Faith Forged In Fire - Thoughts About Notre Dame Burning
There's so much to say, but this is what I'm going to focus on today
Sirens screamed in the French air this week as the firefighters battled the huge blaze in the Notre Dame Cathedral. The world watched, horrified, as the inferno grew, as the spire fell, and as the smoke plumes kept billowing into the French airspace.
I received a text from a friend of mine about it. At first, he wasn't very clear, so I thought the Notre Dame UNIVERSITY Cathedral was burning. One of my childhood friends goes to that university, and I had the privilege to visit it.
I quickly searched Google for information about the Notre Dame Cathedral to verify... but I was struck with the image of the two Parisian stone towers instead of the golden dome in Indiana, USA.
Tears immediately sprang to my eyes as I watched the footage. I visited Notre Dame (the Paris one) on a school trip with my high school. The rose windows were breathtaking, the songs the mass goers sung reverberated in the rafters, and the relics were awe-inspiring.
France has had a lot of interesting things happen to it in regards to the Catholic church. Our Lady of Lourdes, the Miraculous Medal, the building of Notre Dame, the French Revolution... so many horrible and beautiful things have happened in that country (and I'm only naming a few, here).
My big question is "What if the fire of Notre Dame could be a beautiful thing, too?"
In the Bible, there are many stories about how God destroys, humbles, and grounds things up in order to bring something more beautiful from the ashes. In the Book of Daniel, three men are given the hard choice of proclaiming their faith in God and dying by fire OR worshipping a false god and living a life they do not want to.
They chose to be burned alive instead of renouncing their faith. What happened is their faith was rewarded by God and an angel was sent to protect them from death. In this story, God saved them from destruction. But in other places, God uses destruction (of sorts) to bring about a bigger reward - a growth in faith, virtue, hope, charity, etc.
For example, we read the testimony of Saul being blinded (humbled) by God so he could become Paul, a man who had a true vision of Jesus. We read the story of the Jewish Temple being destroyed TWICE and being rebuilt.
There are so many examples of God letting death become a path of life instead of simple destruction. I mean, all Christians have to do is look at the death and resurrection of Christ to know that is true.
To put it simply, I think this fire was allowed by God to prune something already good to make it even better. The Notre Dame Cathedral is beautiful and has been growing in beauty for 800 or so years.
But God allowed this fire to prune the building so it can bear more fruit. God allowed this fire so the world can remember this is not just a tourist destination, it is the home of Christ and it needs to be restored.
God allowed this fire to help us understand where our hearts lie - are we horrified at the destruction of beauty? Or do we find ourselves indifferent, uncaring, unsympathetic to a house of God burning? (Click on that link, cuz it's important to discuss why beautiful churches should be restored after a fire like this, no matter the cost)
Let our faith be forged in fire, strengthened in the heat of adversity, and stronger for the next time. God, help us restore Your beautiful house of worship in the way You want it done. Guide people to donate only what they are called to by the Holy Spirit, whether it is in prayer, time, money, or fasting. Make beauty, God, from these ashes. We know You have done it before, and You are eager to do it again.
Amen.
The 1975 Uses Political Language And Societal Commentary To Draw Inspiration For Their Songs
Some of the lines are: "Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men/Start with misdemeanors and we'll make a business out of them."
When you first hear the words, "The 1975," you probably don't think of band, a year, definitely, but not a band. Well, prepare yourself, because you are about to be introduced to the best band of all time. I am a huge fan of the band, The 1975, and I am here to tell you why you should listen to them too.
The British-band consists of Matthew (Matty) Healy (vocals, guitar), George Daniel (drums), Adam Hann (guitar) and Ross MacDonald (Bass). So far, they've released two albums, the first one was self-titled, "The 1975." But the second one was a bit more lengthy with "I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it." But now, they have a third album coming out on November 30 called, "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships," and I've never been more excited. To make things even better, they're planning on releasing a fourth album in May called "Notes on a Conditional Form."
Trying to describe the sound of The 1975 is a little hard because they're a little bit of everything. They're techno, pop, indie rock, rock, alternative, indie pop, electropop, and the list goes on (but that's the whole point.) They're the type of band that you can't really categorize because they don't want to be categorized and they shouldn't be. While some of their songs are similar, they're also dramatically different. One song has a gospel choir in the background and another song mostly consists of relaxing sounds and minimal vocals. A few songs have insane guitar riffs, another is a ballad and one only has an acoustic guitar.
4 out of the 15 songs on their upcoming album have been released as singles in the following order: "Give Yourself a Try," Love It If We Made It," "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime," and "Sincerity Is Scary." Of these songs, "Love It If We Made It" and "Sincerity Is Scary" are my favorites. I love the political commentary in "Love It If We Made It," which I will get into later, and "Sincerity Is Scary" is one of those songs that you can sit down and listen to relax.
Two of the best things about The 1975 is their lyrics and the topics that they address. There are a lot of amazing songwriters out there, but I have to say, The 1975 is pretty hard to beat. Take their single "Love It If We Made it" for example. It's an extremely political and topical song and its lyrics are pretty in-your-face. Some of the lines are: "Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men/Start with misdemeanors and we'll make a business out of them."
Just these two lines are already full of political commentary.
Selling melanin could be a reference to the slave trade as African Americans have a lot of melanin in their skin, which gives them their skin tone, and suffocate the black men is a direct reference to Eric Garner, a black man who was suffocated while he was in a choke hold sustained by a police officer. The part about misdemeanors relates to the prison system in the United States and how a large percentage of inmates are African American who are in prison just for misdemeanors.
The band loves to comment on society, more specifically American society, and there's a handful of songs that are about drugs and/or addiction, something that the lead singer Matty lives with.
Something to note about each album they have is that there's always a song titled "The 1975." The songs have the same lyrics, but different styles. It's meant to give a little taste of what the album will sound like and highlight the differences between this album and the one before/after it. For example, the "the 1975" song in "i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it" includes some gospel singers in the background, more sounds that you can imagine might be found on an alien spaceship and crescendos to the end of the song, while in the first album, the song is more subdued and ends with a decrescendo.
The 1975 also has an interesting way of mixing sound. They'll overlay robotic sounds with a guitar riff or a prominent drum beat. In the song "Sincerity is Scary," they bring back the saxophone sound that was heard in the song "If I believe you" and instead of meshing it with a light doo-wop beat, they combine it with a piano and a soft drum. They'll always find a way to make two very different instruments work together in harmony.
A lot of people may not be into the sound that The 1975 has, specifically older generations as they might think it's annoying, but my mom really likes their music, so how bad can they be? If you're into a mix of songs and if you're always down for a groovy beat, I'd definitely recommend giving them a try.