Danny ChaiI have no idea what blogs are for, but my personal philosophy is that it’s for getting to know a person slightly better. In pursuit of that, I think I’m going to periodically post mp3s of songs I love, their lyrics, and why I love them. I believe strongly that the songs people like say a lot about them. So you can listen to a song I like, read the lyrics, see why I like it, and you’ve learned a little bit about me. Alternatively, you can just click “back” or press “alt-left arrow” and leave the page. That’s the beauty of the web – no one is forced to read anything.
OK first song, The Howling (username: guest, passwd: [my wife’s maiden name]) by Rich Mullins.
The Howling
Rich Mullins and Beaker
I can see the iron horses’ tracks
Pressed in the mud from the weight of all that steam and steel
But the wind don’t blow where you want it to go
No the wind just goes where it will and you follow
I can feel the breath of winter
Driving this snow across these newly-whited plains
Takes my breath from me and it leaves me falling
Then it picks me up again in its own strength
And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home
I can see some traveller’s footprints
There’s a little bit of blood in every step he made
I wonder what kind of burden he’s bearing
That has cut him so deeply every step along the long long way
In the west I see an evening
This scarlet thread stretched beneath the gathering dark
Red as the blood on the hands of the Savior
And rich as the mercy that flowed from His broken heart
And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home
These men of violence they have made this a world full of wars
Oh God break Your silence and let Your justice shine forth
Show some mercy Oh Lord
‘Cause I can see a people dispossessed
Broken and brave in the face of so much fear
Driven from their homes by the greed of a nation
Whose treaties were as good as litter
Along the trail of their tears
I can see the Covenant colors
The sun and the rain have woven against the blue of the sky
And I know if we live we will live by His promise
I know He who made it
I’m sure that He would not lie
And I can hear the wild wind howling
And I can feel it in my bones
And I know that the howling will take me home
I love this song for so many reasons. One, the passion in his singing. He’s not the greatest singer in the world, but he packs so much emotion into his voice it almost drives me to tears.
Two, the poetry of these lyrics is insane. “I can see the iron horses’ tracks / Pressed in the mud from the weight of all that steam and steel”. “I can feel the breath of winter / Driving this snow across these newly-whited plains”. “In the west I see an evening / This scarlet thread stretched beneath the gathering dark”. That’s a level of poetry I could not approach in a thousand years.
What I love most about this song is the passion for the Lord to bring His justice upon the earth, to see Jesus return. I love that. I need to remember that sometimes. Oftentimes. It’s so easy to get caught up in my personal life. But there’s more to my Christian life than whether I did my quiet time today. There’s a social justice aspect that I want – need – to have. When I think about what’s going on with Hurricane Katrina (and potentially Rita) and all the need that’s out there, all those self-involved things I spend so much time thinking about, like getting a raise, or buying a house someday, seem ridiculously insignificant in comparison. I wish I had the passionate desire for God’s justice in this song. I want to care about these things as much as I do about my self-absorbed desires.
By the way, if you look at snopes.com there seem to be tons of mostly untrue hoaxes going around about the allegedly bad behavior of Katrina refugees. That just pisses me off. The rumors part. To me, it’s the same attitude the Pharisees had towards the sick and crippled in Jesus’ day – blaming them for their own state stemming from a desire to feel better than them. These emails seem to suggest that these “bad” refugees don’t deserve any help. And that just enrages me.
I know there are more experienced people out there who have more legitimate reasons for why certain people (like some homeless) are to blame for their own condition. But I dunno, it just seems to me that Jesus reached out to even these types of people, like tax-collectors and prostitutes, who really created their own situations. It seems to me that we’re called to love them regardless, although maybe sometimes with tough love. I don’t know what tough love is, but I don’t think neglecting hurricane refugees, regardless of what we might assume about their character, is it.
Anyway, I want hunger for God’s justice in the world the way this song does. And that’s why it resonates with me so deeply. Passion.