what kind of name is shallowfrozenwater anyway?

i'm not a songwriter but i know a bunch of them. i suppose i'm creative in my own way but a few years back Steve Bell led a songwriter's circle at a local university here in Winnipeg. by the way go check out that link that i fired up there, he offers a free download of "Praise the Father" off that site and that is a song written by another friend and member of our church community off of a CD of tunes written solely by him too. that friend is Gord Johnson, the CD is Devotion and the voice, production and much of the guitar work is Steve Bell who is also a friend, although after all these years i'm still not sure that Steve knows my name. he's not a jerk about it though and he meets a LOT of people so i usually tell him my name again and again. Steve used to attend our church community, his manager still does and Gord still does too. anyway, i love Steve Bell's music and i got my wife a copy of Devotion for Christmas this year that she now plays Honey along with the CD as she listens to it.

here's a sample of Steve although he's not doing a Gord song.



ironic that Steve sings about deepness and i talk about shallowness here, but i do that on purpose.

anyway, Steve was doing a songwriter's circle at a local university a couple years back when i mentioned a song idea to him. i had never been able to follow through with the concept because i've just never honed those skills over the years. i've taken a crapload of music courses and i've learned theory out the wazoo but the practical implications of the theory have escaped me since i don't play piano, am just learning guitar and i don't have perfect pitch so that i hear whole symphonies in my head. don't get me wrong, i've written little ditties but they've always been sophomoric and quickly shelved.
i'm self-aware enough to realize that i'm fairly shallow in terms of my own interests. i'm self-absorbed and i like what i like. it's pointless not to say anything other than "it is what it is". i can change but in many situations i'm not sure that i WANT to change too much. i like watching and playing hockey, i like watching and umping baseball and football. these are not the things of the deep soul but they are where i reside. and yet ... God uses me.
i think of a shallow pool of water and then i picture whatever incarnation of God i choose to dwell on as he wades in shallow water. there is huge blessing for me in the picture. there is a lack of depth and yet God wades in my life and uses me anyway. as for the frozen part of me, there are lots of frozen parts in me. i'm slow to change. i long for depth but i also realize that i'm just a puddle. the Spirit brings rain that adds to my depth and that in itself is a blessing.
so Steve never did use the idea for a song, and why would he anyway? it's not earth shattering but it means something to me so i do what i can with what i've been given. there is joy there and God blesses me within it. bless you too, you little puddles.

i'm going to close this with another vid of Steve Bell. he has had some involvement with the FoodGrains Bank (which also has some heavy involvement from other friends and members of our church community) and it starts to address food issues that are global issues. i've been thinking a lot about this sort of thing trying to determine what i could do locally on this issue and i've started to volunteer at a drop-in supper for men on the fringes of society; the poor, the street-person, the disadvantaged. i've already started to develop some good friendships there and we talk about food issues, health issues, employment issues, and spiritual issues. there's depth there. well, depth is relative anyway and when you're admittedly not as deep to begin with then other depth is still depth. i recently read Shane Claiborne's "Jesus for President" and it spurred me on to do more local things to try and affect some change.
blessings on your journey, puddle.