Killing Me Softly With His Song (Roberta Flack)
Killing Me Softly With His Song was released by Roberta Flack in 1973, which is ancient history for me, as I wasn't born. But good songs have good bones, and good bones hold up to the creeping sands of time, which threaten to bury us all.
This song was written a couple years before Roberta recorded it, and many have since covered it to varying degrees of popularity. One of the most notable covers was The Fugees (1996), before Lauryn Hill left to pursue a solo career. I recall owning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which is a good album.
In the hands of an artist, the meaning of a song can change. Roberta's version reveals the song is about a touching moment between a musician and a woman in the crowd. It's as if the man knew her deepest thoughts and desires, even her pain.
In the hands of the Fugees, it became a lost-love or unrequited-love song. It's not a love song, as we don't do happy songs anymore. They don't sell. What sells is poignancy and pain, an inversion of love. It's sad how many people only know the inversion of love, which is what the music industry sells. (Taylor Swift, anyone?) Heartbreak, lust, cheating. Anything but the real thing, which is what we were created to do. The enemy knows if he can kill our ability to love, he's won. What better way to stop our ability to love (an innate desire) by supplying a cheap counterfeit. Look around and see how many are chasing a programmed knockoff of the real thing. Or they fall in love with the concept of love, instead of actually loving a person. Romantic love is an idol in many hearts.
The Fugees version has an element of sex, as what is an orgasm but a "little death?" The French call it la petit mort, as, for a moment, you leave this world, coming back changed, exhausted, expended. Again, an inversion. Sex with a committed partner should be one of the healthiest and most life-affirming activities on this plane. However, it seems rare in this age of instant gratification and soulless sex. Making love is edifying physically, soulishly, and spiritually, if it is enjoyed in the parameters of monogamous marriage. Christian women statistically are the most satisfied with their sex lives, which goes against the worldly notion that sex is best when spread far and wide, with multiple partners and wild trysts. It's just another lie of the enemy.
I don't pretend to know a whole lot about love. I loved deeply in all past relationships, though that love was often used against me. That's the thing they don't tell you. That love can become a weapon in the wrong hands. In the right hands, it's nourishing and beautiful. But another thing they don't tell you is loving someone teaches you things about yourself and the nature of love itself, as well as how beautiful God's love is by comparison. After all, we love because He first loved us. All love comes from God. When you love someone, that's God shining through. And God chooses some of the most broken vessels because all the love He puts in has to come out. That's a beautiful thought. Fear not, if you have been broken, because God turns even brokenness into blessings.
I often think of the story of Joseph and how that story could have turned out differently, had Joseph reacted differently under what would seem to be God's cruel hand. Somehow, somewhere along the way, he caught a glimpse of what God was doing, or he simply trusted. He knew something most of us never learn. In the bad stuff is when we fade away and God is magnified. Without the low points, there can be no elevation. The story of Esther is the same. A great victory came out of what looked like the end. How many today are obedient when their backs are against the wall? How many are able to be promoted from a jail cell to second-in-command in one day? How many, like Daniel, would disobey the law if it meant they would be put to death? That's a different kind of love.
After years of wandering in the desert, I decided to abandon my on-again, off-again quest of obtaining a woman's heart. After my birthday this year, I realized I am not what the market is seeking, nor what women truly want. A good man who is calm and loving is deemed boring and unattractive. Women want something else. Tension, perhaps. Big bank accounts instead of a big heart. The rest of the reasons are splashed across these pages. My heart is tired in many ways, and I've learned to number my days. I do, however, enjoy writing love letters. I mourned what could have been for many years. There are no tears.
***
If you haven't asked Jesus into your heart, wouldn't you like to? You can say a simple prayer like this: "Lord Jesus, if I've never asked you into my heart before, please come into my heart now and save me from all my sins." If you mean it, He will, and you just started your own adventure with God.
Comments
Post a Comment