Relax Take It Easy!

A good friend (Mr D) recently asked me if he was allowed to say “Relax!” to me. It was in response to the way I felt about an incident which occurred recently on an intercity bus, and the way I handled the flirtations from a fellow passenger who sat next to me.

Mr C, a mutual friend of Mr D and I, recently also wrote some words of admonishment to me, when he learnt that I was feeling heavily weighed down by the burdens I was feeling for various friends who were (and are) on a similar journey of faith that we're on. He wrote, “God gives each of us our burdens to bear, do not get enmeshed in the challenges God gives to others. He will also apportion the grace necessary to overcome it. All you are asked to do is pray and be obedient to the Spirit’s prompting and/conviction to respond (if any). Your heart is your fortune/treasure, do not be reckless with it!”

Perhaps God had something to teach me through Mr C and Mr D. I love train rides. When I was younger and had time up my sleeves, I used to sometimes hop onto a train in Melbourne and let it take me right to the end of the train line just so I could see other parts of Melbourne that I normally wouldn’t get to see.

Lately, I’ve been wondering where the train I’m on is heading, and which train line I'm actually on. I had friends who were on the train with me, who boarded it willingly because they believed in travelling to the same destination as I was heading towards. But as I watched these same friends slowly get off at various stations one by one as they began to find it too claustrophobic or the travel class too uncomfortable and restrictive, I sat in my seat and with each disembarkation, felt my heart sink a little bit further. The journey started with much hope and vigour and excitement for the future. Who would have thought it would be this long and difficult?

And so lately, I have found myself looking out the carriage window and started wondering if perhaps the grass is greener outside as it appears. I do not think it is. Or at least much of it is not. Still it is cold comfort to the fact that many friends are no longer on the train journey with me. It is in the midst of all this, that through Mr C and D that I catch a glimpse of a different perspective. That God knows where my friends are. And he knows which station they’re at, and which alternate route they’ve taken. And that I need only to concentrate on my own train journey with God. God does not stop me from thinking about or missing my friends. And he appreciates my thinking of them, but he also wants me to “relax”, to also trust Him and not take on any unnecessary baggage that other people may have left behind on the train.

Relax. Truth be told, letting go of our futures and our plans and letting God take control is easier said than done sometimes. And I can be scared shitless some days. Still it is a comforting thought knowing God is also on the train with me. I love this song.

'Relax, Take It Easy' by Mika

Took a ride to the end of the line
Where no one ever goes
Ended up on a broken train with nobody I know
But the pain and the longing's the same
When you're dying
Now I’m lost and I’m screaming for help

Chorus
Relax, take it easy
For there is nothing that we can do
Relax, take it easy
Blame it on me or blame it on you

It’s as if I’m scared
It’s as if I’m terrified
It’s as if I scared
It’s as if I’m playing with fire
Scared
It’s as if I’m terrified
Are you scared?
Are we playing with fire?

Relax
There is an answer to the darkest times
It’s clear we don’t understand
But the last thing on my mind is to leave you
I believe that we’re in this together
Don’t scream – there are so many roads left

Blowing Bubbles

I first heard this song about nine months ago, when a friend (Mr W) lent me a couple of CDs consisting of a compilation of songs he had burnt. He said that there might be a few songs in there that I might like. And he was right. There was one song in particular - 'Blowing Bubbles' by the Lightning Seeds.

‘Blowing Bubbles’ made me laugh at first because it seemed so frivolous, so silly to be singing about bubbles. Yet the reason why I like this song so much is precisely because it’s not frivolous. I love how its seemingly frivolous chorus gives off an air of ridiculousness. Yet scratch the surface a little and you find that the lyrics actually encapsulate an aspect of humanity which is so close to me, and perhaps to many of us.

And it’s then that the very act of ‘blowing bubbles’ suddenly becomes far more meaningful than the superfluous, innocent image it may have conveyed initially.

