Deaths

On Saturday, while fumbling through the FM dial in search of a radio-feed of the NC State football game, I heard a song by The Band Perry called “If I Die Young.”

Nice song. Great harmonies. Good writing. Fun instrumentation. (I’m a recent convert to mandolin. The world would be a happier place with more mandolin. Just sayin’.) You can listen to it here.

The last verse says:

A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell them for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singin'
Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'

Henry David Thoreau. Edgar Allen Poe. Emily Dickinson. Vincent van Gogh. All great examples of what The Band Perry is describing. When they're quoted or mentioned, we all take note. They’ve all risen to great fame and notoriety post-mortem.

But it’s not only true of dead people (Insert “The Sixth Sense” movie joke/allusion
here _____.)

Every now and then, we come across someone who has “died” but is still very much alive. You know them when you see them. They are that rare person who is truly comfortable in their own skin. One who has discovered how to live un-self-considered - freed from the terrible burden of being the center of their world. They are so few-and-far-between, they almost always catch us off-guard. We’re enchanted. Something inside of them is so vibrant and alive … it calls to us and awakens within us hopes that we didn’t know we held. Or, perhaps, hopes that we didn’t know held us.

We’re struck by how these men and women are somehow immune to the voices of culture screaming out “Climb the ladder! Be thin! Chase after wealth! Wear this! Pursue beauty!” … voices we can’t seem to silence. When we find these people, we’re inspired to be better sons and daughters, friends and neighbors, husbands and wives — better people.

And we start listenin’ because it’s hard not to listen to a dead person.

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In part, this is one of the effects of discipleship. As the character and person of Christ is formed in us, we too become less self-considered and Paul’s words in Galatians 5:24 become increasingly true.

“Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good — crucified.” Gal 5:24 (The Message)