The last few weeks have been like a blind folded ride sitting in the front row while on the Twister roller coaster at Knoebels. We said good-bye to a new grandson and welcomed one into the world within the span of seven days. I drove from Pennsylvania to Florida back to Shamokin to Johnstown putting more than just mileage on my car and my weary soul all along the way. Then last Saturday, I like all of you, witnessed the assassination attempt on President Trump’s life at his rally in the portion of our state I just left from. How do we process all of this with the finite tools at our disposal? What is really going on in the country that still claims to be, “the land of the free and the home of the brave?” I no longer find any solace or stability on the television’s news sources in times like these and when I read the vile hatred being spewed on social media making light of another human being’s very life, literally taunting, “How did you miss?” I know where my battered heart must go. Music is my medicine and within the lyrics and melody, I discover the peace and courage I need to press on despite the landscape on our horizon.
When I began my pilgrimage in following Jesus back in 1975, there was very little available in what we know today as contemporary Christian music. I was learning the hymns along the way as we sang so few of them in the church I grew up in, but I was still hungering for the sounds my spirit could relate to. One such artist that touched me deeply was Randy Stonehill. Stonehill’s first album, “Born Twice” was released in 1971, with financial backing from Pat Boone. One side of the record was a live performance, the other side recorded in a studio and the whole project t was recorded for a mere $800, and according to Stonehill, “sounds like every penny of it.” A year later, Randy made his film acting debut in “The Blob” sequel, “Beware the Blob,”, with TV’s Laverne and Shirley’s Cindy Williams. Randy also made a cameo appearance in the 1973 Billy Graham film, “A Time to Run,” performing his song “I Love You.”
But in 1976, Stonehill released the classic “Welcome to Paradise,” which was voted the number three most important contemporary Christian album of all time by CCM Magazine. The very first track sang, “All alone, drifting wild, like a ship that’s lost out in the ocean. Everyone’s a homeless child and it’s not hard to understand, why we need a Father’s hand. There’s a rainbow somewhere.
You were born to be there. You’re just running in circles, until you reach out your hand to the King of hearts.” To this day this song is a personal oasis I go running to when life gets a bit too overwhelming, and my eyes get blurry and my brain gets squeezed. No matter what happens here on earth and no matter how much pain and devastation it leaves in its path, God will never abandon those who have put their trust in Him. The bridge of the above song fully contradicts what we were told in the 1960’s by Donavan. “You can try to catch the wind but in the end, you’re only wasting precious time. And life can really be so kind once you find the truth and follow. Go on, follow!”
I have followed Jesus through jungle brush so thick, a machete became a wasted tool. I have yearned to breathe fresh air in a world where toxic fumes have been leaked into our atmosphere and the poisons are dismantling the moral compass of my lungs! There is another Randy Stonehill song that begins to play in the jukebox of my being. I once sang it as I participated in long cross country meets in high school and I thought the cramp in my side would burst my gut to smithereens. Today I sing it as an anthem to keep on keeping on even when it feels like you are still running solo on a course that is not familiar or fun. “Keep me running. Keep me moving from the sins I can’t erase. Like an outlaw with a mask to hide his face. Once I was told that love could fly.
Yeah, but it’s been so long that I just don’t remember why.” And the older I get, unfortunately my ability to bring back yesterday’s victories are becoming more of a challenge than ever before. But I am not home yet and if this isn’t Heaven, then I’m not finished.
In my naïve way, I still believe that I can get people excited to redeem their exhausted and burned out by religion lives. I invited Randy Stonehill to come to Shamokin and sing this weekend. Yes, this Sunday night at the Shamokin Alliance Church at 6PM. The man is in his 70’s but he hasn’t quit, and he still proclaims the good news as vibrantly as he did back when we were all so young. If music is my medicine, I thought why not just bring the Doctor along to give us all a strong dose of hope and purpose and the challenge to celebrate each heartbeat because we never know when it just might be our last! The Concert, like the salvation Jesus provides, is free and if you are already making excuses why you shouldn’t come, tell those negative vibes to shut the door and keep out the devil!
This past Saturday night, when I heard what was happening with President Trump, I thought of another song that began to ring in my ears. It’s a song recorded by a couple of guys who used to live next door to Randy Stonehill in California named Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Those lyrics are straight through and piercing and go something like this: “Molotov cocktail, the local drink, and all she wants to do is dance, dance. They mix ’em up right in the kitchen sink and all she wants to do is dance. Crazy people walkin’ round with blood in their eyes. And all she wants to do is dance, dance,
Wild-eyed pistol-wavers who ain’t afraid to die and all she wants to do is dance and make romance.” When we see the violence and hear the rhetoric of division and despair, where do we go to center our balance? I know that there were times in my own upbringing that when the yelling got too loud at home, I turned the volume up on my stereo but that was no solution to the pollution I was residing in. Where are your words of worth coming from? What directions do you choose when the bedlam and archaic anarchy flirts with even our homeland? Will we pretend that it’s just another day in party land while we lose the principles that our forefathers fought for? Intimidation to just be quiet and get in line must not work with those who were born to make a difference. We can’t be canceled if God has already promised us that we will not perish but experience everlasting life. We don’t need to dance to escape the headlines. We rejoice because the One we serve makes the headlines and one day soon our Lord will wipe away every tear from our swollen eyes and puffy cheeks. This may be a season of weeping, but joy will come on a morning in the not-too-distant future. I don’t have to ignore the world I have been planted in. We just need to reap life in the soil the landmines couldn’t annihilate.
I hope to see you this Sunday night at 6PM. I have a feeling we will be hearing one of the songs Randy Stonehill wrote with another individual who was never afraid to speak the truth in love in a land that didn’t always applaud Jesus then or now. His name was Keith Green. Lyrics go something like this: “Like a dreamer who was trying to build a highway to the sky. All my hopes would come tumbling down and I never knew just why. Until today, when You pulled away the clouds that hung like curtains on my eyes. I’d been blind all these wasted years I thought I was so wise but then You took me by surprise. Like waking up from the longest dream. How real it seemed. Until Your love broke through.” God’s love can still break through and will still break through to anyone who is willing to put their trust in He who is greater than all we see. Jesus is all about the kingdom of God and when His will is done on earth as it is in heaven, we will understand what living free really means! That is something to sing and dance about.
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