Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: christians, friends, heroes, music, rich mullins
“When I look back on the stars, it’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park. And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.”- Rich Mullins in “Like Elijah”
Rich died 10 years ago yesterday. When I read that tonight on one of my favorite websites/blogs www.relevantmagazine.com, songs began to pour into my head.
I was 22. Fresh out of college. Dealing with depression and confusion. Most of my friends had already married, and I’d dodged the bullet. At a Christian concert, I heard someone mention Rich Mullins died in a Jeep accident. I was sad, but didn’t know much about him.
Over the next 5 years, I gathered every bit of his music I could, and his songs became the soundtrack for those years of my life.
Remembering Rich today, helps me remember the guy his music inspired me to someday be. And today, I find myself living the life I dreamed of living back when I was 22. Thank you Rich, for giving me the songs to sing in the toughest of times. man, we miss you a lot these days.
Filed under: Popular Culture | Tags: christian, heroes, hypocrites, johnny cash, legend, music, rehab
it’s becoming a bit of an obsession. itunes has given me a new vice…maybe a virtue…it’s tough to tell.
downloading all the johnny cash stuff i can find. and listening constantly.
watching walk the line the other night, i caught a quote that Johnny’s dad told him….”at least now you know what it’s like to be in jail”. of course, that was referencing the fact that many of his songs were about prison, i.e., folsom prison.
he kept on writing about prison. Even on American V, amidst all the God songs, are many about committing crimes and killing men.
They say he was an “everyman”. the music of the common man. While grilling and listening tonight to “I hung my head,” it hit me.
We’ve all committed crimes…we just haven’t all been caught. Maybe not crimes according to the laws of the country we live in….but we’ve all broken God’s laws for man. in that respect, we’re either inmates, escapees, or parolees.
a parolee—-in give my love to rose, a man is released, and johnny sings about finding him dying on the railroad track (another common theme that i’ll hit later this week). the man had gotten out of prison, but failed to get back to those he loved the most, his wife and son he’d never seen. the journey back didn’t reach the place he’d lost.
an inmate—-”i hung my head”. a man killed a man accidentally, he just went to aim his gun at a guy in his sights to just get the rush, only to find his finger squeeze the trigger. the haunting words….”i felt the power of death over life, i orphaned his children, i widowed his wife, i begged for forgiveness, i wish i was dead, i hung my head” get me everytime. “and all for no reason, just one peace of led, i hung my head”. there’s nothing like the prison of sin. how many times have we broken God’s law with huge consequences on others….and felt the weight of guilt lead us to the gallows? the only way out is the hope of forgiveness. a chance to be pardoned or escape.
escapees….Johnny didn’t write about these. not that I know. But I’ll find out. He did sing “damn your eyes” about a man on trial. and in a way, he had escaped guilt for the crimes he’d done…killing a man. he seemed proud of all he’d done….bragging to the judge, the sheriff, the jury, even his old girlfriend molly. and in the end, he spoke to the demons ready to take him, still with no guilt….but trying to damn their eyes.
I’ve been pardoned. and can’t forget that i was an inmate too. ever. that’s why he wore black. that’s why he went to the prisons…. when everyone else was playing in bars, he played behind them…. because he identified with them, and they with he..
i can’t ever lose that edge. i must always identify with the lowly, the inmates of life. only then can I communicate the hope that there is life beyond those bars.
peace, then joy.
big j
