But then, who is there to rescue us?
Is there anyone to rescue us? And if there is … …we surely need someone who may well ‘live in a high and holy place’, but who is also with him ‘who is contrite and lowly in spirit’ …, one whose heart is ‘to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’ (Is 57:15). One who ... will not accuse for ever, nor … always be angry … in concern that ‘the spirit of man would grow faint before me – the breath of man that I have created’ (Is 57:16). One who may well be ‘enraged’ by my ‘sinful greed’, yet remains deeply committed to me. One who is fully familiar with my ‘wilful ways’, yet who, in full knowledge of me, still chooses to say, and with divine authority: 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him’ (Is 57:18). One who fully knows me … yet fully loves me.
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Get in line with the things you know
Feel the pain, feel the sorrow Touch the hurt and don't let go Don't let go, don't let go Get in line with the things you know Learn to cry like a baby Then the hurting won't come back Won't come back, won't come back These are words from ‘The Hurting’,[1] and it is interesting to speculate on what it was about such sentiments, and those expressed in Mad World, that so struck a chord with the national psyche (of 18-22 year olds at least!) in the early 1980s. As we have seen, the words were written by those from broken homes, with absent fathers, and yet they resonated with a much wider audience, including a grammar school boy from a middle class home in Surrey. Was there something about the concept expressed in these words, that was somehow liberating in the world of the post-war, ‘stiff upper lip’, unquestioned institutional authority of the early 1980s? Feel the pain, feel the sorrow Touch the hurt and don't let go Which all brings us back to the wound at the heart of humanity. If there is such a wound, a ‘stiff upper lip’ just won’t do. But if we allow ourselves to follow our instincts and to ‘feel the pain’ and to ‘feel the sorrow’, well … what then? And if Jeremiah is right (Jer 17:9) that: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure … … and yet we still want to live with reality, rather than avoid it, well … what then? So we take the risk. We ‘touch the hurt and don’t let go’. We ‘learn to cry like a baby’. [1] the first song on the album, also called ‘The Hurting’. So ‘could you please explain the hurting?’
As MTV explains: The name “Tears for Fears” refers to psychologist Arthur Janov’s 1980 book, “Prisoners of Pain,” which describes “tears as a replacement for fears.” And The Hurting, which kicked off the band’s career, was Tears for Fears’ most personal album. The background to the album, described by Roland Orzabal, in the Quietus, as ‘pure Janov’, is explained best in the band’s own words:[1] RO: I was one of those people in school who used to work hard and then, when I was about 17, 18, I had a mental Copernican inversion, so instead of just following what I was being told and doing really well and getting ‘A’s, I just started questioning everything. We were reading a lot of existentialism, both in French and in English, so that kind of set me off. CS: Those teenage years when you’re looking for all the answers… RO: I had a guitar teacher, and she introduced me to a book called The Primal Scream (by Arthur Janov). And I read it, and it became my bible. The theory is called The Tabula Rasa theory, or the ‘Blank Slate’ theory. A child is born a blank slate, and then all the terrible things that happen to it – the childhood trauma and the rejection, not enough love – become suppressed and then turn up as neuroses in later life. The therapist would try to lead you to recall something that happened to you, and your way of mourning – and it’s a deep way of mourning – is that you actually cry. Not as an adult, but actually in a sense you’re going really, really deep. CS: It’s not a novel idea. I just think Janov explained it in better terms than most people. [1] as cited in The Quietus. It is notable that Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, who grew up together on a Bath council estate, were both from challenging backgrounds, and grew up with just their mothers.
As Wyndham Wallace explains, in The Quietus[1], The Hurting was a conceptual album,[2] ‘honing in on a particularly unusual topic: the psychological traumas of childhood and their long term effects, something with which both musicians were more than familiar.’ Could you understand a child When he cries in pain? Could you give him all he needs Or do you feel the same?[3] And yet the album clearly struck a chord with a far wider demographic for, as Curt Smith says: ‘In England it was a big number one record. It went straight to number one as soon as it came out. It was sort of a big cult hit in America. We’ve had people like MGMT coming to shows in Detroit, Foster The People when we were in Korea, younger bands that really cite The Hurting as a big influence. And you meet other people, like Billy Corgan or Gwen Stefani, who are beside themselves because they were such big fans when they were younger. You might say it’s juvenile, or depression, or angst, but it seems that a lot of people go through that phase. And it stretches across the age spectrum, which is interesting. And genres as well. I mean, Swiss Beatz is a big fan. Hardcore rap groups like Gangstarr.’ When asked by Marcus Moore of MTV[4] whether Roland and he felt displaced, Curt Smith replied: ‘I think anyone at that age goes through a lot of those feelings. It’s the age when you are separating from your parents. In our case, we didn’t really get on with our parents, so The Hurting had a lot to do with that. You’re becoming your own person and it’s getting some of that history out of your system.’ ‘I think the longevity of The Hurting is that each generation, as it comes up, can relate to it. It’s an album for 18- to 22-year-olds. If you’re 18 to 22 in any era, you can relate.’ Curt Smith reflects: By far, the most common comments I get from people are [on ‘The Hurting’], “This saved my life in college.” Or “This got me through college.” And this was my story too. [1] In Their Own Words. This Is Going To Hurt: The Mad World Of Tears For Fears’ Debut LP, Wyndham Wallace, September 20th, 2013 09:28, The Quietus, http://thequietus.com/articles/13379-tears-for-fears-the-hurting-interview, accessed 6/2/17. [2] Tears for Fears, Album: The Hurting, 1983, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, Mercury Records. [3] from The Hurting, the song. [4] Does Tears for Fears’ ‘The Hurting’ hold up 30 years later?, interview with Curt Smith, Marcus J Moore, 11/13/2013, MTV News, http://www.mtv.com/news/2699451/does-tear-for-fears-the-hurting-hold-up-30-years-later/, accessed 6/2/17. Is it an horrific dream?
