#463. Jeff Buckley and the unexplainable.
Jan 1st by JonHave you ever bumped into the unexplainable? Something that didn’t line up with your expectations of how this life works? A moment that didn’t make sense but yet was still happening all the same?
Chris Cornell did. He’s from Soundgarden and Audioslave. Here is what he said in a recent issue of Rolling Stone about hearing Jeff Buckley sing:
“Hearing Jeff’s live at SIN-E EP was one of those moments that happens only a few times in your life as a music fan—it was something otherworldly … that’s not about technical ability, that’s something else.”
In that same issue, Billy Joel struggled to make sense of Ray Charles:
“But there was something else I didn’t realize until we sang together in the Eighties, … When he sings, he’s not just singing soulfully. He is imparting his soul. You are hearing something deep within the man.”
Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, had the same problem trying to capture Elvis:
“There is a difference between people who sing and those who take that voice to another, otherworldly place …”
Regardless of their faith backgrounds, each of those musicians couldn’t escape the urge to leave their ordinary vocabularies behind in their attempt to explain the unexplainable.
There’s something else.
Something “otherwordly.”
A soul being imparted.
The temptation is to read quotes like that and think you have to be a superstar to become unexplainable. That you have to be famous or big or important. But I think that each day, God gives us all a chance to be the unexplainable. To help someone when it doesn’t make sense. To love someone who is refusing to love us. To share something that on the surface leaves us with nothing of our own.
That is what evangelism is to me, the simple act of being the unexplainable.
That is my goal this year.
When cool goes right and God asks me to go left, I want to do the unexplainable.
When easy is up and God asks me to go down, I want to do the unexplainable.
When fake is free and honesty is expensive, I want to do the unexplainable.
I want to live my life in a way that raises questions. I want my actions and my attitude and everything I am to encourage people to think, “There’s something else.”
That’s my hope for you this year. That’s my hope for me this year.
Let’s be the unexplainable.
Comments
A fine post.
Very fine, had to post this.
Right now I am the unexplainable.
I can’t explain what I’m doing up at this hour. It’s beyond my comprehension!
You’re right Jon, the world should be starring at us quizzically more often than not.
Good beginning to the year, Jon.
That is great Jon, And I will pray that you are able to do the unexplainable. Pray for me too.
Our life and words should be at that level, not by our own power.
Unexplainable, umm, I’d make a quip about that but it would be easily explained.
I think if I were making a New Year’s resolution, for an explanation see my blog post “My Unresolution,” then I think I would rather have ore easily explained moments. Seriously, try telling parents you were trying to be unexplainable and see how they like that explanation. Nope they want something more reasonable than some of the things that were the truth.
Word Verification: fatio
Before we had “phat” we had “fatio.” It was never as popular as daddio, but certainly more interesting.
That’s a great thought – such a simple distillation of ‘evangelism,’ which is something so many people have trouble nailing down.
Right. Also why I like Jon (in addition to his humor).
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth–” That’s pretty unexplainable if we haven’t lost our savor.
Stay salty.
Jon, you are unexplainable.
What you have accomplished here is unexplainable.
The way you are able to go from ridiculously funny, jaw-dropping humor to deep insightful posts, is unexplainable.
The way this site allows people to bare their souls is unexplainable.
The way you are able to poke at Christians without being mean-spririted is unexplainable.
The way friendships are blossoming for your readers/commenters is unexplainable.
The fact that you are exposing your soul, the various facets of it, daily, to a bunch of strangers, is unexplainable.
I hope no one can ever fully explain Jon Acuff.
Not in 2009, not ever!
May we all be at a loss for words.
I LOVE THIS POST!
I also want to be unexplainable. God works in amazing ways. I read this blog then http://steve-jewell.blogspot.com/ and they seem to fit perfectly together. I can live unexplainably with the power of God.
Good post.
Also very Rob Bell style. I hope you feel trendy and contemporary.
God’s blessing on you this new year
The “mystery of godliness” …
This post was very inspiring.
Thanks, Jon
Too funny, this is the same hope I was focused on for the new year, only I didn’t have a word to describe it…..unexplainable is perfect
Wow! Awesome. Thanks. I stand with you, I want to be the unexplainable. (Though I have already been called that, regarding my ‘weirdness’ in the past…)
My cousins who adopted/rescued their second Chinese orphan sent an email from China about their adventures that ended with the statement,
“I want to live a life that only makes sense because of God.”
