John Prine and Bonnie Raitt soulfully performed Prine's Angel from Montgomery. The song poignantly - and maybe inadvertently - expresses the emptiness of life without faith. The lyrics:
I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child who's grown old
As children we don't truly understand we're going to grow old. At a certain age we realize our physical abilities (our kids would say mental faculties, too) aren't what they used to be. And we know what's ahead because we've seen our parents lead the way. Our spirits may be young, but in every other sense we are children who've grown old.
If dreams were thunder
And lightning were desire
This old house would've burned down
A long time ago
The young see endless, exciting opportunities. Over time, we make decisions that open some doors and close others as we focus our lives and narrow down the possibilities. Some of the excitement wanes as we get beaten up by frayed relationships, deaths, illnesses, broken promises and unfairness. Life's lessons bring maturity that tempers exuberant optimism.
When I was a young girl
I had me a cowboy
He wasn't much to look at
Just a free ramblin' man
But that was a long time ago
No matter how I tried
The years they just rolled by
Like a broken down dance
Young love is exciting. We have blank slates and often fill them in with rose-colored visions of each other. Eventually we bond with a mate, our differences become apparent, and we deal with them to cobble together a good life. Romantic infatuation morphs into steadfast commitment. And the years roll by.
Make me an angel
Flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold onto
To believe in this livin'
Is just a hard way to go
Good memories help us get by, bringing a smile and transporting us to a happy place that's been burnished by the passage of time. It's a wonderful game our minds play. But you can't live there, and everyday life goes on. As we get older we see our possibilities diminish as time gets shorter.
"To believe in this livin' is just a hard way to go." Without faith it sure is: it's more wearisome, less active and less forward-looking. Worse yet, it's terminal.
For people without faith, life consists of a fixed number of days, however many there may be. Every day that passes is one step closer to the end. And then it does end.
In...nothing.
We're built with a need for spiritual completeness, to fill "a God-shaped hole in our heart." A hole that can only be filled by - you guessed it - God. Faith enables Christians to live purposefully and then look forward to life after death with optimism.
It trumps "a poster of an old rodeo" or anything else the secular world can offer.
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