A Tribute to Keith Green and Mark Heard

Of all of the artistic gifts that God gave to man, one of the greatest is the ability to create music.  Music is such a powerful force in the world.  It can be used to prepare people to make war or to make love.  It can teach, rebuke, excite, depress, correct, inform and even propagandize.  Music is an indispensable part of worship.  We are commanded to sing and make melody in our heart to the Lord with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Those who create music can serve as ministers and teachers as well as mentors in our lives. I have had several musical mentors that have encouraged, challenged, chided and even provoked me to a closer walk with Christ.  I have also had the fortune to be able to see most of them perform in person and thank them for the part that their art has played in my life.  There are two men in particular that I was not able to let know of my appreciation for their work before they passed from this world into the presence of Jesus; Keith Green and Mark Heard.  This past July marked 30 years since Keith’s death in a plane crash near Lindale, Texas.  And on August 16th while the world was remembering the 35th anniversary of the passing of Elvis Presley, I was reminded that it had been 20 years since complications from a heart attack took Mark Heard. Many of you reading this may be familiar with Keith and his music, but more than likely you have never heard of Mark, and that is a crying shame.

I became aware of Keith Green’s music in 1980. Just a few months earlier I had been introduced to“Jesus” music as it was known in the 70s.  Before then I didn’t know anything about this great rock music with lyrics that praised the Lord and warned about the schemes of the devil.  A few months earlier, a guy at work had introduced me to the likes of Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, and the Resurrection Band. Bob Dylan's  recently released Slow Train Coming testified of a dynamic born again experience in his life.  Keith Green had already been on the Christian music scene for several years when I started listening to his music, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Keith composed beautiful songs of praise and adoration about the Lord Jesus, and he also wrote some of the most scathing songs directed at the spiritual apathy and malaise that had gripped so many Christians and churches in America (and still does).   In “Asleep in the Light,” Keith nailed us right where we lived with lyrics such as, “Bless me Lord, bless me Lord You know it's all I ever hear; No one aches, no one hurts; No one even sheds one tear; But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds; And He cares for your needs; And you just lay back And keep soaking it in, Oh, can't you see it's such sin?”  These words haven’t lost their effecitveness and veracity 36 years after they were written.  Not just content to be a musician, Keith was also a man of firm convictions and wrote several articles and tracts for his Last Days Newsletter.  Keith's decision to make his album So You Want to Go Back to Egypt available to anyone without cost made waves in the industry.  He believed the Gospel should not be for sale, but if you wanted to help defray the cost of the recording you could donate money toward that end.  His commitment to a lifestyle of discipleship had a profound impact on this 20 year old college student.

Just a couple of years later I stumbled across the music of Mark Heard, which filled another need in my growing spiritual walk. Mark’s writing was of a distinctively different variety than that of Keith Green.  While the name of Jesus flowed through Keith’s music with great regularity, and his messages were clear and plain; Mark wrote in imagery and metaphor and spoke about the great human condition that we all struggle with.  His music required repeated listening and deeper thinking, but it always came from a Christian worldview. Beginning with his early work on albums, Stop the Dominoes and Victims of the Age, I was struck with how honest and probing and even satirical his writing could be. His songs demonstrated to me that we needed to create quality art if we want to be salt and light in this world.  In his music Mark Heard would remind us of the “Strong hand of love hidden in the shadows,” as well as “in the eye of the storm the friends of God suffer no permanent harm.”  Mark’s musical talent moved him beyond the strict confines of the Christian music scene and earned him the respect of many mainstream artists, as evidenced on the tribute album made several years after his death, Orphans of God.  Olivia Newton-John, Michael Been of the Call, Bruce Cockburn. Kevin Max of DC Talk and others recorded Mark’s songs because they were influenced by his artistry and message. His commitment to excellence in his craft helped me to see how art shouldn't be confined to a particular subculture. We have to go into the world, it will not come to us. 

 

Because of Keith Green, I developed a deeper love and passion for my Lord and an intense dissatisfaction with spiritual apathy.  Mark Heard helped me see that a Christian could admit to being human and to struggling in areas that often plague all of us.  To Keith and Mark, thanks for your music and your art, you have been instrumental in my life and I know in the lives of so many others, I look forward to the day when I can say these words to you in person. 

PS - If you want to find Keith and Mark's respective albums, many are still available and there are various You Tube clips of their performances. Christianity Today has a wonderful tribute to Mark that can be viewed at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/august-web-only/remembering-mark-heard.html 

Death of a Fat Man: Part I (The Enormity of the Problem)

"And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly:  And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out. (Judges 3:20-21 KJV)

Stepping on that scale on February 1, 2011, I knew what to expect.  It had been several months since I had dared to place my feet on the infernal thing.  I had a vision of my scale creaking, then smoke rising from its dial until finally exploding in a ball of flame due to the excessive stress that my bulk was going to put on the poor machine.  I watched the numbers come up on the display, 375 pounds!  The only saving grace for me at the time was in knowing that at least I wasn’t at 410 anymore.  While I was relieved that some weight had dropped off, it was still impossible to get away from the fact that my life had become a series of miseries.  4x shirts and 54 waist pants were the dress of the day.  There was enough material on my person to clothe a small city. My feet and ankles were swollen due to all of the fluid that they contained, my knees and hips hurt, from the strain that was being placed upon them by carrying this weight for the better part of 27 years. My respiratory system was being compromised (due to a lifelong asthma condition and sleep apnea).  Add the multiple medications that I was taking in order to try and regulate my health, the frequent trips to the doctor, my lack of physical activity and it is very easy to observe a man on a downhill slide into an early grave.

There are also the social implications that come into play when one is morbidly obese.  In my mind nothing brings it home more than air travel.  As we know airline seats are notoriously narrow and cramped.  Fortunately, I was not so wide (probably due to my height) that I had to pay for two seats as is the misfortune for some folks.  But nothing could help me with the seat belt.  I had to have a belt extender, of which none are available without having to make a public request for one.  This is usually met with the up and down appraisal gaze from the flight attendant who retrieves said apparatus and parades it down the aisle for all the world to see (at least this is how it seems to me) all that is lacking is the pilot announcing over the speaker system that we have another gordo on the plane.  The cherry on top of this social sundae from hell is the look on the face of the person that realizes that their seat assignment is right next to me.  The rolling of the eyes, the deep guttural sigh, the glances all around for a possible open seat somewhere else lets me know that they would rather sit next to a skinny person with rancid b.o. and terminal halitosis than spend an entire flight sitting next to me. 

The list of other embarrassing issues associated with being almost 200 pounds overweight could go on ad infinitum, but doing so would only bring on ad nauseum.  While many reasons could be given for my excess weight, the one overriding truth that I have been able to determine as a primary cause for my addiction to food was that my issues with food were rooted in a desire to escape pain and disappointment with myself for various failures in my life.  These failures should have been taken to the Lord, but to be honest, my spiritual life was in shambles. Prayer and bible reading were non-existent.  I had given up on following Christ, and was content to wallow in self-pity, and stuff myself with food to try and numb a part of me that only He could fill.  I knew that I shouldn't feel this way, after all I have a wonderful wife who loves me "to infinity and beyond," a great family, good friends and yet I was still hurtling down this self destructive path towards heart disease, stroke and COPD. I had reached my breaking point. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I needed to either "get busy living or get busy dying."  An imperceptible whimper of a prayer of surrender escaped my lips and it was at this point, the fat man began to die. 

                                           

                                                                  January 2011

(To Be Continued...)

Introductions Are In Order

"And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly:  And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out. (Judges 3:20-21 KJV)
   
Where do I begin? How do I define myself?  Am I just a sum of my beliefs or am I something more?  I am a husband, father, grandfather (Dadoo is the proper term in our family), son, brother, cousin, nephew, uncle, follower of Christ, preacher, theologian, philosopher, apologist, food addict, movie geek, lover of literature, teacher, friend, sinner...I am all of these and more because I am human.  I am made in the image of God, and because of one man's transgression and my own actions I am polluted by the stain of sin.  Because of Jesus' sinless life, sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, I have a relationship with God through faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone.  I am indwelt by his Holy Spirit, so I "can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I also do many things that don't represent Jesus well.  I have helped people and I have hurt people (many of whom are the people that I love most in this world).  I have had tremendous victories and staggering failures, yet through it all, I have known the blessedness of forgiveness and the majesty of grace.

You may be asking why the name?  What is the significance of Ehud's dagger? Well I'm glad you asked (I know you may not have asked that question, but I am assuming you were thinking that).  Ehud was one of the men (and one woman) that God used to deliver Israel during their turbulent tribal years after Joshua died and before the kingdom era began.  The people of Israel were having to pay tribute to Eglon the king of Moab.  Ehud went with other tribal leaders for the yearly payment and brought a dagger with him which he used to assassinate Eglon who was described as very fat (in fact he was so fat that Ehud could not withdraw the dagger from his stomach). This account has a great deal of symbolism for me. Like Eglon I was a man who was very fat and my addiction to food was the king to whom I was paying tribute with my health and life.  The dagger represents the Bible, the sword of the Spirit, that when I allowed to penetrate me and become a part of me the dirt (food, idolatry, fear, etc) ran out, and I began to be free of those things which had been dominating my life for so long. I still struggle, but as long as I allow the Word of God to remain in me, I am seeing results that are not of my making.

This blog will serve as a sounding board for me to share with you, dear reader, some of the things that I have learned, as well as those things which trouble and concern me, especially as I try to view them through a Christocentric lens.  You may find yourself in agreement with me or in opposition to my conclusions.  Please feel free to comment no matter which side you are on, I promise to leave my flame thrower off.   I welcome debate and dialogue, for as the Scriptures teach (in another sword simile), "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend" (Prov. 27:17 NLT).

PS - Since I am new to the blogosphere,  I would love tips and pointers on how to improve the aesthetics of the blog.