Let It Ring

This past week has been a russian mountain rush. (In French a roller-coaster is called a montagne russe). A roller-coster package of days between the revelation of the hypocrisy of many Christian communities and leaders, a strong election-population acclamation for change, and some tumultuous events and words in my own life. I think I was ready to "get off" the ride several times - eager to quit most everything - but my family - in my life through these twists, turns, and tempests. In a week in which Christianity - the faith world-view of personal and global transformation I base my life upon - made the covers of both Time and Newsweek, I found myself questioning why I would associate myself with a community that seems to do/be the opposite of what it claims as its founding ethos. Is it any surprise that our church's are emptying and growing older by leaps and bounds, while most people my age prefer Starbucks to a Sanctuary, or Pete's to a Purpose-Driven Church?

Just as I was nearing one of the existential drops of my last days I was blessed to go with my wife to a concert of our favorite muscial group, a spirtual gathering of music-loving, left-leaning, world-changing folks looking and longing to here some sort of transcendent voice in the midst of the oppresive, military-complex, modern-dualistic, increasingly irrelevant world in which we dwell, live, and minister. Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls recently created her second solo album, Prom, which contains a song that I find rings radically relevant in terms of the self-sufficient righteousness of much of modern American Evangelical Christianity. It might have been just me - the midst of the crowded concert hall - that had an existential "God Moment" in the singing of on of my increasingly favorite songs (or maybe I wasn't alone? there were a lot of screamers - singing at the top of their lungs with me?). It sounds corny - but I left ready to "let it ring" for what I seek to practice by God's grace in my own life, decisions, relationships, and words.

"Let It Ring" from PROM
Amy Ray

When you march stand up straight.
When you fill the world with hate
Step in time with your kind andLet it ring
When you speak against me
Would you bring your family
Say it loud pass it down andLet it ring
Let it ring to Jesus
‘cause he sure’d be proud of you
You made fear an institution and it got the best of you
Let it ring in the name of the one that set you free
Let it ring

As I wander through this valley
In the shadow of my doubting
I will not be discounted
So let it ring

You can cite the need for wars
Call us infidels or whores
Either way we’ll be your neighbor
So let it ring
Let it ring in the name of the man that set you free
Let it ring

And the strife
will make me stronger
As my maker leads me onward
I’ll be marching in that number
So let it ring

I’m gonna let it ring to Jesus
Cause I know he loves me too
And I get down on my knees and I pray the same as you
Let it ring, let it ring
‘Cause one day we’ll all be free.
Let it ring

I also loved hearing the opening song that my daughter performed for her youtube debut. (We're hoping she'll become the Third Indigo Girl) Enjoy the video here!

Monte