Who do you believe when you can’t get through
When everything you know seems so untrue
When I’m lost in a place that I thought I knew
Give me some way that I might find you— Needtobreathe, “Through Smoke” (listen)
Posts Tagged ‘song’
Through Smoke
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Laughing With
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009A song by Regina Spektor (listen):
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when
they’re starving or freezing or so very poorNo one laughs at God
when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
when it’s gotten real late
and their kid’s not back from their party yetNo one laughs at God
when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
when they see the one they love
hand-in-hand with someone else
and they hope that they’re mistakenNo one laughs at God
when the cops knock on their door
and they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
when there’s a famine or fire or floodChorus
But God can be funny
at a cocktail party when listening
to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
and they get so red in the head
you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny
when told He’ll give you money
if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
who does magic like Houdini
or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket
and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious, ha haHa ha
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
when they’ve lost all they got
and they don’t know what forNo one laughs at God
on the day they realize that the last sight
they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God
when they’re saying their goodbyeschorus
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
when they’re starving or freezing or so very poorNo one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God
Somebody Like You
Friday, July 31st, 2009If I had a theme song for this summer, it would be Keith Urban’s upbeat and bouncy, “Somebody Like You”. (Listen) The first stanza, especially the third line, is what caught my attention when I heard this song on the radio this morning. It is full of energy and joy. Except for the third line of the extended play stanza, the whole song applies, especially with its subtle allusion to You. The best love songs naturally apply to God too.
There’s a new wind blowing like I’ve never known
I’m breathing deeper than I’ve ever done
And it sure feels good to finally feel the way I do
Now I wanna love somebody, love somebody like youAnd I’m letting go of all my lonely yesterdays
I’ve forgiven myself for the mistakes I’ve made
Now there’s just one thing, the only thing I wanna do
I wanna love somebody, love somebody like youYeah, I wanna feel the sunshine shining down on me and you
When you put your arms around me
You let me know there’s nothing in this world I can’t doI used to run in circles going no where fast
I’d take one step forward and look two steps back
I couldn’t walk a straight line even if I wanted to
I wanna love somebody, love somebody like youWhoa here we go now
Hey I wanna love you babyYeah, I wanna feel the sunshine shining down on me and you
When you put your arms around me
Well baby there ain’t nothing in this world I can’t doSometimes it’s hard for me to understand
But you’re teaching me to be a better man
I don’t want to take this life for granted like I used to do
I wanna love somebody, love somebody like you
I’m ready to love somebody, love somebody like you
And I wanna love somebody, love somebody like you (yeah)Hey I wanna love you baby
(Extended play)
(oh yeah, whoa, oh yeah)
Oh, I wanna be the man in the middle of the night
Shinin’ like it’s true
I wanna be the man that you run to whenever I call on you
When everything that loved someone finally found it’s way
And I wanna be a better man
I see it in your face, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)
Hey I wanna love you baby
Note: The line, “When everything that loved someone finally found it’s way”, reminds me of the hope and final joy expressed in the wedding banquet from the Book of Revelation.
Lord of the Starfields
Sunday, April 19th, 2009Lord of the Starfields
Ancient of Days
Universe Maker
Here’s a song in your praiseWings of the storm cloud
Beginning and end
You make my heart leap
Like a banner in the windO Love that fires the sun keep me burning
Lord of the Starfields
Sower of Life
Heaven and earth are
Full of your lightVoice of the Nova
Smile of the dew
All of our yearning
Only comes home to YouO Love that fires the sun keep me burning
Reaching
Thursday, March 5th, 2009There’s a time I can recall
Four years old and three feet tall
Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar
And both were out of reach
And later on in my high school
It seemed to me a little cruel
How the right words to say always seemed to stay
Just out of reach
Well I should not have thought it strange
That growing causes growing pains
‘Cause the more we learn the more we know
We don’t know anything
But still it seems a tragic fate
Living with this quiet ache
The constant strain for what remains
Just out of reachChorus
We are reaching for the future
We are reaching for the past
And no matter what we have we reach for more
We are desperate to discover
What is just beyond our grasp
But maybe that’s what heaven is forThere are times I can’t forget
Dressed up in my Sunday best
Trying not to squirm and to maybe learn
A bit of what the preacher preached
And later lying in the dark
I felt a stirring in my heart
And though I longed to see what could not be seen
I still believed
I guess I shouldn’t think it odd
Until we see the face of God
The yearning deep within us tells us
There’s more to come
So when we taste of the divine
It leaves us hungry every time
For one more taste of what awaits
When heaven’s gates are reached(Chorus)
I believe that’s what heaven is for
There’s a time I can recall
Four years old and three feet tall
Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar
And both were out of reach— Carolyn Arends
On An Ocean
Monday, February 16th, 2009Saw the movie, Henry Poole Is Here. Very, very good movie. Many levels of symbolism. Hope to write more about it later. Here are the haunting lyrics to the song played at the climax of the movie, “On An Ocean” by Lisa Gerrard and Jeff Rona. (Hear the song at Jeff Rona’s myspace page.)
