without fear of reputation

tuesday, january 31, 2006

music.  the first cd(s) i ever got was the double disc beatles 1962-1966.  the first rock concert i ever went to was collective soul the spring of my sophomore year.  i have been in love with u2 since "all i want is you" followed lisa loeb’s "stay" on the reality bites soundtrack.  i stood in the rain with my best friend as patty griffin made me cry with her own drops of "rain".  i saw bob dylan live--he was high and sounded awful--but i saw bob dylan live.  i even got to see his son (the heartthrob of my teenage years) after buying a ticket for $8 from a dude outside exit-in.
 
i have fallen in love with poets and prophets; some of them have transformed me.  often i have asked myself why certain singers/songerwriters provoke me in ways that seldom do.  these artists would be ones like patty griffin, joni mitchell, u2, nick drake, ben harper, bob dylan, etc...artists i always seem to come back to over time.  one common denominator of the aforementioned is not genre, generation, or nationality, but honesty.  i can’t listen to one album of griffin or drake without being overwhelmed with need, pain, desperation, and love.  they hurt, they feel, they know, they confess.  one can't help but hear voices of the joys and heartaches of honesty.
 
it seems that the majority, the vast majority, of christian music is lacking in honesty.  the last thing i hear from most ccm artists is need and humility.  and besides, 99.2% of the music sucks anyway.
ah, but within that .8% exists one prophet who has taken hurt, feeling, knowledge, and confession, and outlined them with the need of Jesus...the prophet I speak of is derek webb.
 
i was listening to a podcast interview the other day in which derek touched on this very subject:
 
"More is wrapped up in trying to look like Jesus than look like people who need Jesus which I think is a tragedy.  I'm not like Jesus, I'm not at all, actually; I'm a wreck of a person.  And I need him…without him I'd be lost.  I'd rather people see my potential lostness than see my made-up, fictional righteousness because it doesn't get me anywhere.  If that's what I show to them then they're gonna be shocked when they find out that I am a wreck of a person.  And that's who I really am, and I'd rather people just know that now; I'd rather there be no pretense about whether or not I'm a good person or whether or not I'm someone you should really listen to because I'm not, I'm not at all…but I know a guy."   
-Derek Webb
 
our western culture is more concerned with christian marketing than needing Jesus.  We have become obsessed with turning into Jesus (wwjd?) that we turn a blind eye to the fact that we are so needy.  This "fictional righteousness" has been the fuel for the american crusades--claiming souls in the name of "Jesus" and "good" and "freedom" all the while overlooking the gospel of need and grace and nonviolence.  we have ignored discipleship and opted for numbing optimism in fear that someone might discover our depravity. 
 
derek's 3rd solo album was just released in december.  mockingbird is all i've been listening to for the past week.  i know no other artist under an intentional christian label who boldly claims the heartache of need and the glory of grace--hence the label, prophet. 
and on top of that, he makes good music…and check out this lyric:
"peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication."
 
murmurs of need, longing, hope, and hopelessness are what make music an echo of truth.