the encounter

Here’s a rundown of the songs we sang on Sunday 10/25/09…

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With several new songs Sunday morning, several people have asked what they were. Here’s a breakdown of the songs, as well as several videos from YouTube….

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Back in the early 1990′s my friends turned me on to the music of U2. It was right before the release of their album Achtung Baby (yes Todd, I was a late comer to the band’s music). In fact the first CD I ever bought was U2′s One single, followed soon by the Achtung Baby album.

As I came to learn more and more about the band I was even more intrigued by the suggestions that they might be a “Christian band.” The continual argument against their “conversion” was the rock lifestyle they led and the fact that they wrote and sang lyrics that often talked just as much about doubting their faith as accepting what God was doing in the world around them.

I’ve come to see more and more that perhaps that’s also what attracts many people (and me more and more) to their music – they’re real, authentic and don’t claim to have it all figured out.

@U2 shared a list of U2′s Top 10 Spiritual Songs last month.

The list included ::

Tomorrow
Drowning Man
The Wanderer
Love Rescue Me
The Playboy Mansion
Wake Up Dead Man
Mercy
Yahweh
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

I’m glad they included “Wake Up Dead Man” on the list. The first time I heard that song I thought perhaps Bono and U2 had given up on any faith they might have had. But then I came to see it as real, raw, honest seeking of God.

@U2 writes ::

Bitter, enraged and at times desperate, the final song on the Pop album is a fierce antidote to any rose-tinted view of the spiritual life. Bono states his predicament bluntly and uncompromisingly in the first few lines, painting a grim picture of what is perhaps his boldest depiction of a life lived in isolation from both God and the wider world.

Crying out to a deity who may or may not have abandoned him, in “Wake Up Dead Man” (the lyrics of which were partly written by the Edge), Bono describes a bleak situation, one of being so consumed by naked anger with God that it makes hard listening for any believer. However, I’ve often found it the perfect sound track to those blackest of black moments, as the song almost perfectly articulates what it feels to have what Bono has called that “very valid” sense of outrage at a God who at times seems indifferent to the awfulness of the human condition.

The song goes to prove that sometimes we will feel lost, confused and alone in the world. And those times may leave us asking “God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet, the picture doesn’t remain bleak – as the next song U2 released was “Beautiful Day.” The song contrasts the previous one like Good Friday contrasts with Easter Sunday.

I’ve come to realize in my own life that it’s those deep, dark, lonely moments that make the moments of resurrection and reconciliation that much more beautiful.

What songs would you add to the list? Are there other songs, albums or movies that paint beautiful pictures of God’s reconciliation with you and the world around us? Are there other stories that you’ve heard that have brought about new understandings of God’s working in the world?

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The time was 1981. I was fresh out of high school and just coming to faith in Christ. There was something fresh happening in my heart and my life was being changed. Someone introduced me to a Christian rockgroup called Petra. They were singing the song of my life at the time. It seemed every word resonated with where I was.

My friends and I were so caught up in their music that would drive to whatever city they were in to see them in concert, collect everything we could with their name on it, and even put together our own “air band” concerts where we would become the band and pretend to sing out their music.

Petra had so many great songs. Hearing their music today still overwhelms me with a rush of memories from those days. One of my favorite songs from their Never Say Die album was, “Without Him we Could Do Nothing”:

How can, how can we who are dead to sin
Live any longer therein?
We’ve been, we have been called and loved and forgiven
Our old life is forgotten

(Chorus)
Do you remember what he’s called you out of?
Do you remember where you were?
Let us not take advantage of his love
That we forget that we have been forgiven
Without Him we can do nothing

I know, I know where I was when He found me
With so much confusion around me
He’s been, He has been all that we would let Him
Without Him we can do nothing

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Stop whatever it is you’re doing and go downloaded Phil Wickham’s Singalong — today — right now. You’re going to want this album. Seriously. Even if you’ve never heard of “Mr Divine Romance” you’ll find yourself joining in on this live Singalong album.

And better than the music – it’s free! I mean does it get cooler than that? Open source Christianity at it’s best. (in all fairness you have to sign up for Phil’s e-newsletter to get the download).

via e-mail (after downloading the album):

“Singalong” was recorded May 9th, 2008 in Portland, Oregon at Solid Rock Church. This recording is something I have wanted to do for a long time and it’s amazing to see it finally come together. The faces represented on the cover are people that were either at the show, or watched the show when it was broadcast online, then sent me their face. I hope you enjoy the record and tell your friends. Thanks so much for stopping by. -phil

So I’m telling my friends – near, far and wide – download this album.

philwickham.com

HT: Shaun Groves.

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