That’s been my goal ever since. Maybe that can be my new Christian email sig.
“When fake is free and honesty is expensive, I want to do the unexplainable.” Dang, that’s good!
If you desire to do the unexplainable, may you be “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” (Winston Churchill)
I don’t get it.
At the core of unexplainable is the Holy Spirit. It’s the only explanation I have for those “coincidences” in my life that are God-breathed. Like when I look at number displays hundreds of times a day and always manage to find 11:11 or 1.11. I can’t wait for 1/1/11 – it will be a good day. Peace to you in 2009. Great post.
Love this, Jon. You might be interested in this article from the Times Online if you haven’t seen it. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
Marty
(choompl)
Just found your blog the other day. I am pretty new to this world, blogs that is, but there is a lot to be said for the community to be found in them.
So, here I am.
I was particularly glad to read your post about the “stuff white people like” rip-off/homage factor.
You seem to have a healthy self-deprecation (note: I specifically do not mean “humility” in the we-have-beaten-that-word-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life-and-for-the-love-of-God-can’t-we-just-let-it-go-ahead-and-die sense)
I am glad to find the combination of ripping off a very popular “Secular” fad (something Christians really, REALLY like)and a good dose of poking fun at ourselves (or, yourself) for doing it.
So…good to meet you.
Love this post. Happy New Year to all of you.
love it. thanks.
Amazing and wonderful!! Can I repost it on my blog?
“Inexplicable.”
Love, Your editor.
how’s this for unexplainable – i’ve been immersed in Jeff Buckley all morning (on my 2nd time through Live @ Sin-e right now). And then I stop in to check your post. Um, ok God, I’m listening…
I’ll take you up on that challenge, Jon. Inexplicable or unexplainable. They mean the same thing.
You’re on!!!
Heidi Reed
Sometimes the right thing to do is the hard thing to do. Do the right thing anyway. Jon have you quoted Mother Teresa’s “Do it Anyway”?
Jon, that was beautiful. Thank you for sharing and for the gentle challenge. What an amazing resolution. May God give you and all of us the grace to live that way.
Good post Jon.
Reminds me of a story my old Pastor tells of a meeting he had once with a young man who, when asked what problems he thought he had, replied: I worry that enough people don’t dislike me.
In other words, that he would be more concerned with people LIKING him instead of him doing God’s will which often results in people not liking him.
WV: reekies: what teen boys’ sneakers get after a few months of after basketball practice.
Mary Oliver has a poem entitled, “What There is Beyond Knowing” that ends with these lines –
“What I know
I could put into a pack
as if it were bread and cheese, and carry it
on one shoulder,
important and honorable, but so small!
While everything else continues, unexplained
and unexplainable. How wonderful it is.”
Good thoughts for a new year.
Jim
That was great. Thanks.
Blessings.
These posts are great, but it’s not really Stuff Christians Like anymore. They’re just kind of mildly funny devotionals. I kind of miss the posts about plain and simple stuff like bootleg cookies and M.C. Hammer songs.
Francis Chan wrote “something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers,” which is completely true. But sometimes they don’t even make sense to other believers. Let’s just hope you don’t face the situation where side hugs are free and leg drops are expensive.
Well said.
I’m new here and I just had to say that I always hold a great deal of appreciation for those whose words can remind me yet again of a truth I already know and perhaps have forgotten or abandoned in some way.
Thank you.
Look forward to reading more.
Incredible.
That 'unexplainable' (inexplicable?) thing about those musicians? I'm reading a book called This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel Levitin, and the idea is that when you take away all the shiny thing – the technical ability, the physical show, the learning and showmanship – what you have is something that can't be learned (and isn't taught) in music school. Because our bodies, and so our genes (and so God's selection that makes me, me, and you, you) sometimes are different in a way that makes it possible for us to be different in a way that seems impossible means we are LITERALLY created different, to do different things. That is the you beyond the way you look, or the hours you spend polishing your performance. Just being the you God made you to be > we were all created to be that.
WV: ruder – hey!
This is rad except that I kept waiting for a punchline.
Then I just felt like a jerk at the end when I realized I wanted to laugh instead of being moved by all the inspiration you were dishing out!
Just thought I’d pass on that there’s a short story called “The Baptism of Jeff Buckley” that appeared recently:
http://www.marckbeggs.com/ALF/2008/monk.htm