Christopher Chelpka

We think about time a lot, but not always in the best ways. Seth Godin explains.

Two of our kids attend Veritas Academy of Tucson, which they love. But we need help paying their tuition. It’s is $4,812 per student.

👉 Here’s what’s amazing. You can help pay for their education with no cost to you.

1. Make a donation to Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization.
2. Write Chelpka Family in the recommendation field.
3. Use the donation as a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on your state taxes.

It’s that easy. And it would mean the world to us.

For 2018 taxes, married couples filing jointly can claim up to $2,213 of their total taxes owed, single taxpayers up to $1,107. To donate click here.

Thanks so much!

Christopher and Della

P. S. Please don’t wait, the school year is over half done and we need Veritas to be fully funded. They do a great job for our kids! If you can, make your donation ASAP.

When I was growing up in Phoenix, I used to buy classical music CDs from the Tower Records on 40th Street and Thomas. Inside the store, there was a special room just for classical music. The walls and door were made of soundproof glass so that as soon as the door closed you could only hear the clacking of CD cases as you looked through the shelves, and maybe the sound of Yo-Yo Ma’s cello or Christopher Parkening’s guitar playing through the speakers. But perhaps the best part was that in that room you could find anything you wanted. You could find new things too. This was because the collection was huge and because it was organized by humans who knew what they were doing.

While each store was unique, Tower Records had a reputation for devoting special attention to the way it sold classical music. In San Francisco, there was a classical annex across the street from its main building. In New York, the Tower Records at Lincoln Center was a hot spot for buying classical records and meeting the artists who made them. Somehow, Tower Records realized that classical music had to be treated differently from the rest of their catalog.

Perhaps they saw how information-rich classical recordings are. One album might have multiple composers, arrangers, soloists, orchestras, and maybe even conductors. There may be multiple works, each broken into parts, and spread over a few CDs in a set. Add to this the liner notes, which were often as good or better than any well-researched encyclopedia or journal article you might read.

All this information makes the experience of listening more enjoyable and opens up new listening possibilities. But it also makes cataloging and database management a pain. And, sadly, since Tower Records closed, I’ve rarely seen the information management side of classical music done well, in brick-and-mortar stores or on the new streaming services.

Our streaming services don’t know how to deal with the thousands of pieces called “Adagio”, or how to treat a movement not like a symphony. They often don’t even display full titles. And there are other problems.

Mitchel Broussard, for example, points out how Apple Music

• treats classical music too narrowly as a genre,
• mishandles and strips the rich information that accompanies classical music recordings,
• breaks up tracks,
• and more.

But happily, this can be fixed. As Broussard points out, there are many practical steps Apple Music can take. For example, they can “build better composer pages and offer more categories”. He also suggests, hiring human curators and companies that know what they’re doing. Perhaps, there are some Tower Records people hanging around somewhere?

After I moved away from home, music became easily available over the internet; first, through illegitimate services like Napster and Limewire, then later through paid subscriptions like Spotify and Apple Music. These changes improved our access to classical music. And that’s great. But somehow, with the exception perhaps of NPR deejays, no one seems to know how to deliver that music in an organized way.

For an executive at Apple Music looking to make their mark, this project is being served on a silver platter. Let’s hope someone is listening.

Have you ever overpromised on some work you were doing for someone else?

Augustine did that when he promised to preach 1 John in a certain amount of time. Things probably started fine, but as he was going along he realized his plan was no good. So at the end of sermon number six of what would become a ten-part series, he tells his listeners, “I am afraid the epistle itself will not be finished during these days as I promised, but as the Lord will, it is better to reserve the remainder, than to overload your hearts with too much food”.

Everyone makes planning mistakes, even Augustine. When you do, follow his example.

Instead of barreling forward, be humble. Keep your priorities straight, readjust as necessary, and let everyone know what’s going on.

Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of pain and suffering, it is difficult to trust that God is good. He promised me salvation! So, where is it?

Take, for example, the criminal described in Luke 23 who was being crucified alongside Jesus. As he was being crucified, this man recognizes that he is not like Jesus. He sees that he is guilty and is “receiving the due reward” for he sins, but that Jesus was an innocent man. The criminal also recognizes that Jesus is the merciful God, and is capable of saving him, even though Jesus is himself, at that moment, dying.

The man said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

When Jesus says these words, Jesus gives the criminal mercy, forgiveness, and the promise of paradise in God’s presence. Today.

And yet, what about the man’s suffering right now? What was is this forgiven sinner to think of the salvation he had been promised when he could barely pull air into his lungs anymore, when his whole body screamed with pain, when the shame of his sins was still displayed for every passerby to see?

This, John Calvin writes, “reminds us that we ought not to judge of the grace of God by the perception of the flesh; for it will often happen that those to whom God is reconciled are permitted by him to be severely afflicted.”

In other words, suffering in this life doesn’t make God’s promise of paradise false. In fact, Calvin warns that we need to guard ourselves against doubting God in these moments. Because, if we don’t guard ourselves, we might allow “the severity of pain hinder us from tasting the goodness of God.”

This is an important point. Calvin is not merely saying that God will come through in the future, so hang on. That’s true, but he’s also saying that if we hold on to the promise of the merciful God, then we will experience God’s goodness and mercy even now in our sufferings, even during a crucifixion. As Calvin says,

“all our afflictions ought to be mitigated and soothed by this single consolation, that as soon as God has received us into his favor, all the afflictions which we endure are aids to our salvation. This will cause our faith not only to rise victorious over all our distresses, but to enjoy calm repose amidst the endurance of sufferings.”

Paul testifies to this in Romans 5 when he explains that “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This work of God in Christ gives us peace and allows us to rejoice “in the hope of the glory of God.” But there’s more!

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

I doubt that after hearing Jesus’ promise, the pain in the crucified criminal’s body went all away. But I have experienced in my own life and have heard in the testimonies of other Christians that what Paul says is true. God does give comfort and perseverance to those who suffer. And that he uses those sufferings for our salvation. You can trust him.