Deacon's Corner - No Satisfaction
Unlike many of you, I wasn’t raised on the “good old hymns,” or southern gospel music, or any kind of gospel music for that matter.
Oh, we went to church (most of the time) and when I was a junior in high school I began singing in the church choir because a friend I knew from school asked me, and his parents were willing to pick me up for practice on Wednesday nights.
But the rest of the week I listened to secular music, starting with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry through the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Doors, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. I had a musical “conversion experience” into country music in 1969 – Merle Haggard, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and, of course, Willie Nelson. These days my tastes are eclectic: classic country, classic rock and roll, southern gospel and contemporary Christian.
Music has played an important part in my Christian walk. In my public high school we sang Handel’s “Messiah” and most of the first scriptures that I learned were from that. In the ‘70s, numerous gospel-oriented songs became hits on the secular charts: Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace,” Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh Happy Day,” Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky,” and Bob Dylan’s “You Gotta Serve Somebody,” just to name a few.
I’ve come to realize that there are bits of wisdom to be gleaned even from secular songs. An example: the Rolling Stones “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, written by Keith Richards, is an expression of the angst and despair of modern man separated from God. The singer “can’t get no satisfaction,” from what he hears on radio or TV, trying to prove his manhood by smoking the right brand of cigarette, or attempting to pick up girls who are, sadly, just as lost and despairing as he is.
Truth is, there is no real satisfaction apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. “He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:9) We know that. Most of the world does not.
In the movie, “Urban Cowboy,” Johnny Lee sang “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” It became a hit. The title is self-explanatory. He turns to strangers like they’re friends and does everything he can to make it through the night. But the best he can hope for is to find someone else who’s also looking for love in the same places.
Years ago, a young lady who I’d known as a student at Tulare Union complained that all the men she met were drunkards. I asked where she met these losers. “At Crazy Delbert’s bar,” she confessed. Well, duh . . . I suggested that she go to church instead of Crazy Delbert’s. She did, and found a believing husband there.
Kris Kristofferson wrote a song called, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. A fellow wakes up Sunday morning with a hangover, has a beer for breakfast, another for dessert, puts on “his cleanest dirty shirt”, lights up his first cigarette, and goes out to face the day. But what he encounters brings back memories that only deepen his despondency: the smell of frying chicken, a daddy playing with his little girl, the sounds of Sunday school kids singing. Then a lonely church bell rings. “There’s something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone,” he laments. “There’s nothing short of dying half as lonesome as the sound . . . of Sunday morning coming down.”
An Andre Crouch song has the solution: “Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way.”
The world is full of – TULARE is full of – people who are looking for love in the wrong places who can’t get any satisfaction,” The church bells and singing only remind them of their sad plight because they are on the outside looking in. Would that they would just go in and join the family.
Sadly, these people – many of them our relatives and neighbors - don’t know that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” ( John 10:6); that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 14:6); that He is the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35); that He is the “Living Water” (John 4:10). The question for us believers is, how will they ever know these things unless we tell them?
Oh, we went to church (most of the time) and when I was a junior in high school I began singing in the church choir because a friend I knew from school asked me, and his parents were willing to pick me up for practice on Wednesday nights.
But the rest of the week I listened to secular music, starting with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry through the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Doors, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. I had a musical “conversion experience” into country music in 1969 – Merle Haggard, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and, of course, Willie Nelson. These days my tastes are eclectic: classic country, classic rock and roll, southern gospel and contemporary Christian.
Music has played an important part in my Christian walk. In my public high school we sang Handel’s “Messiah” and most of the first scriptures that I learned were from that. In the ‘70s, numerous gospel-oriented songs became hits on the secular charts: Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace,” Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh Happy Day,” Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky,” and Bob Dylan’s “You Gotta Serve Somebody,” just to name a few.
I’ve come to realize that there are bits of wisdom to be gleaned even from secular songs. An example: the Rolling Stones “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, written by Keith Richards, is an expression of the angst and despair of modern man separated from God. The singer “can’t get no satisfaction,” from what he hears on radio or TV, trying to prove his manhood by smoking the right brand of cigarette, or attempting to pick up girls who are, sadly, just as lost and despairing as he is.
Truth is, there is no real satisfaction apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. “He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:9) We know that. Most of the world does not.
In the movie, “Urban Cowboy,” Johnny Lee sang “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” It became a hit. The title is self-explanatory. He turns to strangers like they’re friends and does everything he can to make it through the night. But the best he can hope for is to find someone else who’s also looking for love in the same places.
Years ago, a young lady who I’d known as a student at Tulare Union complained that all the men she met were drunkards. I asked where she met these losers. “At Crazy Delbert’s bar,” she confessed. Well, duh . . . I suggested that she go to church instead of Crazy Delbert’s. She did, and found a believing husband there.
Kris Kristofferson wrote a song called, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. A fellow wakes up Sunday morning with a hangover, has a beer for breakfast, another for dessert, puts on “his cleanest dirty shirt”, lights up his first cigarette, and goes out to face the day. But what he encounters brings back memories that only deepen his despondency: the smell of frying chicken, a daddy playing with his little girl, the sounds of Sunday school kids singing. Then a lonely church bell rings. “There’s something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone,” he laments. “There’s nothing short of dying half as lonesome as the sound . . . of Sunday morning coming down.”
An Andre Crouch song has the solution: “Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way.”
The world is full of – TULARE is full of – people who are looking for love in the wrong places who can’t get any satisfaction,” The church bells and singing only remind them of their sad plight because they are on the outside looking in. Would that they would just go in and join the family.
Sadly, these people – many of them our relatives and neighbors - don’t know that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” ( John 10:6); that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 14:6); that He is the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35); that He is the “Living Water” (John 4:10). The question for us believers is, how will they ever know these things unless we tell them?
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