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
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