Month: September 2008

Categories
Life

Regrets and failure

Today, I attended a funeral. It was for one of my wife’s friends, who had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. As I listened to the minister’s message, I was struck by one of things suffered by those who lose someone close to them. A death rarely occurs in an expected fashion, where there is time to plan a final conversation, share a final meal, or make a final expression of friendship or gratitude. What we are left with are the many things unspoken, forgiveness never asked or granted, and regrets that may be intense and may follow us for years. The obvious answer to this dilemma is to “keep short accounts”, not to leave things alone that are in need of resolution. And that is a fine and appropriate way to decide to live my life from this point on.

But what about the things from prior to this moment, the things from all of my life before now? Sure, I can make my own list of all those to whom I’ve done wrong, or who have done wrong to me, and resolve to contact them and try to make everything alright. But what happens if I cannot contact that person, or if they refuse to speak to me, or if, as in the case of today’s funeral, they are no longer living? That failed event of life still exists, and I may still be affected by it. 

God is master of the present, the future, and the past. He can come into that episode of years ago: a bad memory, a destroyed friendship, a failed marriage, or anything you might name, and bring healing and resolution from the pain it still causes. Even if that event has damaged me in some way, His healing can begin to repair the wounds and make me new. 

Bob Bennett wrote a song, Lord Of The Past, that describes this process beautifully. I do not know for certain on which album it first appeared; I do know it is available on a currently available album titled The View From Here, available here. I believe it first was released on Lord Of The Past: A Compilation, released in 1989.
 

Every harsh word spoken
Every promise ever broken to me
Total recall of data in the memory 

Every tear that has washed my face
Every moment of disgrace that I have known
Every time I’ve ever felt alone

Lord of the here and now
Lord of the come what may
I want to believe somehow
That you can heal these wounds of yesterday

So now I’m asking You
To do what You want to do
Be the Lord of the past
Oh, how I want You to
Be the Lord of the past

All the chances I let slip by
All the dreams that I let die in vain
Afraid of failure and afraid of pain

Every tear that has washed my face
Every moment of disgrace that I have known
Every time I’ve ever felt alone

Lord of the here and now
Lord of the come what may
I want to believe somehow
You can redeem these things so far away

So now I’m asking You
To do what You want to do
Be the Lord of my past
Oh, how I want You to
Be the Lord of the past

Well, I picked up all these pieces
And I built a strong deception
And I locked myself inside of it
For my own protection

And I sit alone inside myself
And curse my company
For this thing that has kept me alive for so long
Is now killing me

And as sure as the sin rose this morning
The man in the moon hides his face tonight
And I lay myself down on my bed
And I pray this prayer inside my head

Lord of the here and now
Lord of the come what may
I want to believe somehow
That You can heal these wounds of yesterday

So now I’m asking You
To do what You want to do
Be the Lord of my past
You can do anything
Be the Lord of the past

Be the Lord of the past

Be the Lord of the past

 

Lord Of The Past: A Compilation, 1989
Categories
Heaven

Creation unfinished

What awaits me after I die is the single mystery of life that I simply cannot understand until the moment when it occurs. I can imagine what it might be like to walk on the surface of the moon, or on the bottom of the ocean, even what it might be like to jump from an airplane and fall to the earth. The reason I can imagine these things is because people have done them already, and described their experiences. 

The Bible reassures me that since I have faith in Jesus, that he paid the price for my sins, that I have a place in heaven for me when my life here is over. What the Bible does not do, however, is give any concrete details about the experience of dying, and exactly what happens after death. Yes, it talks about it in general terms — we will be in the presence of Christ, we will no longer suffer any pain or sorrow, and it will last forever. But the Bible is lacking in details.

We do know it will be better than anything that anyone has ever experienced here on earth. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul quoted Isaiah, saying “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” So what the world ahead holds in store is beyond what I can imagine.

Keith Green spoke of this in his song, I Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven on the album The Prodigal Son in 1983. Keith starts by talking to the audience at a concert:

“You know, I look around at the world and I see all the beauty that God made. I see the forest and the trees and all the things. And it says in the Bible that He made them in six days, and I don’t know if they’re a literal six days or not. Scientists would say no; some theologians would say yes; it doesn’t matter to me. But I know that Jesus Christ has been preparing a home for me, and for some of you, for two thousand years. And if this world took six days, and that home took two thousand years, … this is living in a garbage can compared to what’s going up there.”

