Lost Blogs: Life, Love, and Death (Cab)

The lost blogs are ones that I have written but not posted. It could be that I didn't have time to finish them. In this one's case, I just didn't feel like posting it, a feeling that I no longer have. I present for your consideration this edited and updated version.

Death Cab for Cutie is most certainly not a "Christian" band but they are most certainly one of the best acts out there. Their songs are haunting, haunting pieces of laid back pop music that convey forelorne, world-weary. Consider this selection from "The Sound of Settling," one of their most upbeat and catchy.

i've got a hunger
twisting my stomach into knots
that my tongue was tied off
my brain's repeating
"if you've got an impulse let it out"
but they never make it past my mouth.

baa bah, this is the sound of settling
baa bah, baa bah (x2)

our youth is fleeting
old age is just around the bend
and i can't wait to go grey
and i'll sit and wonder
of every love that could've been
if i'd only thought of something charming to say.

baa bah, this is the sound of settling baa bah, baa bah

Obviously, writer Ben Gibbard is expressing his sorrow in having to settle for second best, especially in the context of having missed out on love. Although we, we evangelical Christians would never, never do that, I feel that we do, but in a different light. Consider just one lines from "Tiny Vessels," set in the context of a relationship in which the speaker is not truly in love:

yeah, she is beautiful but she don't mean a thing to me.

My fear is that I and all, at least, a good deal many of my brothers are looking for a beautiful girl, but they so seldom mean anything to us, at least beyond the curls of their hair or the shape of their figure. And love? Brotherly love? The affectionate love of Christ? No where to be found. Like the character Gibbard sings as, we often find a beautiful girl who means nothing to us, and to quote from the chorus of the same:

[i] wanted to believe in all the words that i was speaking
as we moved together in the dark
and all the friends that i was telling
and all the playful misspellings
and every bite i gave you left a mark

Everything we do has a consequence, every action a reaction. Our actions have significance and make an impact, oh so especially in relationships, something that we will egotistically remember when it suits us. (consider the second verse of "Settling", above. Bear in mind that Gibbard is most likely lost.) Sadly, we will quickly forget that when it suits us, too. (Reread the lines above.)

Finally, this one comes from "Expo 86,"

but if i move my place in line i'll lose. and i have waited, the anticipation's got me glued.

I'm pretty excited about the future ahead of me (the "Life" part of the title) ; I can't wait to see how God will work. In all honesty, however, I'm not nearly that excited about today, and the next few ones don't look so promising. What then remains? Hope. I will wait patiently for the Lord, for He faithful. Read that line immediately above one more time. I'm waited and I'm glued.