Songs that Save

In Walk the Line, Sam Phillips talks about Johnny needing to sing a song, just one song that would tell God and the World why he was alive.  Songs like that is what saves people.
No one is original.  In that vein… I am stealing Joey V’s idea for a blog. (by the way check his out, he’s money)
Some Songs that have changed my life…
The Drugs Don’t Work – Ben Harper, Live at Mars.  Originally a Verve song.  I don’t know what to say. I bought the cd around Christmas 2001 from best buy.  Heard it once, listened to it on repeat Christmas Eve and have not been the same since. Nothing special about the song except it just grabs you. Sometimes that’s all you need.   Best Line; “And if you wanna show, then just let me know and I’ll sing in your ear again.”
Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen, Greatest Hits.  Great Cd, Great Song, Great Artist.  Bruce has a way of taking all these feelings that you don’t think about and make you think that what he’s going through is happening or going to happen to you.  Best Line: “Don’t run back inside you know just what I’m here for, So you’re scared and your’e thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore. Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright. Oh and that’s alright with me.”
Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here.  Does it need an explanation.  IWU Summer 02.  I really got into them and into this song.  It’s amazing.  The one line in there that I always go back to, especially with God.  It’s a great song about questioning yourself and your motives.  Best Line: “And did they get you to trade/your heroes for ghosts/hot ashes for trees/hot air for a cool breeze/cold comfort for change/and did you exchange a  walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”
Stay or Leave – DMB, Dave and Tim actually Live at Purdue Univ.  They had only been playing the song for a week. Me and Matt Carlson went to the show at Purdue. I somehow got in for free and make it to the 7th row.  The song just grabs you from the beginning and won’t let go.  If they went to radio it would have been bigger than Crash.  Best Line: “Wake up naked drinking coffee making plans to change the world, while the world was changing us, it was good good love.”
Time after Time, by Eva Cassidy…Ok OK OK. Let me explain this.  Yes it is the old cyndi lauper song.  No it does not suck.  I however was not at a great place in my life. Just got back from the SWU fiasco (shout out to Joey V) and was sitting homeless in my frozen car in a frozen parking lot locked out of my friends apartment which was a little bit warmer than the INdiana February I was experiencing.  When Eva hit’s those notes in this raw deseration at night, alone, one will shed a tear. I did.  Best Line : If you  fall I will catch you, I’ll be waiting, time after time.”
 
Sorry for stealin’ the idea joey. You’re still credited with situ and anything else you stole from san D.
enjoy, listen, and write your favs.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

“Do wise men cry, when the child inside them dies” -Rudy Vaughn

I was talking to a girl this morning, right before we went on stage in church, and she was having a tough time deciphering between what is real and what isn’t. I mean she knows the tangible things and the basics. But check this out, if someone thinks that who you are while you are working, and who you are around your family, and who you are around your friends is all the “real world” they are probably mistaken. There was a time when I knew of about 8 different Tim Kirkpatrick’s running around. The Spiritual one, the intellectual one, the sporty one, the lazy one, the family guy, the jokester, the jerk, the quiet lone wolf one. All fronts. I’m not saying that life without relationship is the “real” me…however, if who we are around different people groups is different each time (am I the only one?) then there is probably some sort of image we are trying to paint.I am realizing more and more how little God is impressed by my spirituality and how unimpressed He is by my lack of it. He is not ashamed to call me friend or son, and in fact He is more proud of us than we are of Him. Is that really genuine? These are scattered and varied thoughts. Bear with me, please, but I’m glad I have people like Benji, and Jacob, and Marco, and Rudy and Barry and Chris to walk through life with, who I can be real with and not be thought less of. That’s the key isn’t it?

We’d have no problem being “real” with someone, if we knew people’s perception of ourselves wouldn’t change, I’m sure we would be as open as necessary. But we cover it all up. We get to busy trying to cover and save our lives,’ see we forget Christ said to save our life we must lose it. Lose it in God the Father, lose it in love, lose it in the poor, lost, and dying of this world. I forget that part all the time. I tend to jazz up the Bible and Christianity and even my perception of God, more than I do of God himself.
Bono said “my understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ…The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is…But the way we would see it, those of us who are trying to figure out our Christian conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament is like the journey from stern father to friend. When you’re a child, you need clear directions and some strict rules. But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship.”

You know it’s amazing to think, the Creator of the whole thing, my world, your world, “the Universe” we’ll call it, desires companionship. He desires to be loved and to love. You don’t have a kid to be selfish, or to help make life easy. We create offspring to enjoy life with ourselves. God is the same way, except better at it. He wants to spend time with us, love us, enjoy us, and for us to be that way back to Him. But we can’t comprehend it, and don’t want to believe it. “I have this and this wrong with me, don’t look, don’t come near.” Or sometimes worse it’s “I have my dreams, and I’m not going to give them to anyone. I need to achieve them myself.” We need God. We need others. I am realizing more and more that I am a better person as a fraction of a greater whole, than I am as the whole of myself. “Did you exchange, a walk on part in the war, for a lead role in the cage?” (p. Floyd). I have good ideas. I do. But it’s not until I share them with someone who will help mine and refine them out, that they become great ideas.

You want to know how to be genuine? Talk to someone else. Start talking to others, start asking other people questions about them, about you. Heck, you can even talk about me, good or bad, as an ice breaker if you want. But you need people. It’s easy to love God, to share with God. But beginning to do that with others, that’s not easy.

You know, honestly, I don’t know where any of this is going. It’s been a good week except for the Colts loss. I just see more and more the glimpses of freedom that are around the corner. Like the first rays of morning light in a desert. I’m beginning to see that freedom, true abundant full life has been there all the time. The chains have been broke off already, it’s me who’s the one holding on. Let go. Let go and believe.

The one truth that has HELD me the last 4 months came from Miracle on 34th Street. You’ve got little pugnacious Natalie Wood in the backseat having her whole world crushed and being told to still believe. “I believe I believe, it’s silly, but I believe,” she says. I’m telling you it’s held me. There are times when I’ve thought family, my dreams; even God was just silliness, foolishness. NO, that’s a lie. I believe. I believe. I believe.

Don’t let the child inside you die. Believe.