- Oct 28, 2006
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When I was a child, one of my all-time favorite songs (just after "Carry on Wayward Son") was “Dust in the Wind,” by Kerry Livgren, a songwriter who has been one of the main members of the classic rock band, KANSAS. As often as I could, I remember wanting to tune in when this song was played on the radio.
As a young kid, too, I wasn't really living or thinking within the realm of the Christian faith, and with all of the family problems I had to contend with during that time, this single song, "Dust in the Wind" often seemed to resonate to my core, helping me to put words to my feelings, dysfunctions and disappointments. And rightly so, perhaps, since Livgren himself wasn't a Christian either in the 1970s, and the themes in his songs reflected his own spiritual searching and musings. So, it's probably no wonder that as I listened, I sensed a kindred soul.
Here's the music video of Kerry's song that I came to love so very, very much as a child and as a young teenager, one that has had quite a following as a fan favorite over the years and, I'm sure, with the onset of the Covid-19 virus, is one that many people can “feel existentially” today:
>>>> Speed forward into the mid-1980s. I was becoming a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Family life, however, had gone from sad to downright despairing as I, like many people have done, made way through social isolation and loneliness in life at the age of 17. Then, something strange happened in my life that gave me hope. I decided to read the New Testament, a decision I made out of the blue, spontaneously simply due to the stresses and worries of life. When I did so, I found therein the beauty of the person of Jesus Christ, a revelation that served to offer me a kind of 'life-preserver' by which I could re-anchor my soul against the various storms I had yet to face.
During that same year in which I became firmly acquainted with the person of Jesus Christ, I found out too---much to my surprise (or shock)---that Kerry Livgren, had become a Christian a well, just previous to me by several years [in the very late 1970s to early 1980s]. During that time, he had moved on to other musical writing beyond that of KANSAS, in a group he formed named, A.D.
Needless to say, the revelation that Kerry Livgren had also found Christ, with his music reflecting a change in his own mind and heart that was similar in nature to the one I was encountering gave me a further profound blessing by which to be encouraged, one among several in my life. In fact, it is one I've always known to have provided some of the formative contours which still circle and permeate my own faith in Christ today.
Reflecting back upon those years in the 1980s, I'd say that my favorite album from A.D. is Art of the State (1985), but the follow up album to that one contains a song entitled, “No Standing,” and that song captures the 'new feelings' about life and existence that were being steadily injected into my life of social isolation, providing me with a 'new outlook on life' through Christ. So, in commemoration of that existential reorientation I received, I add this additional song/video from Kerry Livgren, of which he has said,
With that thought, I thank you, Kerry, for adding your insight through the music the Lord has endowed you to write over the years. I think it has something for us to contemplate even today as we face our human mortality, telling us that beyond this short time on earth we all have, we can have hope in Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, for what you've said to me--and helped me to feel--through my brother, Kerry Livgren!
[Easter - 2020]
As a young kid, too, I wasn't really living or thinking within the realm of the Christian faith, and with all of the family problems I had to contend with during that time, this single song, "Dust in the Wind" often seemed to resonate to my core, helping me to put words to my feelings, dysfunctions and disappointments. And rightly so, perhaps, since Livgren himself wasn't a Christian either in the 1970s, and the themes in his songs reflected his own spiritual searching and musings. So, it's probably no wonder that as I listened, I sensed a kindred soul.
Here's the music video of Kerry's song that I came to love so very, very much as a child and as a young teenager, one that has had quite a following as a fan favorite over the years and, I'm sure, with the onset of the Covid-19 virus, is one that many people can “feel existentially” today:
>>>> Speed forward into the mid-1980s. I was becoming a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Family life, however, had gone from sad to downright despairing as I, like many people have done, made way through social isolation and loneliness in life at the age of 17. Then, something strange happened in my life that gave me hope. I decided to read the New Testament, a decision I made out of the blue, spontaneously simply due to the stresses and worries of life. When I did so, I found therein the beauty of the person of Jesus Christ, a revelation that served to offer me a kind of 'life-preserver' by which I could re-anchor my soul against the various storms I had yet to face.
During that same year in which I became firmly acquainted with the person of Jesus Christ, I found out too---much to my surprise (or shock)---that Kerry Livgren, had become a Christian a well, just previous to me by several years [in the very late 1970s to early 1980s]. During that time, he had moved on to other musical writing beyond that of KANSAS, in a group he formed named, A.D.
Needless to say, the revelation that Kerry Livgren had also found Christ, with his music reflecting a change in his own mind and heart that was similar in nature to the one I was encountering gave me a further profound blessing by which to be encouraged, one among several in my life. In fact, it is one I've always known to have provided some of the formative contours which still circle and permeate my own faith in Christ today.
Reflecting back upon those years in the 1980s, I'd say that my favorite album from A.D. is Art of the State (1985), but the follow up album to that one contains a song entitled, “No Standing,” and that song captures the 'new feelings' about life and existence that were being steadily injected into my life of social isolation, providing me with a 'new outlook on life' through Christ. So, in commemoration of that existential reorientation I received, I add this additional song/video from Kerry Livgren, of which he has said,
I've always considered this song to be the antithesis of Dust In The Wind. Basically it deals with the same subject matter, but this time seen through eyes of hope instead of despair.
With that thought, I thank you, Kerry, for adding your insight through the music the Lord has endowed you to write over the years. I think it has something for us to contemplate even today as we face our human mortality, telling us that beyond this short time on earth we all have, we can have hope in Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, for what you've said to me--and helped me to feel--through my brother, Kerry Livgren!
[Easter - 2020]
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