Calm

When I get really, really stressed (like lately!), I put on my headphones and zone out. I like to listen to music when I’m alone in my car, and while working on projects on the computer, but there is something about the headphones that just shuts out everything else. I have a 45-minute playlist on my iPod that I call Calm. It is a very eclectic list, to say the least. Here’s what’s on Calm:

1. Cantique de Jean Racine, Faure
2. Benedictus, Simon & Garfunkel
3. Bleecker Street, Simon & Garfunkel
4. And Now My Lifesong Sings, Casting Crowns
5. As We Seek/Jesus, Draw Me Close, Maranatha! Promise Band
6. Elijah\He Watching Over Israel, Felix Mendelssohn
7. Hello, Evanescence
8. Hymn, Jars Of Clay
9. If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot
10. Requiem\Lacrimosa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
11. My Immortal, Evanescence
12. Song for a Winter’s Night, Jewel & Sarah Mclachlan
13. The Water Is Wide, Karla Bonoff
14. Thread of Scarlet, Wes King
15. Wonderful, Merciful Saviour, Selah
16. Angie, The Rolling Stones
17. Lullaby for an Anxious Child, Sting
18. O Sacred Head, Bach
19. Wonderful Tonight, Eric Clapton

Of all the songs, my favorite right now is the song by Jars of Clay called simply, Hymn.

Jars of Clay lead singer Dan Haseltine says the song is about “the depravity of man and the brilliance of God and the gap in between.” It’s very soft and quiet with a beautiful guitar part and to me it is comforting, poetic and soothing. The lyrics are so beautifully written, but the language makes their meaning less than obvious, which I think is why the song inspires me so. You have to use your mind, and in the process you absorb the words on a deeper level.

Oh refuge of my hardened heart
Oh fast pursuing lover come
As angels dance around Your throne
My life by captured fare You own

Not silhouette of trodden faith
Nor death shall not my steps be guide
I’ll pirouette upon my grave
For in Your path I’ll run and hide

Oh gaze of love so melt my pride
That I may in Your house but kneel
And in my brokenness to cry
Spring worship unto Thee.

When beauty breaks the spell of pain
The bludgeoned heart shall burst in vain
But not when love be ‘pointed king
And truth shall Thee forever reign

Sweet Jesus carry me away
From cold of night, and dust of day
In ragged hour or salt worn eye
Be my desire, my wellspring lye

Oh gaze of love so melt my pride
That I may in Your house but kneel
And in my brokenness to cry
Spring worship unto Thee

Related posts:

1. Simon, Garfunkel, Harmony and Unison
2. Simon and Garfunkel