Proof

Tonight I was listening to some old music.

By old music, I mean Lifehouse’s “No Name Face” album.
The year Matt and I got together, it was practically all we listened to.

There was a lot of spiritual significance the whole album. It will always be one of my all-time favorites, but the track I always loved best was “Breathing.”

I’m finding my way back to sanity again,
Though I don’t really know what I’m going to do when I get there.
Take a breath and hold on tight,
Spin around one more time,
And gracefully fall back to the arms of Grace.

‘Cause I am hanging on every word you say and,
Even if you don’t want to speak tonight that’s alright,
Alright with me.
‘Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside Heaven’s door and listen to you breathing,
Is where I want to be.
Yeah.
Where I want to be.

I’m looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth and I’m,
Trying to identify the voices in my head.
God which one’s you?
Let me feel one more time what it feels like to feel alive,
And break these calluses off of me,
One more time.

‘Cause I am hanging on every word you say and,
Even if you don’t want to speak tonight that’s alright,
Alright with me.
‘Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside your door and listen to you breathing,
Is where I want to be.

I don’t want a thing from you.
Bet you’re tired of me waiting for the scraps to fall off your table to the ground.

‘Cause I just want to be here now.

When I was listening to it tonight, I got to thinking about how your priorities shift when you really, truly realize what matters most to you.

The song really deals with that, about putting yourself on hold for just a glimpse, a mutter or whisper from that someone or something that matters the most.

The way I see it is that when you get past thinking about how everything God does benefits you personally, and go through a dark time in your life, you become more interested in knowing that at least He is out there somewhere. Regardless of whether or not you get to partake, enter the promised land, or what have you, it becomes important just to see His evidence. Proof.

It becomes an obsession to find Him moving somewhere, even if it isn’t with you. As long as He exists, life goes on.

I’m not sure what happens after that.

#MusicMonday CD Review: Get Lucky – Mark Knopfler

I could be altogether biased, but having finally received the newest album from Mark Knopfler, I am impressed by it.

He’s still composing from his industrial/everyman perspective, but with every other album comes an especially Celtic effort (see Golden Heart, Sailing to Philadelphia).  This is one of those.

All of Mark’s music has a “memory lane” feeling, but it’s wistfulness can have a acidic, bitter undertone (which has its place), but this one feels as though some of that has been purged from his system, having a more peaceful young-at-heart tone. I’m enjoying that.

Thus far, the overall theme seems to be a full cycle of life: the zeal and foolishness of being young (Border Reiver, Cleaning My Gun), the sobriety of loss (Remembrance Day), and the letting go of what’s been lost without bitterness (So Far From the Clyde), and ultimately accepting the end of life with “Piper To The End”. These are open-handed songs sung with wisdom passed on from someone who’s been there and back as in songs like “You Can’t Beat the House,” and the title track “Get Lucky.”

I’m happy to say that there seems to be an overture of self-satisfaction that emanates from his newest album. He’s seemed to work through some negative feelings toward a better personal place, and that is very satisfying to hear within his music.

Some of my very favorite tracks so far:

So Far From the Clyde

Border Reiver

Remembrance Day

Some Pictures from the Philadelphia Folk Festival

For our anniversary, Matt and I spent the weekend in Lancaster, and went to the PFF in  Schwenksville.

It was a great trip. The concert that Saturday had a line-up of several bands, including Enter the Haggis, a celtic punk band that I was particularly impressed with.

Why we really went to the festival, though, was to see Iron & Wine. Sam Beam of Iron & Wine is one of my 2 favorite musicians (the other being Mark Knopfler).

Here are some photos from that concert.

Solid Rock

As mentioned, I am a music fan. I like 60s, 70s, 80s, folk, funk, blues, disco, opera, worship, classical, and the ever-ambiguous genre “rock.” I hate the term “rock” because it is so non-descriptive. Buddy Holly is rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd is rock. Motley Crue is rock (among the many other things which they are). Johnny Cash is rock. It means nothing.

Anyway, I was talking to God today, pondering a few things, and a song popped into my head. It was random enough even for me, but I’ve learned to pay closer attention to those instances. The song was “Solid Rock” by Dire Straits, written circa ’79. It’s a good one, but the words were sinking in more today.

“I wanna live on solid rock
I’m gonna live on solid rock
I wanna give, I don’t wanna be blocked
I’m gonna live on solid rock”

I feel that way. I don’t want to walk along all cloistered up, assuming people don’t want my help or interference; I want to be the person who offers of what I have anyway. If they don’t want it, it’s their decision. I’m prone to assume that if people did, that they’d ask, but it just isn’t so. It’s about generosity.

Generosity doesn’t equal money, though that’s what it brings to mind. Generosity is just giving of what you have, which is honestly, much more valuable. – Especially with the U.S. dollar and economy being in flux lately.

I guess that would qualify as a New Year’s resolution.