Drive Home

Hello All,

Okay, a little about myself: I love music. I mean I really, REALLY love music to the degree that there’s usually music on in at least 3 different places in my home at any given time (unless it’s timed out to the Pandora Pause). I like walking in to the room and being pleasantly interrupted by what’s on at that very moment - I may even sing along. Often times when music simply isn’t providing the background ambiance, I’m online looking for my next favorite song. I’m fairly certain that I go through at least 2 favorite songs a year and it’s not that these songs replace my recent favorites, they just get added to the list.

Case in point: My current favorite (which I’m listening to as I write) is Steven Wilson’s “Drive Home”. It's secular and if you’ve never heard it, I would recommend listening to it without watching the video (at least for the first few times, if at all) - make sure you pick the long 8 minute version, the guitar solo is ridiculous! I think I listened to it about 10 times before watching. The difference is like reading a book before seeing the movie; your own imagination has an opportunity to do so much more with the subject matter before being “told” anything. And anyway, the video is really sad, which you do sort of get from the sound of the song but maybe not to the degree associated with the video. I liked hearing the song first because when I like something to the degree with which I absolutely LOVED this song, my mind tries to redeem the sadness in it and for me something is really only sad when it’s hopeless; so I rarely, if ever, associate hopelessness. It was easy to find this song as sad yet hopeful. I took it a step forward with my usual “modus operandi” and did a little creative wordplay and tied it to something truthful and encouraging in Scripture:

Here’s The Word:

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

If there’s any reason to rejoice, this verse has it covered hands down! But having lived a little, to me this is also one of the quintessential “Sad but hopeful” verses in Scripture (another is 2 Cor 4:9). There’s SO much that befalls us in this life and pushes us to (if not over) the brink of giving up. Sometimes it’s hard to choose “cheer”. This song is not "pity-party" music but it identifies with our difficulties, as well as our hope.

It reminds me of a 20 mile hike I’d gone on with my ol’ buddy John Wilsey. We’d just did a strenuous 5 mile hike the day before and I really didn’t realize how spent I was. Somewhere around 2 miles into it we hit another steep incline and I asked the question, “John, am I going to make this?” Thank God for the confident assurance in his response “Yeah, you’ll make it”. That was all the ‘good cheer’ I needed to drive on. This is similar to the feeling I get from John 16:33. As beautiful as this world can be, at times it can be unrelenting and hard, but “You will make it”. Jesus, has already done everything necessary to make it so – It’s hard but all you have to do is let His Joy be the strength behind your endurance, let Him be the Reason you persevere, let His encouragement push you to Drive Home.

Here’s the product of my redeeming creativity colliding with the original lyrics into what has become to me, for the moment, 'The Enduring Song'.

You need to clear away all the jetsam in your brain
(Google “jetsam” and think Hebrews 12:1)
And face The Truth
His Love has made amends, Now the darkness always ends
You are not alone - So drive home


In Him,
Cros