More Words from David Wilcox
Another Day with David Wilcox
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Another day,
Let's listen again to the words of David Wilcox. I hope - as you read his answers, his dares, his dreams - you will take time to listen to his music. His creative honesty challenges our customs and invites us to open our hearts and our hands, receiving what the Carpenter brings our way.
Chris: Unlike many spiritual artists, your songs do not fit a particular religious niche. How do you describe the Christian spirituality in your music?
David: Wow. How does my music stir a deep connection? It brings people back to their own heart's longing - the undeniable yearning in their hearts that is beating in their own chests. This is not a theological abstraction; this is the fact that the human condition is about waking up in the morning and something is missing, as John Mayer so beautifully sings. So, what are we to do with this?
If there is a sort of message or tone or underlying thing about my music, it's probably that the longing of your own heart is not at fault; it is not the problem. It is a promise. It's a promise of the capacity of your heart to know fullness. And, I would say that the message about my music is to trust that longing instead of trying to banish it or placate it or distract it.
If you were to ask your heart what it wants through the layers of distractions, at first it would say what it wants is just to belong. To be part of a group. But then you ask it to deepen up and finally it will say, "Well, the right group." You say, "What do you mean the right group?"
Pretty soon you're not talking about membership and not about the comfort of just belonging to people who are separating themselves, but you realize that this longing was put there as a gift, as a treasure hunt, as a clue, as the first in a long line of clues to lead you home. And that your own heart, your own heart's yearning, is the thing you can trust most of all.
There are beautiful guides that have gone before us. Years before, decades before, centuries before, millenniums before. There are guides that have gone before us and there are institutions that are built around that. There are people who have marked the trail and marked it beautifully, giving us many ways to be in community with people who have walked it before us.
I would love my music to be speaking that the yearning in your heart is not to be confused with just another thing you have to buy into. As if it was another consumer thing. Maybe this community is the best thing that will save us. There is a spark in your own heart that when gone to will burst into a flame, that will make a light of its own, that will prove trustworthy so that my music doesn't have to be speaking a particular team, colors, institution kind of thing.
Chris: How does the church build a substitute so that people miss out on what you are talking about? Do we put the pieces there to get in the way instead of welcoming people into the Way?
David: It is a beautiful and mysterious thing that the institutions have preserved the writings of this amazing character Jesus, and yet, what institutions do is look out for their survival. That is how institutions have to function. They don't want to waste people's money. They don't want to suddenly go broke. If an institution behaved as Jesus behaved it would be willing to not exist on this earth any more if it came down to following the truth or building an empire on this earth.
Institutions behave differently than Jesus behaved. And yet, institutions connect us to the church within the church, the spark that is there. His character is not just a historical figure but a presence in your own heart. When you feel that joy, you want to share it. When you share it you bring people together. When you bring people together an institution is formed. I mean, it could be in your living room. It could already be too big. So, the beauty of what we're trying to do with what we speak or sing in front of people is that we are trying to surrender ourselves to the Spirit that moves through, and then becomes present in the room in other people's hearts, then speaks of something that is very present tense, that is very without walls.
And why does "Spirit" not happen in our religious institutions? Well, can we just do what we did last Sunday? That worked. We know how to do that, you know. Let's just, you know, do the old stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, okay bye. And, you know it will be enough because it is what we are used to. And to expect Spirit? It's scary. So yeah, it is a beautiful, wonderful contradiction.
I'm going to be playing music in twenty-eight minutes. Hopefully I'm going to come out there knowing that these people have come from perfectly comfortable living rooms and they have driven a long distance to maybe hear a song that matters to them. And if that's going to happen, then the best thing I can do is know that my cleverness will not serve, my words are noise, my sound is not enough. If there is to be music, it has to be orchestrated in accordance with what they're bringing in their hearts.
