The Friday Fix

Tag: faith

  • ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ – Arcade Fire

    Tom writes:

    I recently became a granddad. Very recently in fact – the wee one is 17 days old as I write this. My emotions around this have been mixed, for a bunch of reasons I’m not going into here – and I’m not sure I could explain even if I was to try! But when I listen to Arcade Fire’s Lookout Kid the swirl is clarified into a certainty.

    Despite having listened to Arcade Fire for many years now, the first time I heard this song was just a few months ago. I was, as is often the case, driving along, listening to a playlist, when the track came on. Immediately my mind went to the then impending arrival of this tiny new person into my life and what that would mean. And for the first time I had absolute clarity about how I felt.

    There is, I think, a temptation to make both parenthood and grandparenthood about wrapping your wee relative in cotton wool. It is, I think, a perfectly reasonable and understandable temptation, and of course a parent’s or grandparent’s calling includes keeping their child safe – that’s why stories of situations where that hasn’t been the case hit us so hard, why the moments that bring me out in sweats when I look back over our daughter’s life so far are the ones where I feel I could have done more to keep her safe.

    At the same time, life is full of scraped knees and heartbreak. That is a truth that is unavoidable. At baptisms I always make clear that whatever else we’re doing, what we’re not doing is promising a life of ease and safety to the one being baptised – my favourite baptism reading is the opening of Isaiah 43, which doesn’t say there’ll be babbling streams and warming stoves, it simply promises that amidst the raging waves and roaring fires a love will hold us that will never, ever let us go.

    So, as my worries and wonderings swirled in my head, Lookout Kid broke through all that and affirmed to me that, whatever else, my love for this tiny bundle of humanity then soon to enter the world and now having done so is absolutely and categorically unconditional. It also enabled me to see that my calling, as Gramps or whatever they later choose to call me, was to let them know that I love them whatever, and to ensure that they knew that would remain the case whatever life and the world throws at them, and to encourage them to be the person they are born to be, not the one that the world might want them to be.

    Parents and grandparents can’t do everything for their children – there are things our kids and grandkids are called to do and be that are completely beyond our knowledge and understanding, and we need to let them find those things, despite the risk, the failure, the pain, and the sadness that such finding may likely involve. But, like the God we are all made in the image of, we can love unconditionally. We can encourage them to fly, while letting them know that when they trip and fall and scrape their knees we will always be there, to hold them, and tend them, and help them stand back up and try again.

    And, of course, this is what God offers all of us too. All of us. God’s love is unconditional, and God’s desire for us is not that we be what the world demands us to be but what God calls us to be – our true selves, the selves in which God’s image is most clearly seen, the selves in which we can love
    ourselves as much as we might love our neighbours and our Creator.

    Whatever other thoughts and feelings swirl around my mind, I know this is what I want for the wee one now in my life. It’s actually what I want for everyone. And I know that it is what God wants for all people – because God’s love is indeed unconditional, whatever scrapes we may get ourselves into as we seek the person God has called us to be.

    Find out more about Arcade Fire here – https://www.arcadefire.com/

  • ‘Sing It Loud’ – k.d. lang

    Jane writes:

    In the last 18 months or so, I’ve had a lot of people talking to me about “finding your song”. It may have been in worship or through a children’s story; through conversation and reflection on a radio programme or even through song lyrics themselves. It has even extended to those conversations about Simon Sinek’s work on “Finding Your Why” or discovering your core purpose. A sort of perfect storm then around discovering who you are and what really drives you. What is your song and how do you sing it with passion?

    Into that space then comes this song from k.d. lang. It has such a lazy summer feel to it and yet it has at its heart a celebration of the unique individuals we are. The imperative to be true to yourself and all you can accomplish with what you’ve been given or learnt or seen as critical in life. How to be your true self and then what you do then with that discovery.

    The story in your eyes

    Spoke of all the things you realize and dream

    The thing about finding your song or purpose is that it offers great joy. A kind of sweet spot moment but also comes with other questions and queries. If we extend the metaphor then. What happens if you’ve effectively lost your voice for while? What if someone, or some situation, has stopped you from singing? What if you’re in a choir and the rest of your friends want to sing something different? What if your song is a one hit wonder or maybe it’s a classic. How do you teach others to sing it if it has a complicated tune? How long can you sustain a solo without backing singers? You get the picture. How do you handle having to not be your whole self for a while knowing that at your heart there is a thread of being you can’t put down?

    As a person of faith it never ceases to amaze me how critical song is biblically.

    Songs of joy and thanksgiving. Psalms full of gratitude and despair. Songs of lament and sorrow in exile. Songs of love. Songs of realisation. In scripture then these songs are a representation of how people were discovering who they were and what they were for. People who knew from the start what they were being called to and what their purpose was. People who were unsure and on a voyage of discovery. People who had to be persuaded or discovered the hard way. People who didn’t like it. People who lived through some really tough stuff. Abraham. Moses. David. Hannah. Samuel. Jonah. Joseph. Jeremiah. Mary.

