Sunday, September 28, 2008

"Teen for God" by Dar Williams

This is one of my favorite Dar Williams songs, from her album "My Better Self." The melody is relentlessly upbeat, bright and cheerful, just like the camp; but it slows down to reveal a longing in some sections not just for "the boy's skin drying in the sun," but for the purity of the original faith, the original God . . . sweetly ironic and wistfully funny. It's a wonderful song, well worth iTunesing or eMusicing.

The sun burns down
Leaving God's bright stamp
On Peach Branch Horse and Bible Camp
Where we're splashing in the water
Joined in song
Swimming with the Spirit the whole day long
I'm a teen for God

God is watching - Teen for God
God is watching - Teen for God

The girls have looks and the girls have rules
They came here from their Bible schools
They can make you pay attention
To the way you dress and eat
Make you trip over your own two feet and they
Kneel down on their towels at night
Their nightgowns glow with a Holy light
And we pray for the sinners
And their drunken car wrecks
And vow that I'll never get high
And have sex
I'm a teen for God

God is watching - Teen for God
God is watching - Teen for God

And God made every leaf on every tree
Each grain of sand
God has a plan
For what we're meant to be
I gotta wait for God

Dear Lord
I plan each day
The things I will not do or say
But I'm driven by a passion
Is it only there to tame?
It fills my heart and it calls my name and
This world that you made for us
I know, I know, is dangerous
So I ride a lot of horses
And I never even swear
Sorta like praying I'm just not there

Oh God - God is watching
Oh God - God is watching

But God made love
God made the rivers run
And cowboy boots and bathing suits
And the boy's skin dries in the sun . . .
You gotta help me, God

Help me know, four years from now
I won't believe in you anyhow
And I'll mope around the campus
And I'll feel betrayed
All those guilty summers I stayed
But then I'll laugh
That I fell for the lure
Of the pain of desire to feel so pure
And I'll bear all the burdens
Of my little daily crimes
Wish I had a God for such cynical times
Far from today

But for now I'm a sacred vessel
Rip me open - I spread your word
Like a milkweed pod
I'm a radio station -
Your Holy transmission
Even more, like a lightning rod
I'm a lightning rod - a Teen for God

God is watching - Teen for God
God is watching . . . a Teen for God

1 comment:

  1. thanks for sharing. this is an AMAZING song! dar is so very clever, have to love her thoughtful lyrics.

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