Jesus is a cool guy.

Lately, my life has been pretty hard.

I won't mention everything that has been going on, but it's been rough. I broke up with my girlfriend (a decision that I did not want to make), I'm stressed because of my lack of money, I've been fighting with my mom quite a bit lately, and everything is kind of piling up all at the same time. It really sucks. I have the best job in the entire world. However, I make $30-$40 a week. So realistically, it is not the best job in the world. And my parents have been hounding me to find a new one.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to (possibly) work at FedEx/Kinko's in Bartlett (which is a tight job). It would require me to work longer hours that I work now. Which is awesome, because I get more money. But I will be super stressed running from work to school and back and everything. And balancing church, school, my band, and my job will be hard. But faith and hope exists, friends.

Jesus is pretty cool.

After the past couple of weeks, I have leaned on Jesus more than ever. I drove up to WBC a few weeks ago. I spent the whole time with the Lord, and praying and reflecting on my life. And I realized that God had taken the back burner. I always said that Jesus was first, but He really wasn't. And it sucks to think about that.

It's crazy that we just take God for granted. We treat Him as a tire iron.

Yes, a tire iron.

So you're driving down the freeway, and you can feel/hear your tire going flat. Oh, snap! So you pull over, and you attempt to replace your flat tire. You kind of panic at first, but you remember, "Oh yeah! I have a tire iron!" So you to your trunk and pull out your jack/tire iron/spare tire. So you use these things, and replace your tire. Then you put everything back in the trunk, and continue driving.

The tire iron is real handy when you need it. Real handy. But when you don't have a flat tire, it just takes up space in your trunk.

Tire iron. Jesus. Does it make sense?

Jesus was my tire iron for a long time. I'm sick of Jesus being a steel rod in my life. I want to make Jesus a living, breathing, existent, prevalent being in my life. Not just a dude I go to when life sucks.

I can feel God becoming more prevalent.

My college schedule is really manic. I have like an hour or so in between each class. So I'm driving a lot. I spend that time with the Lord. It takes 12-16 minutes to get to the college from my house. That's time spent praying, talking to God, listening to God-centered music, reflecting on my day, the sins I committed, what I could've done differently, everything. I'm growing closer to God.

I think that I should blog more often. My friend Cody inspired me to continue blogging. He also introduced me to some awesome music (I will mention that shortly). I want to try and blog at the end of each week as a reflective thing. And for those that are reading, I hope that you can find some sort of inspiration or hope from reading these blogs. God bless you.

Thanks for reading.

Listening to:

Hillsong United - A_CROSS // THE_EARTH: Tear Down the Walls

This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain

Caspian - Four Trees

Mae - The Everglow

The dreaded ninth grade.

So I randomly decided to check my Myspace about 15 minutes ago. I do this about once every other 2 or 3 months. Myspace sucks. Anyways, I went through my friends list and proceeded to view some of my "friends" profiles.

I lived in Austin for a year. I loved it. It was so cool. That experience really sparked my extreme love for music. I met some cool people. I became close friends with a few people that I still keep in touch with; but for the most part, I didn't really have any friends there. But on my friends list, there were some people on there that I met once and never talked to again. These were the "cool kids."

In ninth grade, I DESPERATELY wanted to be friends with the "cool kids." I wanted to hang out with them. I wanted to date the girls that were in this clique of coolness. I wanted to go to their houses and breathe the cool air that they did. I was desperate. Like I said, I had some friends that I hung out with. They were cool and funny, but they weren't the "cool kids."

Why was I desperately wanting this "friendship?"

I look back now, and I was so naive. I desperately wanted to be popular; to have a place in the huge school I attended (the school was as big as most towns in Arkansas); I wanted people to know my name. But it didn't work out as I had planned.

I left Austin the summer before my tenth grade year. I was glad to leave. I was glad to go back to Arkansas. Where it's small, quiet, and, well, boring. But looking back, I'm glad I moved back. I think I made the best decision ever. If I didn't come back to Arkansas, I don't know who I would be.

Maybe I could've become one of the "cool kids." Maybe I would be the biggest doucher ever (the "cool kids" were major douchers). I don't know. I know that my life right now is pretty tight. I have the best friends a dude could ask for. I have an incredible church family. I have a great home life. It's awesome in Arkansas (kind of).

Popularity is so stupid. Popularity only matters in high school. I wasn't popular in high school. I didn't worry about it. I had a lot of great friends that were true friends (I still have those friends, and they're still the truest friends in the world). That's all I need.

So my advice to you: don't strive to be a "cool kid." Just be yourself (sorry for being so cliché).

Keep it real.

jake fauber.

P.S. If someone wants to hook me up with some music, shoot me an email (fauberus@yahoo.com)

Bon Iver r00lZ, d00d!

Is anyone a fan of Bon Iver? Well I am.

I was sad to find out that Justin Vernon & Co. were taking a break from Bon Iver. Why? I haz no ideeeuh. But I am bummed, man. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my favorite albums from the last couple years.

So, on Twitter, I follow AP Magazine. They update several times a day. Sometimes I just blow it off. But, yesterday, I decided to read their post.

Justin Vernon and some of his friends have created an "experimental folk" project called Volcano Choir. I was ecstatic, yo. I immediately went to the Myspace to hear the material. It is phenomenal. It's really nothing like Bon Iver. You can tell Justin V has his touch in the project, but the music is not similar to Bon Iver.

It's really fantastic. Go look it up.

Also:

I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

We All Have Demons - The Color Morale

The Illusion of Safety - Thrice

Enjoy.

Jake Fauber.

Oh! If you watch The Office, tonight is the first episode after the marriage of JAM. I'm giddy.

Good music as of late.

