God’s Right Hand Man

It was spookily not unlike what some might call not coincidence but Godincidence.

See, I’d been inspired, in church yesterday, to begin writing a song. Inspiration often strikes me in church, when people say things that either puzzle, intrigue, offend, or appall me. An example of a typical inspirational tidbit would be “God told me to do such-and-such,” or “God made this happen,” or “I am grateful to be the hands and feet of God at my work.” This type of talk just strikes me as, well, I don’t know. Not right? Overly ambitious or knowing? Extremely dangerous? Oh, I know! Great material for a song!

Then, after church, before I’d developed the song beyond a few key phrases, M and I loaded N into her backpack and went for a little walk during which M debriefed from her reading of Jon Krakauer’s very sobering Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith about Mormon fundamentalism in which God “tells” certain people (narcissistic men, anyway) to do things (including murder) and the people around them go along with these divine edicts. (Note to self: read the book sometime.)

The resulting song is obviously one to be sung only in devout sincerity. Here it is in its stately day-old perfection: