Broken Tree

There’s a new activity at my church called “Soundtracks”. It’s an opportunity for members of our church family to come and share their stories through music, art, poetry, etc. One of the slogan’s is something like “What does your life sound like” or “What’s the soundtrack of your life”.

It took me years of being a musician and listening to songs over and over before I actually started listening to the lyrics. Yeah, I heard them , memorized them and could pen them out as easily as if they were my own. I never really took to their meaning though until I was in college and typically strung out. Leave it to a psychotics binge to make you realize the things you should have already known.

maybe the limbs of a broken tree will heal themselves in time
or maybe the limbs from that broken tree will petrify......
hard as stone.

as I peel back the layers I find things I never knew were there
and as I listen to my prayers I hear myself confused and scared.
this broken tree feels like it's part of me somehow controlling my destiny.
has the seed of a broken promise decided what I will be?

and I, left to myself can only hope to survive.
and I, left to myself can only slowly die.

how long will I drift? would I not know the difference?
have I weathered so long that I've been shaped by this ocean?
will the legacy live on in me? like father, like son?
I don't believe that what I am is determined by what precedes me.
and now I have to realize that the past is not my future
and in Christ I'm a brand new creature.

and I, left to myself can only hope to survive.
and I, left to myself can only slowly die.
but given grace I know I can,
given grace I can learn to forgive.
in the face of all of this.
given grace I can truly live.
-Broken Tree by Six Feet Deep, from the Album “The Road Less Traveled”