoy! Thus- I decided to combine all of my blogs, and then organize them by the tags you see on the left.

Abe Lueders

We simply would not be announcing a new website if my brother Abe hadn't decided to join the Fruitful team. Check out his cute, little bio here.

Putting On The Wizard Hat

2011-11-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

(This article was taken from 36Point.com. Follow my San Fran adventures there!)

Well- it was bound to happen.

When I first started working for self-proclaimed "media mogul" Donovan Beery- I can't say it never entered my mind. I mean- Donovan was so busy flying all over the country to interview graphic design's brightest stars- that he would have to cave in at some time:
He'd have to ask me to go in his place.
So, just as the faithful servant in The Sorcerer's Apprentice (yes, the Mickey Mouse version- nobody saw that new one), I slaved away completing my daily design tasks at Eleven19- just waiting for that old, mysterious wizard (Donovan) to leave his magical wizard hat to me.
And then it happened.

Donovan realized that the all-new HOW Interactive Design Conference in downtown San Francisco would be taking place shortly after his return from the AIGA Pivot Conference in Phoenix. He had already traveled quite a bit that year (surely spreading his media mogulish power everywhere he went) and so he turned to me, with that old, mysterious, wizardly gaze and said:

"Ben, you're going to San Francisco"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Yes, I'm excited. Yes, I'm nervous. And no… I've never done a podcast before. But then again- this aint no "Design Matters", right? I mean- The Reflex Blue Show is kind of known for it's wild, last-minute, nitty-gritty, unedited realism, right? Well- I'm kinda counting on that anyway…
Tomorrow morning I have my debut podcast session with Donovan and Nate. This could be terrible… or this could be beautiful. Either way- won't you join me on this fantastic journey?
-Ben LuedersAssistant Designer
Eleven19 Communications

Being Fruitful

2011-08-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

On August 31st 2011, at 8:49pm our first son came into the oxygen breathing part of human civilization. Jonah Benjamin Lueders weighed 8lbs 11oz, was 22 inches long and was very alert and peaceful. Mother and baby (and daddy, thanks for asking) are all doing very well.

Here's a video that chronicles the excited friends and family that rejoiced over his birth the first few days.

The music is "How Long Will It Be" by my fantastically musical friend Zach Short. Check out his stuff here.

Father's Day Gift 2011

2011-06-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

I drew this picture for my father in law, Curt Knight, for Father's day. I actually started a similar picture over 2 years ago, but I never got around to finishing it. As this Father's day approached, Megan began pressuring me to finish the old drawing. Unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere! So I started from scratch...

I based it off this photo of Megan and her dad at his 40th birthday party (Megan was 16 in this picture). For some reason I really like this photo.

After sketching for a little while with pencil- here's what I got:

Then I scanned it in and began coloring in photoshop. Here's Curt up close:

Here's Megan:

Tada!

Then I framed it and gave it to Curt!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY CURT!!! Thanks for letting me marry your daughter- and not killing me when you probably should have (a couple times).

Big Omaha 2011 Awards

2011-05-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

Well, Big Omaha is here! The "nation's most ambitious conference on innovation and entrepreneurship", has truly been *the place to be in the midwest these last couple days. For me, someone who won a free ticket last minute in a fairy-taleish kind of way, it has been unbelievably exciting. Top notch speakers, indispensable networking... world changing conversations and ideas. It's all so BIG. For Omaha, anyway...

Now, as the last day of activity is about to commence, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the people and ideas that have stood out to me, thus far...

FUNNIEST/SEEMINGLY POINTLESS award goes (of course) to Ben Huh owner of the "Cheezburger Network". Yes- he's the lolcats guy. Probably the most educational nugget I acquired from his talk was this enlightening picture from 1905. It is the first recorded lolcat:

Of course he had other provocative things to say, like:

"Crap is now gold."

COOLEST GOVERNMENT GUY award goes to Aneesh Chopra, America's new Chief Technology Officer.

He had lots of cool interesting things to say about technology...government...and stuff. But unfortunately I was too busy creating this image in "PicSay" and tweeting it via my Droid. Yes that's my brother:

MOST TOUCHING MOMENT award goes to entrepreneurial expert Shervin Pishevar and Silicon Prairie News (SPN) founder Jeff Slobotski when, in the middle of Shervin's presentation he called on the audience to give Jeff a standing ovation.

He exclaimed that he didn't "know anyone that's doing what Jeff's doing". I think there might have been a tear in Jeff's eye. (He may deny that...)

COLDEST PERSON award goes to Princess Lasertron founder Megan Hunt.

So glad I wasn't wearing that outfit yesterday... especially during the first half of the talks.

CUTEST COUPLE award goes to Daniel Muller and Lauren Christie.

Ok- Dusty and Marlina Davidson were pretty cute too. They're a close second...

BEST HAIR award goes to John Henry Muller. 'Nuff said.

MOST ELEGANT/GENEROUS PREGNANT SPEAKER award goes undoubtedly to Sarah Lacy.

Not only was she 24 weeks pregnant (just like MY wife!)- but she also gave *everyone at Big Omaha a copy of her new book! For free! (Actually- I think she made Jeff buy them for everyone.)

BIGGEST CAMERA HAM award goes, hands-down, to Kaitlyn Fillipini.

I just call them as I see them...

GREATEST FAIL award goes to poor Alex P. Gates of WHAT CHEER for only seeing the Star Wars films for the first time very recently. So sad. Can you really call his childhood a childhood? No you cannot.

GREATEST WIN award goes to Marc Ecko for naming Star Wars as the most inspirational startup. (Take that Alex P. Gates!) May the Force be with you, Marc.

GREATEST HIGH FIVE goes to both myself and SPN intern Brittany Mascio.

You only get half of it in this photo... but it was pretty darn epic.

GREATEST HUGZ and GREATEST FASHIONZ awards both go to Steve Gordon of RDQLUS fame.

We had a great little talk after yesterdays sessions, and he gave me an awesome bro hug. It was so manly. Plus, there's something about hugging a man with RDQLUS gear on. It's a very affirming thing. So beautiful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Alright- Dusty and Jeff just came on stage... the last day begins! It's time to get going...

All images were taken by Malone & Company and can be found on the Silicon Prairie News Flickr.

How I Won A Contest

2011-05-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

For the last few years the good folks at Silicon Prairie News have helped to organize an innovative conference for designers, techies and entrepenuers in the heart of Omaha. They call it "BIG OMAHA". Last year was the first time that I really became interested in being a part of this unique, annual experience. Unfortunately, it was scheduled during the week of my wedding! So this year, I was really looking forward to going...

But when the 2011 Big Omaha details were announced, I realized that I might have a hard time convincing my wife, Megan, that it would be worth the cost. We had recently switched to a cash budget system and had been trying really hard to be good stewards with our money. (Especially since we are expecting our first child in August, and Megan won't be working for long) But by the time I had figured out a way to pay for my Big Omaha ticket, I discovered that the event had been sold out! Obviously I was forlorn.

Then suddenly- just a couple weeks before the event itself, a very creative local web design company known as "What Cheer" announced a contest. Whoever could color their cow the best, would win a free ticket to Big Omaha. I was ecstatic! This was the chance I needed! But what should I do?

When I first printed the pdf, it accidentally printed vertically... like this:

I liked it! The added space above and below the cow, filled me with creativity. Already I started imagining little caricatures of Omaha's tech culture surrounding the little cow. SPN's prairie dog... the Secret Penguin... perhaps Princess Lasertron and her baby in some sort of spacecraft. Perfect! I just knew this personal touch could set me apart. But what about the cow herself?

Then I had it-

Inside the What Cheer headquarters there is an entire wall covered in a very iconic black and white floral design wallpaper. I thought it would be cool to meticulously re-create this pattern on my cow. So I first looked it up...

Woah! The pattern was a lot more intricate than I had remembered. But nevertheless I began to try and dissect it in photoshop...

But as I began to lightly sketch the basic pattern into my cow- I accidentally dropped some food on it. The paper was ruined! I went upstairs to my wife to tell her I was giving up. Who was I fooling? I couldn't win! There's probably hundreds of awesome artists submitting drawings. But to my surprise, Megan encouraged me to keep going at it! She thought I had a solid concept!

AMAZING WIFE

INSPIRATION

And so, with newfound inspiration I printed out another copy of the cow... and set to work. But before sketching, I did some super-sleuthing for images on the web to base my artwork off of:

Then I began sketching...

Then I began inking in with Sukura Micron pens...

All done inking!

Steve Gordon of RDQLUS Creative with OXIDE Design's beagle "Rosie".

John Henry Muller of WHAT CHEER fame with the Twitter bird.

Princess Lasertron's Megan Hunt, and her adorable baby sidekick Alice.

Silicon Prairie News' Prairie Dog and the Secret Penguin mascot.

Typography

Then I colored it all in with colored pencils! Like a child would!

In the end, I decided against the intricate What Cheer pattern on the cow, and simply turned her spots into the words "BIG OMAHA". I still think the floral design was a great concept, but it just would have been too difficult to execute effectively on such a small cow. (Printing vertically severely shrunk my bovine.)

I finished the drawing at 2am this Tuesday morning- the day it had to be postmarked by! After only 3 hours of sleep, I took Megan to her job at Starbucks and then waited around in the cafe until the downtown Post Office opened at 7:30. Did I have a chance?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This afternoon I was pulling out of a Target parking lot with my wife and brother... when I heard a Twitter notification on my phone. I stopped the car.

"It's What Cheer- I just know it!" I exclaimed out loud. "I won that contest!"

As I pulled out my phone, I squinted through the sun's glare on my screen. I could barely believe my eyes:

I was right. I suddenly felt like Charlie Bucket winning that Golden ticket. All my dreams were about to come true!

By the time I got home, my design was all over Twitter and Facebook. I felt like an instant celebrity. I could hardly believe I was going to Big Omaha!