On an ocean white
Of roaring waves
I see your light
And golden face
A precious gift
Of your longing arms
Hurt me not
Just sing to me, my love
Oooo, Oooo
How come so
Soooo…
Sweetly child you sing
And all the joy you bring me
Gooooes…
Goes our loved ones home
And know I will, I will be waiting
On an ocean
Sweetly child you sing
On an ocean
On an ocean
Soooo come…
Soooo…
I Knew This Would Happen
Friday, January 2nd, 2009Well I look in the mirror
What the hell happened to me?
Whatever I had has gone away
I’m not that young kid that I used to be
So I push the hair back out of my face
That’s okay, I knew this would happen
But I was hopin’ not today
Hey baby, I’m not running anymore
But I’m on my way— John Mellencamp, from “I’m Not Running Anymore”
Once more around the sun…
Birthdays, their significance are much different now than as a kid. Back then, each one was connected with specific events, usually by grade level. Third grade year felt differently than fourth grade, and so on. Vignettes of memories float by of my mom and dad and brother, a good friend one year, blowing out the candles on the cake in the old kitchen, the endless gray overcast winter days of Cincinnati, days off from school running together during Christmas vacation. Don’t seem to recall many of the presents, which seemed to be mostly clothes. Having a birthday so close to Christmas usually didn’t lend itself to getting any more toys.
The big birthdays were much anticipated, like 16 and getting my drivers license, 18 because then it was “official” I was an adult (being able to vote was cool too), and then of course, the big 21, which ironically, was a pleasant, low-keyed evening with a couple of college buddies. Back then, the drinking age was 18 and so that wasn’t a big deal. As an uncle said to me, “So you’re 21. Now you can get drunk and thrown in jail in every state in the union.” A reminder of responsibility or a hint to vague memories of stories of my uncle bailing out his brothers when they were young men in trouble with the law?
The other birthdays seem to be wisps of memories just under the surface of recall. The nice round numbers like 25, 30, 35, sound like they should be memorable but are not. There was much anxiety about my 40th birthday, but the actual day too came and went without much fanfare.
And now that I am on the uphill side of 50, I wonder. My beard is nearly all gray now. (So much for my college nickname, Red Beard.) Not much hair to push back out of my face as before. Having been blessed with good eye sight, it looks like I finally need to see the eye doctor for some glasses. I knew this would happen, but I was hoping not this year.
Isn’t that how it seems to go? We hope and look forward to some things. And for others, we know that they will happen—it’s inevitable—but we want to postpone them. Why do we resist some moments? In the end, doesn’t this seem to be the real reason underlying our rationalizations for much of our behavior, that is, avoiding something? We even avoid the hint of asking the question, let alone the answers, to what are we avoiding and why?
If I make it to fifty, I think I’m going to try to make that birthday more memorable. Maybe a big party, or something like skydiving or some other bucket list item. Hell, why wait till then. What about today?
Wait. Hold on there a moment. I have been waxing nostalgia here. Memories come and go. They are more ephemeral than experiences. Memories are good but they are not now, not reality. Chasing down experiences is not exactly what I want. I’m not running anymore, but I want to be on my way. (Or should I say Your way.) Remembering what I did is not the goal, living is; living each moment for what it is worth, to its fullest. All is gift.
Memorable or not, some of those birthdays were lived well—I engaged the day. Some were not—I coasted through them, just getting by. The same can be said of every day.
Lord, help me to live the words from another Mellencamp song,
Your life is now
In this undiscovered moment
As Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation used to say to the helmsman, “Engage.” Which goes with what Paula D’Arcy says, “God comes to us disguised as our life.”
If I Stand
Saturday, October 25th, 2008So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home— Rich Mullins
Down to Earth
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008The song “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel is a catchy little song played over the closing credits at the end of the movie, WALL•E. The song fits perfectly with the ending of the movie and with its hopeful allusion to the future.
After further listening, I noticed that the song is dripping with great spirituality. Every line points nearly perfectly toward the virtue of humility, except for parts of the third stanza (after the second refrain), and even here, there are still subtle pointers. Remember the old saying about pride running away before the fall? Well, humility is the only thing that remains. The choice is to accept or reject it, be transformed by it and live fruitfully, or become angry, bitter and resentful. This song celebrates the choice to live humbly.
Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well, come on downAll those rules don’t apply
When you’re high in the sky
So, come on down
Come on down[refrain]
We’re coming down to the ground
There’s no better place to go
We’ve got snow up on the mountains
We’ve got rivers down below
We’re coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breezeDid you think you’d escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You’re always afraid
Of the changeYou’ve got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down[refrain]
Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
Learned to climb up a tree
Then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
We set sail for the sky[refrain]
We’re coming down (down)
Coming down to earth (down)
Like babies at birth (down)
Coming down to earth (down to earth)
Redefine your priorities (down)
These are extraordinary qualities (down)
(Down, down to earth)[refrain x2]
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
To find on earth(coming down, coming down, coming down, to find on earth)
Silence Is
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Silence is—
the song of God,
singing to every one
and every thing
to be,
being,
to be witness,
with-ness,
to each other,
and to be
with God.