Saturday, January 27, 2018

Coals and Water


Coals and Water
(Performed by Angel Snow)
(Music and Lyrics by Angel Snow)

Fortune tellers dancin' 'round inside my head
I'm tryin' not to lose everything she said

Even so in standing at the foot of my bed last night
This mountains gettin' higher with every step
I'm trying not to lose everything I've kept

Captured by the fortune tellers in my mind


Ooohh, they always come back again
Every time freedom tries to pull me out
They suck me back in
Oooohh, we gonna' let that fire burn you
Tell me how you’re gonna' walk on coals and water too

Can you taste these words fallin' from my mouth
"Ain't old fashioned love what it's all about?"
I heard an old black man shout Christmas eve

Should've known better than to run to you
My heart started talking to me way to soon

Damn those fortune tellers in my mind

Oooohh, they always come back again
Every time freedom tries to pull me out
They suck me back in
Oooohh, we gonna' let that fire burn you
Tell me how your gonna' walk on coals and water too

Tell me how you gonna’ walk on coals and water too


Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Roads


Yesterday’s post featured a song, a poem, and a scripture speaking of roads. Each item is about making choices. The song by Krauss and Snow is about the mistakes in life and the roads taken that were wrong choices that affect the rest of our lives - and about the resolve to not make the same or even worse mistakes again. Taking the “road less traveled on” is seen as the way to avoid such mistakes.

The road less travelled is a common theme. Frost seems to choose (although there is some discussion about exactly which road the person chooses) the path that is less worn, the path that fewer people take. Jesus calls us to take the narrow road that is taken by fewer people. The question for us is, “what is the path less travelled?” How do we know whether or not we are on that path? Certainly, the path of following Jesus is a path less travelled. But, even then, there is a tendency to follow the crowd who seem to be following Jesus rather than to truly keep our eyes on the Master.

Meanwhile, Frost speaks of “telling this with a sigh.” Interpreting that sigh is truly the key to understanding the thoughts of this poet and the meaning of the poem (not necessarily one and the same). Certainly, to understand each of these poetic stories, one must take into account longing and regret, right and wrong, good choices and poor choices. Jesus calls us to the narrow way that few travel; but I must guard my own heart and mind so that I might not think too highly of the path I have chosen for myself. What of further branching of the road? I may have made one right or wrong choice but, in the immortal words of Robert Plant,

“Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.” (lyrics to "Stairway to Heaven")


Monday, January 22, 2018

Roads Taken and Roads Not Taken


Today’s blog post will simply introduce a topic. Discussion will follow in the next few days. For now, ponder the words of a song by Viktor Krauss (Alison’s brother) and Angel Snow, a poem by Robert Frost, and the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Note well how each of these phrases is used: “this road less traveled,” “two roads diverged,” “the other” road, the road “less traveled by,” “narrow gate,” “highway to hell,” and “gateway to life.”

These Days
(Written by Viktor Krauss and Angel Snow)

These days that I got
Can't be what I'm not
Sacrifices I've made for you

One mistake can go through this life so slow
Wanna keep myself from making two

‘Cause on this road less traveled on
On a way to somewhere
And will you miss me when I'm gone
I don't know
Where do I belong

And the sun will rise
And we’ll open up our eyes
And see love
Showing what's really true

And I would go so far
Just to be where you are
Take no time
Bringing my heart to you

‘Cause on this road less traveled on
On a way to somewhere
And will you miss me when I'm gone
I don't know
I feel it all so strong

Reaching out from within
Can't tell you where I'd been
Remembering something I was told
And it's called me to go
Find my way back home
Hearing you singing a favorite song

‘Cause on this road less traveled on
On a way to somewhere
And will you miss me when I'm gone
I don't know
I won't be gone too long

‘Cause on this road less traveled on
On a way to somewhere
And will you miss me when I'm gone
I don't know
I'll be gone too long
Oooh ooh oh


The Road Not Taken
(written by Robert Frost, 1916; published in Mountain Interval)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Matthew 7:13-14 New Living Translation (NLT)
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”