It was my favorite receptionist's birthday yesterday. Lois, at Maranatha Chapel turned the same age as Bob Dylan. And as she showed me a signed poster of him, we got talking of music back then. Seems she grew up in San Francisco, and we talked of all the concerts and bands she saw at Fillmore West. Quicksilver, Country Joe and the Fish, Santana, and so many others, and we both remembered what a special time for music it was, the only difference she was there! But when I asked her about being up on the Haight, she said she was never a hippie. We all tend to group many different subcultures together, and just being young and loving the music then didn't make you a hippie. Haight Ashbury, an intersection of two streets, would come not only to define a neighborhood, but for a short summer in 1967, define a whole city, which it still does today. The Summer of Love it is referred to, and many look back at it fondly, but the truth is after this summer of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, it left a fall of man that still exists today.
Tune in, turn on, drop out. Drugs were used openly, sex was free, and no one thought of who would pay the bill afterwards. For after this season ended, in its wake it left an outbreak of VD, unwanted pregnancies, and a neighborhood trashed and disheveled. For all those who participated left the debris of their summer behind when they left, sadly some were human debris. A malady that today the free clinic started there still tries to recover from. We learned that when self is at the center, then the heart takes over, and the mind is governed by feeling. Not taking into consideration all the facts. We are then helpless to reason properly. Sadly, the fall of man was to be more than a season.
Sadly most of us only remember the great music, but like any circumstance where sin is the principal player, it leaves victims behind. But God, showed us then, that the creativeness in music then would translate into a new Jesus music, a season that still exists today. For one of the fruits born out of the Jesus movement was Jesus music. Where for years only hymns were available, God showed us true freedom in Him, not drugs or sex, and some of the greatest music ever came out of the next ten years. Love Song, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Parable, Chuck Girard, and others changed the face of music, and the hearts of men while worshipping God to a beat we all could relate to. Even reaching into the rock and roll Hall of Fame in the example of Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield, who today is a Calvary Chapel pastor. You just gotta know that worship team rocks. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Carlos Santana, and others came to be Born Again, and worshipped our Lord, as did Bob Dylan. Which is why Lois had his poster. Truly what a long, strange trip it has been.
In the fall of 1976 I was a student at the University of New Mexico. A young Christian, when Parable came to play there at the SUB. A free concert, many came to listen, but when Jesus was shared between songs, the crowd thinned. But then grew as the music restarted. And over and over again repeated this, until many filled the room and heard the gospel. The same music that had defined a generation that led to destruction, when under the Holy Spirit changed lives eternally, only a loving God could do that. "I never knew that Christian music was like that!" was heard during lunch the next day, by many who for the first time heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And continues to do so today. In heaven we will be continuing worship. And there will be music. Why not participate in the opening act now. So many bands we never heard of will be leading us in worship there, join in now. We have so much to be thankful for, let's start the praise and worship now. Let our season of love begin, and never end. No fall of man, but the renewing of a whole new generation in Jesus. Now that's something to sing about.
Happy Birthday Lois, may you continue to sing the songs of Jesus in your heart into eternity. For He has given you the best birthday gift of all-a hope and a future in Him. Just like Bob Dylan sang, Forever Young. And forever is a long, long, long time!
love with compassion,
Mike
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