by Chris Gough
My wife and I just saw Paul Simon at the Showbox in Seattle. It was amazing . . . but funny (ok, maybe scary) what people like me are willing to pay for an hour or two of live music. After all, there are only twelve notes to choose from; instruments and vocal chords are made of physical/non-magical substance; sound is really only waves of different heights and lengths; rhythm can be easily measured by a metronome; and all of it can be transcribed to paper with musical notation.
Of course there is something intangible about experiencing music. When the bass and drums lock together, even the most reserved listener will tap their foot and smile. Advertisers know this and place just the right string part behind a car commercial, or an energetic pop song for some “fun” beverage.
This immeasurable aspect of music is where its real value resides . . . when the listener allows the music to do its job of ushering: into celebration, or regret, or comfort, or any form of the human experience. Armies used to have drummers lead them in a march; funeral songs ease loss and encourage healing; weddings celebrate love and hope with Pachelbel’s canon; babies are whisked to dreamland with a lullaby; and football locker rooms pump up players with 80′s double-necked guitar. We can accentuate the spirit of nearly any occasion with song. It is like an outlet for the soul . . . ventilation for the heart.
When reaching out to bands to ask them if they wanted to be a part of the Spilling Hope campaign, no one balked at the idea. Not all artists had a song they could donate or the bandwidth to join the project, but those thirteen artists who officially offered music for the project seemed to grasp the spirit behind the project, and seemed to understand why Spilling Hope matters.
If we think we are simply providing people with physical water, we will miss the real substance of Spilling Hope. It is true (of course!) that disease-free, clean, potable water is an absolute basic requirement for life. Without acknowledgment and response to this need, it is impossible to unlock the greater resource collected and distributed after the 50 days. The intangible, immeasurable, supernatural additive to that gift of pure water is hope.
Someone cares!
Intangibles are always tied to tangibles, because we are both physical and spiritual beings. It is not enough for God to announce that he loves us; he came physically to display his love. In some way beyond my comprehension, the act of deliberate care from one actual person to another unleashes, in both parties, a restoration of existential value. You can make a difference! You are not forgotten! Once a person’s value is grasped (even partially or for a moment) they see the world rightly, perhaps even as God sees them through Christ, and “Life to the full” (John 10:10) becomes a possibility.
So if 150 beats per minute can inspire you to the end zone . . . perhaps a glass of water, in Christ’s name, can awaken two lives.
Be sure to download Spilling Hope – Volume Two, and if you’d like to read Chris’s interviews with each of the artists, visit his blog, where he will be posting throughout the 50 days.
