Stones, Songs, Children and God

For those of you with children, do you ever look at them and ask yourself, "Is this really my child?" Sometimes our children behave in ways that we don't recognize, both good ways and bad ways and we wonder where it came from. Or they have particular likes or dislikes that are so far away from our own that we just sort of watch and think, "hmmmmmmmmmm........" I can say with great confidence that my father would watch me listening to all of my eighties guitar rock and shake his head wondering, "What in the world is he listening to that awful stuff for? Surely he can't be my son!" When you grow up listening to the King of Rock and Roll sing Gospel songs, hearing your child listening to the screaming guitar of "Running With the Devil" by VanHalen could be a little unsettling.

The good news is that over the years my taste in music has broadened, and I have come to appreciate and even often times prefer the music of my father's era, just as my sons Faron II and Declan have come to appreciate the rock and roll music of my day. I so enjoy my boys rocking out with me, yet I have to confess that I often look at my daughter Faith and her choices of music and I shake my head and think, "What in the world is she listening to that awful stuff for? Surely she can't be my daughter!" Rap, Hip Hop, Pop; categories that I don't even have a name for; music that doesn't actually require instruments; lyrics that are so full of inuendo that this pastor who in his previous life cussed like a sailor sometimes blushes. She loves it and I listen and shake my head. What is funny though is when she gets out of the car and it is a while before I realize I still have her radio station on and that I have been bobbing my head to the music.

I guess our children's taste can influence us as well as we can influence them. I have come to enjoy a few, let me repeat "A FEW" of her electronic dance beats and her pop radio songs; and little Bailey informed me after soccer yesterday that "a few is only three!" I am still holding out hope that she will develop a taste for truely good music and by that I mean music that requires instruments, a vocalist who can actually sing and lyrics that can move the soul. This past week she has given me a glimpse of hope for her musical tastes. As a reward for her helping me mow the grass last week I promised her a new CD. What she chose was a country group called Lady Antebellum and their latest album Need You Now


I had heard one of the songs on the radio and listened to enough of it on the way home from the store with her to ask her to let me download it to my laptop, but I hadn't listened to the whole album until this morning. It is an exceptional album, both the male and female vocalist have voices that are both pure and crisp yet with just enough raspy to remind us that this is country music; the instruments can range from a lead guitar solo that would do Eddie proud to a mandolin and piano that catches you just feeling happy; and the lyrics are ones that can and do move your soul. There is hope for my daughter! It is one of those soul moving songs that really struck me this morning as I was reading my Bible.

I try to read through the Bible once a year, some years I make it and some years I don't. I read Old Testament and New Testament simultaneously to keep me balanced by grace and this morning in the Old I was reading Joshua chapters 3, 4 and 5. This encapsulates the story of the Israelites first entering the Promised Land with Joshua. We see the priests walk into the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant and the waters pile up as the Israelites cross on dry land; we see the wilderness generation circumcized, the first Passover celebration in the Promised Land and the end of God providing manna for them to eat. The account of this morning's chapters ends with Joshua taking off his sandals as he is told he is standing on holy ground.

I enjoyed all of that but the thing that struck me this morning is part of the story that I have read many times because it always speaks to me in new and refreshing ways and this morning was no exception. Chapter four recounts the creation of two memorials made from twelve stones each. One in the river, and one set up in Gilgal. The river one marks the place where the priests stood with the Ark and the Gilgal one is set up as a memorial meant to provoke the question from their children, "What are these stones for?" An earlier reading of this account helped me recognize that these twelve stones were not pebbles, rather they were what is known as standing stones. They are large stones that are placed in a way that could not occur naturally to let those that come after know someone was here and perhaps that something important happened here.

There is a stone like this in Mammoth Caves as you walk up to the cafeteria in the cave. It is a stone four or five feet high, a couple of feet wide that probably weighs hundreds of pounds. Nobody knows who put it there, they just know somebody did. It is a standing stone to testify that someone had been in that part of the caves years ago. The catch is that it doesn't testify to any specifics. The Gilgal stones have a very specific purpose to point towards a very specific event. The stones were taken from the river as they were crossing and they were set up so that their children and their childrens' children would ask "What do these stones mean?" The question was to be the prompt for the story of God bringing the Israelites across the Jordan on dry ground into the land He had promised them from long ago. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that He should be revered forever.

