Wishing Well

[danee940]

In the song ''Wishing Well'' there is a part that goes like this :

"From ashes a vision, Angel of Mercy arise
With no action it withers up and dies"

It sounds ''cool'' and all but what does it actually mean?

 

[SeaStorm]

Hey danee, welcome to the message board! I'll give you my take first, but below that I have posted Matt's comments from an interview about the lyrics. I think you have to see the flow of the whole song to see how that line fits in.

Verse 1 & chorus: you see others suffering and walk past, but you "wish them well" (which is worthless to them)
Verse 2: you finally open your heart to what the Gospel calls you to do with suffering (help them)
Verses 3: you are close to moving to action; obstacles noted (here's your line)
Verse 4: you finally move to action

So my reading of that particular line is that you are finally seeing what needs to be done and are at least looking upon suffering people sympathetically, but if you don't follow it up with actual actions by helping them, then it "withers up and dies". In the next verse where you've moved to action, they follow it up with "From vision to action, there's a new story to tell when living beyond the wishing well"

Most of Theocracy's songs are pretty lyrically straightforward. This one is cryptic and it took me a long time to appreciate it. Once I finally understood the lyrics, this became one of my top 3 Theocracy songs. Utterly amazingly explanation of Matthew 25:40 ("unto the least of these as unto me") in song!

http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/interviews/Theocracy2016.asp

Q: "Is there a story behind Wishing Well?"

Matt: "Yeah, Wishing Well was a… so we've done with Ulterium, we've done two charity songs under this banner called Project Aegis. And it's basically songs that I wrote that we recruited different singers and different instrumentalists, and we released a song and sold it with all proceeds going to… well the first one, I don't know if you know Pastor Bob Beeman and his Sanctuary Outreach in Nashville, yeah, so the first one went to them, and the second one was for homeless and refugee families in Greece, which is where Emil from Ulterium lives. And "Wishing Well" was originally a song that I wrote for that. I wrote it at the same time as one of the other songs, and I was like, "I think I like this, I think I'll hold onto it for Theocracy."

So, I started thinking about words versus actions, and I that this… you know the line "a penny for the wishing well", I was thinking about it in terms of wishing someone well, and how that's not even worth a penny. Like, it's worth nothing, basically, if you just wish someone well, and go on with your life when you run into people in need. And this is all…everything I write is speaking to me personally, and it starts with me feeling guilty or convicted about not doing enough to help. In this case, it was probably specifically homelessness, because that was what we were dealing with on that first charity song when I wrote it. So I was thinking about that and how often am I guilty of running into people and wishing them well and going on instead of actually doing anything within my power to actually make a difference. So I was thinking about that and that cool play on words that that was, and that song basically developed from there."

 

[danee940]

Well, thanks for the well-thought answer! This song is a little bit harder to ''swallow'' indeed but I'm starting to get it. Thanks again!

 

[danee940]

Instead of making a new thread I'm gonna post here. I would like to hear some of your opinions on this one.. In several interviews Matt has sad that he listens to bands like Metallica, Megadeth (Lets just leave aside that Dave Mustaine says that he is a christian), Dream Theater and so on.. I'm wondering what kind of effect does these bands have on a christians life? Leaving all the stereotypia of metal music behind I still think that some of these bands have ''dark'' lyrics.. Before I became a christian I listened to most of this bands (and other bands like Avatar, Leprous, Avenged Sevenfold and so on) but I stopped listening to them after that (I just knew i had to, different story..). It seems hard to me to understand how can some of these music be compatible with christianity.. This might be a controversial topic so that's why I would like to hear what other poeple think about this..

The lyrics of their songs seem pretty okay and biblical but I also care about the band members personal life and how seriously do they take God. I find it hard to beleive that tha a non christian (in general, not Matt) can sing (with faith in what he sings, from his heart and through the Spirit) such songs..

