August 13, 2024
Another school year. One hopes a little older and wiser, but always filled with hope and angst for what awaits.
I hope I haven’t quit learning, but I think my own “new school year” days are over. I had quite a few, and experienced quite a few more up close as parent, grandparent, professor. I’ve blessed hundreds of backpacks, filled Lutheran World Relief backpacks, and carried my own. I love every ‘first day of school’ picture you share. I see you, and I pray for those who go (and those who send!) and those who gather to teach. And for those like me, who are wistful for those days again.
This year the new school year sent me searching my playlist. Some of you are surprised I know what that is, right?! But I do, and I have the ear pods to go with it.
Don’t fight me on this: The United States best poet/prophet is Bob Dylan. Especially when his voice was younger, and the words rang clearer. He’s better than even my contemporary Hoosier John Mellancamp, and that’s saying something. Or Maya Angelou, who I adore. I’d love to hear young Amanda Gorman make the song below her own.
Dylan wrote this song in 1973 to his eldest son Jesse, born in 1966, called “Forever Young.” His ardent, at times even angry, social criticism gives way to parental aspiration and prayer. Lots of artists covered it, often speeding up the tempo, but his version is primo. No surprise that he sang it with Springsteen at his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Bob Seeger covered it unforgettably in 2012 with the Amnesty International Children’s choir. Each year, for reasons likely too obvious, it takes on a bit more meaning for me, and pulls me deeper into prayer for those going to school, and those of us who wish we are.
I invite you to pray along with me and Bob Dylan for a few moments. Okay, five. You can find the Springsteen and Seeger songs online on your own, but this link is Dylan’s original. It’s a poem, a song, and a prayer we can all share.
I’m praying with you and for you, as the writer of Ephesians suggests “making melody to the Lord in our hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything …” (5:19-20)
Pastor Jim
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
Praying with you and for you,
Pastor Jim
P.S. Please bring us your clean, gently used, still-in-working-order items for our Closet Cause Rummage Sale. Items will be accepted until Thursday (Aug 16) at 4 PM,There is also still time to help with the preparations. We particularly need: bake sale items for Sale days, Aug 16-17; help on sale days, especially on Saturday, Aug 17, from 9 AM to 1PM; and help with clean-up on Saturday, Aug 17 at noon. |
