Tuesday's Musical Notes - "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" (Chicago)

Welcome to the first Tuesday of June 2016!!!  3 months until school starts again, 4 months until Razorback Football begins, 6 months until the presidential election, 7 months until Christmas, and 8 months until the year 2017 begins!  But there is absolutely no sense in rushing towards the future...na, na, na, na, na, na live for today...right?  Anyway, welcome to the best day of the week!  Since it is the first Tuesday of the month, we get the opportunity to play the flashback music and que up an email Note from the earliest days of Tuesday's Musical Notes.  Today's ponderings on the positives comes from August 2, 2011 and in the form of the world's greatest band...EVER.  Que the fog machine and harps...

Memories can be some of the most treasured and powerful things we have in our lives.  My earliest recollections come from the early 70's.  I just don't remember much from before my school age time.  Mom has pictures  that reinforce  some of the stories that she has told me about the time before 1st grade.  Her memories invigorate mine.  Perhaps you have a similar story.  Consistent memories don't really kick in for me until early school age years. That is the time many begin to develop relationships and start coming into their own so to speak.  In retrospect,  those memories strengthen a theme and begin the voyage that is the search for the  meaning of life.

Most of my life, I've been searchin'... perhaps you have as well, here's Chicago with their ideas about searching for life's meaning...

"(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" from the 1974 double album Chicago VII

     In 2002, my all time favorite band, Chicago, released "The Very Best Of Chicago - Only The Beginning".  The album debuted in the top 50 on the charts.  That's astounding!!!  They are one of just a few bands ever to have albums chart in 5 decades!  You read that right 5 DECADES! That is an amazing statistic and one that I think very few in the current music industry will ever be able to achieve again.  Chicago was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this past year and continues to tour each year with sell out crowds.  It just goes to show you that good music is appreciated generation after generation.

As rare as having records chart in 5 decades, it is equally rare the way Chicago built their musical iconic status.  It was difficult for new musical acts in the 60s to have enough material or the money to support the studio recording time to put together a single album of good tunes.  Enter Chicago, who, as a band, released their first 3 albums as 2 disc sets and released their 4th was a whopping 4 disc boxed set from their concert at Carnegie Hall.  After single disc releases Chicago V and VI, Chicago returned to the double album release format with Chicago VII.  It went straight to the top of the Billboard Pop chart and had 3 singles break the top 20. 

     I actually got to see Chicago with a few friends at Barnhill Arena at the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas (Woo Pig) in 1982.  It was the very first time I had gone to a rock-n-roll concert.  What an incredible show!  They had 3 encore's one of which was The Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life!!  (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Got To Get You Into My Life")  Chicago owned the song that night and made it sound like one of their original compositions.  I suspect McCartney and friends still got paid royalties, but I digress.  One of my friends actually stalked the band back to their hotel and got to meet some of them.  That was a time when stalking meant a whole different thing than it does now.  She didn't tell us the story until much later and we jokingly question many of the details still to this day.

 Earlier in today's Notes  we mentioned a part of life that everyone experiences.  The search for meaning.  Seeking a good education, searching for the right girl to date, searching for the right clothes to stay in fashion, searching for true friendship......I think you understand and perhaps have had similar explorations in your life.  Hopefully your search has included some instances such as these:

Deuteronomy 4:27-31 The Message paraphrase of the Bible/New American Standard Bible parallel

1 Chronicles 28:9 The Message/NASB parallel

2 Chronicles 15:1-4 The Message/NASB

Proverbs 11:27 The Message/King James Version of the Bible parallel

Proverbs 28:5 The Message/KJV parallel

Isaiah 55:6-7 The Message/KJV parallel

Amos 5:6 The Message

Amos 5:14 The Message/Holman Christian Standard Bible parallel

Zephaniah 2:3 The Message/KJV parallel

The Gospel of Matthew 6:33 KJV/The Message parallel

The Gospel of Luke 11:9 The Message/KJV parallel

What we see throughout Biblical history is the instruction to seek God.  He is the Creator of our lives.  He is also the one who loves you since you were created in the womb.  Your search for the meaning in life should include responding to the drawing of Holy Spirit into a reestablished relationship with God.  We all respond to this drawing.  Some deny it even exists, others embrace it wholeheartedly.  There is coming a time very soon, when this distinction will be very important.  In fact, it will determine where your eternal being will exist.  The truth of the matter is that we will live a lot longer somewhere other than the 70 or so years we may have on earth.  I can't imagine what a separated relationship with the One who created me would be like, nor do I want to.  I also want to encourage you to investigate further the seemingly unexplainable gnawing that continues to draw you towards a decision.  Sex, drugs, Rock-N-Roll, money, power, and fame are all second level substitutes for the completion that you desire.  You are not complete, nor will you ever be without restoring your personal relationship with God, by following the drawing of Holy Spirit, accepting that Jesus died as a substitution for you and that He was physically risen from death, that He sits in heaven awaiting God's instruction to return and bring those who believe to heaven, and embracing the restored relationship with God.  At this point, the searchin' will have it's answer.

One passionate search early in my life, led me to an altar at New Bethel General Baptist church just north of Bald Knob, Arkansas.  I found a friend unlike any other that I had ever met.  A friend who had a gift for me.  All I had to do was accept it and believe what He told me He had done for me and what He would be doing for me if I surrendered to Him daily.  I was 10.  I continue to search for many things in my life, but since that time,  I have no desire to search for something to fill the most intrinsic need of my life.  I found the Savior!!!  His promises are true every day.  The things I search for now are founded in the relationship I have with Jesus.  Ways to make His message known.  Ways to make my character more like His character.  Ways to encourage and edify those who have also found His love.  My search is not over.  I really think, to borrow from another Chicago song.....it's "Only The Beginning".......

"Lead Me To The Cross" - from the 2007 album All Of The Above by Hillsong United

'Til Tuesday

Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy