Ronnie McBrayer

Music featuring the Backsliders

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday this year, and I couldn't resist playing a few  Irish songs. This quintet collection of The Backsliders band features myself on guitar and vocals, Matt Miller on fiddle, Tim Ryals on percussion, Andy Stucky on bass, and Ricky Stanfield on mandolin. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

What's So Amazing About Grace?

What's So Amazing About Grace? That's a question Philip Yancey asked with the title of his book that has become a Christian classic more than 25 years ago. It's a question that remains worth asking and answering - as Ronnie attempts to do with his latest talk (Based on Ephesians 2).

Making Meaning: "Stick It To The Man," Part 6

This is Ronnie's final talk in a series on the book of Ecclesiastes, using commentary from Viktor Frankl.
"Today, I want you to be infused with holy, scrappy, heavenly resistance. I want you  spilling over with God-given chutzpah. Not arrogance; not violence; not ego or attitude: But humble, hopeful, resilient, defiance: For 'what can be overcome, must be overcome…God grant me the courage to change the things I can.' There is a time for sacred defiance. Stick it to the man - and in that resistance - there is meaning."

Making Meaning: "Let It Go," Part 5

This is Ronnie's fifth in a series of talks exploring the Book of Ecclesiastes alongside the work of Viktor Frankl.
“If possible, we change our fate. If necessary, we willingly accept it…what can be overcome, must be overcome. What cannot be overcome, must be accepted. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” That sounds very much like words written about the same time, not from a Jewish Holocaust survivor, but a Christian theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr. You’ve heard his words many times I suspect: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” 

Making Meaning: Through Love and In Love, Part 4

This is Ronnie's fourth in a series of talks exploring the Book of Ecclesiastes alongside the work of Viktor Frankl.
"Love is the means. Love is the end. Love is the power. Love is the motivation. Love is the inspiration and the aspiration. Love is the ultimate goal and the eventual outcome. Any religion - any spiritual practice - any way of living that does not lead us to love, that does not make us more loving people, that does not increase out capacity to give and receive love (as Thomas Merton said) - that religion, that spirituality, that way of living is as dead as a hammer and serves no purpose but to convince its practitioners that they are right and everyone else is wrong. 'The salvation of man is through love and in love,' as Frankl said.  That is the path. That is the narrow way. That is the only truth I know. And that is the full and abundant life." 

Making Meaning: Turn, Turn Turn, Part 3

This is Ronnie's third in a series of talks exploring the Book of Ecclesiastes alongside the work of Viktor Frankl.
"Consider this: Any two human beings share 99.5 percent of the same DNA and genetic material. No one is all that different from his or her neighbor. What makes us unique are our experiences. Your life can never be duplicated, and what you have experienced, no power on earth can take away from you! All you have done; all you have taken in through your senses and into your soul; all you have thought, all you have suffered; all the joys and triumphs you have celebrated; all the happy mornings and sleepless nights; all the prayers of gratitude and all the cries for help - you brought them into being with the single solitary life God has given you to live. And there will never be another person like you. We all step into the same river, but we do not share the same water.

Making Meaning: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em, Part 2

This is Ronnie's second in a series of talks exploring the Book of Ecclesiastes alongside the work of Viktor Frankl.
"Work - what you do - is essential to finding meaning in life. I did not say that work IS the meaning of life. No. But when our attitude is attuned, work can be a source of great satisfaction. As the proverb is told: 'Find something you love to do, and you will never work a day in your life.' That doesn’t mean every day will be easy. We are not so naive. It won’t always be 'fun.' Meaningful work is hard work - but it’s meaningful. So, every job, every bit of work, if it incorporates the skills a person has, it meets the needs of others, and it is pursued with chutzpah and gusto - it is impossible for that work not to matter. It has to be meaningful - for every one it touches."
 

Making Meaning: Like A Bird on a Wire, Part 1

Viktor Frankl said: “If you have a WHY to live, you can endure almost any WHAT, that life gives you.” How does that statement stand up against inexplicable suffering; in an unjust world; in a society that seems to be growing more insane by the day? How does it compare with the words from the writer of Ecclesiastes? In this adventurous new sermon series Ronnie takes on the subject of "making meaning" in life. He is quick to point out that "meaning does not necessarily mean sense, as some things will never make sense in life. It’s not the search for answers: Some questions have no answers. Some situations have no solutions. It’s not a quest for explanation, resolution, fulfillment, or closure. It is the search for true purpose" (Ecclesiastes 1).

Renovations

"Here is a hard and fast rule if you start a renovation project at your home: It will take you longer than you planned; it will cost you more money than you budgeted; it will lead to other renovations and necessary updates that you did not anticipate; and it will be more difficult than you first thought. Because once dive deep with the idea of seeing what is 'down there,' once you start pulling away the veneer, start crawling about above and poking at what is hiding behind the sheetrock, all bets and expectations are off...If you go to work on you life - allow God to work in your life - it works the same." 
(Based on Psalm 139)

The Searchers

In a creative twist, Ronnie imagines the Magi searching for Jesus, not as "three kings from orient are," but as cowboys riding west into the unknown. Ronnie concludes this Epiphany talk: "Christ is  both the way and the destination, the road and the arrival. He is the voice that calls us - and the voice that answers. He is the thirst within - and the water that satisfies that thirst. He is the source of our hunger and the satisfaction for that hunger. He is the light in the distance, and the light shining down on us. He is the unexpected discovery that we find in ordinary places. He is the wonder in our wanderings, and the end to our all our searching."