Gone in 60 years

Well, we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
'cause we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Today I begin a long walk into my birthday. I'll admit this will be entirely too self-indulgent, but hopefully we can all gain from introspection. I thought of this project yesterday, and I've been researching ever since. Too much in fact.

 

What I'm going to do is this: Beginning Monday, I'm going to write a 10-day look back into my life or actually the times of my life and try to give some perspective from someone who didn't exactly plan on ever being this age.

It's hitting me hard, actually, for reasons I can't understand at all. The fact is I'm turning 60 on July 27. Perhaps a constant reader will know that was my number in football. It was also the number chosen for me in the draft. It apparently has meaning in my life. And here it is, rushing toward me like car lights on a dark, dark night. I can't stop it, no matter how I would love to. I simply have to pray that someday God allows me to grow toward him before I'm not able to grow at all. Like Chili Davis said, "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."

But in the coming days, we're going to try to figure out some deep things about life, death, and salvation through an abundantly average life.

To do so, I've decided to help music be the spur to my horse. I decided to pick my favorite 10 songs in this lifetime, so lived abundantly and so lived in waste.

The problem was, I came up with more than 10. Eighteen more, to be precise.

Here's the eclectic list in no particular order as it stands today:

No surrender, Bruce Springsteen
Saving the world, Clay Crosse
Hotel California, Eagles
Can't take the pain, Third Day

Much Too Young to Feel this Damn Old, Garth Brooks

It isn't gonna be that way, Steve Forbett

Papa was a rolling stone, the Temptations

This ain't my home/Too old now, Jason Turner

Amy, Pure Prairie League

Operator, Jim Croce

Fourth of July, Dave Alvin

Forever, Chris Tomlin

Friends, Michael W. Smith

If I can dream, Elvis

The weight, the Band

Jack and Diane, John Mellancamp

Brown eyed girl, Van Morrison

Looking out my back door, Creedence

Have you ever seen the rain, Creedence

Your Song, Elton John

I can't help falling in love with you, Elvis

Everything I own, Bread

Sweet glow of mercy, Gary Chapman.

Daydream believer, Monkeys

Elijah, Rich Mullins

Born to run/Thunder road/the river Bruce Springsteen

Maggie May, Rod Steward

And I still haven't found what I'm looking for, U2

 

That's my list. I could write about what was going on when I first heard those songs, and why they are important to me, but I'll try to either cut the list or use them to illustrate what I want more than one at a time when I begin this project.

 

There are some there I'm sure you've never heard of. You might have heard of Elvis or the Monkeys, but you might notice no Stones or Beatles though I certainly lived through their primes. Monkeys and no Beatles? Again, it's the song not the body of work or the importance of the band or solo artist. Bread certainly isn't the Stones. Gary Chapman was Amy Grant's husband, and his career does not anyway have the meaning that hers did. But the song, it's the song. I understand Steve Forbett and Jason Turner might well be unknowns to you. It'll become clear.

 

I promise that I'll be honest in my assessments. I promise it won't just be about me. I promise there will be a spiritual tie each day. I promise that all this is going somewhere.

 

What do you think about the list and the project? Let me know what you think. You can comment on the link below or you can facebook comment. Tomorrow I will pare the list to a more manageable number, or try to. While writing this, Brown-eyed girl just came on. It's in. It's actually No. 1 on the list and a request to my beautiful blue-eyed wife to be played at my funeral.

 

Beyond that, the Holy Spirit will lead.

 

When I'm done, I'll have passed a barrier I suppose. I'll have explored parenthood and it's meaning, what eternal security is and isn't, what being saved truly means, disfunction in all it's elements, and maybe love and loss and all the things in between.

 

I ask you to join me on this journey, in love. Pass the invitation along. Build the daily readership. The price is a good one.