Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Only Time Will Tell" (Asia)

Rules of Civility #25 - "Superfluous compliments and all affectation of ceremony are to be avoided, yet where due they are not to be neglected".

Welcome to this weeks adventure into Musicland with Tuesday's Musical Notes!  We are at the intersection of Rhino Records Avenue and the Roman Road.  It's Tuesday....we have a classic rock song.....and scripture.....what happens next?.....Only time will tell......flashback music please.......let's go back to the day where video tried to kill the radio star.....

"Only Time Will Tell" - Asia

1982 was a great year!  Some of you may remember it well.  Some of you weren't even born.  But 1982 is remembered by people exactly my age as a grand adventure in transitions.  You see, in 1982, many of us who are 49 and 50 graduated from high school.  Believe it or not, we just celebrated 31 years being "out of school".  There were many dreams and plans as we celebrated leaving Bald Knob High School.  Some of us went to work.  Some of us went on to more school in the form of college or vo-tech.  Some of us were married or got married.  Quite honestly, some of us did nothing.  Upon graduation we transitioned from being with teachers, friends, and acquaintances every day to being with coworkers, spouses or roommates every day.  We began the first day of our "adult" lives and we found that nothing would ever be the same again.  For many of us, the 1982 release of "Only Time Will Tell" from Asia's eponymous debut album would become a mantra that we still chant today. 

"Only Time Will Tell" joined  "Heat Of The Moment" in the top 40 propelling Asia to the top of the Billboard Top 200 album chart and kept it there for 9 weeks.  The record has an estimated sales of an epic 10 million copies and it was named the best selling album of 1982 by Billboard.  Unfortunately, as popular as Asia was, its 13 follow up albums have not achieved anywhere near the success of the original album.

Asia was one of the 80's biggest super groups.  Featuring John Wetton (King Crimson, Roxy Music, and Uriah Heep), Steve Howe (Yes), Geoff Downes (Yes and The Buggles), and Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer), Asia would continue the defining sound of Prog Rock made popular by Yes and the "Peter Gabriel incarnation" of Genesis. The band would however suffer from constant transitions of musicians.  22 people have recorded or toured in some version of the band since its inception in 1981.  Asia's current lineup consists of 3 original members (Wetton, Downes, and Palmer) and 1 member, guitarist Sam Coulson who joined Asia in 2007.

Time is a very popular theme in the Bible.  If you were to do a word study you would find the word "time" is mentioned as follows:  726 times in the New American Standard Bible
          842 times in the Holman Christian Standard Bible
          703 times in the King James Version
         1256 times in The Message paraphrase
          888 times in the New International Version

As you can see the subject of time is one that God inspired the human authors of the Bible to explore.  Granted the references and context of each use is different, yet, there is an overlying concept that should be examined a bit more thoroughly. 

In Ecclesiastes 3, the subject of time is given a great deal of exposure:

3 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every ^[a]event under heaven—

² A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
⁶ A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate;A time for war and a time for peace.

This passage speaks of their being a time for everything.  There is a space in your life where each one of these things will more than likely occur.  How will you be prepared to face them?  How do we go about spending the majority of our limited time doing the positive things on this list?  Building up, laughing, dancing, gathering stones, embracing, searching, keeping, sewing together, speaking, (although silence can be a positive thing for some), loving, and making peace are all encouraging and edifying practices that we need more of in our world.  The negatives on this list will occur, however, if we focus on spending our time on the positives, the negatives will be minimized.  The outcomes of our focus on these positive activities may not be immediately clear and must be left up to God and in that case....only time will tell.  With the combination of daily Bible study, encouragement from fellow Christians, and more importantly a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, our time can be better utilized on achieving the good things on this list and our lives will become closer to becoming some of those that Jesus spoke of as He reinforced the Ecclesiates 3 "time for everything" list in the beatitudes:

5 When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. ² He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,

³ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
⁵ “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
¹¹ Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So friend, how about it?  Can we partner together to do more building up, laughing, dancing, gathering stones, embracing, searching, keeping, sewing together, speaking, loving, and making peace.....only time will tell

'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy