How Does It Feel?

In 1965, Bob Dylan penned a song that, to this day, is considered one of the greatest rock songs ever written. Instead of the happiness that seems to permeate the music most relate to the sixties sound, its words are angry and sarcastic. Dylan jeers at Miss Lonely's fall from her ivory tower, asking repeatedly "how does it feel?"

I love music. When I have to do something that I do not particularly want to do, such as clean the house, I tend to turn on (and turn up) the music. Our cable provider has a channel that plays a mix of 60s music, and I felt like that would be a good fit tonight. Suddenly I hear a familiar intro and the in- your-face, unmistakable voice of Bob Dylan asking "How Does It Feel?"

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be without a home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

 

 

The harmonica, the guitar, the organ: none of these can disguise the power in these simple words.

 

Do you ever feel like this? I can't say that I do quite as much as I used to, but there have been days when I have felt EXACTLY like this! I have had days (weeks, even) when I just wondered why on earth I was even here. There have been dark times. Times when I wondered if it was worth getting out of bed in the morning ... what was the purpose? There have been days in the past when I felt as if I had no home ... even though I have never, and I do mean truly NEVER, been without a home in my life. I had so much to be thankful for, why was I acting so sullen and silly? I had family, friends, and did not want for much of anything. Even in the leanest of times, I never had to go without.

 

Tonight, this song made me think about something that the past few years has been teaching me: without Jesus as a focus in my life, I am without a home. Oh sure, I have a roof over my head and a bed to lie in every night. I have a vehicle to drive, I earned an education, and I have a job. Factually speaking, the only one of these that I have ever been without is a job, and that was by choice.

 

Further on in the song, Dylan asks Miss Lonely

 

Ain't it hard when you discover that

He really wasn't where it's at

After he took from you everything he could steal

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction home

 

What better description of the pathway of your life when you realize that Satan gives you nothing, only takes? Without Jesus, you are on your own. He is the direction home, to heaven. Jesus is everywhere ... even in the lyrics of a classic Bob Dylan song.

 

Jesus, thank you for opening my ears to hear what you were speaking to me tonight. Please help me to listen always, and to never underestimate your ability to make yourself known. Help me be the words that someone hears to bring them closer to you.

 

"So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale."~Daniel 10:8 NIV