The Time Has Come to do Some Soul Searchin'

OK, I promise I will post some more on the amazing Sam Shoemaker (see yesterday's blog), but I had an experience last night that I wanted to share. Being a child of the 60s and 70s made me an adult in the 80s (married in 1980; both children born that decade). I was introduced to the music of Glen Frey via the TV show Miami Vice. (Songs Like "You Belong to the City" and "Smuggler's Blues.") Last night I was checking email and piddlying with a project with www.GrooveShark.com on (you really should check it out). I called up the music of Glen Frey and listened to a song of his I'd never heard of before called Soul Searchin'. It's about a dating relationship, but it actually is a pretty neat expression of what "soul searching" is all about. Hey you be the judge:

The time is coming to do some soul searchin'
No more running, no more bridges burnin'
The time is comin' for you and me
To take a look inside, no matter what we see
Let's do some soul searchin', just you and me
Our lives are changin', this old world keeps turnin'
And I sit here wondering what we're really learnin'
I know you're just a woman, I'm just a man
Let's be true to each other, do the best we can
Let's do some soul searchin', soul searchin'
Some soul searchin', soul searchin'
Let's do some soul searchin', just you and me
There's a big train rollin', big train rollin'
I can hear it hummin', hear it hummin'
But the river is risin', river is risin'
And the rain keeps comin', rain keeps comin'

It's time to get onboard, before we're washed away
It's time to leave behind some things from yesterday
Let's do some soul searchin', soul searchin'
Little bit of soul searchin', soul searchin'
Let's do some soul searchin', just you and me
Come and talk to me
The time is comin', you know the time is comin'
To do some soul searchin', do some soul searchin'
No more runnin', they'll be no more runnin'
No more bridges burnin', no more bridges burnin'
It's time for every woman and every man
Build a new world together, workin' hand in hand
It's time to stop pretendin' that you're somebody else
You know you can't change this world, but you can change yourself
Let's do a little soul searchin', soul searchin'
Little bit of soul searchin', soul searchin'
Let's do some soul searchin', just you and me
We're gonna take a look inside, forget our foolish pride
It's time to search our soul yeah, search our souls
And make a good thing whole
Soul searchin', soul searchin', soul searchin'

What's Your Life About?

I encountered portions of this poem in my devotions recently, so I tracked down the full poem which I share here. My source can be found here. I'll dig up some info about the author and share it here in future blog posts.

I Stand By The Door

An Apologia for My Life - by Samuel Moor Shoemaker

I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world-
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There's no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind people,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it ...
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door--the door to God.
The most important thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch--the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person's own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter—
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it--live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him ...
So I stand by the door.

Go in, great saints, go all the way in--
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics--
It is a vast roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms.
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening ...
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia,
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry,
And the people way inside only terrify, them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much:
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving--preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them, too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not, yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God,
You can go in too deeply, and stay in too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from people as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door--
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But--more important for me--
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a door-keeper ..."
So I stand by the door.