I find that sometimes our God can talk to us using the lyrics from well-known songs. Maybe we should listen more closely to the words of a song and not just enjoy the melody. It is possible there might be a personal message in the song which particularly resonates for us beyond what the lyricist intended.
Take for instance the great Eagles song, ‘Take it Easy’. The lyrics tell us of the singer’s quest to find true love in his life that has so far been unsuccessful. It seems, it isn’t the casual affairs but true love which he desires more than anything else.
He tells himself that in his search he should “take it easy” by approaching the situation with a cool head and not to ‘let the sound of his own wheels drive him crazy!’
It is a bit like our search for our God throughout our life. We generally recognise God, or some higher being exists, but our busy life doesn’t always allow us the time or the inclination to really get to fathom out what this relationship is all about. The song tells us to ‘lighten up while you still can.’
While the lyrics refer to ‘a girl my Lord in a flatbed’ ute, they also raise the unanswered question of the Lord that says, ‘I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me’. It is recognised that in our life, ’we may lose and we may win’, but that ‘we will never be here again’. And as part of our search for true love ‘I may be ‘running down the road trying to loosen my load’. However, I find ‘I’ve got a world of trouble on my mind’.
While we may only find the peace we seek during our stay on this earth in our God who truly loves us, many of us can be very conscious of our shortcomings and our worthiness, so we tend to go ‘lookin’ for a lover who won’t blow our cover’. We know ‘we got it easy’ but the question in the song to our God repeats itself again, ‘I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me’.
As if in response to our request, Jesus reaches out and tells us to come to Him all who labour and He will give us rest. He will help us find true love. He will be the one to give us the freedom we need to ‘Take it Easy’.
I’m Peter Mack and that’s faith.