These Opposite Responses Are Noteworthy
Among two talented musicians, it appears imagination has ignited each one’s course.
Forty-year-old Jon Guerra says beholding Jesus on the pages of the Bible keeps fueling his song writing. Guerra sings of the interesting and surprising character who is fully human and fully God in the album titled, “Jesus.” A dozen songs weren’t enough to contain the wonder. He says perhaps he’ll release a “Volume 2.”
Early-1970s pop musician Cat Stevens says when he encountered God, he paused his songwriting. Stevens’s view of God formed after swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Caught in a riptide, he prayed, then a wave pushed him safely to shore. He responded by converting to Islam. He changed his name and stopped creating music for a while.
Among the two, these opposite responses are noteworthy. I love music across genres and generations, and I’ve enjoyed albums from both Guerra and Stevens. Stevens’s music came to mind as I watched Guerra sing at a concert in Chicago. His facial expression matches the intensity I’ve seen in video clips of Stevens singing half a century ago. And also, they appear to resemble each other in hairstyle and complexion.
Both musicians have created music from their places of talent and passion—songs that carry emotion, and songs that set the table for transformation, for revolution. Stevens has been known to say that Islam answered all the questions his initial songwriting sought to discover, thus temporarily pausing his creative quest. On the other hand, Guerra’s questions find welcome in the person of Jesus, thus fueling his creativity.
As Guerra was reading the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, he noticed how compelling, countercultural, and brilliant Jesus appears. Guerra’s lyrics reflect his amazement at God in the flesh.
Last month, my family and I attended a Jon Guerra concert. He sang and played piano, accompanied by a guitarist and a cellist, on a small stage in a nineteenth-century church building with wooden beams and stone walls amid a multi-generational audience. What’s revolutionary is how Guerra’s talent—just on the piano, for example—surpasses most current-day musicians, and he’s singing to everyday church people like you and me to help grow our devotion and affection for Jesus.
Jesus asked questions like, “What do you want me to do for you?” And “Who do people say I am?” Accordingly, beholding Jesus in Scripture prompts reflection, wonder, astonishment, and certainly a response.
Does beholding Jesus cause you to reflect? Does the reality of Jesus change the way you worry and the way you hope? The way you imagine, the way you praise, the way you create?
