The Forest For The Trees

I was watching an inspirational video last from a website that a friend forwarded to me, and the background music reminded me of The Cure song “A Forest.” I have an ear for music, and I can hear chords – I think I may have perfect pitch or relative pitch or one of those things – I can’t pick an “a” out of the air, and I was never one for music theory – I can’t even really read music well, but I can hear it anywhere and know what song has the same chords. It can be sometimes really fun and sometimes really annoying – sometimes I’m watching an ad and I know the song behind it but I can’t pick it out or maybe I know it but can’t remember what it is, so I’ll be thinking of whatever that part of that song is until it comes back to me. But last night’s was clear as day – The Cure, “A Forest,” a song I used to listen to all the time back in the day.

It was really odd to think of that song along with that inspirational video. The Cure is not exactly what you think of as an inspirational group. But there’s something about that song. I used to listen to it loud, and I’d listen to it loud now if I could. It’s still just as good as it always was. When I first tried to find it online, all I could find was the first music video from 1980 which was really weird, and I later read that even The Cure thought it wasn’t a good video. Then I found a few live versions from later times, but those were really dark and goth which The Cure often was, but I remembered a different version and when I kept searching I found it, the re-mixed version from a 1990 album “Mixed Up.” The version is called “A Forest – Tree Mix.” On the YouTube website there are some comments and one says it’s “off the hook,” and it is.

In the book “The Shack” by Wm. Paul Young, there is a character who represents God who talks about listening to music that is not Christian music and enjoying it. When I read that I was so happy. I love Christian music, something I would never have said or thought before I was born again, but I also still love some of the music I used to love. I’ve had the experience since I was born again that I hear some songs from "the world" and can hear God’s voice in them. I remember having a conversation with someone the year that I was first born again and we were talking about how God was a creative force, so all creativity really went back to Him and came from Him. The Book of Genesis begins, “In the beginning, God created . . . “ and throughout the Old Testament, there are verses that speak about God as Creator. When art is a pure expression, it comes close to the Divine, regardless of whether it is overtly religious or not. It is true that there are some works of art, some writing, some music, that are very dark, and that darkness is not something I think is healthy for us to dwell in. We were meant by God to dwell in the light, and darkness cannot comprehend the light. As we read in John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that light was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” But also in that same passage, we do read that everything that has been made has been made by Him, everything that is created is made by and through and with Him.

I had been thinking about square dancing earlier in the day – something that I used to do before the years when I was listening to The Cure. Square dancing is something that I grew up doing – someone would say hey there’s a square dance, and everyone would pile into a car or a truck or walk up the road and we’d all go into a barn somewhere and dance. There was always great music – a fiddler was key – and we’d just dance. People who knew the different passes would teach people who didn’t, and everyone danced who wanted to – no one ever sat out unless they chose to, and even then sometimes someone would just grab their hand and keep them dancing. It was fun and full of life, and was a way for people to just dance for the pure joy of it. I don’t know what made me think of square dancing, but after I thought of that I thought of the difference in something like tango – another form of dance that is beautiful, but it is not as full of joy. It is more about passion and death instead of passion for life, and as I thought about the two kinds of dances, I wondered why it is that some people choose to square dance and some choose to tango.

And then I was reminded of The Cure, and I started to wonder why it is that some people are drawn to darker sounds and some to lighter. I wondered why it was that even when I was listening to The Cure I liked the same songs that I still like now and I didn't like some songs that I really don't like now, why it is that I’ve never liked things that were dark, even when my life was darker and I had not yet seen the light.

A woman I know gave me some Christian books once, and when I tried to read them they were so depressing I understood why she was so depressed and down all the time and I could not read them. I didn’t even want to give them away to a thrift store because some poor unsuspecting soul could pick them up and read them and want to give up then and there. Yes, being a Christian is hard and it is a challenge and it is full of trials and tough times of standing on faith, but it’s also full of joy and peace and love and mercy and grace. We couldn’t keep walking every day without all of those things mixed in with a good sized dose of the love of God and His amazing sense of humor. Why anyone would write a book that would depress people and bring them down, and moreover why anyone would read a book like that and think they should share it with someone else is beyond my understanding. And why anyone would think it was honoring God to write that kind of book about Him and to pass it along to other people just simply doesn’t make sense to me.

People sometimes think it’s their job as Christians to tell people that they are sinning and they need to repent. That was John the Baptist’s role, and I don’t think that anyone alive today can fit into his shoes. The Great Commission that Jesus gave to us was very simple, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even until the end of the age.”(Matthew 28:19-20) Where in there does it say that we are to tell people they are sinners? Where in there does it say that we are to pass judgment on anyone else? In fact, Jesus tells us Himself that we are not to judge others lest we be judged (Matthew 7:1), so why do people think that somehow they have the God given right to do exactly what He has told us not to do?

It amazes me that people can be so lost in the forest that they can’t see the trees. If a song is a good song, it’s a good song, if a book is depressing, it’s depressing. It’s what we feel in our spirit that counts, not what people say they are standing for, it’s what they really are standing for that comes out when we listen and watch and hear and see who they really are. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 tells us, “test everything, hold fast to what is good.” Paul, Silas and Timothy are writing here about prophesy in the church, but the idea can really hold for anything that is said or done. When we test something we are looking to see if it is something we want to hold onto, or something that is much better left alone and left behind.

In The Cure song, “The Forest,” there is a lyric line, “I hear her voice, I start to run into the trees. Suddenly I stop, but I know it’s too late, I’m lost in a forest all alone. The girl was never there, it’s always the same. I’m running towards nothing again and again and again.” If we test everything we can know what we want to hold onto, and what we need to let go, we can know that even if we feel like we’re lost in the forest, we’re never alone. We won’t run for a voice that is not there, because we’ll know the voice of the Shepherd and only follow His voice. We won’t be running towards nothing, because where He is there is always something.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan