Surprised by song

Next week we will celebrate 30 years of Macedonia’s independence as a modern-day nation-state.  I have been working on that column for a while now, but the quick preview is that it will focus quite a bit on honor.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I wanted to write about something positive.  Today is September 1, the traditional start of the school year and the traditional end of summer (yes, I know it ends when the fall equinox begins on September 22), but this summer has been brutal in many ways around the world: the ongoing Covid crisis brought to us by the Chinese Communists, major floods, ravaging fires, devasting earthquakes, and of course the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan by the Biden White House and his State Department – and NATO – and its long-lasting negative effects on Afghanistan, the region, the United States, NATO, and the rest of the world  (still to be determined, but guaranteed to be disastrous).  You can probably add other calamities here. 

So, something different, something positive: surprised by song.

On Monday, August 30, I began my day as I usually do: in prayer and with a devotion from Scripture, in this case, one I read daily called Our Daily Bread (that phrase you might recognize as coming from what is known as The Lord’s Prayer).  

My devotional that morning focused on unexpected mercies from God and how that thought of God’s good, through those unexpected mercies and grace, should give us hope for the day (always a better way to start one’s day – with hope and gratitude).

And so I started my day wondering what unexpected mercies and grace might come my way.  And in my case, it was a song that just completely moved me with its simplicity, its elegance, its melodies, its own grace.

The song is Caught by the Heart, a collaboration by Tim Finn of the New Zealand band Split Enz, and Phil Manzanera, of the British band Roxy Music.  The two had met in Australia in 1975 when Split Enz opened up for Roxy Music when Roxy Music did their first Australian tour.  Now, 45 years later and in 2020 during the middle of the pandemic, the two met up again – virtually this time – to collaborate on a series of songs which have become an album of that same name, Caught by the Heart.

Atmospheric and sweeping with the superb guitar movements of Phil Manzanera, along with various strings, piano, synth, drums, and the lilting and haunting vocals of Tim Finn, the song was, to my mind and soul at least, a positive cap on the end of summer.   

While I am a fan of music from the ‘80s (and these two bands started in the ‘70s but continued into the next decades), I am always on the lookout for “new” music even from old bands.  And I don’t find it too often which is what made this discovery exceptional – and exceptionally good, uplifting, and encouraging.  The moment, as I am attempting to describe it, may not strike you as it struck me, but my larger point here is that as you start each day, I hope that you too, are able to look for and anticipate unexpected mercies and grace and that you too, are surprised and encouraged by these, whether small or large. 

The small mercies and good things in life are just as important and valuable as the larger ones.  Look for them each day.