Film Friday After the success of his album The River, Bruce Springsteen’s record company want another record full of hits. But Bruce is washed out and lost. He takes time out, escapes to a quiet place and slowly starts to write very different, introspective songs. Just him and his guitar. He is full of memories about his difficult childhood, and begins to express the depressed feelings through his music. And consequently the album he produces, Nebraska, is not full of banging hits.
Many people in the Bible suffer pain, struggle and disappointment. The psalms are full of songs from folk who are lonely, despairing, and longing for better things. In the book of Ruth, Naomi, having lost her sons and husband, told everyone to call her Mara, Bitter. She was so broken she defined herself by her pain. The gift God gave her was Ruth, her daughter in law who refused to abandon her. And slowly, little by little, that friendship resurrected hope in Naomi.
There is a statue of Jesus under the Mediterranean sea. It’s covered in seaweed and barnacles, and it’s a great reminder that Jesus is with us in the depths. There is nowhere too distant, dubious or dark for him. He is there and the places of woe as well as the places of wonder. And Jesus himself experienced the depths too. ‘My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death,’ he told his friends in Mark 14 v 34. And he asked them to pray for him. May you know that he is right there with you, however you are today.
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