Chapter One: My Story, My Anthem

Well, I never posted my 'Anthem Songs', intentionally actually, because I intended to commit an entire post to them. Actually several posts. There are actually so many songs that represent me, that I couldn't write them all down here. I want to do this in story form, as if these songs are the saga that I want to represent my life. For the next couple weeks, I will be presenting songs that are my anthems, the story that is my life and that I wish to tell. If you'll bear with me, we'll see some incredible works of art. I hope that made sense, but if not, just read on.

Lead Me On
It's interesting that the very song that I would first pick as one of my anthem songs would be a Christian song, from the Christian industry, an industry I have often railed against, and then beyond that, to come from Amy Grant, of all people! But I chose this song for a good reason, and that is because it is one of the most profound songs I've ever heard. It is the prologue to my story, it sets up the passions and dreams that come from my story. When you look close at this song, you begin to see the unraveling. Look at the way it is set up:

Shoulder to the wheel
For someone else's selfish gain
Here there is no choosing
Working the clay
Wearing their anger like a ball and chain.

Fire in the field
Underneath a blazing sun
But soon the sun was faded
And freedom was a song
I heard them singing when the day was done
Singing to the holy One.

The slaves in the southern states, having no freedom, being chained to the hypocrisy of man, were treated with cruelty and malice. They were weighed down with the grief of oppression, sickness, hunger. But through it all, they sang their songs to the only one who could understand their plight, and they cried out to God for salvation.

Waiting for the train
Labelled with a golden star
Heavy hearted boarding
Whispers in the dark
"Where are we going--is it very far?"

Bitter cold terrain
Echoes of a slamming door
In chambers made for sleeping, forever
Voices like thunder in a mighty roar
Crying to the Lord.

Haunting images of the holocaust, the horrors done to men by other men, the depths of degeneration of the human spirit, could not be understood. Chilling, to think of the mighty voices silenced forever by the 'Chambers made for sleeping'.

Man hurts man
Time and time, time again
And we drown in the wake of our power
Somebody tell me why.

The people saw through it, that man had no glory, man has no esteem, man destroys man, there is no honor in our individualism, our humanism, no matter the situation, man will turn to the bad. The people suffered the result of man glorifying himself. There was no honor there. There had to be another answer.

Lead me on
Lead me on
To a place where the river runs
Into your keeping, oh.

Lead me on
Lead me on
The awaited deliverance
Comforts the seeking...lead on.

Finally, an answer is made. A response is found. We should not lower ourselves to the degenerate actions of man. Let us cry to God, who is the only one who gives us freedom from the chains we wear of our own sin and fallen spirits.
That is the beginning of my story. I establish this as my basis. I will not be content with what man has to offer me. I will not stand here and watch the actions of individuals who have no love or respect for their fellow man. I will fight against it with my entire being, and lean on the only support that is solid. This is my cry to God, our only deliverer. Lead me on!