Those people who know me know that I like a very broad and eclectic range of music. I enjoy everything from metal to bluegrass, classic rock to hip-hop. My tastes range between Norma Jean and The Showdown, to Sujfan Stevens, mewithoutYou and the Psalters to Smashing Pumpkins, and a lot more. I also really like singer-songwriters, like Keith Green. This sometimes takes some people by surprise, but Green’s music will, if you will allow some colloquialism, mess you up.
Keith Green was a Christian singer-song writer who began an outreach program in 1975 where he bought a house outside of Los Angeles, beside his own, and rented five more in the neighborhood to use for housing and care of prostitutes, drug-addicts, and the homeless. Keith died in 1982, when he was in a plane crash that took the lives of Keith, his two children, two missionaries and their six children.
The reason I mention this, is because I wanted to share the lyrics of his song “Asleep in the Light.” A few days ago, I wrote a post on the unnecessary divorce of the social work from the proclamation of the Gospel where I argued that we are called to do both (you can read that post here). Keith’s song is a call to wake-up to the suffereing around us and a motivation to go out to our neighbors.
Asleep in the Light
Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Don’t you care, don’t you care
Are you gonna let them drown
How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
“Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord”
You know it’s all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can’t you see it’s such a sin?
Cause He brings people to you door,
And you turn them away
As you smile and say,
“God bless you, be at peace”
And all heaven just weeps
Cause Jesus came to your door
You’ve left him out on the streets
Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay
God’s calling and you’re the one
But like Jonah you run
He’s told you to speak
But you keep holding it in,
Oh can’t you see it’s such a sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can’t fight
Cause it’s asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you’ve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can’t even get out of bed
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with Me my love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, my love.
RSS/XML Feed:
Email:
