Family Soundtrack

For the past 15 years or so, Delirious, a British group, has been impacting the musical landscape with some of the most powerful songs (secular or Christian) anywhere.  I heard once that the original 3 of the 5 guys were married to 3 sisters and that the bass player is the sisters’ baby brother.  So they are family, then, which explains a lot! 

Our own family became huge-devoted fans while Tara was a senior in high school when some one gave us Delirious? Live and in the Can.  They changed everything about Christian music and influenced my kids, who were all teen-agers at the time and deciding for themselves how to follow Jesus, deeply.  This group has been the Rhoades family soundtrack for these last exciting 12 or so years as my children grew into passionate pursuers of the Presence.

Their songs have become classics.

“I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble” are unquestionably songs that define our spiritual times.  Their call to social justice because of loving Christ, not to garner His love, has broadened the church’s reach, made Christians more aware of a need to get out into world and make a change.  There is “Majesty (Here I Stand),” and “My Soul Sings,” which have taken us to places of deeper worship.  When Martin quoted the words of the 1834 lyrics of “The Solid Rock” through a megaphone at their final appearance in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the power of the classic hymn as well as how musically sophisticated and cool Delirious has been.  It was almost a rap, but with that English accent.  They definitely experimented and we are the richer for it.

Stormie took lots of pictures of the bass player.  She even has a shirt (her very own design) that says “I wanna be just like Jon Thatcher.”

Their song, “Obsession,” (“…and my heart burns for You…”) expressed the haunting question that kept one of my daughters returning to God when the enemy of her soul tried to dissuade her.   Another daughter encouraged me through some of the darkest times with the lyric from “Every Little Thing”:

When it’s all falling down on you
You’re crying out but you’re breaking in two
When it’s all crashing down on you
When there’s nothing you can do
There is someone who can carry you

Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Every little thing’s gonna be alright

And when some one broken has come to me for a word to soothe, I have often put my arms around them and sang those words softly in their ear, because I do know Who can carry them, “…every little thing’s gonna be alright…”  It is a promise we can take to the bank.

There is “Rain Down,” “What a Friend I’ve Found,” and the classic, “Oh, Lead Me.”  The Monkey-esque (in the best possible Davy Jones way) song from the Mission Bell album makes you want to run right out and “paint this town red with the blood of Jesus.”  And I don’t know if there is a song about the indisputable power of God that I love more than “My Glorious.”  He is all in all and “greater than the air I breathe, this world we’ll leave.  And He will save the day and all will say ‘my Glorious…'”

The Delirious? Challenge:

But the song that seems to wrap up their message in a nutshell, the one they’ve been singing for ages and sang again just the other night, is “History Maker.”  And Martin Smith and the band challenged everyone there to understand that they can shake this nation and impact this world.  And my kids were there, hearing it and accepting it and I am so blessed to watch them becoming History Makers in their worlds.  We have always told our kids to live in a way that could bring them an epitaph like David’s: “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…”  That is the whole goal, to fulfill God’s purpose in our times, for our times.  That is the message of “History Maker.”

Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break, Kings and Queens will shake
Yes it’s true and I believe it,
I’m living for you

Is it true today, that when people pray
We’ll see dead men rise and the blind set free
Yes, it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you

I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again

Well, it’s true today that when people stand
With the fire of God and the truth in hand
We’ll see miracles, we’ll see angels sing
We’ll see broken hearts making history
Yes it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you

I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms…

Thanks, Delirious?

I have loved Delirious? for years now and will be listening to and loving their music for a long time to come.  They are just so cool!  I am blessed because my kids use their stuff (some one once told me that nobody can cover a Delirious? song as well as my son Rocky, and oh, how I agree) and they will be releasing their final album on November 9 (“History Makers Greatest Hits“).  Thank-you, Delirious, for what you’ve given, what you have stirred up, the integrity in which you have walked and for unleashing History Makers around the world.  Your song will go on!

From a thankful mama…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Buy Rocky the Greatest Hits 2-CD/DVD set as a late bithday gift.