Kenneth W Daniels
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Christian music nostalgia

12/9/2011

 
Now and then I find myself in a state of nostalgia for the Christian music I grew up listening to. This week I’ve been remesmerized by the songs of Leslie Phillips (now known as Sam Phillips). Even though the words no longer mean what they used to mean to me, there’s nothing like going back to long-ago-deeply-loved music that had lain dormant for a couple of decades and recalling it as if it I’d last listened to it only yesterday. Below is one of her songs (“Heart of Hearts”) that tugged at my heartstrings (others: "I'm Finding" and "You're the Same"). These are not by any stretch the deepest or most creative songs in the world; I'm not sure whether it was the words, the music, the memories, the knowledge that Phillips later found her way of fundamentalism like me, or all of the above, but they gave me that proverbial chill down my spine.

Verse 1:
Tears in the city
Nobody`s really surprised, you know
My heart`s taken a beating,
Existence is bleeding me dry, you know

Chorus:
Way down, in my heart of hearts
Way down, in my soul of souls
Way down, I know that I am a fortunate girl
To have known divine love

Verse 2:
The world is in shambles, I`m just a young girl
But its getting a little bit old to me

I`m already aching, the years have been taking
A little bit of a toll on me

Repeat Chorus
Instrumental

Verse 3:
Two in the morning, the siren is warning
That everything is not quite all right
The city is sleeping and I`m
Down on my knees in the night, tonight

Repeat Chorus

Anyone else out there have an experience like this? Do you periodically go back to the old Christian music you used to love and let it wash over you to bring back those indelible memories?

    Author

    Kenneth W. Daniels (1968-), son of evangelical missionaries, is the author of Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary. He grew up in Africa and returned as an adult to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Niger on the edge of the Sahara Desert. While studying the Bible on the mission field, he came to doubt the message he had traveled across the world to bring to a nomadic camel-herding ethnic group. Though he lost his faith and as a result left Africa in 2000, he remains part of a conservative Christian family. He currently resides with his wife and three children in suburban Dallas, TX, where he works as a software developer.

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