Filed under: FAITH, LIFE, MUSIC | Tags: desire, direction, FAITH, Jesus, job searching, mexico, MUSIC, the economy
“Who can avoid the sins of the fathers…”
That is the beginning of one of my favorite lyrics from Daniel Amos. I will get around to the second half of the lyric by the end of this blog.
The sins of the fathers makes me think of the Exodus, Bruce Springsteen and “Magnolia”. The sins of the fathers are the patterns of pain and suffering that are passed along to us. Bruce Springsteen says:
“You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames / Adam raised a Cain”.
I have always been afraid of the sins of the fathers. I have been afraid of divorce, pornography, alcoholism, addiction, failure and isolation that has been passed on to us through our culture and families. This can lead to what I fear most: fatalism.
“Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse?”
Another Springsteen lyric that cut me down the first time I ever heard it. These dreams we have…are they in us to lead us or deceive us?
My family, friends and I are in one of those tough spots right now. We laid it all on the line and moved to Mexico to do this dream that we had. We would do a church thing based on community, social helps and expression. We would play music, feed the hungry and bring acceptance to all. We did it for two years and it was a beautiful thing. There were some tough spots but there is no question that it was a special time we shared.
Now we find ourselves in the USA during an economic crisis that has everybody freaked out. And I am reminded…”who can avoid the sins of the fathers?” In this case I think of the sufferings that every generation seems to go through in every country. This world is so unstable and it’s heresy to question “why is this happening to us”? This is the world and how it has always been. But what can we do to get out of the “sins of the fathers” repetition?
This is where I remember something that people as refer to the “faith chapter” in Hebrews 11. This is where the Spirit reminds us of true faith that has overcome. The thing is this faith is pretty scary. Lots of people mentioned here didn’t necessarily have what we would call “success”. Especially when we hear this…
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth”.
It’s like the Woody Guthrie lyric, “I ain’t’ got no home in this world anymore”. I have always felt that. If anything that has been the most consistent thought and emotion I have had since adolescense.
That Hebrews chapter is not fatalistic. Being an alien or stranger on earth only means that you have a different perspective about living. It doesn’t mean that you sit by and watch the world burn. It means that you understand what is truly meaningful and do that no matter what the cost. That is why Chesterton says that a martyr loves the world so much that he dies for it while someone who kills himself hates life so much that he destroys all others in his selfishness.
All this to come back to the rest of the lyric that I quoted at the beginning.
“Who can avoid the sins of the fathers? But you go ahead kid it’s your turn to walk on water”.
That is the reminder and the response to fatalism (or a time of fear like right now). Yes…we will suffer. Yes…I will fail. Yes…you will experience unexpected disappointments. But…yes you will heal others. Yes…you will bring others toward glory. Yes…you will experience beautiful surprises you have not imagined.
I have grown up with the stories of Jesus and his disciples, the Jesus movement, crazy missionary lives and the civil rights movement. Outside of Jesus these other movements had a mix of success and failure. But I ask you this: Was the Jesus Movement worthwhile when you think of the lives of Keith Green, Larry Norman and missionaries sent all over the world? Did Martin Luther King and others completely change American history for the better because of their actions?
Last of all let’s think of Christ and the disciples that he left after his death. Did they change the world despite the sufferings and hardships they experienced? They did.
Here we are in our time of hardship. I am ready to “walk on water” although the sins of the fathers have hurt me my whole life. I have wisdom, love, dreams, desires and truth to guide me. I am going to continue to pursue the dream.
-Andrew T Hackett
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***”The Sins of the Fathers” is a song from the Daniel Amos album “Songs from the Heart”. It’s a great album if you can find it. Unfortunately most Daniel Amos music is really hard to find.