Special thanks to @JohnHenryMuller and @WhatCheer for coming up with this awesome contest! It was tons of fun to be a part of. Also, thanks to @Slobotski and @SiliconPrairie for creating the amazing experience that is @BigOmaha- I can hardly wait!

Also, just want to shout out to all my new and old Twitter friends that were so encouraging to me today: @LaurenChristie, @JordanJohnson23, @DannyAway, @GreatDecay, @RamHatter, @Image_Made, @JeffSpiehs, @AGOutLoud, and @DanHolke

Sweet Action Creative

2011-04-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

Branding a company is always challenging. Every client has his/her own preferences and desires...and every designer has his/her own preferences and desires as well. Sometimes these preferences and desires line up- and the client and designer can work well together to collaborate on an amazing design. Oftentimes, however, differences between client and designer will exist throughout the entire process, and both will have to make compromises in their wishes.

Creating a brand for visionary film-maker Jonathan Kayser proved to be a very challenging yet rewarding experience. Not only is Jon a very talented and industrious film-maker, he's also one of my closest friends of the last 5 years (he was a groomsman in my wedding!). On top of all this, he has a very visual eye. Just a simple look at his demo reel (below) shows that he has an acute sense of design: typography, color, layout, and memorability. It is seldom that I've worked for a client with such an eye. I knew up front that Jon was going to have input and ideas. I wouldn't be surprised if he even drew *me a couple pictures...

And draw he did! And I did too. Back and forth we went, over a period of a few months. We also threw another young designer, Skylar Hartman, into the mix. He provided another voice of reason and originality to our decision making process.

Below is a few of the sketches and mockups that we came up with over the span of this project. As you can see, there was a lot of changes along the way!

And here's the final design!

And here's the new logo incorporated into Jon's powerful, jaw-dropping demo reel:

Show Reel 2010 - Sweet Action Creative from Jonathan Kayser on Vimeo.

Interactive Website Vol. 1

2011-03-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

In partnership with Clinch Mountain Communications, Fruitful Design has begun it's first real web project: an interactive e-learning website for a division of NOAA! The site will feature flash games, quizzes, and loveable, interactive characters. Pretty much everything fun...

Lisa Eller (an old co-worker of mine at the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative) contacted me about designing an e-learning website for NOAA, back in October. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Coral Reef Initiative (CNMI-CRI) wanted a site to teach kids about monitoring coral reefs, in a fun and engaging way.

Immediately I got a hold of Ken Griffith from Clinch Mountain Communications. Ken is a web programmer that has helped me with both fruitful-design.com and benlueders.com. He was eager to place a bid on the project.

In addition to Ken, I contacted my brother Abram Lueders who also has worked with me for the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative. Abe is an expert at flash animation, so I knew his skills would come in handy.

After designing a beautiful and detailed proposal- we waited. CNMI-CRI looked at several different bids. At the end of the day, however, we were selected for the project! It was still several months before everything could be approved, and we received our deposit (a normal processing time when working with a government organization). And so- in March 2011, we embarked on this grand adventure...

Right now I am in the process of designing all of the illustrative/graphic elements- as well as laying out the plans for the entire site. Here's a sneak peak into the process:

We'll keep you posted on future updates!

Reef Pulse Hawaii Sneak Peak!

2011-03-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

Reef Pulse Hawaii is an interactive, colorful, illustrative science curriculum that I have had the opportunity to design for the last 5 years or so. Thousands of illustrations and revisions later we are finally coming to the end of this magical project. So now it's time to package and brand this thing...

Reef Pulse Hawaii is a product of the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative- an organization I have been employed by since I first started college back in 2004. The curriculum has grown-up and evolved over the years, and now contains pages upon pages of full-color vibrant illustrations for both kids and teachers to enjoy!

Designing an identity and packaging such a diverse and youthful curriculum is proving to be quite the project! Below is simply a sneak peak at what I'm working on right now. These designs are not finalized- they're a work in progress.

(All images are property of the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative.)

24

2011-02-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

Expectations- we all have them. Some childish. Some lofty. Some fleeting. Some persistent. Every year our birthday becomes a vantage point to gaze out upon our sea of expectations, and evaluate ourselves. Do I measure up? Do I live up to my own expectations? Am I becoming who I always wanted to be? Do I know who I want to be? Do I know who I'm becoming?

Of course there have been years of disappointment. Ruts that we just can't seem to get out of. We look back on our year and we don't see any growth- we don't see any change. The sum of our choices adds up to something far less than the greatness that we, deep down, had always wished to achieve. We are vetted by sin, weighed down by mediocrity, and blinded by short-sightedness. Sometimes the sheer uncertainty of the future can be paralyzing.

I turned 24 today.

24 seems like such a milestone. And now 23 seems so unimportant in comparison. I don't really know what it is. Maybe it's because there's 24 hours in a day. Maybe I just saw the number 24 in my multiplication tables more often than 23 as a child. Maybe it doesn't really matter.

24 just sounds kinda old to me. I'm not a teenager anymore. I didn't just turn 20. I've been old enough to drink for years now. I'm closer to 30... than I've ever been. I'm no longer college-aged. (Unless, of course, I was going for my Master's. Which, of course, I'm not.)

But I'm happy today. Really, truly happy.

No, I haven't lived up to all of my own expectations. Not every dream I've ever had has been completely fulfilled- but almost. As I look back on my 24 years of existence, I can truly say I'm content. I'm happy. And I'm more excited about life, than I've ever been...

At 24 I'm surrounded on all sides by family that love me, and want what's best for me. At 24 I belong to a community of good, deep friends that care about me, and are a part of my life on a regular basis. At 24 I am a part of a church that preaches the gospel and spurs me on to more and more spiritual formation and service every week. At 24 I have my own grand piano, that is fully paid off, and I have the blessing of being able to teach a handful of amazing piano students every week. At 24 I have a job that I used to dream of as a kid- getting paid to draw animals from home all day. At 24 I am starting up my own graphic design and illustration business, and have had an energizing time getting to know other designers and small business owners in the Omaha area. At 24 many evenings and weekends are filled with music, since so may of my closest friends share my passion for original music. At 24 I'm working on my second personal album project, and have had the opportunity to contribute to friend's recording projects . At 24 I have the privilege of being able to assist my church body with leading corporate worship on Sunday mornings. At 24 I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a homeowner, and have been honored to lay down my roots in north Benson. At 24 I am delighted to be called husband by the most amazing and beautiful of all the young ladies I have ever known. At 24- I am proud to be called, for the first time, "Father". And at 24, sin has less of a hold on my life, and Jesus is a closer friend than ever before.

Life is good for me- better than I could have imagined in years past. Looking forward to the next 24...

GMTT #13: Megalodon Artwork

2011-02-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

Ok- God didn't make these paintings, but He did make the enormous dinosaur shark that they're based off of. Remember the Megalodon? It was a little bit bigger than Jaws... and apparently did nothing but eat whales and plesiosaurs all day:

Megalodon on the Wikipedia.

GMTT #12: Slow Loris

2011-02-18T15:14:00.000-08:00

Creepy people- cute animal...

Some pictures of this adorable and seemingly snuggly wild animal:

Slow Loris on Wikipedia

GMTT #11: Vietnamese Grasshopper

2011-02-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Evil Robot Grasshopper! (From Space!)

Not sure what it's actual name is- I found it on a photographer's blog. It's worth clicking the below link to check out some of Vietnam's other amazing insect life!

CRAZY VIETNAM BUGGIES!!!

GMTT #10: Dragon's Blood Trees

2011-02-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

Despite their uncanny resemblance to alien spacecraft, these trees are surprisingly just trees. (But they do bleed red sap!)

These amazing plants can only be found on the exclusive Island of Socotra. Stay tuned for more posts from Socotra... that island is flat-out RAD...

Dragon's Blood Trees on Wikipedia

An Adventure In Sound

2011-02-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

"... let me warn you all in advance- this is going to be a very different album. So far it is becoming an experimental fusion of both electronic and acoustic sounds. Synthesizers, pianos, digital beats, field recordings, guitars, vocals, and ukulele rhythms blending together in large, seamless sound. And things have only just begun..."

I realize that many of you don't know that in late 2008 I had the unique opportunity to go to the country of China. I accompanied an american pastor to three key cities, helping to develop leaders in the ever-growing underground church movement. The things that I heard, saw and tasted, were far beyond what I ever could have anticipated. These things changed me forever.

During the 3 weeks of intense travel and training I found time to write 7 songs based on some of my experiences overseas. Anticipating inspiration, I thankfully brought along my trusty Ukulele which served as a vehicle for my music.

When I returned from China, I held a small one man concert/presentation at the Omaha Foundry, to tell of my travels and share my songs. The event was well attended and well received- despite a handful of technical difficulties that I encountered that night. My good friend Andrew Denekas even made a rough audio recording of the event. After it all, I was excited. I had every intention to record a China album as soon as possible.

Not long after my China presentation, however, my life took many different turns. Soon I was coming out with my first album "This Battle"... then I found myself engaged to the girl of my dreams... which in turn began inspiring completely different kinds of songs. These love songs written during 2009 and 2010 are some of my favorite songs yet- many of which were written with the help of my lovely (now) bride. Of course, as soon as the Megan songs started developing, I knew that they needed to be on an album.

After getting married in May of 2010, however, I began to realize that in order to make an album that would do the Megan songs justice, I would need to grow in both my recording knowledge and my musicality. I needed to work on a recording where I could experiment with different styles and sounds. An album that could be different than anything I had ever done. But what?

Then it happened. In late 2010, Andrew Denekas (who else?) posted a message on my Facebook wall. He wanted to know if I had recorded any of my China songs yet. I quickly replied that that was to be next recording project. It was just what I needed to be working on. I had waited long enough.

And so, for the last few weeks, I have begun to lay down the scratch tracks for my China album. And let me warn you all in advance- this is going to be a *very different album. So far it is becoming an experimental fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds. Synthesizers, pianos, digital beats, field recordings, guitars, vocals, and ukulele rhythms blending together in a large, seamless sound. And things have only just begun.

Please stay posted for updates. You can follow my latest adventures on my Twitter.

Much love.

GMTT #9: Running Crocodile

2011-02-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Just in case you thought you were safe on land...
(Just look at this guy go!)

(Also, don't wanna be a Kent Hovind or anything but... the blurb about "Ee-volution" at the end is just kinda silly!)

GMTT #8: Saiga

2011-02-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

When a Gazelle marries an Elephant Seal...
...you get a Saiga?

Saiga on Wikipedia

GMTT #7: Frilled Shark

2011-01-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

A little bit scary. (But still pretty sweet.)

Apparently they always swim with their mouth open.

Frilled Shark on the Wikipedia

GMTT #6: Sea Pig

2011-01-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

Finally a sea cucumber that walks.
What we have all secretly hoped for.

(Apparently they look more "pig-like" when taken out of water.)

Sea Pigs on the Wikipedia

GMTT #5: Japanese Giant Salamander

2011-01-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Japan's true inspiration for Godzilla.

(Don't you just want to give it a big hug?)

Japanese Giant Salamander on Wikipedia

GMTT #4: Pink Fairy Armadillo

2011-01-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

Because Pink Fairies are the first thing this image evokes.

Okay this next one looks a little pinker/fairy-like (Woah! Is this someone's pet? Pet win.)

Of course, this post would not be complete without this beloved Pink Fairy Armadillo rap. Enjoy!

Pink Fairy Armadillo on Wikipedia

GMTT #3: Elephant Fish

2011-01-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Shark voted most likely to be picked on.

(But check out what it can do with it's nose!)

Elephant Shark on Wikipedia

GMTT #2: Rosy-Lipped Batfish

2011-01-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

Might kiss you...
but definitely won't be happy about it. (And...are those legs?)

Rosy-Lipped Batfish on Wikipedia

GMTT #1: Budgett's Frog

2011-01-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

And here's the creature that started it all.
When I stumbled on this beautiful portrait of a hefty Budgett's Frog a couple months ago, I was all like: "Dang! There's some crazy creations out there that should be featured on a blog!"

Thus the "God Made This Thing" blog was born.

As a designer, I get inspired when I see other designer's creative, crazy, original designs. As a human, it astounds me that the most creative, crazy, original stuff can still be found in the created world. Our creator has a pretty impressive never-before-seen portfolio.

So... take this Industrial Light and Magic.

Budgett's Frog on the Wikipedia

The Window And The Scarf

2010-12-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

On a frosty December night, a few Omaha musicians gathered at The Benson Grind and shared some of their latest creations. I was one of those musicians. My set was a melencholy assortment of wintery anthems, including a couple new songs...

This song is about forgiveness, longing, and restoration. In short, it's about the human condition. All of us want things to be set right. All of us want to be totally accepted by those we love. But deep down we all know that earthly acceptance and love will somehow never truly be enough. This song is about that frustration...and that hope.

This song is a look back at where Megan and I were a year ago. It's about the struggles, temptations, and longings of engagement- particulary engagement amidst the cold of winter. The warmth and joy of this winter (our first winter as husband and wife) is somewhat deepened when we remember the trials of last winter. As somber as the song may be, the ending is an anthem of joy. "Last year I used to dream about it... now I still dream... but now my dreams come true."

Piano Day

2010-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

After playing piano for two Coram Deo church services, I sat back down at the Suckau chapel's YAMAHA grand to record the piano tracks for Eric Goodell's upcoming album. Cody Bailey was the recording genius responsible for making the piano sound fantastic. And boy did he deliver! I couldn't believe how crisp and clear the notes sounded in my headphones.

We started recording at 1pm and were packing things up by 6. It was a joy working with both Cody and Eric.

(We definitely could not have achieved what we did yesterday without the help of Little Ceasar's "Hot-N-Ready" pizza. Thank you Little Ceasar.)

Eric's Upcoming Album

2010-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today, I spent the afternoon with the amazing Eric Goodell, hammering out my piano parts for his upcoming album. It was an enjoyable yet tiring day to be sure.

Eric, along with his equally amazing girlfriend/violin player Sara Bray, came to our house at noon, with all of the components of a fantastic French Dip lunch. After both preparing and partaking in the scrumptious meal (while enjoying the cool, sunny breeze coming from the open windows of our house) Eric and I sat down at my baby grand piano and began to figure out my parts. Sara went into a seperate room to work on her violin parts.

We spent the next 6 hours collaborating, listening, creating, drinking coffee and laughing with each other. Below is a preview of one of today's lighter moments. Please enjoy!:

Tomorrow my parts will be recorded on the Yamaha grand at the Suckau Chapel directly after the Coram Deo church services. After our practice today, I am feeling much more confident and excited about recording.

Eric is being recorded and produced by the sensational Cody Bailey (of Akita Ken fame) and I'm really looking forward to see his recording processes first hand.

Spacewalking

2010-09-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

When I first heard of Omaha Creative Week a couple months ago, I marked my calendar. I'm generally a pretty busy guy these days, but I really wanted to visit at least one of the many creative local events planned for this week. (In the event that you've never heard of Omaha Creative Week- you really need to be following siliconprairienews.com much more often. In fact, just get into a habit of checking them out on a regular basis. You can never over-do it.)

As "the week" approached, I began to look at the planned events. One really caught my eye:

Omaha Creative Week's CREATIVE SPACEWALK

For those of you that didn't click the above link like you were supposed to, allow me to explain. The "Spacewalk" is a free event sponsored by some of the biggest graphic design firms in Omaha. A bus picks participants up from the westroads mall and then proceeds to transport them throughout the city, making stops at a number of the most influential design firms in Omaha. At each stop, the designers give the "spacewalkers" a tour of their facilities and explain their creative processes.

This sounded awesome.

So I put in a vacation request to work, and I signed my wife and I up for the ride.

SPACE #1: PHENOMBLUE

Phenomblue is the premier web design firm of Omaha. Seriously. They don't mess around. Their clients include such names as Frito-Lay, McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Yes, you read that correctly- Coca-frickin'-Cola. Their office is pretty legit too. They had some awesome motivational slogans on the walls (I wish I had some). Meg and I got distracted from the rest of the group because we got chatting with their friendly studio manager "Lisa".

Also, their coffee wasn't too bad and their muffins were delicious.

SPACE #2: OXIDE DESIGN

I've known about Oxide design for years. When I was in the graphic design program at MCC years ago, everyone was talking about them. One of their designers even came to my portfolio review and looked at some of my stuff (can't remember if he liked any of it). I even pass their glowing neon sign in front of their 39th and Farnam office all the time. I've often dreamed of one day being able to play with the legos displayed in their storefront window and use the old telephone booth in the corner of their lobby. Today my dreams came true.

Not only do they have a cool space filled with tons of vintage toys and posters, but I really was inspired by some of their design ideas, and the collaboration of their designers. For example, when Oxide begins a design project, they start out by putting a large sheet of paper on a little table. Then they all sit at the table together and just start sketching out all their ideas. One of their designers, Adam Torpin, showed me one of the papers they used to design the new Metro logo. It was awesome. They had a lot of sweet sketchies.

Also, they gave us cool stickers, animal magnets, and excellent donuts. Unfortunately their coffee sucked.

SPACE #3: REBEL INTERACTIVE

Rebel Interactive is a local design firm that I have passed by many times without realizing it was a local design firm. (Located on south 13th Street, Rebel is just a block away from CORE Community Church's Offices.) Their space is, admittedly, very cool. Their conference room contains both an actual motorcycle and a full drumset. How much more rebellious can you get? We were greeted at the door by their crazy-haired CFO, Caroline Wilson, and given a brief history of their company. I could've used a little more info about what they actually do, and what kind of clients they have, but at least they gave us awesome ball point pens with their logo on the side.

SPACE #4: WHAT CHEER

Next up, we took a trip to the Mastercraft building on N 13th St in the heart of downtown Omaha. The first space we visited in the building was the "What Cheer" design headquarters, and we were immediately greeted by the bright, young face of renown Omaha designer John Henry Müller. Mr. Müller was funny and inviting, and was quick to explain the odd name of the design firm that he co-owns. Apparently "What Cheer" is the name of a small town in Iowa that he and his wife used to drive by years ago. They jokingly said that if they ever formed a rock band, they would name themselves after that small Iowa town. However, since neither of them are musical in any way, they ended up naming their innovative design firm "What Cheer" instead.

Mr. Müller decided to take the few minutes we had in his workspace to take us all over to a big screen on the wall and show us some of the sweet websites that his firm had recently developed. This was pure awesome. Here's some of the awesome sites he showed us:

MIND MIXER

JEFFREY KOTERBA

VERDIS GROUP

SPACE #5: SECRET PENGUIN

Next door to What Cheer, is a little design company called Secret Penguin. Now, I've known about Secret Penguin for a long time. (It's hard to forget a name like that.) I know they specialize in youth branding. I know that all their designers are into skateboarding. I also know a lot of people who know Secret Penguin's Creative Director, Dave Nelson. They all say he's "the nicest guy in the world." (And he must be nice- since he accepted my facebook friend request months ago without knowing me from Adam.)

On our spacewalk, Dave lived up to his good reputation. He came across as a very humble, friendly, gracious, creative individual willing to answer anybody's questions. But, unfortunately, I still didn't get a chance to shake his hand. My wife and I got talking to Penguin's web guy "Jason". Thankfully he was pretty cool too.

