What is in this life that causes you to smile? For what do you wake up in the morning ready to take on the world? What is the meaning in your life? What inspires you? If we were to poll all of Notesland, (and according to google analytics there is a variety of folks who read Tuesday's Musical Notes. (Thanks BTW!!!)), we would surely get a variety of responses to these questions. So in keeping with today's theme...let's push play on our inspirational video of the day, shall we?
The "Official Music Video" for "You're the Inspiration" is lackluster, you can go check it out if you'd like. If you're a Peter Cetera fan (we give him credit for his early contributions to Chicago, but, umm..we're not a huge fan of him here at The Notes), you'll enjoy the MTVesque music video. But, as so many videos of the time, it seems contrived and doesn't make a great deal of sense, unless you want to see Cetera and a bunch of folks smoochin'. Hence just the audio track video for today...Rant finished...
Written by David Foster and the aforementioned ex-Chicago band member, "You're The Inspiration" arrived at a time when the "teeth" of Chicago, its horn section, had been replaced by a heavy synth/keys sound and more guitars than the band had ever seen. This worked for the balladeer that Foster is and sufficiently held sway at the time as a follow-up to the monster of an album that was Chicago XVI.
"You're The Inspiration" is the 3rd of 4 singles released from Chicago 17. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and continued the hot streak that Chicago was seeing under producer Foster. Cetera had been commissioned by Foster to write a song for Kenny Rogers which he did while packing for a trip to Italy. During the trip, Cetera came up with the lyrics while observing the artistic endeavors of past masters, and these works of art inspired him to write. He came up with the chord structure and lyrics and proceeded to forward them to Foster. Kenny Rogers decided not to record "You're The Inspiration" leaving it for Cetera to present to Chicago for their 17th studio release. And now you know the rest of the story...
Peter Cetera drew inspiration from the art and beauty of Italy to write today's song. From where do you draw inspiration to do the things you do? We asked several questions to start today's Notes and perhaps we should explore where inspiration is derived.
As we can see in this list from our friends at thereviewsarein.com
As we continue to explore the great stories of the Bible we have come upon the section of the Prophets. We explored some of the historical aspects of this section last week. But today we wish to dive into what inspired these men to write what and how they did. Obviously, God told them on many occasions exactly what to do and we'll explore that behavior in future Notes, but our focus today is a recurring theme of hope that exudes from the pages of each of these ancient writers. What was the inspiration for this hope in a very dark time in their nation's history?
Their inspiration was the fact that God told them that things would not always be the way they were at the moment of their writing. There was a future that would be better. From each of the prophets, we can see an image of One who would bring about change to the world. In each of these ancient books, written to a people who were about to be conquered, if you look just a bit, you see the glimmer that will become a blinding light...the Light of the world.
If you look you will find some of the glimmers are mirrored images of the future. Like Jonah - New American Standard Bible/The Amplified Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel being in the great fish for three days and then being expelled mirroring Jesus' burial and resurrection. If you look you will find some of the glimmers from prophets like Amos - NASB/AMP/KJV and Obadiah - NASB/AMP/KJV are hints and shadows of a time to come reflecting those of The Revelation of Jesus. The Revelation of Jesus - NASB/AMP/KJV If you look you will find some of the resemblances are more profound, like the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 - NASB/AMP/KJV or the 4th person in the fiery furnace of the Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in Daniel 3-4 NASB/AMP/KJV. If you look you will find a striking image ofEzekiel 4 - NASB/AMP/KJV being bound and laying on his side for over a year as an image of bearing Israel's guilt, much like Jesus bore the whole world's sin. If you look you will find...hope, security, faithfulness...Jesus.
Over the next few weeks, we WILL look as the prophets guide us through the scary time in which they lived and as they guide us to the One who inspired them all. You can go ahead and give them a read if you'd like. Start with Isaiah in most Bibles. Click the link and follow the prompts here: Biblegateway
While you can find Jesus in EVERY book of the Bible, it becomes a much more profound task when reading through the prophets as they are written at a horrible time in Israel's history. The prophets set up so much of what will be going on during Jesus' time and how the nation of Israel came from the splendor of Solomon to being conquered by the Assyrians (yup, those folks that Jonah preached to), the Babylonians, and the Persians.
We've mentioned that here at The Notes we aren't fans of Peter Cetera, however, we can imagine hearing the prophets of the Old Testament singing a familiar refrain of his...
"... you're the meaning in my life, you're the inspiration. You bring feeling to my life, you're the inspiration...no one needs you more than I need You!!!" Ok, he can write a good song...
'Til Tuesday,
Loving Him by serving You,
randy
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