Part 6! I guess you know you’re getting close to the end when the devotionals start NOT being about some dramatic scene or intense images, but about the music. But that’s where we’re at. So read on and deal with it! HAHA!! I’m kidding, of course, but seriously we ARE talking about music this time.
Specifically, the song “Sgt MacKenzie” by Joseph Kilna MacKenzie. (I had to check Amazon on that one, even I’m not THAT good!) If you google the song, you’ll see the word “haunting” show up a lot. In an extremely thick Scottish accent, and written for the memory of his grandfather who was bayoneted (that’s actually a word) to death in World War I, MacKenzie sings from the point of view of the fighting soldier. “When they come, I will stand my ground. Stand my ground, I’ll not be afraid. Thoughts of home take away my fear, sweat and blood hide my veil of tears.” As the first helicopters are leaving the base, the song is played. It’s ominous and foreboding. The first line is “lay me down in the cold, cold ground” and you know that bad things are ahead. Musical foreshadowing, I suppose. But when the music starts, you just want to yell at them to get off the helicopters! No good is coming from this. The song speaks death. And everyone knows it…and there’s so much sadness, it makes you just want to cry simply hearing the song.
But then a whole movie later, the American troops are storming the base camp of the enemy at the top of the hill – and they play the same song. Helicopters are flying in and blowing up the enemy stuff, and Mel Gibson’s troops are gunning down everything in sight, and the exact same song in playing over the footage. “Lay me down in the cold, cold ground” and “When they come, I will stand my ground. Stand my ground, I’ll not be afraid. Thoughts of home take away my fear, sweat and blood hide my veil of tears.” Only now it’s not foreboding. Not ominous. Nothing bad happening here (to our heroes anyway). The exact same song, and it’s now a song of courage …of valor…of overcoming …a song of victory. And now they’ve won the battle, and there’s so much joy and feeling of relief that it’s all going to be ok. After all the fighting and conflict and most of all death, there’s victory and triumph, and it’s all going to be ok after all. And now the same music that made you cry before from the sadness makes you want to cry even more from the joy of victory and overcoming the enemy.
It’s funny how that happens. The same song in two different situations produces tears for completely opposite reasons. Like that one song written in 1779…well, not that ONE song written in 1779. I’m sure there were several written in 1779. But there’s only one Amazing Grace. First-time believers responding to the call of the Gospel, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the self-awareness of the sin in their lives will break down to tears. So filled with guilt and sorrow. So sorry for the way they are. Fully realizing that Romans 5:10 says we were enemies of God. Broken and contrite hearts begging Jesus for forgiveness and desperately wanting to be washed in the blood and made clean and Holy. “that saved a wretch like me.”
And then there’s some dear old granny. She’s lived long and seen much. She’s lived through depressions and World Wars. She’s seen death. It’s taken friends. It’s taken family. It’s taken her spouse. And soon it will take her. And she hears Amazing Grace at church. And she cries. She weeps tears of joy…and of courage…and of overcoming. Because she’s been through the many tangles, toils and snares. And Grace has brought her safe thus far, and Grace will soon lead her home. And she cries the tears of the victor that has overcome the enemy.
Listen for the whisper…”how sweet the sound”.
~Dwayne
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