Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Thoughts on music

Its gotten you. Sometime...somewhere along your road...

Music of some kind has jumped out and grabbed you. And its power to draw emotion, feeling, and even steer us down paths cannot be denied.

A wise man once said that "The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt."

I guess it should not be a surprise, then, that mother's hold on to the hands of their children...even their teenage children...while in the hearing of gripping songs hoping they will remain on the path together for a few more miles.

Music...that pied piper of sound...leads. Sometimes toward the light and sometimes away.

Don't be afraid to let music in. Let music lead you toward the Light.

Find worship

Or think about Christ in a new way

Find encouragement

Learn from those before you through the power of their song..

Or simply be led out of the ditch.

Try not to judge too harshly the lives of those who sing. For just like David and Abraham and Jacob...Moses...Paul, and Peter had to walk up the mountains, falling in times of sin and doubt, learning what it meant to be faithful children of God, so do Bono and Dylan and Cash have to wade through the murky mud of life to understand enough of grace to sing the songs they do.

I tried to find the videos of the people themselves singing the songs. Those who share deep things often can share them because of who they are. They mean more that way.

...keep listening...to the ones on the mountains singing pure praise and to the ones in the valleys trusting in grace.

and one more: I found a new lullaby to sing to my children.

On Up The Mountain Lyrics

You're old enough to know well
The better things are all up hill
Bitter songs are never sung
In the highlands where you belong
In the smoke of cannons below
Men they bury each other in rows
People come people go
Work in numbers and leave alone

There's a light making its way
On up the mountain night and day
You'll get tired and you'll get weak
But you won't abandon your masterpiece

Off to sleep you'll go
Through the halls and opened doors
Silver bells swinging low
Strung in branches of the unknown
Soon morning comes
To warm the world and wake you up
Night is gone awful fast
It ain't wrong to be sad

There's a light making its way
On up the mountain night and day
You'll go down and you'll go deep
But you won't surrender your masterpiece

Here it comes and there it goes
The unbearable sound of the earth making men out of boys
First you learn then you'll teach
About the bright bright light
Making its way
On up the mountain night and day
You'll get tired and you'll get weak
But you won't abandon your masterpiece

There's a light making its way
On up the mountain night and day
You'll go down and you'll go deep
But you won't surrender your masterpiece
You will deliver your masterpiece

I love the lyrics of this song for a special reason that most songs (even Christian in name) fail to declare: namely a certainty that the masterpiece will be completed and delivered to God. 

2 comments:

Eyes_Wide_Open said...

Yes, yes, and yes.

Amen.

Jerilee said...

I've been marveling at the magic of music lately too. Thanks for the post.