It’s not secret to my roommates that I have been jamming out to 21 Pilots for the past few months, and have fallen in love with their track “Car Radio”. I’ve been liking this so much, in fact, it’s pulled me away from my 7/8 jazz-progression based metal to make me listen to a white Christian rapper with some piano skills and a ukulele. He has a good drummer too. That is to say, it’s very much not my normal kind of music.
Their song, “Car Radio” holds an interesting place in my heart and is also home to a challenge I wish to issue to… well… everyone. Myself included.
Here are the lyrics (condensed for relevancy) .
“I have these thoughts, so often I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
‘Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it
My pride is no longer inside
It’s on my sleeve
My skin will scream reminding me of
Who I killed inside my dream
I hate this car that I’m driving
There’s no hiding for me
I’m forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel
I ponder of something terrifying
‘Cause this time there’s no sound to hide behind
I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it’s that we’re all battling fear
Oh dear, I don’t know if we know why we’re here
Oh my, too deep, please stop thinking
I liked it better when my car had sound
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
It is faith and there’s sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
I have these thoughts, so often I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
‘Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence”
Ok. That was long. Hope you’re still with me.
This song is relevant for me because I was put in a similar situation a few years back. My radio wasn’t stolen, but I felt a strong conviction from God to turn off the radio in my car and stop listening to music. At the time I wondered if God were telling me that the band I was listening to was evil or was an idol in my life, but now I believe that he wanted me to focus on something else.
Here’s a challenge that I have for you. Turn off your car radio. Or if you want to take me more metaphorically and less literally, turn of all of your music, your TV, your computer, your phone, and anything else. Turn off all of the distractions. Give yourself time and space to sit and think and listen.
One of the most powerful lessons I’ve received at CGA was how to trace emotions and struggles back within myself, find the source, and fix the issue. That process starts with one thing, really, and that’s awareness. The second is knowledge of what to do during that awareness.
After my brief explanation, go back and read the lyrics again.
I think there’s a gaping hole in the lifestyle of many people now where we ignore our own issues and thoughts, or we cover them up with so much media we never stop to consider what we could even do about our problems.
“I need to lose a few pounds… better watch more Netflix” is not what we actively think, but it’s the decision we make when we subvert that first line instead of thinking about what we could actually do about a problem.
For me it looks more like this, “I want to write a book… better play some Skyrim.” (That’s a video game). I let my emotions and desire for entertainment override my actual goals and objectives. I have enough material floating around in my head for 15+ books. Has anyone seen the novel I published recently? Nope? How about my new character on Skyrim? Yeah, he’s been getting a lot of attention.
This extends to a lot more subjects, however. I’m just scratching the surface. Anyone upset about our last election? I wonder how different it would look if we had a better educated populace (to be clear, I’m not saying Hillary over Trump, I mean something completely different), like us acknowledging a problem of poor candidates, or a weird system, and coming together to do something about it. How about our environment? If we actually sat down and thought about it, and were willing to make more sacrifices, we would ride bikes to work or carpool to our jobs instead of slowly killing our ONLY planet with carbon monoxide emissions. How about racism, or hate against a specific category of people? Ever stop to consider that skin color means nothing? Or that sexual orientation isn’t a reason to blindly hate someone? Or that someone shouting at you at your job isn’t really a jerk, but is a deeply hurt person who needs help but doesn’t know how to express it. Or if you’re shouting at the barista at Starbucks for putting too much foam in your latte, maybe you need to take a step back and think about your anger and choices.
God has gifted us with the ability to think, and the responsibility to steward our time, our money, and our lives. I’d like to believe that we can band together as the most intelligent life-forms on this planet and make good choices and changes. Hear about Boone, NC? They’re enacting a plan to convert all of their power sources to renewable energy. Yeah, they thought about it. I’m proud of them, but we can do better.
We need to try to think.