Am I sinking fast? Could a person be so mean As to laugh and laugh? On my own Could you ease my load? Could you see my pain? Could you please explain the hurting? These are the first words of the first song on the album ‘The Hurting’ (from the song ‘The Hurting’). And I have been asking God why it is that these thoughts so resonated with me at the age of 20 and, even more puzzlingly, still resonate with me over thirty years later. I still ask God: ‘could you please explain the hurting?’ Similarly, the words of ‘Mad World’, the first big hit, in 1982, which drew me and many others to the band, which is the second song on the album, connect strongly with me now as they did then: All around me are familiar faces Worn out places, worn out faces Bright and early for their daily races Going nowhere, going nowhere Their tears are fillin' up their glasses No expression, no expression Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow No tomorrow, no tomorrow And I find it kind of funny I find it kind of sad The dreams in which I'm dyin' Are the best I've ever had I find it hard to tell you 'Cause I find it hard to take When people run in circles It's a very, very Mad world, mad world Mad world, mad world It is notable that Curt Smith in a 2013 interview with The Quietus[1] recognises that: ‘The subject matter [of ‘Mad World’] seemed to click with people. How simple it was, and how dark it was, seemed to connect. It says something about the English psyche, that’s for sure, as did the Gary Jules version being a number one hit at Christmas’, 21 years after the original, in 2013. ‘Maybe English people get depressed over Christmas…’ [1] In Their Own Words. This Is Going To Hurt: The Mad World Of Tears For Fears’ Debut LP Wyndham Wallace, September 20th, 2013 09:28, http://thequietus.com/articles/13379-tears-for-fears-the-hurting-interview, accessed 12 April 2016. A favourite album of mine in 1984 (age 20) was ‘The Hurting’ by Tears for Fears. The album cover is very moving, and features a little boy, against a white background, curled up, with his head in his hands.
I owned the album in the old tape cassette format, and a particular memory is of driving from Redhill in Surrey down to college in Plymouth, as fast as was possible in a light blue Austin Metro, down the A303, with The Hurting blasting out through the open windows. This was made all the more challenging by the fact my highly advanced audio arrangements consisted of an ultra modern six-buttoned tape recorder player, perched precariously on the passenger seat of the car along with other bits of student debris. The requirement to turn the tape over every 20 minutes presented a considerable challenge in such circumstances, and the anxiety this induced was heightened beyond measure by the fact that the machine itself was prone to severe battery failure without a moment’s notice. Quite apart from the immediate loss of music on such occasions, this also signalled a far more catastrophic consequence in the form of the dreaded chewed up tape scenario. One’s entire musical life support system was in danger of coming to a sorry and desperate end at the hands of a mangled mass of failed technology. All judgment gone, the need of coming to the immediate aid of the tape on such occasions far surpassed the threat to life from swerving all over the A303. And the angst induced by such an experience only served to increase the poignancy of the profound lyrics of The Hurting. ‘I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.’
It is interesting that God chooses to use the words ‘I will heal him’ in this particular context. We might have expected the verse to say ‘I have seen his ways, but I will forgive him’. And we are perhaps more familiar with the concept of God forgiving us than with the concept of God healing us. And, of course, we do need the forgiveness of God for our ‘wilful ways’. But it is also possible that the idea of God’s forgiveness can feel a little bit distant, or a little bit contractual, to us. We are familiar with the idea of God’s forgiveness, but less familiar with the actual inner experience of God’s forgiveness. This seems to be addressed here by the very personal promise of Creator to created: ‘I have seen his ways, but I will heal him’. We need to know the forgiveness of God. But we also need to experience the deep inner healing of God for our brokenness, our fallenness, our wilfulness. There is a deep woundedness at the heart of humanity that needs an equally profound solution. As Jeremiah 17:9 says (NIVUK) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Isaiah 57:14-21 (NIV UK) reads:
14 And it will be said: ‘Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.’ 15 For this is what the high and lofty One says – he who lives for ever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. 16 I will not accuse for ever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me – the breath of man that I have created. 17 I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his wilful ways. 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, 19 creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will heal them.’ 20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 21 ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’ These are incredibly reassuring words from Isaiah, as we start this new year; a reminder that the God who lives in ‘a high and holy place’ is also the God who is with those who are ‘contrite and lowly in spirit’. The one who is ‘high and lofty’ and ‘whose name is holy’ is also the one who draws near with mercy and compassion to those he has lovingly created, in all their fallenness and brokenness. Even when we ‘enrage’ God by our actions, he draws near with great love to his fallen creation. There is a reminder in these verses that we are fully known by God. He knows all our ways, and all our wilfulness, yet he remembers our fragility and chooses to come close to us with incredible, yet entirely dependable, faithfulness. ‘I have seen his ways’, says God. Nothing is hidden from him. The good, the bad, and the ugly. ‘But I will heal him’. What an incredible promise. We are fully known by God; and yet, we are fully loved by God. |
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December 2020
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