SPACE #6: MINORWHITE STUDIOS

Still in the Mastercraft building, and just down the hall from Secret Penguin, is the home of Minorwhite Studios- a photography outfit. Being the premier Omaha photography studio that they are, I had seen a lot of their work around town. And yes, as you guessed, their stuff is pretty good. However, my wife and I got talking to a fellow Spacewalker named Andy Stoll, who just got back from Europe working on a very interesting project. It was also hard to pay attention to Minorwhite's Scott Drickey since the small, vibrant Megan Hunt from CAMP Coworking next door, kept fidgeting around on a little scooter right next to him...

SPACE #7: CAMP COWORKING

Also housed in the spacious Omaha Masterworks building, CAMP is the brainchild of the entrepreneurial Megan Hunt. Megan has been running a fancy blog toting her hand-made bridal wares for a number of years, and she recently launched the CAMP workspace as a place for creative types to collaborate and work near each other. For a low monthly fee, some local designers have set up their design studios in this creative environment, while others choose to come for occasional inspiration with a day pass. My wife and I attended CAMP's grand opening a couple months before, so some of the faces there were familiar.

Inside CAMP, Miss Hunt had traded her scooter in for a stroller, where her adorable baby "Alice" tried not disrupt the group. My wife and I immediately recognized Micheal and Kristen DeKay of Image Made Design, and so we went over and chatted for a little while. We also finally got to meet the outgoing Steve Gordon Jr. (of RDQLUS Design) that has been showing up at every coffee house my wife and I have visited recently. It was nice to know that he wasn't trying to stalk us, and that he's a super cool guy.

After saying good bye to Steve, Meg and I climbed back on the Spacewalk bus headed to the Westroads Mall for lunch. After lunch there would be a second stage of the tour, but unfortunately we had to get going...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In all, the Spacewalk was a fun way to put faces and spaces with some of Omaha's most innovative and creative design firms. It was refreshing to see so many bright, young designers that were making good designs, enjoying it, and also making a living at it. Omaha is a cool, creative place to live. Don't let nobody tell you otherwise.

Gospel Centered Life Promo

2010-09-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

Jon Kayser is a deep thinker, visionary artist, and remarkable human being. I met him four years ago (almost to the day), and since then we have grown up together, been in each other's weddings, and collaborated and critiqued each other on many creative projects.

It's always a pleasure to work with and for Jon Kayser.

In addition to Jon's growing reputation as one of the nation's youngest and most innovative political media directors, Jon also volunteers his film creativity and resources to help his (and my) church, Coram Deo. When I found out that Jon was making a short promo video for a new Coram Deo sermon series, I immediately let him know that I would be interested in helping him out in any way that I could.

The main thing that Jon's project was lacking, was a fitting soundtrack. I knew he had a tight turnaround, but I really wanted to take a stab at it. So the Tuesday before the video was supposed to debut, Jon took me over to his house and showed me all the footage that he had taken the weekend before. This gave me a feel for the mood and style of the video. For the next few days, we skyped each other back and forth late into the night- Jon would have Final Cut Pro open, sending me Vimeo links of his latest film cuts, and I would be composing in Logic Pro, sending condensed mp3s of my latest compositions.

By that saturday it was finally finished:

Gospel-Centered Life Intro from Coram Deo Church on Vimeo.

And here's the Song for download: GCL PROMO TRACK

Check out these awesome pictures of the filming from blogger and friend Tyler Zach:

To see more of Jon Kayser's amazing portfolio check click here.

(Also, Fruitful Design, in partnership with California-based Hartman Collective, is currently working on branding Jon Kayser's booming film and motion graphics business.)

Zach Short Illustration

2010-07-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

When I heard that my buddy Zach Short's new CD would be coming out soon. I was inspired. I immediately went and drew a sketch...

After scanning, the next step was to simply apply some color in photoshop. Kinda like coloring a coloring book picture when you were a little kid:

Of course there was some little details that had to be done...

Eventually I want this image to be a poster for Zach's upcoming CD release, so I drew out some hand written letters and inserted them into the composition...

So, after coloring the letters, and super-imposing over a grungy, free texture I found online...

Ta-da!:

Married Folks

2010-06-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

So...I haven't really posted anything on here for awhile. You know this. And most of you know why.

But in case you don't know...

I got married.

I, Ben Lueders, took Megan Knight to be my lawfully wedded wife. And now we live together. In the same house. And she's now called "Megan Lueders". And we're both very happy.

I haven't written anything in awhile, because I really wanted my first blog post after our wedding and honeymoon to be an amazingly elaborate and beautiful tale of love and adventure.

But apparently I haven't gotten there yet.

So instead... I thought I'd just put up this short little bloggy tidbit...to remind people that I'm still breathing, and that I'm doing better than I've *ever been doing...and that I still love all of you so much. (Especially if you're Megan Lueders. Yeah, you're pretty much the best.)

But still stay tuned for that *AMAZING* post, ok?

For now, you can just check out these Awesome pictures:

AWESOME PICTURES

Fruitful-Design.com

2010-04-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

So I finally did it...

with the help of the amazing Ken Griffith of Clinch Mountain Communications,"fruitful-design.com" is finally off the ground! Check it out...and send all your poorly designed friends over for some help.

Elisebeth

2010-02-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

Elisebeth liked me...

...but I did not like Elisebeth.

I would climb a tree.

So Elisebeth would climb after me...singing.

(Trying to sing a love song...or something like that.)

I would climb down the tree.

During the olympics

we watched a male gymnast do the "Iron Cross".

Elisebeth exclaimed: "I CAN DO THE IRON CROSS!!!"

I thought to myself: "I don't think Elisebeth can do the Iron Cross."

One time...when it was snowing outside,

Elisebeth came up to me.

She just wanted to play...

...I just wanted to go inside.

So I just ignored her and walked towards my house.

"BEN!!!" She cried,

"DO YOU NOT LIKE ME!!!???"

I stopped in my tracks.

I felt badly, but I did not want to lie.

So I turned around and yelled:

"Well...

...I don't HATE you!"

I didn't see Elisebeth very much after that.

Archie Sags

2010-01-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

One time Archie came to our door...

...and he was "sagging".

We didn't know what sagging was.

We didn't know that sagging was supposed to be cool.

All we knew was that we could see Archie's underwear...in public.

So we said to Archie,

"Archie! We can see your underwear!"

Archie smiled,

"It's called sagging...everybody's doing it...it's very cool."

We just stared at his Hanes peeking through.

Archie smiled.

Then he dropped his pants ALL the way down to his ankles.

"See?" Archie said, "Cool."

I still don't think that was cool.

Archie And The Fossils

2010-01-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

One day in Hawaii, I found a baby Protoceratops fossil under a tree.

It was real.

Archie knew it was real...and he wanted it.

So he said he'd give me this awesome Velociraptor claw he found,if I gave him my fossil.

Velociraptors always trump Protoceratops...

So I gave it to him.

Unfortunately, Archie never could find that Velociraptor claw.

...I'm beginning to think that Archie may have tricked me.

The Great William Chase

2010-01-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

One time,

when Abe and William were being the confederate army,

William got mad at Justin.

Abe is the only one that actually saw it,

but William smashed Justin's toy rifle against a stump.

William ran...

...and Abe told the North.

What ensued has come to be known as "The Great William Chase".

At one point I almost had him...

...but he got away.

I don't think William ever played Civil War with us again.

William

2010-01-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

William was a gross kid.

He slobbered when he talked

and he always talked too fast.

He liked Chocolate "Snowballs" with Marshmallow on top,

so he always had marshmallow stuck around his mouth.

When we played Civil War,

we'd always make him be on the Confederate army with Abe.

He also would show people his privates...

WIlliam was a gross kid.

David's Bike

2010-01-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

David Bathras was a jerk.

So one day,

when he left his bike behind Robby's house,

I let all the air out of his tires.

I guess Ben Lueders was kind of a jerk too.

MLK Day

2010-01-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

Our family never celebrated Halloween,

'cause it's evil.

So when I was 6, mom decided to teach us about Reformation Day.

She read Martin Luther's story from a book,

about the 95 theses,

the diet of worms,

and Tetzel's coin in the coffer.

When mom had finished reading, she said:

"Now let's act out the Reformation!

Jake, you can be Martin Luther."

I glanced at my older brother Jake,

and then smiled knowingly at my mom...

she didn't have a clue!

So I took her aside,

and looked deep into her face

with my wise, six-year-old eyes,

and said:

"Mom, Jake can't be Martin Luther...

...he's not black!"

David Bathras

2010-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

David Bathras was a jerk.

Every time we let him join the "Critter Club",

he'd squish a grub,

or throw a toad against a tree.

Then we'd kick him out of the Critter Club again.

At which point he'd say he was very sorry

and that he would never harm another critter ever again.

So we'd let him join the Critter Club again.

Then he'd squish a grub,

or throw a toad against a tree.

David Bathras was a jerk.

Dinosaurs in Marley Creek

2010-01-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

One evening, when we lived in Maryland,

dad took us boys to Marley Creek.

Abe was little and riding on dad's shoulders.

Jake had some new flip-flops.

Dad pointed out towards the forested Island

in the middle of the creek.

"Y'know," he said, "dinosaurs still live on that Island."

My wide eyes stared at the dark outlines of trees

pressed against the bright orange of a sunset sky.

I could actually see the dinosaurs.

I hope dad got a kick out of that.

I believed there were dinosaurs in Marley Creek for a long time.

An Amazing Dad

2010-01-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

As I was scooping snow off the deck of my house the other morning,

a thought struck me:

When my dad was my age,

he had already been married for almost 3 years...

...and he had a good mustache.

My dad is amazing.

George and Tabitha

2010-01-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

I used to have a little stuffed gorilla named George.
My best friend Craig had a stuffed bear named Tabitha.
Sometimes craig would put his mom's lipstick on Tabitha.

One day George and Tabitha decided to get married.
They exchanged vows...
...kissed...

But then Craig and I thought it was gross that our stuffed animals got married to each other.

George and Tabitha got a speedy divorce.

The Sketchy Details

2010-01-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

So... my fantastic fiance bought me this sweet, handmade leather sketch-journal from "etsy.com" for Christmas. And as all you fellow sketchers know, a great sketchbook inspires great sketches. Yeah...so there.

Actually, it was kinda scary to open this thing up for the first time...the ghostly white pages made me kinda nervous. The truth is, I've really slacked off on my doodling for a while now. I mean, when I was a kid, you couldn't stop me from scrawling T-Rex's and Boba Fett's all over any given flat surface. But now, I have to force myself to just start doodling no matter how childish...no matter how crazy...

Here are some highlights...

This is the front page of the journal. Just a crazy doodle really. (Meg did the adorable bumble-bee at the top.)

So I recently started re-watching the original Star Wars movies with my younger siblings... and was immediately reminded of why I wanted to be called "Han Solo" for 3 years of my childhood. That guy is so awesome it's not even funny. Seriously.

This kinda started as a sketch of my dad...and then I must have gotten bored and just started drawing drawing random cartoony creatures. The bear is my favorite. What should we call him? (How about Gus?)

Just some crazy monkey sketches...

Just some crazy frog sketches. (Sorry about that "Sleazy Frog"...got a little carried away there. Wow...)

Just a little primer on frogs...and yeah...that's a toad at the bottom. I know.

And yes, the "Creepy Award" goes to this sketch...from the top left-hand corner of the monkey page. This'll keep the kids up at night for sure...

The Man Who Saved Christmas (Again)

2010-01-07T14:02:00.000-08:00

Leslie Wells (the man who single-handedly saved the Foundry Christmas Party with a Holiday Miracle that indeed may have saved all of Christmas itself) arranged a last-minute Christmas party in his hometown of "Starbucks".

Literally a day before the concert was scheduled to commence, Leslie happened to bump into the humble Ben Lueders and the kindly Eric Goodell in a church parking lot. He asked if these two new friends would be able to save Christmas with him once again. "Of course" we said. Was there another answer?

These stunning images were taken by the phenomonal Jon Kayser...and his trusty Camera:

Ah, and one last parting shot: Kindly Eric Goodell, the outstanding Sarah Bray, Leslie Wells himself...and the humble Ben Lueders (looking quite like a wax sculpture.)

"How many times have YOU saved Christmas?"

Foundry Xmas Party

2010-01-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

From Blog Pix

Keeping Winter Warm

2010-01-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

So our beloved musician/friend "Zach Short" came up with this really great idea to have a bunch of us Omaha musicians host a concert in cooperation with "The Market Church" (http://themarketchurch.com) to help raise support for those less fortunate in our community. The shindig went down on Dec 5th 2009.

The featured artists were: Zach Short, Ben Lueders, Chris "The Whale" Atkins, Danny Sabra, and Micah Bruce.

At the very last minute, however, Micah bailed on us... so I had to change the flyer on Facebook. Like this:

(It was kinda easy, since Micah was already at the bottom...)

Admission to this event was in the form of items you have an excess of...that could go to someone who might not have any at all i.e. blankets, mittens, scarves, socks, etc.

The biggest mistake we made, was that we scheduled the event on the same night as the biggest Husker game of all time. (Apparently) So, in the end...not a whole lot of people showed up. Yeah. But the good news is that we still gathered a LOT of stuff for the poor in our community... and the show was REALLY great! Here's some snapshots from undercover photographer "Kayla Roth". Enjoy!:

Historic Jam

2010-01-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

On November 19th 2010, a historic jam took place at 6622 Hartman Ave.

Zach Short, Micah Bruce, Danny Sabra, and Chris "The Whale" Atkins met at Ben Lueders' quaint home to prepare for the upcoming "Keeping Winter Warm" show to be held at 1314 Jones St. on December 5th. It was a night that these men will not soon forget. It was somewhat, highly magical. Observe:

Never did Ben dream that his humble dwelling could one day aspire to such greatness as this.

Micah Bruce, his golden-brown locks billowing in the still, warm air, provides a pleasant distraction from the night's serious tone.

After losing his beloved mustache in a tragic game of chance, Danny Sabra sings his heart out on "Hallelujah"...as if it were his last song...his ONLY song...

Ben, always on keys, keeps his guests in an affectionate, all-encompassing gaze.

Fueled by a perfect mixture of adolescent angst and the love of his charming girlfriend "Kate", Zach Short's face says to all, "I am surely too cool for musician such as these...but I will stay nonetheless."

Still recovering from the shock of his most recent escape from Sea World, Chris "The Whale" Atkins, looks to replace the trama and hurt of the past few years with his newfound love of music.

The crew.

Bros.

Sportin' Waves

2009-09-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

From Blog Pix

As many of you may be aware, for the last year or so, my hair has gradually formed a very iconic peak, which has been popularly coined a "faux-hawk". Or as my future mother-in-law calls it, a "duck-butt". Yes, I prefer the former.

One thing you may not know is that I embarked on a serious quest to discover just the right substance to hold my famous crest in place. Most gels end up flaky, and dry. Many pomades cannot endure for more than a few hours. I found these truths out the hard way, as I began to throw more and more money into failed hair-care purchases.

Then, on an emergency run to a "No-Frills" grocery store on the south-side of town, I saw a hair pomade that I had never seen before: "Sportin' Waves" by "Soft-Sheen Carson". Maximum Hold it read in the small sunburst on the side. It was far more affordable than the other pomades, so I decided I'd give it a go...

And it stuck. (Literally!)

"Sportin Waves" was able to keep my "faux-hawk" molded and glistening throughout the day. With just a tiny finger-tip of it's waxy goodness, I was able to mold and re-mold my hair as easily as silly putty. I absolutely loved it!Although it only took a little dab to keep my image up, I was gradually running out of my "Sportin Waves". Finally I decided it was time to buy some more. This morning I put "Waves" at the top of my grocery list as I headed out the door to SuperTarget.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As I walked down the hair-care aisles at Target, I was astounded by some of the prices for just a little tub of pomade. Twelve Dollars. Fifteen dollars. Seriously? Then I saw it... Sportin' Waves! For only Four Dollars...it was perfect.

Well...maybe not so perfect...

It was then that I made my frightening discovery: I was standing in the "Ethnic HairCare" section!!! All around me were shampoos, gels, dyes, and pomades bearing faces that were of a much darker shade then mine, and a hair-type that was much different than mine. Afros and Corn-rows as far as the eye could see. "Sportin-Waves"...was for...BLACK people!

Now don't get me wrong, friends...I'm not a racist! I love black people...I've had lots of friends that are black. I love them. (And I loved them even before it was cool to say that you have black friends) And it was from this sense of love and kindredness that I have with my African American neighbors, that kept me from placing that pomade in my cart. "What will they think of me?" I thought. After all, I would be making a mockery out of what appeared to be one of the most popular Black Hair-care products.

And so I set it back on the shelf. I went and got the rest of my groceries.

As I finished putting the last food item in my cart, I turned around towards the check-out. Of course, I had to pass the hair-care section on my way out. Involuntarily I stopped. I went down the safe, white suburbs of the hair-care section and picked up a small tub of "Bed-Head" pomade. Sixteen Dollars, it read. "To heck with it!" I exclaimed, setting down the expensive alternative...and picking up an affordable tub of "Soft-Sheen Carson" goodness. I was ready to make my purchase.

I buried the "Waves" underneath my other groceries, hoping none would see. I scanned the registers...praying that there would be no Black people there. But to my surprise...there wasn't anybody there! Red, yellow, black OR white! And then I heard somebody shout, "Over here!" The call was coming from the customer service station by the door. I looked to see who it was...and...

It was a young black man. His name was Andre. Rats!

Andre was very friendly, I tried to distract him with small-talk as I covered up the Afro-Pomade with a frozen pizza. "Maybe, he won't even notice it!" I thought. Finally it was time for him to ring it up. "Please, O please, don't...!!!" And he didn't.He just rang it up and set in the bag. He continued chatting.

I breathed an enormous sigh of relief. This could just be my little, ethnic secret!

Then it happened."You use that Sportin' Waves?!"

Oh no.Do I tell him the truth? Perhaps I could tell him I was adopted by a black family and was getting it for my dad. Perhaps I could tell him I was getting it for my foreign exchange student room-mate from Tanzania. Perhaps I could tell him that I was just picking it up for Bill Cosby. But no...I had to tell the truth...

"Yeah...I use it."I hated the smile on his face. It made me feel so fake and weird.

"Really?" He said.

"Now, I know it's not really for my kind..." Now I sounded like a racist...way to go, Ben!

"...but I just like the way it holds...and it's so much more affordable."

He looked at me quizically. "You do a certain style with this?"

"Just what I got right now." I bent over slightly, so as to show him all my pointy regalia.

(There was this long, awkward silence right about here...)

I looked up at him. "You use this stuff?"

"Yeah!" He said smiling. "You just put a little on your fingers, rub it on, put on a do-rag, and it really brings out the waves."

I felt like he was speaking another language...a higher language. I felt like I was in kindergarten. I felt like I missed a very important day in anthropology class.

I finished the transaction, and wished Andre a good day. He wished me the same. I bet Andre will never forget me. I just hope I never see him again.

Hands And Knees

2009-08-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

(Listen to the song here)

Words by Megan Knight

Music by Ben Lueders

God, I've slowly lost you...

And sometimes you feel so far away

As if these feeble arms could reach across the sea

And I would still be

Here - scraping hands and knees

scraping hands and knees

God, I've tried to earn you...

And sometimes I really think I might

As if these filthy rags could somehow justify me

But I would still be

Here - scraping hands and knees

scraping hands and knees

God, I've tried running...

And sometimes I'm convinced and blind

As if these slow and wandering feet could bring me glory

No, I would still be

Here - scraping hands and knees

scraping hands and knees

Oh yes, I fall

And sometimes,

sometimes it's such a long way down

Yes, I fail,

And sometimes,

sometimes I lose my crown

Just scraping hands and knees

scraping hands and knees

Finding you to help me up again

All my wounds cross bore by one man

Just piercing hands and feet

Just scraping hands and knees

InCommon Concert Photos!

2009-08-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the concert on Saturday was long, packed and steamy...but definitely a good time. A good handful of people crammed into the InCommon headquarters on 13th St. to watch a line-up of incredible musicians.

First up was the founder of the evening, Marty Lastovica...playing his toe-tapping, finger-snapping, songs of joyful goodness!:

Next up was the Amazing Danny Sabra in all of his Mustache-ioed Regalia:

Then there was this amazing, young blues group...

Their lead guitarist was posessed by the spirit of Jimi Hendrix

Zach Short is an incredibly funnny and talented young man...

here he plays a beautiful duet with Danny.

And then last (and least) was me. Feeling highly inadaquate...and kinda sweaty. Well...at least I tried!

The Best breakfast...FOR LUNCH!!!

2009-08-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

If you know anything about Ben Lueders, you know that he can't cook. That's one of the main reasons he needs a wife...he's pretty helpless in the kitchen. (It's actually kinda sad to watch him try sometimes.) If he ever invites you over for dinner, 9 times out of 10 you're gonna be having a frozen pizza. Just try it.

But one thing that Ben does relatively well is breakfasts. In fact, his famous egg skillets are really second-to-none. (According to benlueders.com)

So, for your tasting pleasure, Ben thought he'd share his famous breakfast secret with the world. Please enjoy. (It'll be hard not to!)

First, you fry up some potatoes, sausage and Bacon. Throw some butter, salt and pepper in there too...why not...

From Matter Matters

Next crack 4 eggs on top of this succulent goodness...

From Matter Matters

You can always just grate cheese on top afterwards, but my brother stole my cheese grater...so I just mix some huge chunks of Medium Chedder in the mix...

From Matter Matters

Mmmm! I have a couple dabs of Cream cheese to use up...this will add to the artery clogging nature of this singular breakfast delicacy. Make sure you start mixing this stuff up...everything tastes better when stirred y'know. (About this time is where I pop the toast in, and get out the OJ...)

From Matter Matters

And that's all there is to it, my friends! Put some strawberry jam on the toast... pour a tall glass of Orange Juice...and just savor the goodness!

From Matter Matters

(Make sure you read a good book while you're eating because you live alone and have no one to conversate with.)

From Matter Matters

InCommon Concert

2009-08-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight's the night!

At 7:00pm, Ben Lueders, Danny Sabra, Zach Short and Marty Lastovica will be tearing it up at "InCommon". (Formerly, Mosaic Community Development) InCommon is located just south of 13th and Pacific, and all ages are welcome to this free show! Below are some videos from these great musicians:

Danny Sabra:

Marty Lastovica:

Zach Short:

Ben Lueders:

Michael And I

2009-07-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'll never forget when I first met Michael Jackson. I was 6 years old and inside a friend's garage. He went to put on some music and showed me the front cover. He said:

"It's Michael Jackson."

Now, I may have been home schooled...but I knew better. I took one look at the long, curly hair, the fair skin and the feminine features and said:

"Ummm...no. That's Amy Grant."

And to be quite honest, that was to be almost the extent of my Michael Jackson knowledge up to the time of his death a couple weeks ago. Oh sure, I had rocked out to his infectious dance beats over the years...but only by way of "Weird Al Yancovich's" Jackson parodies like, "Eat It", and "FAT". (Those parodies and their accompanying music videos are still pure comic genius) All I knew about Mr. Jackson was what everybody in the mainstream media had decided a few years back: he's a noseless monster who lives in Neverland and has sleepovers with little boys. Y'know, the usual.

But just like everybody else, I started desperately wanting to get to know this creepy man as soon as I heard that he was dead. (Isn't that sad though? I kinda feel bad for people like Mr. Jackson, Princess Diana, the pope and such...we really didn't give a hoot about them when they were alive, but as soon as they kick the bucket we're their biggest fans. It's just sad.)

A couple days after he passed away, (and everyone mentioned him in their Facebook status's as if they knew him intimately) I finally got sucked into Michael's life when my little sister Hannah showed me the clip of his infamous "Billie Jean" performance at MoTown 25 in 1983. When he did that moonwalk for the first time and the crowd went wild, I knew I had to see more. Despite what you say about the man...he could dance. He could really, really dance. What a performer

And so I embarked on a quest to discover Michael Jackson. And, of course, the best way to get any research done anymore is via the all-knowing Youtube.com. Once on Youtube, I saw that one of the top video hits was a documentary entitled "Living with Michael Jackson". It was a 10-part YouTube feast, of Michael, up-close and personal.Â (As if you ever really wanted to get up-close and personal with Michael Jackson) But two-minutes in, there I was, being sucked into this man's life. The videos of his amazing childhood performances, juxtaposed with his tearful retelling of childhood abuse from his father, was enough to make even the most conservative, homeschooled, republican, christian man, cry.

Michael cried some too. (And I doubt he fit any of those previously mentioned adjectives)

So after drying my eyes, I determined to give Michael a chance. I went on iTunes and downloaded his greatest hits album: "Number Ones". I wanted to see if this musician was more than just "Thriller" and "Beat It".

Of course, he was. But not a whole lot more. I mean...if we never had to hear "Earth Song" again, I think we'd all be fine. The same goes for "We are the World". I mean, it was a cool concept...but the lyrics really sucked. (Just check out Willie Nelson's line...)

So...some of his stuff was cheesy. But when Michael Jackson got it right...he got it REALLY right. I've probably listened to "Billie Jean" and "Dirty Diana" a hundred times each since I downloaded the album. The entrancing bass riffs, intoxicating drums, married to his creepy/soothing vocals...makes it hard to turn off the CD. Smooth Criminal is always good too...except I can't really understand what he's saying most of the time. (Of course, he's like that in a lot of his songs...) A lot of times I'm glad that I can't understand the words.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The other morning I awoke to an E-mail from a Danish Design company based in Hong Kong. (Seriously!) They claimed to have seen my design work somewhere, and selected me (along with a bunch of other artists) to create a Michael Jackson commemorative T-Shirt. I couldn't believe it! In fact, I DIDN'T believe it. So I sent their top "designer" an E-mail. I was surprised by his speedy reply. "Jae-Jae" sent me a link to his company's website, and explained that he saw my portfolio on Coroflot.com, and thought my style might lend itself to a MJ T-shirt. He was asking me to enter into a contest, of sorts, with the other illustrators. Only a handful of designs would be selected from the many, and then those few artists would get a certain percentage of the T-Shirt sales. Hmmm....not bad!

So, I immediately began to google images of Michael Jackson...

...then I immediately got kinda sick.

So I decided to draw a picture of young Michael instead.Â (He was slightly cuter back then anyways).

Since submitting my design, I haven't heard if I was selected yet (which means I probably wasn't). But I still had fun making the shirt...and listening to Michael's music while I made it. I hope you enjoy these things as well.

(Now, beat it!)

Switchfoot's Foreman

2009-07-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

When I was about 14 years old, I got duped into a Christian music club called "Sound and Spirit" that advertised in every Christian publication. Their advertisements were always colorful and vibrant, bearing large pictures of Steven Curtis Chapman and "CeCe Winans", and saying things like "10 cds for $9.99!!!" It sounded too good to be true! I didn't really have much music of my own, and I liked the idea of paying a dollar for a CD.

I soon came to call it: "Steal your Soul and Spirit".

Of course, it was a scam that started sending you music you didn't want, and billing you every month. (You would have thought I had learned my lesson from my run-in with the "Mystic Stamp Company" when I was 9...) The CD's were still sold at a good price, but my main problem was that I was not very familiar with the artists. Once I got outside of Michael W. Smith and "Carmen", I was pretty elementary in my CCM knowledge.

And so, as I scanned the catalogue for CD's I might like, there was one cover that caught my eye. I had never heard of the band...but I thought it sounded SO weird, that I just HAD to get it. "SWITCHFOOT: New Way To Be Human". The black and red thumbprint on the cover was beckoning me...so I bought it. Of course, the music turned out to not be my style, so I quickly traded it off to a friend. And because I never really heard anyone talk about "Switchfoot" again, I just assumed they were another flash-in-the-pan CCM disaster. Y'know like V*Enna. (Don't click on that link)

But in 2003, when I was 17 years old, Switchfoot came out with a new album: "The Beautiful Letdown". My friend Steve loaned it to me...and I've never given it back. The first two tracks were amazing. (Meant To Live and This is Your Life) With this album, Switchfoot crossed over from strictly christian circles and into secular ones. Pretty soon you could hear Switchfoot's distinct sound as you used the restroom at Wal*Mart. It was amazing.

But I'm not here to tell you about Switchfoot.

Last Fall I had my good musical buddy Danny Sabra over to my little house...and, of course, he had to bring his iPod. Now, it's important to note that Danny's iPod happens to magically contain every track of music in the world...which I doubt he purchased legally on iTunes. (Although wouldn't that be cool if there was an album on iTunes that contained every track of music in the world? Especially if it only cost $9.99...) Well, Danny showed me a lot of new music that night, but one that stood out was a few tracks from a musician named Jon Foreman.

"Wow, that's good!" I said. "Where have I heard that voice before?"

"Dude, he's the lead singer of Switchfoot!"

"No way! Really?"

"Yeah, man."

Switchfoot's lead vocalist had just come out with four EP samplers...each representing a different Season of the year. Danny played a few tracks, and then I promised Danny that I would look Mr. Foreman up and get his stuff.

But I forgot.

Fast forward a couple months to January of this year, where I'm talking to a beautiful young lady named Megan that I'm really starting to think I should probably marry someday. We're talking about music, and she drops Jon Foreman's name. Apparently, some of his "Season" songs had been compiled into an album entitled: "Limbs and Branches". She said she really loved it...which means I really needed to hear it.