Seaside sunset, silver linings round the clouds,
Birds fly, singing, making such a joyful sound.
Thoughts of heaven somehow seem to fill my mind,
But I can’t even imagine, what it is I’m gonna find.

I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.

Deep green forests, mountains reaching for the sky,
Grasslands and deserts, your creation fills my eye.
Thank you, thank you Jesus, though this beauty is just a taste,
Of all your glory I’ll see when I pass through those gates.

I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.

Categories
Heaven

Further up and further in

While in the fifth grade, I discovered in my school library a series of books that would have a significant influence on my life. They were the stories of children taken out of this world, and dropped into another world. There, they had exciting adventures and had a very real encounter with Good and Evil, before their return to their normal lives. The books were the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, which started with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and ended with The Last Battle. They captivated my imagination with Lewis’ depiction of the lion, Aslan, and his repeated redemption of Narnia from attacks by evil. 

Especially influential to me were the events in the final chapters of The Last Battle, in which the Pevensie children and their friends, now grown older, find themselves back in a Narnia that is all made new, and is actually part of Aslan’s Country. There, they were told that they were now there to stay, that this Narnia would never see evil again, and that all of their lives to this point were just an introduction to the story that was yet ahead. This idea of what heaven might be like fascinated me, and made the whole concept a bit more real. 

A few years later, I came across the Space Trilogy that C.S. Lewis also wrote. In this series, Elwin Ransom from earth has adventures on Mars (Malacandra) and Venus (Perelandra), and learns the true nature of our solar system, and the fallen status of our own Earth (Thulcandra, the “silent planet”). The future restoration of Earth was discussed in the last chapters of Perelandra. Similar to what was mentioned at the end of the Narnia series, Lewis again stated that the whole of our history was just a mis-step at the start of a long journey that would be more wonderful than could be even imagined. 

Despite my young age, these glimpses of heaven motivated me to learn more about the real story of God in our world, and drove me to learn what the Bible said about it. And as my enjoyment of music expanded to include Jesus Music, I was always attentive for songs that talked about heaven.

Chris Rice has written serveral songs about heaven; he has a vision of what it might be like, and communicates it beautifully in his music. One that I had listened to before, but did not really hear all the lyrics until just recently, hearkens back to the Narnia stories I read in my childhood. The oddly named song, Nonny Nonny from his 2003 album Run The Earth, Watch The Sky, contains these words:


… My adolescent 70’s
Reads just like the Pevensies adventures
‘Cause every perfect now and then
I cought a glimpse of Aslan’s mane
And I longed for His treasure

Something in His mystery was drawing me
To love the Author of my own biography

CHORUS

Nonny Nonny Odle’ee
River washes over me
Up for air and carry me away
Nonny Nonny Odle’igh
Run the earth and watch the sky
Playing hard and waiting for the day
Nonny Nonny Odle’ay

All grown up and living fine
Biographies all intertwined with billions
And soon He turns the final page
We’ll look the Author in the face
Then the book really begins

‘Cause something tells me all these years of memories
Are only the first sentence of eternity …

CHORUS

Categories
Life Praise

Joy!

Joy is not a term we use much these days. At Christmas time the songs say “Joy to the World”, but we’ve heard it so much during our lives that it just becomes part of the background of the season.

One of the definitions I can find on the Net for “joy” is “To rejoice; to be glad; to delight; to exult.” So, “joy” is something that I feel when I’ve got something to be happy about.

The title for this blog about Jesus music lyrics was inspired by Chris Christian‘s song Great Great Joy from his self-titled 1978 album. I don’t consider this “joy” to be something to be mindless about, to look at the disasters that happen around me and have a stupid smile painted on my face. This type of joy is something that is a deep underlying current that can be present despite those disasters of life. It holds and sustains me, and is endlessly available, because of the source of the joy:

There’s a great, great joy in Jesus
And through me, Lord, it longs to be told
If you’ll just be a little child
He’ll take care of you and make you grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

There’s a great, great joy in Jesus
That I’m anxious for you to know
If you’ll just try to follow Him
He’ll take care of you and make you grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

There’s a great, great joy in Jesus
And through me, Lord, it longs to be told
If you’ll just be a little child
He’ll take care of you and make you grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!

Chris Christian, 1978