Weekly Song Quote

This week's song quote -- and should I ever skip a week on the Bill Mallonee/VOL gems I've no doubt The Realm of Possibility would collapse from within -- is:

And I had a hand, my friend
in ushering darkness in,
Now, I wish that even more
I could show it to the door

Father, why do I feel like a casualty?
Father, why do I fell like a casualty?

-- from Casualty, Vigilantes of Love Driving the Nails CD

Lyrically, this song is just so, so good -- I probably should just quote the whole tune and leave it alone as food for thought. It's way back from 1991 when VOL was just starting, so the production quality isn't as good as some of the newer stuff when they had, in relative terms, made a name for themselves. Still, in my opinion, raw sound many times trumps the over-produced music, and this album is hard to beat.

In the noted verse, Bill laments his own, and this is true for every single one of us (personally, I'll exclude babies and small children), responsibility for allowing sin to find its way into our lives, whether it creeps in or whether its more like an avalanche. While we make the choice to let it in for whatever reason, whatever benefit we originally derived uses itself up pretty quickly. At some point, we want it and all of its effects upon us out. But it ain't that easy. We can ignore it, try to change our stripes, fight it, deal with it slowly yet none of that can ever dispel it. God's Word pretty much is point blank in telling us we are dead in our sins. Hence, the feeling of being shellshocked, a casualty of life. No small thing, this darkness. It took Christ on a cross, the ultimate cost, to deal with that sin and death. And as horrid as that was, it's the best of news. The Good News. The Gospel.

Bill Mallonee