As I ponder about the lyrics, I wonder how many of us have spent long nights and days talking to ourselves and to loved ones, sometimes going round in circles, searching for answers and reasons to questions that cannot be answered? How we have tried all sorts of ways to ease the pain and make it go away. And how many lies I have – you have – we have – had to swallow sometimes just to face the world? And what happens when our seemingly perfect bubble dream or dreams burst? And we are forced to recalibrate and take stock of our direction again. Just how long will I – will we keep dreaming elusive perfect bubbles? And how long will I hold out for that deep… whatever it is that I am longing and dreaming for?

Perhaps it’s time to sweep the picture clean, end the foggy yesterday and start afresh, anew? Is there a need to? And how do I invite God back in? Where do you fit into all this, into our lives, God? How much of it is me, and how much of it is it really you, in the form of the Holy Spirit? And do I still trust You? Do I even trust myself? Thing is, how do I get You to blow bubbles with me?

This song is as much for me as it is for the good friend I mentioned in one of my recent posts 'Songs for a Friend'. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an audio/video clip freely available online that I could embed in this post. However, here is a link to an audio clip which will allow you to listen to the song once. May it bring you some light-hearted cheer and put a smile on your face. And as for Mr W – you’re a Godsend. Thank you for blowing bubbles into my life.

'Blowing Bubbles' (from the album Pure)

A whole night

Of talking in circles

Searching for reasons to save us

And keep it all painless

All the lies you've had to swallow

Just to face the world tomorrow
Blowing bubbles

Your whole world

Can turn on a moment

Some things can come back and haunt you

They're too late to warn you

Blowing bubbles, it's the final straw

They never last too long but for a moment

Perfection’s floating through an open door
You try and touch it but it turns to nothing

Drinking in the dead of night

Tobacco clouds that sting your eyes

You've locked your feelings deep inside

Growing pains that never die

You need to sweep the picture clean

And start to dream another dream

And end this foggy yesterday

That still reminds you

Nobody Sees

Seems like these days, words don’t come to me as easily as they used to. I find that it is much easier to let music do my talking instead.

Whenever I listen to this Powderfinger song, I find myself converging in my mind in two slightly different directions.

The first is that of self-reflection and a stocktaking of my own life – the questions I haven’t dared yet to ask, the “what ifs” to the many possible paths I could take in this life. The questions that belie the deeper hopes and dreams that I haven’t yet dared breathe life into. The unanswered questions. Like the Psalmists who penned many heartwrenching psalms and songs in the Old Testament, he knows the lament is not offensive to God, who longs to hear our grievances.

"All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you." Psalm 38:9

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

And like the Psalmist, at the end of it, I know I can find comfort in Christ,who wept for his dead friend Lazarus, and again over the fate of Jerusalem before his crucifixion. He knows what it is like to have a broken heart and he knows what it is to be abandoned and alone.

"Jesus wept." John 11:35

Nobody Sees - Powderfinger

Who's gonna pick you up?
Who's gonna bend your rules?
Who's gonna be your prop?
Who's gonna play your fool?

Nobody knows just how it feels today
Nobody sees how our hearts break

Who's gonna watch your back?
Who's gonna reel you in?
Who'll make surprise attacks?
Who's gonna be there at the end?

Nobody knows just how it feels today
Nobody sees how our hearts break

Who's gonna bring you round?
Who's gonna let you sleep?
Who's gonna break your frown?
Who's gonna fall down at your feet?

The second direction my mind takes is that on friendships and the beauty of close friendships. I think of Sam and Frodo from Lord of the Rings or David and Jonathan, or Ruth and Naomi from the Old Testament. The friend or friends who will stand by your side for better, for worse. Or as this next YouTube videoclip suggests, between Dean and Sam from Supernatural. Now, I have never ever seen an episode of Supernatural so I really cannot comment on their relationship in the context of the TV show.

But I thought the clip portrayed their friendship in a way that was strangely analogous to the journey that we are on – for those of us who are followers of Christ – in terms of our duty of care and love we have towards our fellow pilgrims, our fellow brothers (and sisters) in Christ. Of how we are to encourage one another and to help carry each other’s burdens and to watch out for each other, not forgetting that our struggle is not just against flesh and blood, but also against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Click here for if you're curious in checking out the YouTube clip with the same song set to scenes involving Dean and Sam from Supernatural.