Byrds, Life, and Poetry

A Riddle

What do the music group the Byrds, most great philosophers, and King Solomon all have in common?

The answer? They all wrote about the meaning of life.

Ignoring the “great” philosphers, as most of them usually ignore matters of faith and religion, let’s really look at King Solomon and the Byrds.

About three years ago, in my junior year at Oakwood, I found myself in Dr. Tarsi Li’s Hebrew 2 class. Our homework was pretty routine: we had a textbook that gave us Bible verses out of the Old Testament, and we had to translate the text and parse the verbs. Parsing means to be able to specifically identify how the verb is being used in that verse. It was beginning Hebrew, and as long as I had the book, it wasn’t too hard. I got by in Hebrew, but between you and I, it still looks like squiggly lines and dots to me! In any case, my best friend Cameron and I were working on our translations. Before class. Like, right before class. You know, like almost every college student who is taking 18-20 credit hours who also wants to maintain some semblance of sleep. Anyhow, Cameron and I were translating, and it dawned on me that I knew the verses, but not from the Bible! I did a quick Google search and found the song that I was looking for and turned it on, and put it on loop to see who would notice. Sure as rain, the infamous “Haitian trio” (called so as they were all, surprise surprise, Haitian, and more so because they were good friends and roommates) walked in, our friends and classmates Lexus, Maurice, and Jean. They began to actually chastise me and Cameron for having “rock music” on in class in an Adventist school.

This is what they heard:

Play “Turn, Turn, Turn”

For those not aware, the Byrds actually performed this song as a cover song, as it was written years earlier, to less acclaim, for a group known as the Limeliters. The Byrds version of this song is currently listed as the #1 hit song with the oldest lyrics, as the lyrics, although changed in order to make the song work better, is nearly verbatim out of the King James. Now who would like to say that all popular music is bad? In any case, this song and the respective Bible verses always makes me think of the “Big Questions” in life: you know, the questions of life, the universe, and everything.

And honestly, because we live this temporal and fragile life, we can all identify with these verses and this song, understanding, like one commentator has said, that we are creatures of time and not yet able to partake of the joys of eternity. None of us can truly be happy if we have not come to grips with the reality that life is full of changes and sorrows as well as triumphs and joy. We must accept that we are mortal and governed by the passage of time.

So, we know that we are born and that we will one day die. We know, especially out here, that we plant, and we harvest. Because we live in a sin-filled world, where war and the death-penalty exist, we know there is a time to kill, but God gave us wonderful brains and talents and abilities, and some of us have extraordinary abilities to heal. Stone crumbles, wood rots, and condemned buildings are torn down, so that they can make room for new ones to be built. When there is sorrow, we cry, and when there is happiness, we laugh. When there is death, we mourn, and when there is cause for celebration, we dance. When we feel love for our fellow man or a family member or friend, we hug them, and when we argue and fight, we don’t. We look for the things we lost, and keep the things we enjoy, and toss out the things that are broken. Garments are torn and garments are mended. There are times of tact and holding one’s tongue, and times to speak out and to speak up. We love and we hate. We wage war and make peace.

Our life is full of all of these things. They are facts of life. Sure, you can live a peaceful, minimalist life, as a hermit far removed from society, and if you tried REALLY hard, you may be able to escape many of these things. The only thing you can’t escape:

Time

We are all subjected to the passage of time. The old say that youth is wasted on the young, while the young say that the old can’t remember what it was like to be young. We grow up from young children to wise (or at least wiser) adults. We grow up from being children of parents, to being parents, to being grandparents, and if we are VERY lucky, great grandparents or better! We go through childhood always wishing we were younger, until we realize that we wished too hard, and certain joints don’t work the way they used to, and that there are aches and pains that weren’t there a few years ago. Where there were strong, toned muscles, things have gotten…a bit softer.

Time constantly marching onward, until one day, we find ourselves at the end, looking back on the life we had lived. Lives of ups and downs, successes and failures. And then, we close our lives for the last time, finally laying down our burdens.

And how much time do we have? Well, it’s not like the time of Noah, who lived to be over 600, or Methuselah, who lived to over 960. The oldest person alive today, whose age can be independently verified, is Ms. Violet Brown of Jamaica, only after her predecessor died last month. The average lifespan of us in this part of the world is 79.84, with Nebraska ranking 15th in the nation for life expectancy. How many do we have here over that age? Okay…how many don’t want to admit they are over that age? Okay…well, I know we have a higher life expectancy here in Adventism. That said, I think EVERYONE knows we have a later life expectency, though it couldn’t possibly be our diet or other parts of our health message being the reason, right?

And what will we see, after we have run the race, and finally lay down for our final rest?

I know what I expect to see: my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I expect to see Him in all His glory, taking me home to Glory and to eternity with Him and my loved ones, where I won’t have to worry about aging, or sickness, or even sadness. I expect to see the New Jerusalem, golden and in splendor, with the Tree of Life in the center, waiting for me to just take and eat of it.

What will you see when you open your eyes? Will you take part in the first resurrection? Will you be given your crown and told “Well done, my good and faithful servant” and told to “enter into the kingdom prepared for you?”

Or, will you wake up in the second resurrection? Will the Shekina Glory hurt your eyes and will you know fear so great that you know, in the depth of your soul, that you will never know rest?

Today, we celebrate communion. We celebrate being part of one body in Christ. If you have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, we invite you to partake in Communion with us, and we look forward to the promise of seeing you on the see of glass on the last day.

If you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, what is stopping you? What is it that is keeping you? Time, brothers and sisters is fleeting, and for all of us, whether sooner or later, is running out. You never know what tomorrow may bring. If you have not accepted Jesus, please see me or an elder, and let’s talk about it and pray about it. If you are ready to give your life over to Him who sits on the throne in Heaven, then pray with me.

Let us all kneel down to pray. If you know where time will lead you, then pray for those who do not. If you are one who does not, pray with me.

Eyes closed, heads bowed...

Father, I don’t know what time holds for me. I don’t know what tomorrow may bring. But Lord, I know where I want to go, and I know that it is wherever Jesus is. So today, I give over my life and my heart to Him. I am sorry for everything in my life that I’ve done wrong, and I’m sorry for rejecting you all this time. But I know, that when I accept you, that my sins are separated from me as far as the East is from the West, and that I stand before you, with a robe as white as new snow. I thank You Father, for Your Grace, Your Mercy, and most of all, Your Love. I believe that Jesus died for me, so that I may live with you and He forever, and I promise to walk worthy of Your calling in my life. I know I won’t be perfect, but with You, I cannot fail and nothing can separate me from Your love.

Amen.