Country Strong

          Cause I'm country strong
          Hard to break:  like the ground I grew up on.

I haven't had a chance to see the movie.  I will see it, for two reasons.  I enjoy almost every genre, but being from Dakota country:  country music is the music of my people.  Secondly, I'm often entertained when actors I enjoy suddenly display a talent I never knew they possessed.  Gweneth Paltrow, somewhere, found field cred!  She sings country music with all the heart, soul, and earthiness of someone born and raised with the Opry.  But, this blog isn't about singing the praises of country music and rural life.  (Though there are such praises to sing.)  This blog is about the crossroads of music, lyrics, and fatih.  

Read the lyric.  Hear the beginning of the song on the playlist on the right.  Watch Gweneth.

Photo by Georg Slickers

What is powerful about the above lyric isn't what is said, so much as what is happening in its creation:  reflection, imagination, experience, and implications.  This sounds like prayer to me.  The singer finds herself in a situation where she feels like she is breaking, and makes an imaginative leap.  Break.  I'm breaking.  Farm land is broken for planting.  Farm land is hard to break.  I'm like that land.  Life might be tough, but I'm tough to break.

This is prayer at its creative, imaginative, metaphoric best!  To link what is going on in our heart and soul to what we see, smell, hear, touch, and taste.  If you think it may be a bit faddish to get tips for prayer from the example of country song lyrics:  the imaginative leap the singer takes is similar to another we know well.  When Jesus was having his last meal with friends, he looked down at the food, took the bread, blessed it, and broke it.  This bread is my body, broken for you.

What is going on with you right now?  Do you soar like an eagle?  Skip like a rock?  Move with the wind?  Do you burn like fire?  Are you stretched like a rubbar band?  Broken like glass?  A content kitten full of cream? 

Country Strong is a call to spend some time making imaginative connections.  A call to spend time in prayer.

Metaphores be with you!