I downloaded the album the next day, and was simply blown away. The beautiful, acoustic musicality, the powerfully, convicting lyrics, the original feel and mixing...I was falling in love with Jon Foreman. (Actually I was falling in love with Megan, but...)

The album starts with the powerful anthem "Your Love is Strong". This song is simply chock-full of biblical imagery and quotations emphasizing God's strength, our weakness and our need to not worry in light of those two truths. The song ends with a powerful recounting of the Lord's prayer that gives me chicken-skin every time I hear it.

One of the cool things about the album...is it's variety. In songs like "Southbound train" you get a (sometimes sensual) love song, put to a old-time country feel:

Oh, and the wind starts to look like her hair And the clouds in her bright blue eyes As the sea and the shore fall and rise Like her breast as she breathes by my side And the moon is her lips as the sun is headed on down to sea Like her head as she lays down on me Until we reach ocean side

...and in songs like "Instead of a show" you get God's rebuke of his people's shallow worship from the book of Isaiah:

I hate all your show and pretense the hypocrisy of your praise the hypocrisy of your festivals I hate all your show Away with your noisy worship Away with your noisy hymns I stop up my ears when your singing 'em I hate all your show

Throughout the whole album, however, you can feel the artist yearning for something higher. There seems to be a real, deep awareness of eternity and a closeness to his maker and final destiny. This awareness is probably shown clearest in the song "Learning how to die":

And I said, "Please, Don't talk about the end, Don't talk about how every living thing Goes away..." She said, "Friend, all along Thought I was learning how to take How to bend not how to break How to live not how to cry but really I've been learning how to die I've been learning how to die"

Jon's closeness to God, and love for the scriptures shines very clearly in the song "House of God, Forever" which is almost a word-for-word quotation of Psalm 23. The mellow, easy flow of this song really gives the impression that Jon is used to being led, like a sheep, to green grass and streams of water by his shepherd Savior.Â I came away from the song feeling refreshed and worshipful. (The song also features Jon Foreman's sister-in-law Sarah Masen.)

So...please check out the album. It's even better than Danny, Megan, or I can tell you...

...and you don't even have to sell your soul and spirit to get it.

A Fish-Hugging Artist

2009-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

What many of you may NOT know, is that I get paid for drawing pictures. In fact, I've been getting paid for drawing pictures since I was 17. To make things weirder, I draw pictures full-time for people in Hawaii...while I live in Omaha Nebraska. Only with the Magic of the internet can this work.

I'm the "in-house" graphic designer/illustrator for a company called HCRI: Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative. And no. Mr. Limbuagh, we're not some wacko. liberal, environmentalist, tree hugger organization. (We prefer hugging fish.) It's our job to raise the public awareness towards Hawaii's coral reefs, and to help raise money for the many scientists and researchers that are studying it. Â One way that we are doing this, is by developing an enormous science curriculum for Hawaii public schools entitled "Reef Pulse". I've been working on the illustrations and layout for this publication for several years now. Yes, I've drawn many a fish. Here's some of the latest illustrations:

From Matter Matters

Ben Lueders on NoiseTrade

2009-07-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

CD Release Videos

2009-03-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

On February 26th (my 22nd birthday) I held a CD release concert for my new album, "This Battle." Thanks to all who attended...it was a really fun show! Grace Reformed church (at 90th and Fort St.) was kind enough to let me use their building for free...and the acoustics were awesome.

Enjoy the videos!

"This Battle" Is Here!

2009-02-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Watch the video and find out how to get my new CD!

A Luther Musical

2009-01-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

On November 22nd 2008, a group of daring young actors helped me perform an original musical based on the life of Martin Luther the great church reformer.Â The musical was written in a very brief amount of time, and was performed after only a few practices.Â The short play, "Safe Nor Sane: A Luther Musical" starred the Dykstra Brothers, David and Seth, as the notorious Tetzel and naive Pope Leo.Â I, of course, played Luther and my good friend Andrew Denekas has a cameo at the end as Luther's anonomous attendant.Â We perfomed the musical at the Fall 2008 Providential History Festival sponsored by Biblical Blueprints and Dominion Covenant Church.Â Below is a video of the performance as well as some pictures.Â We were amazed to win both the audience choice award for best drama, and also the judges choice award for best drama.Â Enjoy!

Luther Musical from Seth Dykstra on Vimeo.

David Dykstra as the evil, creepy and bad Tetzel singing:Â "The Coffer RIngs"

Ben Lueders as the boisterous and musical Martin Luther singing his hit song: "Lightning Strike", and Seth Dykstra as the jolly and fun-loving Pope Leo X.Â (Kudos to Rebeccah Dykstra for making the awesome pope costume!)

The "Safe Nor Sane" cast receiving the Audience Choice Award for the Fall Providential History Festival 2008.

Thanks for doing such a great job you guys!

"This Battle" Coming Soon!

2008-12-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

On December 20th 2008, after what seemed like centuries, Ben Lueders finally mixed the master for his first record "This Battle". In his album, Ben shares the struggles and prayers of a young man in the midst of sanctification. These songs, written out of real-life conversations and experiences, lament such things as "serving the devil" and "this flesh that begs and pleads for food", while affirming that we need to see our life on earth as a battle and that we must "lay all our cares aside" and follow Christ.

Pre-order today by emailing: ben@benlueders.com

Find Out What Please The Lord

2008-12-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

Below is a clip from a documentary I was in last summer, that is currently being recut and re-released. For those who have not seen "The Undercurrent" by Jon Kayser and would like to, just follow this link.

I hope this video is encouraging.Â I definitely do not spend as much time determining what would please the Lord, as I do determining what would please myself.Â O Lord, make these two pursuits the same:Â may we be pleased with pleasing you.

October Concert

2008-11-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

My good friend David Dykstra was kind enough to record my last concert in it's entirety, and then upload it to Youtube. I've embedded all 7 videos below, so that you may watch them all in rapid-succession for your viewing enjoyment. I hope you do enjoy them. I enjoyed playing them.

Demons And Idols

2008-10-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

Demons and Idols peering through the glass

Centuries of blindness, Satan's grasp.

I never thought it could be so tangible

Gold and wood, stealing your soul.

Dragons and incense burn in your mind

meaningless prayers begin to unwind.

Surrendering to darkness, shutting out the light

Embracing the master of everlasting night.

Demons and Idols...

We pray for protection with unusual zeal

Tearing down strongholds never felt so real.

The temple is guarded by monsters of stone

whose eyes they glow like flesh and bone.

Lord, hear my prayer bring this place to the ground

Break down the walls so your love can abound.

Take away the scales that have formed on their eyes

Give them your truth and destroy all his lies.

Demons and Idols...

Beijing Capitol Airport

2008-10-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

We chased the sun for 20 hours

From Minneapolis to Beijing

And somewhere before Tokyo

We lost a day

We were greeted in the airport

By children on the billboards

Smiles on their faces

Like whitewash on tombs

And the night was falling fast

As the tide began to rise

In the ocean of taxis

All yearning for our hire

The smokestacks billow

And the smog hangs low

And mingles in the ancient, Asian trees

And the taxi drivers race

to win first place

all dressed up and no place to go...

...at the Beijing capital airport

As we drove that China road

On the way to our hotel

I was struck by all the passers-by

Where are they going to?

Do they even care?

Are they pedaling to Heaven or to Hell?

And the rain was falling fast

And the tears began to rise

Amidst this ocean of people,

That cannot open their eyes.

The smokestacks billow

And the smog hangs low

And mingles in the ancient, asian trees

And the taxi drivers race

to win first place

all dressed up and no place to go...

...at the Beijing capital airport

This Holy Fire

2008-10-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

"To live is Christ and to die is gain",
that's what I heard Jordon say.
As I shook his hand and left the church
and the beauty of heaven shook the earth.

And I've heard the missionary stories before
they used to shake me to the core.
But now I'm all sophisticated and grown
and those old feelings are seldom shown.

But the blood of the martyrs is the fuel of this fire,
I'm on the edge of this airplane seat with a burning desire.
And like Hudson Taylor so long ago,
I long to see this fire grow.

When I was 14 I told a boy
of how the son of God was laid to rest
and the tears welled up in his eyes,
he had never heard of conquered death.

And that story has never grown old
even after 2000 years or so.
I've seen it bring a grown man to his knees,
and I've felt it saving a wretch like me.

But the blood of the martyrs is the fuel of this fire,
I'm on the edge of this airplane seat with a burning desire.
And like Hudson Taylor so long ago,
I long to see this fire grow.

So Holy Fire burn in the soul's of men
prepare the heart's of women and children.
And light a fire from Nebraska to Beijing,
and begin to make new everything.

Almighty God – Everlasting Father

2008-02-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

Feb 16, 2008

Dear Heavenly Father,

I surrender my mind to you. I toss my concerns and my anxieties upon your back. This exchange will be out of my hands...help me to trust that it is in your hands.

Please prepare Mike and his friend's hearts right now. I pray that they would respond to your truth. Help me to speak your truth and nothing else. Help me to relax. This is in your hands...

Immediately there was a knock on the door. My heart jumped. I had already heard some scuffling in the halls as I scribbled out the last few lines of my prayer. I looked at my watch. 10:30."They're right on time." I thought.

I took a deep breath and flung open the door. There, smiling before me, was Mike and a friend of his. "Hey Mike! Good to see you!" I beamed as I shook his hand firmly. "Who's this guy?" I said, pointing to his friend. "Oh, this is Scott" said Mike. I shook Scott's hand vigorously... my own anxieties starting to disappear now that the initial exchange was over. "Well, come on in you guys."

They came in.

Mike and Scott are Jehovah's witnesses.

I motioned them to sit on the sofa. "Let's jump right in." I said. They looked surprised.

First of all these were nice guys. Clean cut...wearing suits and ties...and the most authentic and enthusiastic smiles you can imagine. Both Mike and Scott were in their late 20's, newly married, in the prime of their life. They seemed to be striving to live holy lives and were bent on pleasing God and believing his word. These guys were genuine...and genuinely wrong.

I started by questioning the accuracy and the authority of the JW founder Charles Taze Russell, who is infamously known for his faulty predictions, including his prediction of Christ's return in 1873. But as I began to discuss these things, it soon became apparent that neither Mike or Scott were familiar or willing enough to talk about their religion's sordid beginnings. They instead assured me that Russell was not perfect, and that their authority was the Bible.

"Russell discovered some important insights, but some even greater insights have been discovered since. We follow the Bible...following a man...is a sure sign of a cult."

So we turned to the Bible.

Instantly there began a babbling of eschatological gibberish between us. Mike proclaiming that Christ's reign in Heaven began in 1914 based on precise mathematical calculations that he could explain at a later time, and me demanding the precise calculations. Back and forth we went, talking past each-other about global catastrophe's, exact dates and timelines; the beginning of God's kingdom and Bible Chronology. But I knew this wasn't the heart of the issue.

I was waiting for the perfect opportunity.

When we first sat down, I told Mike and Scott that I did not want to get into all of this "babbling about eschatology and blood transfusion" because there was more crucial matters at stake.

Then suddenly my opportunity arrived.

While trying to prove one of his points, Mike had me read a passage in Revelation that describes Michael the archangel casting Satan and his demons from heaven. As he explained the passage he casually interchanged the names of Michael the angel and Jesus Christ. I immediately stopped him.

"So Jesus is just an angel?"

"Yes he is." Mike smiled.

"Then what do you guys do with John?" I smiled back.

"What do you mean?"

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...and the Word was with God...and the Word was God."

Mike paused. "Notice it said, 'was God'...not 'is God'." He replied hesitantly.

"Are you conceding that Jesus was God at some point?"

"No."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Jehovah gave Jesus a lot of authority."

"But the Bible says Jesus was God."

"Well, the Bible calls Jesus a lot of things...Ben, would you please turn with me to Isaiah 9:6-7..."

And this is where the miracle happened. I still have no idea why he had me go to those verses. If I were a Jehovah's witness I would hide these verses in the deepest, darkest closet. I do not know how I missed those verses as I studied up on the divinity of Christ the night before. To my knowledge this is the most powerful and prophetic testimony in scripture referring to Christ as God.

I read the verses...

"For unto us a child is born
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father Prince of Peace..."

I stopped and began to laugh.

"Why did you show me this verse!" I exclaimed. "You're only proving my point! In this single verse, we see that not only is this tiny child the 'Mighty God' but is also one with the 'Father'!How can you possibly argue with this?"

Mike was very serious now.

"Notice that the verse never said Almighty God...it just said Mighty God."

I was very serious now.

"Mike...how many God's are there?"

"One."

"Right...and His name is Jesus."

Life.

2006-12-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

STOP.
Put down what your doing for a second. Hang up the phone, take off your jacket, set down your keys and just think...for a second.

Now look at your hands.

Wiggle each finger.

Think about all of the different things that you can do with them:

-Piano
-Painting
-Football
-Lifting furniture
-Steering a car
-Brushing your teeth
-Baking a cake
-Greeting a friend...

Now think about the complexity of your hands. As you wiggle your fingers, watch all of the tendons and bones and muscles all interacting and responding to your will.

Now think about the connection between your limbs and your mind.

How DO you make that finger wiggle? Right now I am typing rapidly on a keyboard with 26 letters, 10 numbers, and a variety of other characters. My fingers fly as if they have a mind of their own...but they don't! There is a magical cycle going on right now in front of my computer screen:

My mind is coming up with abstract ideas, that are then turned into logical words and phrases, which are then sent to my fingers letter by letter, and eventually are sent to my computer screen. To make the cycle complete...it is this very act of typing that is feeding my mind in the first place!

What about our mind? THink about the many things that you can do with it:

-Figure out large Mathmatical equations
-Compose songs and ditties
-Recall events and conversations that happened many years before
-Memorize large portions of text or movie lines
-Dream
-Create imaginary situations that have never taken place with people that never existed...

Now we culd spend the rest of our lives being amazed at our wonderful bodies, (our eyes, our nose, our ears, our hair) but there is even more to life than this!

Think of your sorroundings. Why is their so much variety? Why is their such a thing as texture? Why is their such a thing as color?

Think about color for a minute. What if everything was black and white? What if there was no such thing as green? What if all of the trees and grass and frogs were all purple? Or Blue? Or white? What if the sky was always yellow? Or pink? Or brown?

Why are sunsets so spectacular?

Why is there such a thing as music?

Why is their such a thing as beauty?

Why are there so many kinds of animals?

Why there so many kinds of trees?

Why darkness?

Why light?

Why daytime?

Why night?

And what of the seasons? And what of the snow? And what of the desert and the beach and the mountains and the prairie? WHY???!!!!

ANSWER: Because God made it this way.

So thank the lord that you have 10 fingers instead of 3! Thank the Lord that the sky is blue! Thank the Lord that cheeseburgers taste the way they do! Thank the Lord for the rainbow, and the ocean, and the rain, and the sun and the moon and the stars and the horses! Thank the Lord for your sight, and your hearing and your smell and your mind! Thank the Lord for your friends and your family and your LIFE!!!!

And then thank him for living the life you could never live...and for dying the death that you would never have to die.

THANK THE LORD!!!!!

Now get back to work!

Death

2006-10-18T21:34:00.001-07:00

My uncle Woody died on Saturday.

As a Christian death brings up some of the hardest truths of my faith...eternal truths. Truths about Heaven and Hell...about justification and sanctification. It is easy to get depressed during times like this...very easy...

I didn't know Woody very well, he lived in Minnesota I lived in Hawaii. I've probably seen him less than ten times in my entire life. Woody was single, overweight and a heavy smoker...this habit is what eventually did him in.

I prayed for Woody a lot as I was growing up, since I didn't know if he was saved or not. Thankfully, his sister Candy and her husband Vic lived close to him and brought him to Church from time to time. When we went up to visit them for the first time back in the spring, uncle Vic said that Woody had acknowledged the doctrines of man's depravity and God's grace while in the waiting room of the hospital. He never did give up smoking...but then again, there's no verses against that either...

Vic said that Woody was in God's hands now... which was the same thing that his dad had said on his deathbed a few months before. Grandpa lived almost a completely Godless life, absorbed with sports, coffeed mugs, T-Shirts, Baseball hats and a whole assortment of other needless trivialities...but I'm sure he would have told you that he was a good person if you asked him. However, the truth is, he lived out his life denying the very purpose for which he was created...to worship God and to find his satisfaction in Him. That is, perhaps, until the last few days of his life. Yes, Grandpa and Woody are now (as always) in God's hands.

And that's just the thing. We are always just one heart beat away from eternity. We are always dependant on God's blessings to make it through the day. We constantly lie to ourselves and deny this dependance, but in the end we have to acknowledge it. As we lay there on that white hospital bed, full of tubes and wires, this great truth becomes so clear: We are in God's hands.

Although this truth becomes frightfully clear at the end, it is just as true now as it is then. As you go to school, brush your teeth, talk to a friend, drive your car...God's providence is undeniable. Why don't we live as if we acknowledge this fact? Is it because we do not realize it? This is the real mystery...

As I look at the pictures on my wall and the memories in my head, it is easy to despair over how temporal everything is. One day, I realize, it will be me in that coffin. One day it will be my brother or my sister...my mother or my father...my friend...we all will be in that same spot some day. How can we live joyfully in light of this truth? How can we rejoice everyday in the creation before us?

Because death isn't the end.

Don't we realize that death was conquered by our savior 2000 years ago? Don't we realize that to live is Christ and to die is gain? Don't we know that to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord? Do we feel the hope and the excitement as Jesus says to the robber on the cross that "today you will be with me in paradise"? We should not be amazed that these bodies will die...we should be amazed that we exist at all! This is the mystery...that Christ loved us so much that he made us...and that he gave us the right to be his children. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, will NOT perish but have eternal life! Can we find comfort there? Can we find joy and motivation for these tired souls in this eternal truth?

No...death is not the end...it is only the beginning...

Thankfulness

2006-10-14T15:43:00.004-07:00

Thankfulness is a weapon.

When you realize that you have been given so much that you don't deserve and can never repay, it just keeps things in perspective.

When I look around this apartment it is very easy to be thankful. Practically everything that I "own" has been lovingly donated to me by someone else:

-The couch
-the loveseat
-the pots and pans
-the silverware
-the clothes
-the shower curtain
-the towels...the list goes on and on.

So, whenever you feel like complaining about the next bill, or some other expense that you are obligated to pay, just look around you and think of all of the incredible gifts that others have given you and imagine where you would be if it weren't for the generosity of others.

It's also nifty to be thankful when you start to become prideful with all you have acheived and acquired. Chances are you would not nearly be as successful if others had not pitched in a helping hand from time to time.

And I'm not just talking about material posessions either. After all, the biggest gifts in life are found in relationships. Where would you be today if it were not for that parent, or that pastor, or that teacher, or that friend that met with you at starbuck's every tuesday to just share your burdens? I know that I would not be very far...

-My mom spent 15 years teaching me at home...when she didn't have to...

-Pastor Pete took me to Quizno's just because he wanted to know how I was doing...

-Jonathan bought me a cappucino because he treasures my friendship more than 4 dollars...

And the truth is, these things cannot even come close to comparing with the incredible gift that God gave to us 2000 years ago...the gift that blows all these other gifts out of the water...

The gift of being his children...
with all the glorious benefits of his kingdom.

And yes, you're right; we can never pay him back. But then again, He never really expected us to either. He simply wanted us to be thankful...and to live out that thankfulness. And with God's help, and the encouragement of others, we can.