We don't eat

It bothers some of my friends that I rarely listen to "Christian" music. I counter criticism that secular and sacred are indivisible to the Christian. If art is anything, it is spiritual. Let everything be to God's glory. Further,  the obvious reason for avoiding the mass production of current "Christian" music is that it tends to be theologically inane, and an embarrassingly aborted attempt of creativity and depth. Not all of it,  I grant, but too much. Of course I don't swing to pendulum uncritically support "secular" quality either. I listen to classical, swing, indie, rock, and a great many singer/songwriters. I listen closely to music and frequently look up lyrics to read the words that the beat obfuscates in rhythm and feeling. Sometimes I'm embarrassed how carried away I was with a melody to such stupid words. Other times, I'm drawn in all the more to the questions that I missed in the hearing, the seeking artist's vulnerability, because the sound was either too good or unremarkable. Sometimes, it comes together and I just want to share with others. Case in point, The Civil Wars nail judgment and human folly in Barton Hollow. Mumford & Sons give voice to the questions, passion and regret of our hearts.  Another, an Irishman, James Vincent McMorrow, recently released a brilliant album, Early in the Morning, that reflects biblical themes in several of his lyrics. I'm still going through his work but here's one of my favorites that I can't stop playing We don't Eat :

If this is redemption, why do I bother at all

There's nothing to mention, and nothing has changed

Still I'd rather be working at something, than praying for the rain

So I wander on, till someone else is saved

I moved to the coast, under a mountain

Swam in the ocean, slept on my own

At dawn I would watch the sun cut ribbons through the bay

I'd remember all the things my mother wrote

That we don't eat until your father's at the table

We don't drink until the devil's turned to dust

Never once has any man I've met been able to love

So if I were you, I'd have a little trust

Two thousand years, I've been in that water

Two thousand years, sunk like a stone

Desperately reaching for nets

That the fishermen have thrown

Trying to find, a little bit of hope

Me I was holding, all of my secrets soft and hid

Pages were folded, then there was nothing at all

So if in the future I might need myself a savior

I'll remember what was written on that wall

That we don't eat until your father's at the table

We don't drink until the devil's turned to dust

Never once has any man I've met been able to love

So if I were you, I'd have a little trust

Am I an honest man and true

Have i been good to you at all

Oh I'm so tired of playing these games

We'd just be running down

The same old lines, the same old stories of

Breathless trains and, worn down glories

Houses burning, worlds that turn on their own

So we don't eat until your father's at the table

We don't drink until the devil's turned to dust

Never once has any man I've met been able to love

So if I were you my friend, I'd learn to have just a little bit of trust

Let me know what you think, what you've discovered, eh?