"Love Is a Good Thing" by Andrew Peterson

Love Is a Good Thing
Andrew Peterson (from Resurrection Letters, Volume II)

It knocked me down, it dragged me out
It left me there for dead
It took all the freedom I wanted
And gave me something else instead

It blew my mind, it bled me dry
It hit me like a long goodbye
And nobody here knows better than I
That it's a good thing

Love is a good thing, it'll fall like rain on your parade
Laugh at the plans that you tried to make
It'll wear you down till your heart just breaks
And it's a good thing, love is a good thing

It'll wake you up in the middle of the night
It'll take just a little too much, it'll burn you like a cinder
Till you're tender to the touch, it'll chase you down
Swallow you whole, it'll make your blood run hot and cold
Like a thief in the night it'll steal your soul

And that's a good thing, love is a good thing
It'll follow you down to the ruin of your great divide
And open the wounds that you tried to hide
And there in the rubble of the heart that died
You'll find a good thing, love is a good thing

Take cover, the end is near, take cover but do not fear
It'll break your will, it'll change your mind
It'll loose all the chains of the ties that bind
If you're lucky you'll never make it out alive

And that's a good thing, love is a good thing
It can hurt like a blast from a hand grenade
When all that used to matter is blown away

There in the middle of the mess it made
You'll find a good thing
Yes, it's worth every penny of the price you paid
It's a good thing

Gratitude

A wonderful reminder of gratitude to God for the abundant blessings of life, even in a fallen world:

Don't You Want to Thank Someone
Andrew Peterson, from the Light for the Lost Boy album

Don't you ever wonder why
In spite of all that's wrong here
There's still so much that goes so right
And beauty abounds?

'Cause sometimes when you walk outside
The air is full of song here
The thunder rolls and the baby sighs
And the rain comes down

And when you see the spring has come
And it warms you like a mother's kiss
Don't you want to thank someone?
Don't you want to thank someone for this? 

You can hear the entire song below:

A Melody That Had Long Been Silent

While re-reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit over the holiday weekend, I was struck by how significant a role music and songs played in his tale (and the same is true in The Lord of the Rings).  There is joyful singing, playful singing, sorrowful singing, etc.  Songs and music play a central role in the story. 

Maybe the most poignant place to notice this is in what Tolkien says about the dragon, Smaug, and how music and melody had been lost under his cruel dominion.  Listen to what happens when Bilbo and the dwarves come upon the unguarded treasure of the dragon:

Fili and Kili were almost in merry mood, and finding still hanging there many golden harps strung with silver they took them and struck them; and being magical (and also untouched by the dragon, who had small interest in music) they were still in tune. The dark hall was filled with a melody that had long been silent.    

A Long December

An excerpt from the song "A Long December" by Counting Crows (Recovering the Satellites album, 1996):

It's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last.
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass.

And this may be my favorite line from the song:

The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters but no pearls.