Speaking of Dar

I really like this song from Dar. You can hear her thoughts on it at: http://www.darwilliams.com/media.html

Teen for God by Dar Williams

The sun burns down

Leaving God's bright stamp

On Peach Branch Horse and Bible Camp

Where we're splashing in the water

Joined in song

Swimming with the Spirit the whole day long

I'm a teen for God

God is watching - teen for God

God is watching - teen for God

The girls have looks and the girls have rules

They came here from their Bible schools

They can make you pay attention

To the way you dress and eat

Make you trip over your own two feet and they

Kneel down on their towels at night

Their nightgowns glow with a Holy light

And we pray for the sinners

And their drunken car wrecks

And vow that I'll never get high

And have sex

I'm a teen for God

God is watching - teen for God

God is watching - teen for God

And God made every leaf on every tree

Each grain of sand

God has a plan

For what we're meant to be

I gotta wait for God

Dear Lord

I plan each day

The things I will not do or say

But I'm driven by a passion

Is it only there to tame?

It fills my heart and it calls my name and

This world that you made for us

I know, I know, is dangerous

So I ride a lot of horses

And I never even swear

Sorta like praying I'm just not there

Oh God

God is watching - oh God

God is watching

But God made love

God made the rivers run

And cowboy boots and bathing suits

And the boy's skin dries in the sun...

You gotta help me, God

Help me know, four years from now

I won't believe in you anyhow

And I'll mope around the campus

And I'll feel betrayed

All those guilty summers I stayed

But then I'll laugh

That I fell for the lure

Of the pain of desire to feel so pure

And I'll bear all the burdens

Of my little daily crimes

Wish I had a God for such cynical times

Far from today

But for now I'm a sacred vessel

Rip me open - I spread your word

Like a milkweed pod

I'm a radio station -

Your Holy transmission

Even more, like a lightning rod

I'm a lightning rod - a teen for God

God is watching - teen for God

God is watching... a teen for God

This song 'resonates' with my memories of growing up in the church. It captures the tension between being caught between religion & relationship, the tug of war between the divine, what you've been told by others & who you think you are - which you're desperately trying to find out at that age ...& sort of never stop searching.

I love the imagery in it, that the reality of who we are, of the wild, crazy part of what makes us human is stronger than the stuff we're told by others. I love the imagery in it of the 'dangerous' part of opening oneself to the divine - that it's never like you've been told, it's far better & far worse. Far more likely to tear you open & leave you like a seed that dies in the ground in order for new growth to come.