Wasted on the Way
As a college age kid living in the dormitory called Freudenberger House (Freddy for short) we would listen to all the popular music of that time, as students played their records in the dorm rooms. I often listened to the songs of James Taylor, or Carol King. One of my favorites was Dennis Yost and the Classics Four, with songs like Stormy and Spooky. This was not a good thing overall, since the lyrics to many of the songs I was exposed to did not lend themselves to Christian thinking. One of the groups I enjoyed, because of the harmony their voices provided, was Crosby, Stills, and Nash (before Young joined them), and one of their popular songs was Wasted on the Way.
You’d think with that title the words would be about taking drugs or alcohol, but although that might be a subtle theme, the words themselves do not lead to that conclusion. Here are a few of the lyrics:
Look around me, I can see my life before me, running rings around the way it used to be I am older now, I have more than what I wanted, But I wish that I had started long before I did.
There’s so much time to make up, everywhere you turn, Time we have wasted on the way So much water moving underneath the bridge, Let the water come and carry us away.
Life can be like that, don’t you think? As we grow older, we see things differently, hopefully with more maturity, realizing we’ve made many mistakes, wishing we could make up the time, realizing that time passes like water under a bridge. I doubt Graham Nash, who wrote the lyrics to this song, saw his words in the same light I do, but I want to give these words a spiritual twist. Yes, we all have made mistakes, we have sinned in biblical terms, offending God and often other people. Sometimes we can make amends, but even if we can’t, God is always ready to take us back into his fold, to wrap his arms around us as the father did the prodigal son in Jesus’s story (Luke 15). But not without our commitment to him, defined by faith in Christ that follows.
As we initially enter this salvation covenant with God, we do so confessing Jesus as the Messiah, as our Lord, and being immersed (baptized) into this covenant with him (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:37-41; Galatians 3:26-27, etc.), or in the song’s words “Let the water come and carry us away”.
Oh, when you were young, did you question all the answers, did you envy all the dancers who had all the nerve. Look around you now, you must go for what you wanted, look at all my friends who did and got what they deserved.
We have a tendency to rebel as young kids. Have we grown out of that? Have we stopped envying all the celebrities (whose lives are a mess)? Many went for what they wanted, and they will get what they deserve, unless what they want changes. Do we want Jesus, do we want his way, will we walk in it with the guidance his word (recorded in the New Testament) provides?
There’s so much love to make up everywhere you turn, love we have wasted on the way, so much water moving underneath the bridge, let the water come and carry us away
Check out the song here.
You’d think with that title the words would be about taking drugs or alcohol, but although that might be a subtle theme, the words themselves do not lead to that conclusion. Here are a few of the lyrics:
Look around me, I can see my life before me, running rings around the way it used to be I am older now, I have more than what I wanted, But I wish that I had started long before I did.
There’s so much time to make up, everywhere you turn, Time we have wasted on the way So much water moving underneath the bridge, Let the water come and carry us away.
Life can be like that, don’t you think? As we grow older, we see things differently, hopefully with more maturity, realizing we’ve made many mistakes, wishing we could make up the time, realizing that time passes like water under a bridge. I doubt Graham Nash, who wrote the lyrics to this song, saw his words in the same light I do, but I want to give these words a spiritual twist. Yes, we all have made mistakes, we have sinned in biblical terms, offending God and often other people. Sometimes we can make amends, but even if we can’t, God is always ready to take us back into his fold, to wrap his arms around us as the father did the prodigal son in Jesus’s story (Luke 15). But not without our commitment to him, defined by faith in Christ that follows.
As we initially enter this salvation covenant with God, we do so confessing Jesus as the Messiah, as our Lord, and being immersed (baptized) into this covenant with him (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:37-41; Galatians 3:26-27, etc.), or in the song’s words “Let the water come and carry us away”.
Oh, when you were young, did you question all the answers, did you envy all the dancers who had all the nerve. Look around you now, you must go for what you wanted, look at all my friends who did and got what they deserved.
We have a tendency to rebel as young kids. Have we grown out of that? Have we stopped envying all the celebrities (whose lives are a mess)? Many went for what they wanted, and they will get what they deserve, unless what they want changes. Do we want Jesus, do we want his way, will we walk in it with the guidance his word (recorded in the New Testament) provides?
There’s so much love to make up everywhere you turn, love we have wasted on the way, so much water moving underneath the bridge, let the water come and carry us away
Check out the song here.