Go Ahead and Jump...

I generally don’t write to make other people happy. I write because I’m compelled to. Something usually moves within me that spurs a thought. Just as a musician is inspired, so am I. I often make the leap from thought to writing to capture that inspiration. It’s a gift I was graced with a long time ago that I’ve needed to continue to practice, cultivate and refine. Just like a musician hones his skill on his chosen instrument and a singer exercises their voice to keep things in tune.

In my writing, one thought becomes another and an entire train of thought begins to take shape like stringing notes together to make a melody or symphony. Today I wanted to look at mortality and the transient nature of humanity. One moment upon another strung together to create a lifetime. A person's life being a series of events. I wanted to look at the limited window of time we have in this life and how we utilize it. I suppose it has a lot to do with the passing of Eddie Van Halen yesterday. We’re fragile creatures actually. Not just our bodies but our minds too. 

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Hearts break too. There are quite a few broken ones today. Obviously, not literally but perhaps spiritually. We gain, and like yesterday, we lose. Our minds and out bodies. They say its just chemical reactions but Christians know it’s also something more than the sum total of chemistry and physics. Chemistry and physics might explain the complex interaction of a man shredding a guitar. The electricity in the guitar and blood that flows in the veins of the artist. Ye all this doesn’t explain the structure and exaltation of the transcendent lyrics (ideas) and the soaring solo on an instrument (feeling). The music or poetry is a product of a soul given flight. It is an instrument to illustrate its existence. Just as a paintbrush allows the painter to capture an essence from deep within. Just as the preacher exults in the exposition of the Bible to his laity. It is the Spirit driving behind it all.

I’m not a musician so I didn’t look up to Eddie. He wasn’t a hero of mine. Instead, his death is more of a reminder that as I age, more and more of the memories and events that filled my childhood and adulthood are fading off. Dying off. A series of musical notes coming to an end. They’re literally becoming history. I did love Van Halen’s music. I am pretty sure it played a huge part in my love of Hard Rock. My first albums were VH’s Women and Children first and Boston’s debut on 8-Track (yeah, I’m dating myself). But its more than that today. It’s a reminder that we are all on borrowed time. Every day is a gift and a grace of God. Just like the gift of writing appropriate words for articles or playing music. If not for God I we would have no true eternal purpose. None of us would. If not for God we would have little value. Yet the Bible reminds me daily that God valued us so greatly that he would take on the attribute of humanity so that there would be an ability to actually allow himself to die too…so that none of our deaths would be in vain. That our actions would have purpose.

Too often this fact is missed. We measure by the worlds measure of worth. It is at this exact juncture that we totally get it wrong. When we don’t succeed by the world's standard, we feel we have failed. That is why our feelings can’t always be trusted. Sometimes we need to reason and understand that our gut feelings could be wrong or not match the facts. Sometimes we don’t even have facts. Sometimes we need to rely solely on faith/Spirit. That is why we are to be in the world but not of it. One foot here and one foot beyond. It’s as if the world expects us to measure our worth based solely on how much we make an impact in this world. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are some who will make no indelible mark whatsoever by the world’s standard but by God’s standard and the spiritual… mountains will be moved. Others will move a generation on earth yet in God’s economy in the spiritual the needle barely budges off of the zero.

We all started as broken vessels capable of carrying a message of immeasurable worth. A damaged/deformed instrument capable of a miracle if we would only let God work through us. Ironically not unlike a hybrid monster of a guitar that inspired a generation of believing and non-believing guitar players alike. A guitar that was a merger of two different flawed creations merged into one. I truly appreciate the irony that some of the most awesome sounds in my library of music could come from such a monstrosity of an instrument. Eddie’s Frankenstrat. A hodgepodge of parts making a new improved creation. From it came some amazing sounds. In a way we are very much like Eddie’s guitar. Horribly flawed and disfigured but capable of being something completely profound and beautiful. A new creation entirely. Something more than the sum of its parts. God using us all as instruments regardless of how flawed we are.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are...1 Corinthians 1:28

Common grace falls on all including Eddie. Was he saved? I don’t know. That’s a measure and relationship with God (or lack of it) that I was not aware of. I do know that many that are saved were affected in a profoundly positive manner by Eddie’s and Van Halen’s music. Therein is the catch. God gives common grace to all so that others can benefit and appreciate the gifts they were given by God. Eddie was certainly gifted. Does every piece of an artist’s work glorify God? No. of course not. As I've already said, we're all flawed. But some of it did. Sometimes directly other times indirectly. I see it in the tributes given by other rock and metal guitarists that specifically glorify God and Christ in their music. Not the least of which were the tributes from Stryper’s Michael Sweet and Bill Menchen of Final Axe, Seventh Power, etc. It is in these instances where I am doubly blessed due to God’s grace in Eddie's playing. It had a positive effect on others still glorying God. From Van Halen to Stryper to me writing this article to you reading it.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Ephesians 4:7

From one instrument to another to another in an unbroken chain...doing unto other as you wish done to you. It’s a chain enabled by grace. Passing the grace on. We all benefit from God’s grace even when some don’t realize it or if they refuse to acknowledge that grace and their gift is from God. In this way believers can benefit from the common grace given to all...even non-believers. It is efficacious grace by which all are saved in Christ. Yet common grace helps pave the path to efficacious grace. Without which none would be saved.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Believers and non-believers alike play into the narrative. We see this every day. Eddie Van Halen’s death is another reminder in a long line of reminders of what is actually important. We can’t ever lose sight of the fact that we may or may not be destined for greatness here in this world by the world’s standard but it is all history when we depart. No, we need to realize that we are all destined for greatness when we accept what Christ did for us in rising from death. What really matters is what lies after when we shut our eyes for the last time here. How did we live? What choices did we make? Did we do the right thing(s)? Its about what God thinks not what men think.

We’re all part of a greater plan that none of us can see from ground level. We think we see clearly but we only see dimly and in a distorted reflection. There is a day coming for those who will believe that will allow them to soar like the guitar solos of a once great rock virtuoso. I honestly believe that a piece of that victory is captured within the music that was a product of God’s grace. 

For those that don’t believe I can only offer this. Sometimes, logic and reason can only take you so far. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean something doesn’t exist. God, grace, love, a gift of music. Things that exist but cannot be seen or empirically proven. It requires something more. A gift of grace to accept things in faith. Sometimes you just need to make Søren Kierkegaard’s Leap of Faith. Accept that some things do exist without provable empirical evidence. A leap of faith.

Sometimes you just need to Jump.