[3] Songs on my mind this Week

Over the last 12-18 months I have been pondering my role in the scheme of things as Coordinator of the UCA NSW Synod Youth Unit [NSW/ACT]. My Review is now upon us and I've been taking my own sense of the future as hard work and wanting to know which way to jump!!
I canvassed some emerging and interesting opportunities back 'home' and have seen most of those not eventuate. I have thought through my focus, energy and what I would like to do, should do and could do into the future...

No bombshells here! I am still pondering... and three songs I have been listening to are worthy of mention at this point. I have to write a reflection in the next week or so on my sense of a 'vitality of call' in my role and they all revolve in some way around that notion...

1. 'The Calling' Mary Chapin Carpenter
[trust Craig to remind us of a new album that instantly costs me $30 to acquire because its flamin' brilliant!!]

The Calling
Deep in your blood or a voice in your head
On a dark lonesome highway
It finds you instead
So certain it knows you, you can't turn away
Something or someone has found you today

Genius or Jesus, maybe he's seen us
But who would believe us
I can't really say
Whatever the calling, the stumbling or falling
You follow it knowing
There's no other way, there's no other way

There are zealots and preachers
And readers of dreams
The righteous yell loudest
And the saved rise to sing
The lonely and lost are just waiting to hear
Any moment their purpose
Will be perfectly clear

And then life would mean more
Than their name on their door
And that far distant shore that's so near

They'd hear the calling
And stumbling and falling
They'd follow it knowing
There's nothing to fear
Nothing to fear

I don't remember a voice
On a dark, lonesome road
When I started this journey so long ago
I was only just trying to outrun the noise
There was never a question of having a choice

Jesus or genie, maybe they've seen me
But who would believe me
I can't really say

Whatever the calling, the stumbling and falling
I followed it knowing there's no other way
Jesus or genie, maybe he's seen me
But who would believe me

I can't really say
Whatever the calling, stumbling and falling
I got through it knowing there's no other way
There's no other way
© Mary Chapin Carpenter ‘The Calling’ 2007

We talked about this song at our recent team meeting and noted the 'difficulty' of call. It has to be more than 'yeah I want to do this therefore I feel called.' There wew examples of those things affirmed by others, a disinterest in things we felt called to do and be as quite the opposite and mostly about the need to test things out. This song has a great vibe for relfection on the issues it raises.

"Hope and Validation"

Plans and preparations are decided in vain

Think we've seen enough now

Hope and validation are united again

Higher than the buds that bloomed

I've seen it hanging in your face

you may need time to think it over

Set a new direction for the harvest ahead

think we've seen enough now

Built the resurrection of a bond nearly dead

Seen enough now

Higher than the windswept moon

I've seen it hanging in your face

You may need time to think it over

Plans and preparations are decided in vain

Hope and validation are united again

Set a new direction for the harvest ahead

Built the resurrection of a bond nearly dead

Think we've seen enough now

Think we've seen enough now

Think we've seen enough now

Think we've seen enough now

This is the song I chose for a recent presentation to the Council of Synod about the tenuous future of the ministry of youth worker. A feeling of maybe there;s been enough struggle and pain and stress and its time for validation, its time for hope to be the dominant feeling arising out of positive action and ownership. It was a plea that 'plans and preparations not be decided in vain' but instead be enacted and followed through in the places that matter.

This is about the plethora of part time positions, lack of funds, short term funding, misunderstood tasks etc

"Steer"

Feel it falling off like clothing

Taste it rolling on your tongue

See the lights above you glowing

Oh and breathe them deep into your lungs

It was always simple

Not hidden hard

You've been pulling at the strings

Playing puppeteer for kings

And you've

Had enough

But the search ends here

Where the night is totally clear

And your heart is fierce

So now you finally know

That you control where you go

You can steer

So hold this feeling like a newborn

Oh with freedom surging through your veins

You have opened up a new door

So bring on the wind, fire and the rain

It was always simple

Not hidden hard

You've been played at a game

Called remembering your name

And you

Stuffed it up

But the search ends here

Where the night is totally clear

And your heart is fierce

So now you finally know

That you control where you go

You can steer, oh

And now you finally know

That you control where you go

You can steer

'Cause you've been listening for answers

Oh but the city screams and all your dreams go unheard

But the search ends here

Where the night is totally clear

And your heart is fierce

So now you finally know

That you control where you go

You can steer, oh

You get out of the box

You step into the clear, oh

'Cause now you finally know you can

Steer

© Missy Higgins ‘On a Clear Night’ 2007 Eleven Records

And thirdly that despite all the things happening around us there is a recognition that we can 'steer'. A welcome and positive entry into more pop sensibilities from Missy Higgins courtesy of Mitchell Froom!!

The clip is inspired... a vehicle crash test driver who suddenly realises she can steer and drives directly at the white coated testers alongside the shipping crate she barrels into normally!!