DaveEnglund.Name/DBlog

Songs that speak about life

There are a few songs that seem to have special meaning for me (see the category "Songs to Grow By").  Songs that have somehow been used by God to speak directly to my soul. "Desperado" by the Eagles, is a plea to let others into your life, to let yourself be loved, stop living the lie that you don't need anyone. "I Am a Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel, confronts the lie that a life lived behind emotional walls is any kind of life at all. "You Don't Have to Hide" by Joy Williams, encourages the broken to come into a community where they can heal. [Hey! Is there a pattern here?] And, "If We Are the Body," by Casting Crowns confronts wearing Christianity on a sleeve instead of living it out as Christ did.

I found myself thinking of another song this week - "Skating Away," by Jethro Tull. The  last time I thought of this song I was driving to work on my first day as a new employee for a financial services company. The chorus seems to capture so well that sense of uncertainty when I'm stepping into new places in life...

Skating away ---
Skating away ---
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day.

There's also something to the song that speaks of coming of age to me, of throwing aside the expectations of others and becoming who you were created to uniquely be...

One day you'll wake up in the present day ---
A million generations removed from expectations
Of being who you really want to be.
Skating away---

As if to say, "Throw that stuff off young man. Get out there and be who you were meant to be. Sure, its scary. It feels like skating out on thin ice - you never quite know  how things are going to go. But you've got to do it to come alive."

"Skating away" came to me again this week as I considered another life change. It's really nothing profound, I'm just moving away from doing website design to a hosted weblog package. But it feels a bit like a new day. I've been designing my own site since about 1998 (around eight years). Now, I'm going to let others do the design work and focus more on the writing, on the content.

It also occurred to me that "Skating Away" might make a great name for a website. Humm...

Desperado & I am a Rock

At our men's group tonight we focused on the book TrueFaced, by John Lynch. Specifically, we discussed chapter four - "The Supreme Gift of Grace: Love." Part of that discussion went to why we have a hard time letting others love us. One reason, and not the only reason, is that we try to protect ourselves from the possibility of pain. But our self-protections only isolate us further! After the meeting ended I found a couple of the guys talking about a old Simon & Garfunkel song - "I Am a Rock." How often I've heard that song over the years, but so infrequently have I really "heard" that song! 

Along the same lines, here is a song that has been playing in my mind from time to time over the last week. It's "Desperado" by the Eagles and "I Am Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel. Isn't it ironic that the things we try to do to protect ourselves from disappointment and pain only end up guaranteeing we will live disappointed and painful lives.  -dbe

---

Eagles — “Desperado”

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
You been out ridin’ fences for so long now
Oh, you’re a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

Don’ you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She’ll beat you if she’s able
You know the queen of heats is always your best bet

Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can’t get

Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no youger
Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don’t your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time from the day
You’re loosin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late

---

Simon & Garfunkel — “I Am a Rock”

A winter’s day
In a deep and dark december;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
I’ve built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don’t talk of love,
But I’ve heard the words before;
It’s sleeping in my memory.
I won’t disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

You Don't Have to Hide

HIDE, BY JOY WILLIAMS

To anyone who hides behind a smile
To anyone who holds their pain inside
To anyone who thinks they’re not good enough
To anyone who feels unworthy of love
To anyone who ever closed the door
Closed their eyes and locked themselves away

You don’t have to hide
You don’t have to hide anymore
You don’t have to face this on your own
You don’t have to hide anymore

So come out, come out, come out wherever you are
Anyone who’s trying to cover up their scars
To anyone who’s ever made a big mistake
We all been there, so don’t be ashamed
Come out, come out and join the rest of us
You’ve been alone for way too long
And if you feel like no one understands
Come to the One with scars on His hands
‘Cause He knows where you are and where you’ve been
His scars will heal you if you let Him

© 2005 New Spring, a div. of Zomba Enterprises, Inc. (ASCAP) / Songs of Extreme (ASCAP) / Cedar Sides (ASCAP) (adm. by Cedar Music Publishing) / Word Music, LLC (ASCAP) / Westies, Inc. Music Publishing (ASCAP) (admin. by Word Music, LLC).

If We Are the Body

"If we are the body" by Casting Crowns

Its crowded in worship today
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know,
Farther than they know

But if we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body, why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way

A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances
Tells him his chances are better out on the road

But if we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body, why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ

If we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body, why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

If we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body, why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

Jesus is the way.