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November 7, 2005
Tension is to be Loved
I do not like tension. In fact, I carefully structure my interpersonal interactions to try to avoid it, to a fault. I know, though, that when tension is there it is no good to simply ignore it. Ignore it and it will just come back again at a more inopportune time, and then likely with a weight and ferocity that the original cause for tension did not even merit. I think the chic term for this is "passive aggression."
I swear one of my brother and sister in law combos, yeah they're a two pack, intentionally bark at one another over trivialities when I am over just so I will learn this valuble lesson, of how to be honest and "bark," that is, and not get all worked up about it. I don't like it, mind you, but it is a good lesson. They together laugh at my discomfort and tell me they are training me for marriage.
I digress, however. This post is not about that sort of tension. It is about a sort that I dislike perhaps just as much, though, the tension of waiting. Of waiting for big things and little things in life, of being content with the tautness of a situation, the unease of it, of waiting in that tension for the Lord to resolve it in his good way. So often I just do not wait, resolve the tension by letting go, making my own way, and I miss out on the beautiful thing God might have brought my way or miss the thing that he might have taught me.
Here is a song from Sixpence None the Richer whose lyrics express this need to love the tension and wait in it, to live in it. The music to this song is also brilliant, prominently featuring an acousitic guitar, which, in addition to the beautiful melody it helps produce adds to the theme. We hear the scraches and slides of the strings being pressed and plucked, and feel the tension resolving into beauty.
Tension (Is A Passing Note)
do I murder
when I forget you from afar
too drunk on the poison of endless roads
and the countless smokey bars
but tension is to be loved
when it is like a passing note
to a beautiful, beautiful chord
do I murder us
putting pavement through my veins
shooting in that special heroin
for the seeking and displaced
but tension is to be loved
when it is like a passing note
to a beautiful, beautiful chord
This entire CD, which has other lovely melodies sung by the divine voice of Leigh Nash and thoughtful lyrics from the pen of Matt Slocumb, can be had for the low price of $3.99 at this site. While you are there, throw a couple of Waterdeeps in your cart for $0.99. Groovy and moving.
Film, Music, Television, Books | By jackdas | 10:00 PM
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Comments
I LOVE that song, Neil.
And I've definitely been listening to it a LOT these last few months...
Posted by: Michaela at November 8, 2005 3:45 PM
I listen to this whole album a fair bit. There are several songs I like quite well, even though I have not thought through the lyrics of all the songs. There are many songs that are musically beautiful.
Posted by: Neil at November 9, 2005 8:38 AM
Dassler,
Do you think that the tension is to be loved, or something more like faced, overcome, endured, etc.? I think there's a difference. Perhaps it's the resolving of the tension that is to be loved, or the byproducts of the process of facing/overcoming/enduring, etc? Your answer in a few short paragraphs, please.
Posted by: David Kraus at November 14, 2005 11:34 AM
I suppose, Master David, that the situation is similar to how we are to deal with suffering. No one loves it, indeed it is likely pathological to do so, yet I suppose we are to endure it, accept it, perhaps even embrace it as the gift (or "the lot" if one wants an older somewhat less positive term) that God has given us. So I agree with you.
I think the song, though, is just artisitically expressing the need to embrace tension out of commitment and love for God instead of succumbing to idolatrous, faithless, tension-resolving solutions of our own, which we are so prone to do. At least which I am prone to do...
Posted by: Neil at November 14, 2005 11:56 AM
