“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”
- Johnny Cash
We recently added another tab to our blog: ThinkLinks
In ThinkLinks we’ll point you to cutting-edge articles about Christians, the arts, and culture.
If you know of any sites/blogs that should be listed shoot us an email or comment and let us know.
Yes, the water will run a bit deep and you may want to wade in at first. After a while, you’ll find yourself refreshed and ready to go create. So… dive in!
Gary was a plumber. I was training to be one. Driving to work one day he turned up the radio and told me to listen to the lyrics – something he often did when he wanted to make a point.
The song was Who’s Gonna Drive You Home, by The Cars.
Who’s gonna tell you when
It’s too late
Who’s gonna tell you things
Aren’t so great
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong, but bye
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
Gary pointed out that the Holy Spirit uses songs like this to talk to people. I was still fairly young as a Christian and had not thought of that before. The Lord speaking through the radio to lost souls, just like that.
Who’s gonna pick you up
When you fall
Who’s gonna hang it up
When you call
Who’s gonna pay attention
To your dreams
Who’s gonna plug their ears
When you scream
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
Not long after, my wife told me about a sacred moment in her life. Listening to the radio, James Taylor gave her the push she needed to break off a relationship. She felt the Spirit speak directly through You’ve Got a Friend.
Gary long ago passed away, too young to have had a heart attack. I think of him often, and sometimes, when it’s just me in the car, I turn up the radio and I sense a presence…
Who’s gonna hold you down
When you shake
Who’s gonna come around
When you break
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
Molten lava flows by; fireballs hurl hundreds of feet through the air.
Resting on a rock, awaiting the inevitable, Frodo says, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.” (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
Time collapses; the world fades.
Suddenly the eagles arrive. They are unheralded, unexpected. They pick up Frodo and Sam and carry them home to safety.
This is not unlike what artists feel when they are struggling. Everything around them seems to be falling apart and it all looks so hopeless.
The Christian artist has two tricks tucked away. Two truths to hold on to.
The first is that it is never, ever, really hopeless. They are on a rock and the rock is Jesus. They may experience bitter disappointment, pain, rejection… all the things common to man. But there is something steady underneath them. Ultimately that rock desires their good and is powerful enough to accomplish it, even if the accomplishment is totally unexpected.
Secondly, through the mists of faded space and lost time, eagles arrive: those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31, NIV)
At the seeming end of all things, be comforted by the reality that, even though you can’t make the eagles come… they will be sent.
I wonder why this is?
How did it come to this?
What is in your heart, your mind?
What are you thinking this time?
This is a mystery
I know this isn’t me
I know myself
And what I’ve felt
It never ends, it never stops
I’ve prayed about it a lot
It’s in the Lord’s hands
And He knows what He’s doing
He is most wise, loving, powerful
I trust Him now and
Forever
The 7th chord sends a chill down my spine. I’m guessing it’s an A-7th because it has that open, resonating feel to it.
It’s played several times during “Think It Over” by The Call. And every time it’s strummed, it pins the words down to something deeply emotional.
Listening to it recen
tly I couldn’t help but jump up and google Michael Been, the writer and bass player behind most of The Call’s songs.
I so clearly remember seeing them perform at Hammerjack’s, a nightclub in downtown Baltimore, near the docks. You had to be careful at Hammerjack’s because a few steps in the wrong direction – and you were in the topless bar.
Been was in fine form that night and the band was hot. Toward the end of “I Still Believe,” a low bass note droned. Been fixed his gaze on the crowd and sang…
for people like us
in places like this
we need all the hope
that we can get
I still believe
Loved it then. Love it now.
So I googled Michael Been, just to see what he’s up to. He passed away last summer, an apparent heart attack while helping out with his son’s band tour in Europe.
He was an artist. Learn more at The Call’s website.
Yea, I was that guy. The one who snuck onstage after the concert to snatch the song list off the floor.
To the artist…
If you’re lucky you’ll live long enough to see the seed of your work planted. You may even see it die. Truly fortunate, and you’ll see it raised.
Davis asked us to read it in the fall.
We didn’t know he was going to pass away, suddenly, unexpectedly. He had just agreed to lead our small group, and he gave everyone a copy of The Great Divorce, an allegory/fantasy by C.S. Lewis. I had not read this book before.
During the winter, Davis was admitted to the hospital and continued his journey to heaven from there.
The first time I read The Great Divorce I couldn’t stop thinking about Davis.
The second time I read it, which was last week, I still thought of Davis, but this time I was better able to understand and appreciate the flow of the story.
The book asks whose “will” will be done, ours or God’s? Is there any freedom, even in eternity, from perhaps the strongest form of bondage in the universe – the bondage to our selves – our wants, desires and pride?
“Here at least
we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
- from John Milton’s Paradise Lost
And this from “Space Seed,” a 1967 episode of Star Trek…
CAPTAIN KIRK: [after stopping Khan's attempted takeover of the Enterprise] Those men went on to tame a continent, Mr. Khan. can you tame a world?
KHAN: Have you ever read Milton, captain?
KIRK: Yes. I understand. [Khan is escorted out by Security]
SCOTTY: It’s a shame for a good Scotsman to admit it, but I’m not up on Milton.
KIRK: The statement Lucifer made when he fell into the pit: “It is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven”.
I know you’ve been freed from that bondage Davis. Great book! Can’t wait to thank you in person.
“The task of the artist is to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly, to let people know. Art warms even an icy and depressed heart, opening it to lofty, personal experience. By means of art we are sometimes sent dimly, briefly, revelations unattainable by reason, like that little mirror in the fairy tales. Look into it and you will see not yourself but for a moment, that which passes understanding, a realm to which no man can ride or fly and for which the soul begins to ache.”
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, quoted by Malcolm Muggeridge in The End of Christendom
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel begins his review of the movie “The Grace Card” with the following paragraph…
“One depressingly common thread among faith-based films is the way the conflict is watered down and life’s rough edges are often scrubbed off. It’s OK to put out a movie with a message. But rendering even potentially dramatic stories so inoffensive that they bear no relation to reality makes for middling drama.”
Do you agree with Moore’s critique? Do faith-based movies really water down conflict and scrub off rough edges? How close to “reality” is close enough for a faith-based artist?
Leave a comment. Let us know what you think.
