Hi there! Welcome to Tuesday, the best day of the week!!! This is the place where we take the 3rd day of the week and make it just a bit more special by featuring a song that we love and partner it with some wisdom we have come to surmise.
Why Tuesday? I'm glad you asked. You see, back in the 'ol days, prior to June 11, 2015, (Global Release Day - wikipedia.org), most music and home video releases (remember prior to 2015... aw, the days before streaming, when you could hold a tangible item in your hand that you bought with your hard earned money...but I digress) were released on, you guessed it, Tuesday! I was a retail store manager from 1988 to 2002 and for the vast majority of that time the focal point of what we sold were entertainment items that usually came out on, you guessed it again (you're so good at this!!!), Tuesday. As you might imagine, Tuesday's were important days for the stores I was privileged to lead. Some Tuesday's we had folks lining up at the door for the hottest product making for very memorable times. But most Tuesday's were pretty normal as we would have our usual crowd come in wanting to see what was new.
When we started Tuesday's Musical Notes on May 31, 2012 (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "I'm Alright"), Tuesday was still heralded as the day for New Release music and video. With our past experience of New Release day, we decided that Tuesday would be the perfect day to have a blog about music and musings! Thus the affinity for Tuesday. "...and now you know, the rest of the story..."
Thousands of people have come to Notesland and become friends!!! And today dear friend, we welcome YOU to the most recent edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes where all kinds of folks stop by...especially Dreamers!!!
Six years in the music industry is a long time. But not for this band of dreamers from the UK. The studio version of "Dreamers" was released in 1974 and charted in England, but didn't find success in the US or on the global stage. It would be 1980, before a live version of "Dreamer" by Supertramp (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Give a Little Bit" (Supertramp) would chart in the US. This live recording of the song peaked at #15 after it was released on the album Paris
Supertramp had gained a good deal of traction as a musical act as Paris went to #8 as opposed to Crime of the Century peaking at #38 on Billboard's Album Chart. In its defense, Crime of the Century was critically acclaimed. So much so that it was listed on Rolling Stone Magazine's "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time"
"Dreamer" was the sixth top 40 single by the band and would serve well as the bridge into the 80s to Supertramp's three remaining top 40 singles, the #11 hit "It's Raining Again", "My Kind of Lady" (#31), and the #28 "Cannonball".
This body of work would serve well for this group of dreamers from London who started in 1969 and whose last recording would be 2002's Slow Motion. 33 years in the music business makes Supertramp one of those bands who left an indelible mark on the music industry.
If you do a search of the archives at the left hand side of the screen using "dreams" as the topic (go ahead, give it a try...you know you want to), you soon find that dreams and their impact in the Bible is a popular topic in Tuesday's Musical Notes' universe. Specifically, if you do a search on Genesis 37, today's next stop in our journey through the great stories of the Bible, you find 4 different Musical Notes referencing the passage. (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Right Place, Wrong Time" (Dr. John), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Anticipation" (Carly Simon), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "A Million Dreams" (Ziv Zaifman, Michelle Williams, Hugh Jackman), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Little Lies" (Fleetwood Mac))
While we have referenced the life of Israel's son Joseph on several occasions, we've never taken the time to unpack his story in a way that only Tuesday's Musical Notes can do. Here for your consideration is our first attempt at said unpacking of the story of an early dreamer in the Bible.
Isaac has died, Esau and Jacob (now Israel) have mourned their mutual loss and gone their separate ways. Israel settled in what would become known as the promised land, Canaan, where Isaac had resided since Israel's departure to escape Esau's hatred and find a wife.
While all of Israel's sons will play an important role in forming the nation that we now know as Israel, we step to the side for a time to focus on Joseph, Israel's son with his beloved wife, Rachel. Let's pick up his story here:
At this time Joseph, was the youngest son and the most treasured by Israel. It must have been pretty obvious to the entire family that Joseph was the more cherished son as the Bible says that this most favored status causes the rest of the brothers to be jealous. They were so jealous in fact that Moses' account (yup, 40 years in a wilderness gives you time to jot down quite a bit of history...) in Genesis says that they hated him and wouldn't speak to him if they didn't have to. And you thought your family had some dysfunction!
To make matters worse, Joseph starts having dreams. And boy were these dreams doozies!.
The first one insinuated that his brothers would one day bow down to him as servants. As one would imagine, the relationship structure of the brothers declined even further as Joseph related his dreams to them. Can you see this picture, this precocious 17 year old is telling all of his older siblings that he would one day be their boss. You can almost feel the tension rising in the scene...
To make matters worse, Joseph has a second dream which gets dear 'ol dad mixed in with the retelling of the dream. Joseph dreamed that even the sun and moon would bow down to him evoking his authority over the entirety of the world, including Israel who exclaimed, "What’s with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all supposed to bow down to you?"
That'll make for a "special" Sunday dinner...Blue Bloods - Reagan Family Dinner
The Bible says that these dreams caused friction among the brothers, but Israel kept Joseph and his dreams in his mind. The Message paraphrase goes so far as to suggest that Israel "brooded over the whole business" (v.11)
Joseph's special place in Israel's heart protected him for a time, but it did nothing to stem the tide of bad feelings Joseph's siblings had for him.
In reading this story, we must remember a couple of things.
1) God was the giver of the dreams. I don't know about you, but it seems that I have never been able to control the things in which I dream about. Joseph was fortunate in the fact that the dreams we read about in Genesis 37 are straight from God and have a purpose that only God is able to see.
2) Joseph's dreams caused friction that would propel God's plan. As we follow the story of Joseph, we see that God is also in control of the future. He allows, He doesn't cause, the dysfunction of Israel's family to further His desire to save everyone.
We may very well have unhealthy relationships with folks. We can make an impact by the love we have for people, but sometimes we must understand that God is ultimately in control and He may very well be allowing a soured situation to propel His plan for our lives. We do not have the omniscience and omnipresence of God to understand how things will work out for the ultimate good, that's where our trust in Him must be placed at the foreground of our lives. What lesson's are we to be learning during this tumultuous time? What plan of God's are we being allowed to play a part? How can we learn to have a stronger love of folks as we go through a time where they may not even be talking to us?
3) The end result is God's plan and His will, which are always good, are achieved. This is a matter we must leave to faith. You know, that thing that Paul's letter to Hebrew Christians describes as "... the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see..." Hebrews 11:1-2 NASB/The Message/KJV
Since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, we live in a world that is working against us. It has as its ringleader an enemy who is bent on our destruction with him for eternity in a place that was not created for man.
Bad things in this life are going to happen. Because we live in a fallen world, those bad things aren't going to be nullified because we put our faith in Jesus for our eternity. What allows us to get through those moments are the hope and faith that God has the overall control over everything. This assurance gives us the freedom to not be afraid as we make folks mad by being...dreamers.
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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