How am I to know that? There's no way I can know that unless I were to come out feeling humbled and expectant, daring to believe that this thing that has stirred my heart for so long, this simple sound of acoustic guitar, and these words that stretch over music until they crack and the light comes through, these songs that have changed my life. I pray that the songs will matter. Like the times they first came through, when I first wrote them down or heard them in the back of my mind and they made me weep because they convicted me. They knew me better than I knew myself. They showed me the places I was asleep and busy and proud and cunning and clever. And they reminded me of what it is like to have a heart that is filled with the awareness of what an unbelievable gift it is to be breathing and to have this heart beating and to have this feeling in my chest of comparing this life that I see and this life that I know to a life that somehow feels much more real. A life that I have never seen. An unseen life that, I'm certain, is much more real than all that I have seen. This is what I'm calling that "yearning in our hearts," that "comparing to what we have not yet seen." And, I'm not talking some day. I'm talking this heart of mine as it is holding its breath waiting for me to get out from this controlling personality that I surround myself with. This thing I think is me. To come out of it, and take a deep breath of air and for once, uh, see the sun and feel that I am coming to life. And know it for the first time.
Songs do that to me. So if I come out there expecting that somehow for these tired old songs that I've heard a million times, for them to appear suddenly feel like a rabbit out of a hat, like this bizarre thing that happens when people come expecting something that matters. And I show up knowing I don't have it. And when the two of us meet all I do is trust that there is a reservoir of water on the hills and there are empty dry fields and there's a gate and a valve. I stand and I open and I say, "There are hearts that are so dry and there is so much water. And, oh my God, there is gravity. Just gravity. And, as long as I get out of the way the two are sure to meet." That's what I'm going to try to do.
Chris: Thanks again to David Wilcox. Let's allow his lyrics to move us into a life beyond belief:
Faith can't be your fortress, arrogant with pride
Come walk here beside me with the humble ones outside
And BE the mercy, all my people need the peace
This fight over faith won't bring them relief
I love them beyond belief
Beyond Belief
from Open Hand
David Wilcox
2009
Along the way,
Chris Maxwell
Powerful Statement: If we are to be truly alive in all our capacity, the advice is to die first. Drop the controlling. Drop the give-me voice. Find out what part has been waiting for that to get out of the way, what life is bigger than that. Here is an undeniable glimpse that comes randomly at this fact: we are not the captains of our destinies. (David Wilcox)
For more information on David Wilcox music and concerts, check out his website:
www.davidwilcox.com
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Another day,
Let's listen again to the words of David Wilcox. I hope - as you read his answers, his dares, his dreams - you will take time to listen to his music. His creative honesty challenges our customs and invites us to open our hearts and our hands, receiving what the Carpenter brings our way.
Chris: Unlike many spiritual artists, your songs do not fit a particular religious niche. How do you describe the Christian spirituality in your music?
David: Wow. How does my music stir a deep connection? It brings people back to their own heart's longing - the undeniable yearning in their hearts that is beating in their own chests. This is not a theological abstraction; this is the fact that the human condition is about waking up in the morning and something is missing, as John Mayer so beautifully sings. So, what are we to do with this?
If there is a sort of message or tone or underlying thing about my music, it's probably that the longing of your own heart is not at fault; it is not the problem. It is a promise. It's a promise of the capacity of your heart to know fullness. And, I would say that the message about my music is to trust that longing instead of trying to banish it or placate it or distract it.
If you were to ask your heart what it wants through the layers of distractions, at first it would say what it wants is just to belong. To be part of a group. But then you ask it to deepen up and finally it will say, "Well, the right group." You say, "What do you mean the right group?"
Pretty soon you're not talking about membership and not about the comfort of just belonging to people who are separating themselves, but you realize that this longing was put there as a gift, as a treasure hunt, as a clue, as the first in a long line of clues to lead you home. And that your own heart, your own heart's yearning, is the thing you can trust most of all.
There are beautiful guides that have gone before us. Years before, decades before, centuries before, millenniums before. There are guides that have gone before us and there are institutions that are built around that. There are people who have marked the trail and marked it beautifully, giving us many ways to be in community with people who have walked it before us.
I would love my music to be speaking that the yearning in your heart is not to be confused with just another thing you have to buy into. As if it was another consumer thing. Maybe this community is the best thing that will save us. There is a spark in your own heart that when gone to will burst into a flame, that will make a light of its own, that will prove trustworthy so that my music doesn't have to be speaking a particular team, colors, institution kind of thing.
Chris: How does the church build a substitute so that people miss out on what you are talking about? Do we put the pieces there to get in the way instead of welcoming people into the Way?
David: It is a beautiful and mysterious thing that the institutions have preserved the writings of this amazing character Jesus, and yet, what institutions do is look out for their survival. That is how institutions have to function. They don't want to waste people's money. They don't want to suddenly go broke. If an institution behaved as Jesus behaved it would be willing to not exist on this earth any more if it came down to following the truth or building an empire on this earth.
Institutions behave differently than Jesus behaved. And yet, institutions connect us to the church within the church, the spark that is there. His character is not just a historical figure but a presence in your own heart. When you feel that joy, you want to share it. When you share it you bring people together. When you bring people together an institution is formed. I mean, it could be in your living room. It could already be too big. So, the beauty of what we're trying to do with what we speak or sing in front of people is that we are trying to surrender ourselves to the Spirit that moves through, and then becomes present in the room in other people's hearts, then speaks of something that is very present tense, that is very without walls.
And why does "Spirit" not happen in our religious institutions? Well, can we just do what we did last Sunday? That worked. We know how to do that, you know. Let's just, you know, do the old stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, okay bye. And, you know it will be enough because it is what we are used to. And to expect Spirit? It's scary. So yeah, it is a beautiful, wonderful contradiction.
I'm going to be playing music in twenty-eight minutes. Hopefully I'm going to come out there knowing that these people have come from perfectly comfortable living rooms and they have driven a long distance to maybe hear a song that matters to them. And if that's going to happen, then the best thing I can do is know that my cleverness will not serve, my words are noise, my sound is not enough. If there is to be music, it has to be orchestrated in accordance with what they're bringing in their hearts.
How am I to know that? There's no way I can know that unless I were to come out feeling humbled and expectant, daring to believe that this thing that has stirred my heart for so long, this simple sound of acoustic guitar, and these words that stretch over music until they crack and the light comes through, these songs that have changed my life. I pray that the songs will matter. Like the times they first came through, when I first wrote them down or heard them in the back of my mind and they made me weep because they convicted me. They knew me better than I knew myself. They showed me the places I was asleep and busy and proud and cunning and clever. And they reminded me of what it is like to have a heart that is filled with the awareness of what an unbelievable gift it is to be breathing and to have this heart beating and to have this feeling in my chest of comparing this life that I see and this life that I know to a life that somehow feels much more real. A life that I have never seen. An unseen life that, I'm certain, is much more real than all that I have seen. This is what I'm calling that "yearning in our hearts," that "comparing to what we have not yet seen." And, I'm not talking some day. I'm talking this heart of mine as it is holding its breath waiting for me to get out from this controlling personality that I surround myself with. This thing I think is me. To come out of it, and take a deep breath of air and for once, uh, see the sun and feel that I am coming to life. And know it for the first time.
Songs do that to me. So if I come out there expecting that somehow for these tired old songs that I've heard a million times, for them to appear suddenly feel like a rabbit out of a hat, like this bizarre thing that happens when people come expecting something that matters. And I show up knowing I don't have it. And when the two of us meet all I do is trust that there is a reservoir of water on the hills and there are empty dry fields and there's a gate and a valve. I stand and I open and I say, "There are hearts that are so dry and there is so much water. And, oh my God, there is gravity. Just gravity. And, as long as I get out of the way the two are sure to meet." That's what I'm going to try to do.
Chris: Thanks again to David Wilcox. Let's allow his lyrics to move us into a life beyond belief:
Faith can't be your fortress, arrogant with pride
Come walk here beside me with the humble ones outside
And BE the mercy, all my people need the peace
This fight over faith won't bring them relief
I love them beyond belief
Beyond Belief
from Open Hand
David Wilcox
2009
Along the way,
Chris Maxwell
Powerful Statement: If we are to be truly alive in all our capacity, the advice is to die first. Drop the controlling. Drop the give-me voice. Find out what part has been waiting for that to get out of the way, what life is bigger than that. Here is an undeniable glimpse that comes randomly at this fact: we are not the captains of our destinies. (David Wilcox)
For more information on David Wilcox music and concerts, check out his website:
www.davidwilcox.com
13 Comments:
Chris these words are stirring for a matter I now have in front of Me.Some People I met in Southwest Va are going through a family memeber getting near joining The LOrd.He is a nice kind Man who just recently turned 90.A week ago he got ill and taken to the hospital.His kidneys are failing and the end of earthly life is nearing.His Wife of 65+ years is comforted by two loving daughters there to help and show thier love for thier Parents.I had met them and got to know them for they lived next to an Aunt and Uncle of mind.My Aunt and Uncle are with The Lord, but the contact has remained.In talking with his Wife the other night.The saying it's in Gods Hands came up.After a while my mind came back to it being in Gods Hands.Why is it that I only see it being Gods Hands at times of illness or earthly death?AS The Lord Promises He has us in His Hands from Earthly Birth to Earthly Death.Talk about getting a Godly Lift in mood.As I face unemployment, and stress to pay bills this made my stress less.Then the words from David Wilcox and You completed the Promise and Love of Our God.Thankyou Chris for sharing the words and Thank God for the words and the timing of them coming.
To borrow some lyrics from Bob Bennett, sometimes David Wilcox songs "are the only prayers I can pray and I sing them just as hard as I can".
They provoke me to obey Paul's encouragement to, "sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God".
C, I can hear Wilcox saying those words! At the last concert I attended he talked through several songs and I cracked up. His brilliant mind is a strange fit for his creativity in music. Thanks for your words. Nice pix 2.
LT
what a powerful thought to notice the guides before.. who will we be guiding and how will we connect their stories to who they are meant to be?
David's words confirm and validate thoughts already swirling within. he says it best..."when i get lonely ah, that's only a sign. some room is empty, and that room is there by design. if i feel hollow-that's just my proof that there's more for me to follow--that's what the lonely is for."
Pastor C,
Here are the lyrics that get me. From David's song How Did You Find Me Here.
K
I couldn't reach for rescue
I hid myself from you
I couldn't stand to see me
From your point of view
I knew I'd disappoint you
If I showed to you this child
Who is crying out inside me
Lost in the wild
Chorus
Now inches from the water
About to disappear
I feel you behind me
How did you find me here?
Wilcox is extremely thoughtful with his words. Everyone is planned for an impact. He doesn't want to waste the listener's time with something that will not minister or make him think. He is an entertainer of a higher degree, wanting to touch his audience in places they are hiding.
Debbie Maxwell
Wow. I've never been to a David Wilcox concert or even owned a CD. But I have heard some of his songs and I after reading that interview realize his relationship with God is so much more than "what have you done for me lately?" or "what can you do for me today God?" He has that deep intimate relationship that I think is what we should all be striving for. I know I am. Thanks for sharing the interview.
David Wilcox's songs are never heard on Christian radio stations like Z88.3 because they are deep, seeking, longing songs about what Christianity is truly about not songs that always make us feel good but have no spiritual content or meaning. Thanks for being so real and radical.
Yo Max, I remember your story about him at one of those concerts when you heard him in Orlando. Great stuff my friend. We still miss you here. When are you coming south for a visit?
mcb
I liked when you played the David Wilcox song Start With the Ending. Good words and ideas for marriage and for life.
I've really enjoyed reading your interview with David Wilcox. I will never forget the night we all went to see him in Downtown Orlando. I can so relate to the story he told about the gentleman at the stop light. His music really touched me. As we were leaving I walked by him, touched his arm and said "Thank you." He looked at me and smiled and I knew he understood the connection. The whole interaction was 2 seconds but spoke volumes. What a gift God has given us in David Wilcox and his music.
Oh man, David's comments about the longings of our heart are spot on...beautiful words. Powerful, hopeful words.
I had the pleasure of hearing David perform recently at a house concert sponsored by Storyville Coffee. It was the first time I heard him play live. I knew then that there were deep rivers running beneath the surface and God had gifted this man to communicate in a way that would touch and awaken that yearning of the heart about which he speaks.
Dave Welday
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