You ever feel like Mephibosheth? (Carbon Ribs)

Not really sure where to start, so this may not be a tidy post.  Please indulge my ramblings today.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to know the lyrics to the songs I was hearing.  For me, it’s not enough to just enjoy the music and the beat.  No, I want to ponder the poetry within the beat.  (I have more respect for myself singing in the shower when I know I’m not screwing up the words.)

Lately I’ve been hearing this song “Pumped Up Kicks” play over the salon radio.  It’s pretty catchy and even has a whistle-along.  Unfortunately once I checked out the lyrics, I discovered that I will most definitely not be performing this number in the shower as its content horrifies my sensitive, square piece personality.  (Seems like the first verse is about a school shooting and the second is about a parental homicide with the chorus chiming, “You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet…”)

But you know what song I’ve been pinging around my brain lately?  It’s called “Carbon Ribs” by John Mark McMillan.  The beauty of its lyrical content is that in its dreamy, peaceful melody, it carefully and tenderly carries a lesson from the past, the struggles of the present and the hope of the future.

To fully appreciate this song you’ll need a Sunday School refresher.  Remember King David?  Remember his BFF, Jonathan?  Remember how Jonathan was slain in battle, but left behind a son named Mephibosheth?  When little Mephibosheth was five years old, his nurse fled with him in haste upon hearing the news that Jonathan fell by the sword.  In all the fleeing and all the haste, the little boy fell and became lame in his feet.  Later on, King David wanted to show kindness to the house of Saul for Jonathan’s sake and was told of the crippled Mephibpsheth.  In spite of his lame condition (a condition for which – I am sure – he would have lived a very beggared life), King David richly lavished him with honor and glory for the rest of his days.  It’s so touching.  (You should throw out my condensed version and read 2 Samuel 4:4, 2 Samuel 9.)

It’s easy to feel like Mephibosheth sometimes.  There have been seasons in my life when all hope of redemption has felt distant to nonexistent… when the energy needed to muster in hopes of turning things around has long since been drained from my bones… you know, pretty hopeless… But then I remember… life IS hopeless if I’m hoping in myself.  Yet there is One who invites me to Himself and neverminds that I’ve been an emotional cripple… One who can handle all my hope and hopelessness…

Relevant magazine has a video of John Mark McMillan playing this song (and all their video podcasts are free through iTunes).  Check out the video while enjoying the lyrics:

Carbon Ribs

A thousand pairs of fiery eyes

Burn like a serpent down the Highway 5

As the long amber tail to Los Angeles unwinds

I’ve got this resurrection down inside my skin

But for all my revelating

I just can’t make sense

Of this gravity we’re in

Cause I’m a dead man now

With a ghost who lives

Within the confines of

These carbon ribs

And one day when I’m free

I will sit

The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side
The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side

A thousand miles of pain I’m sure

Led you to the threshold

Of my heart’s screen door

To tell me what it is I’m dying for

Gravity comes

Like a cold, cold rain

To lead me to the rope again

But Someone is standing in my place

Cause I’m a dead man now

With a ghost who lives

Within the confines of

These carbon ribs

And one day when I’m free

I will sit

The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side
The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side

And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you