Dropsy
Song Three from The Calling of a Priest
Dropsy. (Luke 14:1-4). I had been sitting in this passage for a few days already. I had looked up what sort of illness Dropsy was - apparently it was a general term that referred to a condition of retaining water or fluid that could have any number of causes. And I kept thinking of that guy sitting there at the feast with Dropsy - retaining water - bloated maybe. Certainly uncomfortable. I think I would have stayed home. But he was there. And he was healed. And I was intrigued by this man, with Dropsy, versus the Pharisees, who did not get healed, who as best as we can tell did not receive anything from Jesus that day, and the idea that his personal physical condition might be here in this passage as a physical picture of their spiritual problem. His body was retaining water - water is good in itself, fluid is good in itself, but not when it gets backed up, when it's not doing its job of flushing and flowing through, and as a result collecting and bringing …discomfort at best. And I felt like it was a good picture of the Pharisees' condition - taking in what was good but restricting it, keeping it for themselves, not letting it flow out, neither cleansing them or letting it flow out to refresh others. And maybe it's about idolatry of the self because further on Jesus refers to them looking for the places of honor for themselves. Rather than the honor of God and the well-being of others. (For my song about that see Take the Lowest Place). And I also thought about how they COULD have been healed that day of their “spiritual dropsy” - because the healer was there. So I wrote this song, Dropsy, in response to that, and I included in in this album because in our calling journey if we miss this then we will get a form of spiritual Dropsy, like the Pharisees. The good things that Jesus give us are for us - but not for only us, not for us to hang onto. In this calling journey we must learn to receive God's love and His life and let it flow through us to others, dying to ourselves, like He did, and in that finding life for ourselves and those around us.
**Trivia I wrote Dropsy 25-26 August 2007, and I wrote Take the Lowest Place a few days later, 30 August, 2007.
Dropsy Lyrics
If you only love yourself
then the love you have can't get out
fills you up til you're full
in a way you should never be
And the pain of a body filled so full
of what's trying to get out, so hard it'll burst
and the pieces rain down
too late to fill any need
yeah the pieces rain down
too late to feel any need.
What wants to get out cannot be contained
we fence it in, try to arrange
for our own good supply
never mind that still water grows stale
And the thing that was once so good for us
we've tried to own and it turns on us
and what once was life now death
and the source of our pain
what once was life - now death
and the source of our pain
Only one willing to die
finds once again the way to life
water must flow
seeds fall into the ground to grow
Yeah only one willing to die
finds in the end the way to life
and becomes a way
a path, for love to flow
and becomes a way,
a path, for love to flow.
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