Here is a monument specifically designed to ensure that the Israelites are telling their children about the mighty works of God so that they will always know that He is real, that He is mighty, that they are His and that He is faithful to do what He promises and He has promised to be with them always. The thought of this hit me a bit in the gut as I began to ponder, "What are the standing stones in my life? What are those things that point me to tell my children the stories of God the Father and how He has interacted in my life? Even more, what are my standing stones to remind me of what God has done? Do I have standing stones, or has the challenges of my life buried them where they can't be seen anymore?"

It was amidst these questions that one of Faith's songs struck and the hope I have for her music taste inspired some hope in this old preacher and uncool dad. It was track four, a song called "Hello World." It is the male vocalist and the music begins with the elegant simplicity of the piano which always strikes a chord in my soul. Sometimes music that the church world considers secular gets it more right than praise music or hymns. There is a beauty in the reality and rawness of the lyrics of a hurting world that can point us to God in a truth inspiring kind of way.

The song tells the story of a husband and father who tells us that "sometimes I feel as cold as steel, and broken like I'm never gonna heal," but he finds a little hope in the chocolate covered face of a little girl in traffic, and in the little white crosses outside a church and in his wife and kids that meet him at the door. It was in the soul moving piano chord progression and the lyrics of this country song that my theological questions about standing stones were answered. Of courese I have standing stones, my life, our lives, are littered with them. They are our children, our families, our friends, our churches, our pets. They are those ornaments on the Christmas tree that reminds us of a Christmas past or a vacation trip. They are that old shirt that you have been hanging onto since college that still smells of bonfire. They are the little jewelry case of keychains and coins that mark 30, 60, 90 days sober. They are a doll carriage and a BB gun; a dent on a fender and a ripped tent; sausage balls at Christmas and homemade decorated cakes on birthdays.

The beauty of our lives as Christians is that God is alive and well working in every aspect of our lives from the mundane to the spectacular. He is there when we are doing laundry and cutting the grass; He is there when we are sending children off to college and letting them drive by themselves for the first time; He is there when we are getting married or burying a loved one. Not a moment of our lives goes by without God's presence so we don't need a giant standing stone to remind us of His mighty work in our lives and the lives of the body of Christ. We simply need to look around at all of the little and big things in our lives, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the grace filled and the painful. We are surrounded by reminders of God's presence, we just have to look and listen. When we look we might see that chocolate covered face of a little girl waving that reminds us there is hope and joy in God. When we listen we just might hear hope and joy in the music and lyrics of a song that was introduced to us from an unlikely source. When we recognize that God-filled hope, joy and love in those everday things then we need to tell the stories of God, or our past, of our hope for the future, of redemption, of salvation, of freedom. We need to tell the stories to inspire us to draw ever closer to God so we can more clearly hear His voice in the lyrics of unexpected songs. Despite my taste in music, I am my father's son, and Faith is my daughter and all of us are children of the Father.

Let us give thanks to the Lord today for His presence and for His grace filled reminders everyday that He is with us and that in Him is peace, hope, joy, love and freedom!

In Christ's Love,
Faron

Here is a link to the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhnhtLR31KU

and here is a copy of the lyrics:

Traffic crawls, cell phone calls.
Talk radio screams at me.
through my tinted window I see
A little girl, rust red minivan.
She's got chocolate on her face,
Got little hands, and she waves at me.
Yeah, she smiles at me.

Hello world,
How you been,
Good to see you, my old friend.
Sometimes I feel, cold as steel.
Broken like I'm never gonna heal.
I see a light, a little hope
In a little girl,
Hello world.

Every day I drive by
A little white church,
It's got these little white crosses
Like angels in the yard
Maybe I shoudl stop on in,
Say a little prayer
Maybe talk to God
Like He is there
Oh I now He's there,
Yeah, I know He's there.

Hello world,
How've you been?
Good to see you my old friend.
Sometimes I feel as cold as steel.
And broken like I'm never gonna heal.
I see a light, a little grace, little faith unfurled.
Hello world.

Sometimes I forget what livin's for,
And I hear my life through my front door
And I breathe it in,
Oh I'm home again.
I see my wife, little boy, little girl.
Hello world.
Hello world.

All the empty dissappears;
I remember why I'm here;
Just surrender and believe;
I fall down on my knees.
Oh, hello world,
Hello world,
Hello world.