Explanation of Tracks 1-5 of Tieche's Transformer CD

The following are some brief explanations about why I chose the songs I did for my Transformer CD. These are the first five songs. More to follow...

1. Treasure of You (live Abbey Road recording) - Steven Curtis Chapman
When my wife and I got married, we tried to figure out what to hand out as a party favor. Now, if you’re ever been to a wedding, you know that tradition says that the bride and the groom are supposed to spend anywhere between 1 and 3 dollars giving their guests a stupid, pointless trinket. So, we decided to do something we felt was better. We put together a Wedding CD, with songs from the wedding. We put the song Todd Brown played for communion. We put the father-daughter dance, the mother-son dance. And we put this song as the first track. Our wedding counselors used to refer to each other as treasure, which we thought was cute. Steven wrote it for his oldest daughter, Emily, who was going through a very painful and awkward time in her life called adolescence. Every time I play it, I think of my high school kids and how they need to be reminded that they are a treasure.

2. Waiting Room – Larue
The title of this song is taken from a quote from C.S. Lewis who once said that life is just a waiting room. I first heard this song in 1999, when I was a missionary in Hawaii and for some reason, the line I don’t want this world/to carry me to sin hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized then, for the first time in my life, that left to myself, I’d drift right to the wrong things. I started thinking about my life and realized it was true: I am sinful and much like glass is predisposed to shatter when hit correctly, or nitro-glycerin is predisposed to explode, I am predisposed to sin. It was then I think I started to realize that I needed to be “saved.”

3. Company Car – Switchfoot
I first heard this song while working as a Database Engineer, a job that was about as good of a fit as Snuggles the Fabric Softener Bear being a hitman. Switchfoot has always pressured their listeners to examine American materialism in their songs, but this one hit a raw nerve with me because I really felt as though I was becoming “one with the ones that I never believed in” and that I was “winning Monopoly but losing my soul.” . A few weeks after I heard this song, I listened to a pastor in Nashville talk about how we only have one life, and Jesus never promised it would be a life of luxury and ease. “Take up your cross and follow me” is hardly motivational, if you’re into comfort. But I figured that I could either be on the road with God, or on a different road without Him. I opted for the former and two weeks later I quit my job.

4. Fool for You - Nichole Nordeman
Right after I became a Christian, I attempted to tell everyone I could about the wonder of Jesus Christ and his teachings. Shockingly, not all my friends and family reacted with as much enthusiasm as I had. Some of them even thought I was a loon-bag. Especially difficult were the conversations with my friends from college, who are some of the smartest guys I know. They made sure to know just how stupid I was to believe in such 2000-year old hocus pocus. It was a very confusing time for me, and Nichole articulated for me just what it means to be a follower of Christ: that sometimes it sounds nuts, but it’s true. And all the proof you need that God is loving and personal is found in the person of Jesus.


5. I See Love - Third Day, MercyMe, Steven Curtis Chapman
I have never cried so hard at a movie as I did when I saw the movie “The Passion of the Christ” mainly because I realized in a very real way how much Christ loved me. A lot of people had no idea what the movie was about. A lot of people misinterpreted it, or didn’t get it. I guess, in many ways, it wasn’t a movie you could really enjoy unless you know Jesus. The movie didn’t concentrate on His teachings or even give much background info: it assumed the viewer kind of knew all that. So to a lot of folk, the movie was just a brutal beating, followed by a nasty, slow death. This song is the final track from a soundtrack of music from various artist who were inspired by the movie. I agree with these guys: when I saw that movie, I saw love.