What’s equally fascinating is when people search for the
meanings behind certain songs or lyrics.
I’ve often wondered if the last living Beatle as he’s laying on his
deathbed about to become the last “not living” Beatle will announce to those
closest to him, “you had us all along…it wasn’t about Lewis Carroll imagery
inspired by a painting by young Julian Lennon…Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds…it
really was about LSD.” I mean THAT story was so widely accepted as
the TRUE meaning that radio stations refused to play the song despite continual
denials about to the contrary. Another
Beatles song that I like hear people espouse their theories on is “Dear
Prudence”. I read one person going on
about how it’s about shy, introverted people in the 1960’s. “The sun is up, the sky is blue, it’s
beautiful and so are you.” See, that’s
an uplifting lyric about how life is beautiful – and so is the shy, embarrassed
person. “Dear Prudence, won’t you come
out to play” (they claim) is simply the invitation for those poor souls to
break free from the shackles of shy insecurities and break free to enjoy life.
You know what it REALLY is about? Dear Prudence? Really about?
It’s a note to Prudence…who has literally locked in herself in her
room. The Beatles had gone to learn
about meditation and Prudence Farrow (Mia’s sister) was determined to reach
enlightenment. She locked herself in her
room…refused to come out. The people
there said, “Hey, we need to get her to come out.” So John Lennon wrote Dear Prudence – as a
literal invitation to Prudence to come out and play. There’s no metaphorical inference like in
“Blackbird”. It’s as literal as a mother
standing a porch yelling at her kid, “Jimmy get out of the street before you
get run over.” Hey, Prudence, it sure is
a pretty day…come on out. But instead
people search for all the hidden meanings and symbols and imagery. All the while, they are completely missing
the simple truth that song is simply a child’s imploring for a friend to come
outside. Nothing hidden about it. “Dear Prudence” is literally a “Dear
Prudence” letter. Sometime digging for
deeper meaning misses the simple truth on things that are obvious. In other words, we find things that aren’t
there.
It’s a problem not unique to Beatles songs. Read the Gospels and you’ll run across the
same problems in understanding. Over
here there’s a parable and a crowd wondering what Jesus is talking about. Over there is a conversation where Jesus lays
it flat out there in plain Aramaic (sorry, it wasn’t plain English even if it
WAS plain) and folks don’t want to see the blatant truth. In Luke 8, Jesus tells the crowds the parable
of the Sower. Even the disciples are
scratching their heads. I’m sure when
Jesus was telling it, they were all over in the wings, nodding their heads
acting like the kids that got the joke.
Then as soon as Jesus was finished, they rush over to ask what He
meant. He told them the secret. Then over in Luke 10, Jesus tells the story
we call “The Good Samaritan”. And what
prompted the whole scene was a religious expert asking “what do I gotta do to
get this eternal life that you’re preaching about?” Jesus answers him simply “Love God above all
else. Love your neighbor as yourself.” And what is the reply? “Who is my neighbor?” Come on, man.
Is this religious expert really Johnny Cochrane? If the neighbor doesn’t fit, you must
acquit? This isn’t a loophole game –
it’s plain Aramaic. You don’t need elaboration
on that. But Jesus gave him elaboration
anyway, to make sure there was no confusion.
Look, dude. Everyone that you can
help…that’s your neighbor.
Listen for the Whisper that plainly tells you when it’s
plain or when there’s something deeper.
Then ask yourself, are you really looking for a deeper meaning because
you’re looking for the loophole? Are you
looking to justify what you want to do, or what you’d rather do? Are you looking for deeper meaning because
like the apostles in Luke 8, you desperately want to understand what the Master
is teaching you, or are the expert from Luke 10 that’s looking for the
loophole. The tougher question is
this: are you the rich man from Mark
10? When you find the answer…whether it
was an obvious answer or one you had to dig to find…can you accept the answer
as the truth? In Mark 10, the rich man
demonstrates he knows what he should do, but when Jesus tells him to prove that
he gets it, the man goes away sorrowful.
Why? Because he knows what he’s
supposed to do, but is unwilling to commit to it. “I love the Lord, but I love my stuff
more.” It’s a common malady. Putting God in the right hierarchy is tough
for all of us. That’s really what all of
these and every other devotional ever written is basically about. At some point, you have to be willing to lay
your crowns at Jesus’ feet and walk away from them. Like Lincoln Brewster sings, “I’m giving it
all to You.”
There’s always a reason behind our search for
knowledge. Some learn to simply to
know. Some learn to know how to exploit
a weakness. Some learn to
understand. Why are you learning? Are you learning so that you can justify what
you do. Searching for the legal
arguments on which to base your defense?
Are you learning just so you can sound impressive to folks at church
when you reference obscure Bible facts and names – but no purpose at all beyond
that? Or are you learning so that you
can truly understand? Are seeking
wisdom? Are preparing for the test of
life, so that when the tests come, you’re prepared because you know what you’re
supposed to know? That’s the true purpose
of learning: understanding. And most
questions are as deep as you want them to be.
Just like Dear Prudence explained earlier. Sure the simple answer is “Dear Prudence is a
letter to Prudence”, but then it’s a wondering of why they were writing to
Prudence. “Love your neighbor as
yourself” is quite literally a simple call to help everyone you can help. The learning part is to understand why you’re
asked to do it. And the understanding is
when you realize that it’s about keeping God on His rightful place on His
throne. The simple part is following the
plain instructions – the harder part is understanding why they were given…and
then being able to accept that understanding.
My mom tells the story of a family friend who (way back when) misheard
the lyrics to the oldies song “Arizona” as “Hair is Golden.” Then after he discovered the truth of what he
was hearing, didn’t like the song anymore.
Same song and same tune, but now that they were singing about Arizona and
not Hair being Golden, he didn’t like it anymore. Twist that back to the rich man from Mark 10
and we have the same situation. He liked
it when he was walking around singing “Hair is Golden”, but one day he ran into
Jesus on the street. And Jesus said,
“the truth is that ‘Arizona’ is the name of the song”, and the rich man went
away sad. He didn’t like the truth. He liked his misunderstanding of the truth
better. But the truth is the truth
whether we like it or not. We learn so
that we can understand it correctly from the beginning.
~Dwayne
ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.nethttp://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment