Photo By: Nicholas_T (Creative Commons)
If you’ve read a few of my posts you are probably well aware of my love of music – head rock in particular. So, it might surprise you to know that my all time favorite artist/band is Huey Lewis and the News. I have loved these guys since the first time I heard “The Heart of Rock and Roll.”
It is not too much of a stretch to say that I was a changed person, musically speaking, after absorbing the SPORTS album. It was not long until I had gone out and gotten their other two albums and similarly absorbed them as well.
For me, there just was no better band – that still may be the case.
But this post is not about Huey Lewis or the News. It is not a retrospective on their years of great music and contributions to the art of music videos. I am, however, going to talk about one song that I feel is not only appropriate for what is going on around our country, socially as well as politically, but also how it relates to how we see and follow God.
On their fourth LP, FORE, the band released some of their most popular and successful songs. One that did not receive many accolades is actually one of my favorite HL&TN songs. “Forest for the Trees.”
The title itself references a cliché that many people know but is widely misunderstood. In the song, Huey sings,
“And when you get angry
And everything’s black or white
You know that it ain’t that simple
No one’s always right
You know that you’re life
Is worth living
You gotta start taking
If no one else is giving”
“Forest For The Trees” From The Huey Lewis website –written by: Fletcher/B. Gibson/H. Lewis/Loggins)
Since this is not really a social issues site I am going to let you decide how this relates to things happening around the world and especially here in the United States and instead focus on the aspect of how this speaks to our relationship with Jesus and how we follow God.
Seeing the forest for the trees simply means looking beyond the surface of something for what lies deeper. The meaning, the soul, the essence of a person a song or a book – you name it. It is about not judging a book by its cover.
Seems simple right?
Often we look at our lives and miss the forest for the trees. We fail to see the deep meaning of the relationships we have, the impact we’ve had on that guy or family at church or work.
We get so caught up in being something or that we’re not something – at least not what we think we should be that, as Huey sang, “It’s really hard to see, the forest for the trees”
Sometimes the path God wants us to take is the path we’ve been on but have not paid attention to, rather, we’ve been looking ahead to something that may not be ours to have or backwards at something that God’s long forgotten.
Either way we could be missing an opportunity God has for us and if we’re not paying attention we well could miss it.
Mick Holt 