POPDevo

Is it just me or are The Temptation’s talking about Noah’s Ark?

I can turn the grayest sky blue/I can make it rain whenever I want it to/I can build a castle from a single grain of sand/I can make a ship sail on dry land…Can’t Get Next to You (1968)

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36

The A Team, a beautifully written song about the story of a schizophrenic, crack-addicted prostitute, is full of paradox. He takes ugly things and makes them beautiful. The human experience is a full of a similar paradox. Even when we appear comfortable, internally, we can be tortured. There are demons waiting to whisper in our ears. We are eternal souls trapped in temporary tragedy. Somewhere a son, in the arms of his mother, struggles to feel loved. The CEO wonders if she is smart enough. The mentor is at a loss for lessons to pass on. I can “do” all day with checklists for school, work, home, music, poetry, family. At the end of the day, I can feel unsure. Will it be enough-will I be enough-to be loved?

White lips, pale face/breathing in snowflakes

Burnt lungs, sour taste/ light’s gone, day’s end

Struggling to pay rent/long nights, strange men

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. – Mark 5:1-5

And they say, she’s in the Class A Team

Stuck in her daydream/been this way since 18

But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting

Crumbling like pastries

And they scream

The worst things in life come free to us

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

Cause we’re just under the upper hand

And go mad for a couple of grams

And she don’t want to go outside tonight

And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland

Or sells love to another man

It’s too cold outside for angels to fly

Angels to fly

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs…When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Mark 5:11-13, 15

God can use our insecurities & our tragedy to His glory. In the passage, the people who knew of the formerly demon-possessed man were afraid. Why? I can only imagine if I was there, I would be in awe that the man that we had all counted out was still standing. That the struggle he was mastered by was now subdued; that his struggles were now his testimony.  He, for no apparent reason, received grace. And if God’s grace is bigger than 1000 demons, than surely, his grace can master my own demons. When God’s grace comes in contact with our pain and heartbreak on the path of faithfulness, they are transformed into markers the show us the way to hope. They are reminders, not to “put a period where God has placed a comma.”

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world alone
There’s no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright light to wich I go

And I’m going there to see my mother
And I’m going there no more to roam
I’m only going over Jordan
I’m only going over home now

I know dark clouds will gather me
And I know my ways rough and steep
And the beautifulfield lie just beyond me
And I know my ways rough and steep