I think that music has a big influential power on a persons life and when we don't take care of what we are listening to we can be distracted really easily (and even the slightest mistake can lead to disaster after time). I don't have any problem with the instrumental part of these bands, I still like the metal genre even though I'm a christian I just care about the lyrics because I know that we are supposed to be cautious about what we listen to (that's just my opinion)

I'm not trying to judge anyone, I'm not trying to prove that Matt or anybody else is not a christian, I might even be paranoid about this but I think this is an important question (at least for me), and I'm curious if someone else thinks or thought the same as me and what they've found out.( I can elaborate my opinion if something isn't clear and I thank in advance for all the replyes..) (I'm also sorry if this post is not suitable for this forum)

 

[SeaStorm]

Variations of this topic have been discussed here many times, so it is definitely suitable (I'm the moderator of the forum, BTW). I'll come back later to post my thoughts, but you may want to check out the 2005 thread 'Christian vs. Secular music?' with extensive comments from Matt in posts 6, 9, 17 and 20: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/christian-vs-secular-music.202310/

Now that's 12 years ago, so his thoughts may have changed, but it will give you some insight on his approach to it.

Reading my own thoughts from back then makes me realize that my opinions on the matter have shifted over the intervening years!

 

[rssllue]

Variations of this topic have been discussed here many times, so it is definitely suitable (I'm the moderator of the forum, BTW). I'll come back later to post my thoughts, but you may want to check out the 2005 thread 'Christian vs. Secular music?' with extensive comments from Matt in posts 6, 9, 17 and 20: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/christian-vs-secular-music.202310/

Now that's 12 years ago, so his thoughts may have changed, but it will give you some insight on his approach to it.

Reading my own thoughts from back then makes me realize that my opinions on the matter have shifted over the intervening years!

So how exactly have your opinions changed about this? It would be interesting to hear.

 

[danee940]

I checked out the topic you mentioned and, well.. Seems like people can't really get to a final verdict.. I would also really like to hear how your opinion changed through the years as you have a lot more experience than me.. I couldn't thank you enough!
Also, I see that the horn sign (or whatever it's named) is fairly used around here.. If i reckon correctly isn't it representing the Devils horns? Again, I don't want to judge but it seems weird to me, at least for a christian to use such signs.. I hope that I'm not too aggresive with these questions or anything and I apologise if I'm wrong but what's the theory of 'using' it?

 

[Aish!]

Seems like people can't really get to a final verdict...

It seems to me that the consensus says it's between you and God.

As a teenager I practically worshipped popular music, so when I became a Christian I felt convicted to get rid of my entire music collection, and I only listened to Christian music for a long time. Gradually I began to feel more comfortable listening to non-Christian music, but never anything overtly blasphemous or Satanic.

Also, I see that the horn sign (or whatever it's named) is fairly used around here.. If i reckon correctly isn't it representing the Devils horns? Again, I don't want to judge but it seems weird to me, at least for a christian to use such signs..

This is a good point. I've long wondered why so many people on the forum of a Christian band would use devil's horns so frequently.

 

[SeaStorm]

Mainly because they're not devil's horns anymore (if they ever were; there is some debate on that and the originator said they were not). But if someone is uncomfortable doing it, I certainly would not encourage it.

We had a long discussion on this topic at http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/your-thoughts-on-the-horn-sign-with-your-hands.852121/

I'll repost my comments from back then:

IMO, signs are about intent. While it might have been a satanic sign to some people back in the day, it now means "rock on" or "we're in the same metal brotherhood" for 99% of the metal fans who do it.

I felt uneasy about it (and didn't do it) for many years. Now I enjoy it for what it means to virtually everyone in the metal scene.

 

[SeaStorm]

As as further illustration how far the sign has come from that early, debatable meaning, a female co-worker (NOT into metal) just IM'ed me the emoticon for it because she liked an answer I gave her. To use the emoticon in our company messanging program, you type (ROCKON).