I'm going to type up a quick blog before class.

Go pick up these albums:

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest

Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack

Dear and the Headlights: Drunk LIke Bible Times

Portugal. The Man: The Satanic Satanist

Good stuff.

Done.

Jake Fauber.

What music has become.

Why are the bands that suck the ones that get the most recognition?

I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. The bands that are "making it" are making the worst music out there. Like Nickelback. Wow. After five albums and like 10+ years, you would think a band could get good. But no sir/ma'am.

Nickelback has stuck to the same formulaic sound over the course of their career. Which is smart from a business aspect. And people have to pay the mortgage, I guess. So I have to respect them. But I don't have to like their music. Anyways, they have not progressed AT ALL. This has caused them to sell a ridiculous amount of records.

I go to shows like once or twice a month (more if I'm feeling frisky). I have seen/played with bands that have more heart than all of these major label bands combined. They play night after night, make no money, listen to jerks bag on their music, and live out of a van with four or five smelly dudes. What a life. But that requires so much heart.

I listen to music that has heart. And that takes thought to understand.

I like to dig for meanings.

My friend calls the bands that are featured in AP magazine the "AP Scene." I like AP because it features a lot of cool indie/hardcore bands. Well the "AP Scene" has been infested with a cancer.

The cancer consists of bands like Brokencyde, 3OH!3, Breathe Carolina, Cobra Starship, and many many others.

The "scene" has lost so much respect for itself.

These bands are preposterous. I'm not kidding. It makes me question why I read a magazine (which used to be awesome) that features bands like this. They are a waste of hearing abilities. They are bands that cannot be appreciated. There is no talent, no dignity, no respect, and no heart. I think Brokencyde is a joke. Even Senses Fail says they're terrible (boom roasted!).

So I said all that to ask this:

When will bands start making good music again?

Well, there are good bands out there. But like I said earlier, I like to dig for meanings. It's the same thing when finding good bands. My friend saw a band at Cornerstone called A Hope for Home. They're incredible. They're the closest thing to the first As Cities Burn record that I've heard. Look them up. They're one of the smelly van bands that I mentioned earlier.

Someone said in an interview that, while writing for an album, they wrote about what mattered to them, and not what was important to everyone else. If you write about a subject that you don't feel strongly about, you won't really write a good song. Or a good blog, or a good paper. You're basically lying. But if you write about what matters to you, you're being honest. If you strongly believe in Jesus, you could write something genuine and heartfelt.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is this:

Bands, write about stuff that matters to you, and not what a label says is important.

I'm out.

Moved.

I went to a show tonight. If your curious, I saw For Today/Sleeping Giant/The Ghost Inside/The World We Knew/Between Hope & Faith/The Imperial. It was an incredible show. Words can't describe how it was. But I can tell you (to the best of my abilities) what I experienced. And what I came to realize.

I want to say this. I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe that He is the Son of the Living God. And Christian's have been given a bad rep by the world. This is reasonable. I understand. We pretty much deserve it. Just because we claim to be a "Christian," we think we're better than "non-Christians." And this is completely wrong. I said all that to say this:

I'm sorry.

I really am. I'm sorry if we have ever judged you, said mean things to you, yelled at you in protest, or anything else that drew you away from Christians.

We (not just Christians, but everyone) have NO right to judge anyone. Period.

Because Christians are just as screwed up as the rest of the world. We all suck. We all have something in our lives that separates us from God. Look up Romans 3:23. So when we judge, it is not out of love and righteousness, but hatred. And it's wrong. Completely wrong.

But it's okay.

Because we belong to a God that is bigger than everything in this world.

God is greater than persecution, addiction, abortion, gay marriage, etc. We don't have to worry about other people and their issues. We just have to focus on our own lives (strange concept, right?) and know that God will, one day, take care of everything. We can rest in that sweet assurance. It's awesome.

We belong to a God that looks past all of the crap that we have done, and will do in our lives. It's awesome. He is awesome.

Another thing that is cool:

God is HUUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEEE!!!!!!

No joke man. Imagine the tallest building, the tallest monument, the universe, the longest highway, and all of the "Eight Wonders of the World." Put them together. God is bigger. and His love is huge. His love stretches as far as the east is from the west (which goes on forever, by the way). That's just a little fun fact. But we can rest on that. And we can talk about it all day, and we will NEVER come close to the amount of love that God has for us.

In conclusion:

God loves you. He desperately wants to have a friendship with you. He will be the best friend you've ever had. He is ALWAYS there for you. Pinky promise.

If you have any questions at all. Message me on Facebook, or hit me up on iChat (fauberus@mac.com). I would love to talk to you about the love that God has for you.

Peace out, cub scout.

BTW.....I'm sorry if you are annoyed by my excessive Tweeting/Facebook updates. I just have a lot to say.

We are the generation

I was talking to a friend about tattoo's. Personally, I see nothing wrong with tattoo's. But the people within my church, and many other churches have a major problem with them. They think that "non-Christians" will view tattoo's as a stumbling block. Yes, to an extent, that is true. But, then again, tattoo's can be used as an incredible witnessing tool.

This is how the conversation started.

It led to this topic:

Our generation.

Our generation is filled with leaders. It really is. We can change things.

I think we can change the church.

The church has been viewed as something that it certainly shouldn't be. The church has judged, and pointed fingers too many times. It's ridiculous. Jesus never told us to do that. Jesus wants us to be in the world, showing compassion to non-believers and believers. We are put here to show the world the love that Jesus offers.

So why can't we just show it?

I'm not sure.

We need to show the world the love that Jesus showed. We have to.

I believe that God is leading us to the brink of a revival. I've seen some things this summer that only strengthen this belief. All we have to do, is take this love, and show it.

Right?