    Each one with a unique story to tell and a significant “song to sing.”

    It seems then that all this “song stuff” requires of us at least a little self awareness. Time to dig deep and find out who we are and how that plays out in our lives. Time to discover and focus for a while but then whatever you do and whatever your song……..

    Sing it loud, sing it, sing it, sing it loud

    So everyone knows who you are

    Oh and by the way I Iove this bit:

    When the days grow dark with confusion

    You can always give your burdens to the music

    It’s a real truth for me and I guess many readers of a blog like this. Ultimately I suppose, your song is what keeps you grounded but more simply the songs sung by anyone can sustain you and you can rest there for a while. Both literally and metaphorically of course.

    You can find out more about KD Lang here https://www.kdlang.com/

  • ‘Numb’ by Linkin Park

    Michael writes:

    WARNING: NU METAL ALERT!

    Ok, so I confess… I’m a kid of the late 90’s and early 00’s that meant I was brought up on a healthy diet of skater rock and nu metal. And now it is my joy to share these passions with you! One song I particularly want to share is this absolute classic from Linkin Park, which was probably one of the most listened to tracks of my youth… for many angsty teenage reasons!

    I used to think this song captured well the struggles I had with my relationship with God and my parents who were heavily involved in church leadership. I was acutely aware as a teen of who I thought I was meant to be, and how any failures to fulfil that model of sonship (both natural and spiritual) would reflect badly both on God and my parents. I couldn’t take that pressure but often internalized it or handled it poorly (classic 15 year old!). This song was an outlet for my angry objections and inner distress:

    Tired of being what you want me to be

    Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface

    Don’t know what you’re expecting of me

    Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes

    I had a deep sense in myself that ‘every step that I [took] was another mistake.’ That I couldn’t do things right, couldn’t live up to the ideal I felt I had to. Alongside this, I was wrestling with my own charismatic upbringing and trying to understand why I didn’t always ‘feel God’ – something that had made me feel more guilt and resentment:

    I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there

    Become so tired so much more aware

    I’m becoming this, all I want to do

    Is be more like me and be less like you

    This song doesn’t have a happy ending. There is no shift in mood, no resolution, no hope. It just is what it is; a pained outpouring of emotion.

    I still love this song as an adult – partly for the nostalgia, but also because I now hear it from a different place. I used to think my angry wrestling with God was part of my problem. I was being faithless, a failure, a let down. I’ve learned over time though that wrestling with God is very much at the heart of the identity of God’s people.

    Israel the man literally had that fight. Israel the nation metaphorically had it for centuries. Abraham is the epitome of the untrusting follower and is the Father of covenantal community. Elijah is the epitome of the angsty God-follower and the greatest of the prophets. Peter is the epitome of the confused, over-zealous screw-up and the rock upon which the church has been built.

    I like this song because it still expresses how I feel at times, but I no longer believe I am inadequate for these feelings. In fact I feel I’m very much faithfully continuing in my tradition. Much like the Psalms of anger, lament and confusion, as I express these very real emotions I am worshipping.

    And, unlike the way this songs ends, I no longer believe that that leaves God disappointed. Rather, I believe it moves their hearts and invokes their compassion. So oddly, this rather angsty song from my youth invokes some rather treasured thoughts… gotta love a bit of redemption right?!

    Find out more about Linkin Park at http://www.linkinpark.com

  • ‘Three Little Birds’ – Bob Marley and The Wailers

    Gill writes:

    I can’t quite pinpoint the moment in time when I became aware of Bob Marley’s music but by the time that I was at Sixth Form College, a day wouldn’t go by without hearing one of his songs. For me, this song never ages and neither does the message – which I love.

    I am, by nature, an optimist. Always trying to look for the silver lining. Trusting that things will work themselves well in the end. That’s not to say that I don’t worry (my family will vouch for that!) but the energy that worrying takes up could be used more constructively elsewhere. Or you could turn your worry into action for change.

    Whilst I have the tendency to believe that ‘all will be well’ (thank you Julian of Norwich), I’ve spent the last six and a half years working with our brilliant Co-ordinator, Jane, who has a different perspective to me on Julian’s reflections. We’ve had a good bit of chat and banter time and again around the subject – and I’ve loved her for it because I think her perspective is shaped by her need to care and make sure that everyone is okay. All might be well but it needs input and action – so Jane will always try her hardest to make everything alright for others.

    So I’ve chosen this song especially with Jane in mind. Today is her last day before she moves to her new role and although she knows that we’re a capable bunch, there’s probably a teeny tiny bit of worry too so ‘this is my message to you’:

    Don’t worry about a thing
    ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright
    Singing’ don’t worry about a thing
    ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright

    And if there’s still a bit of railing against this message, perhaps we could think about what both the Three Little Birds have to say and what the One who we follow has to say in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6:

    25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

    So thank you Jane from the three little birds (and a bit) in East Central team. We’re going to miss you a lot but we know that every little thing is going to be alright…

    Bob Marley still lives on through his work and music – find out more at https://www.bobmarley.com/