A Prayer for Passenger
I have been struck recently by the lyrics of Passenger’s “All the Little Lights” which at the risk of copyright infringement (I’m never really sure how that works) I reproduce below:
One went out at a bus stop in Edinburgh
One went out in an english park
One went out in a nightclub when I was fifteen
Little lights in my heart
One went out when I lied to my mother
Said the cigarettes she found were not mine
One went out within me now I smoke like a chimney
Its getting dark in this heart of mine
Its getting dark in this heart of mine
We’re born with millions of little lights shining in the dark
And they show us the way
One lights up
Every time you feel love in your heart
One dies when it moves away
One went out in the backstreets of Manchester
One went out in an airport in Spain
One went out I’ve no doubt when I grew up and moved out
Of the place where the boy used to play
One went out when uncle ben got his tumour
We used to fish and I fish no more
Though he will not return
I know one still burns
On a fishing boat off the new jersey shore
On a fishing boat off the new jersey shore
We’re born with millions of little lights shining in the dark
And they show us the way
One lights up
Every time we feel love in our hearts
One dies when it moves away
We’re born with millions of little lights shiny in our hearts
And they die along the way
Till we’re old and we’re cold
And lying in the dark
Cos they’ll all burn out one day
They’ll all burn out one day
They’ll all burn out one day
They’ll all burn out one day
It is a song all at once of extreme beauty, wonderful brilliance, hope, and ultimate sorrow and despair. It cries to me quite frankly of the need we all have for Jesus; need yes, but more than that, desire – desparate longing.
“One went out at a bus stop in Edinburgh,” Passenger (is that a name?) begins. I have no idea what happened in Edinburgh, and yet, at the same time I know exactly what happened; we all do. We all have bus stops. We all have Edinburghs. Passenger (can I just call him George?) doesn’t have to tell me what happened to him because I know what has happened to me. I have pain, I have sorrows, I have seen little lights go out in my life. And there is the genius of the song. It is ours. All of ours, every human being who has ever, lost, sorrowed, feared, or stubbed their toe can relate and personalize these beautifully simplistic lyrics.
“One went out when Uncle Ben got his tumour.” And there it is. Detail. Pain so acute that it has to be named. This line could not simply be, “One went out in New Jersey,” because it hurts too much. Passenger needs us to know, he needs YOU to know that his uncle Ben – whom he loved - who took him fishing, got cancer and died. Excruciating pain and death in a world that is supposed to be beautiful. Feel that pain, share it with Passenger, he needs you to. He can’t go on alone. None of us can, and so once again this beautiful ballad is for all of us.
But then notice the hope; “Though he will not return, I know one still burns on a fishing boat off the New Jersey shore.” Uncle Ben is gone. He’s dead, dead as Jacob Marley and we all know that dead and gone people stay dead and gone. That’s it, we get one ride on the merry-go-round and when the music stops we get off, we don’t come back…or do we? “One still burns on a fishing boat off the New Jersey shore.” Maybe there’s something after cancer, after pain, after death. That’s hope. Wonderful, beautiful, grab-it-by-the-horns-and-don’t-let-go hope. And yet it is a hope that is incompatible with a worldview that doesn’t include Jesus. It’s incompatible with the worldview in which Passenger sings his song.
“They’ll all burn out one day.” Did you hear that? “They’ll all burn out one day.” As the music fades and Passenger’s eloquent voice gives way to ssorrow and loss the song ends, “They’ll all burn out one day.” Darkness. Crushing despair. What about the one still burning on a fishing boat off of New Jersey? burnt out apparently. All means all…or does it?
“I am the light of the world,” Jesus said. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Jesus is a light, and more than that, he is a light that does not go out. A light that doesn’t get extinguished, death tried that, it didn’t work. And Jesus gives us the possibility of hope, the possibility that little lights in our souls will not be extinguished. I like that. It give me hope that I might get to meet Uncle Ben one day, see Grandpa Charles again, and relive the spot under the tree in Louisiana (you know, you have a tree.) This is a hope that I do have in Jesus and a hope I hear Passenger desperately crying out for as he sings. My prayer as I write this is that someday Passenger might re-write his song. Not all of it, just the last line. What would it say? Something about hope. “Hope (that) does not dissapoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts throught the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
All sentiments expressed above other than the song lyrics are mine and not Passenger’s…or are they?