As long as I can remember I have loved music. All kinds of music. Everything, I mean everything, except country and blues is fair game, and from time to time I think about how many song lyrics must be in my head. Recently I have been on a personal quest to assemble a top-ten list of my favorite songs of all time and one of them, “Tempted” by the band Squeeze was playing on the radio two weeks ago. I had not heard it in a while and I cranked it up, so much so the windows of my car were vibrating as I pulled into my garage and actually sat there to hear the whole thing. It is like I just wanted to absorb as much of it as possible letting the music and lyrics wash over me- there is just something about that song that makes me very happy. Later that I was thinking to myself that how could I, a self-proclaimed “spiritual” person embrace a song that ostensibly recounts a potential, or perhaps actual incident of unfaithfulness in the making? Well for starters there are always the memories that I associate with the song- the song seemed everywhere present during my freshman year of college which was a pivotal time for me. And there was story of the song’s creation that I later learned of- it was actually written in a cab by Squeeze singer and guitarist Chris Difford on the way to Heathrow Airport while he was on his way to another gig- how cool is that! And then lastly there are the actual lyrics, which in addition to being very clever really impart some wisdom to me in a way that really resonates. The words “Tempted but the truth is discovered” really just knock me out and help me see the rest of the song, and aspects of my life, in a different way. In his incredible book, “The Power of Now” Eckhart Tolle states, “I draw your attention to what is false in you…Such knowledge is vital, for unless you learn to recongize the false as false- as not you- there can be no lasting transformation, and you would always end up being drawn back into illusion and into some form of pain.” The protagonist in this song is really at a critical point in his being. And the essence of his dilemma is nicely summed up maybe in the title of another “skanky” old favorite of mine by The Clash, the song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” So on one level the sense of liberation I feel when I hear this song is not all in my head. I am also newly reminded that wrestling with the illusions in our lives is something we are all dealing with- and rather than focusing on the struggle (or despairing because we are experiencing one), the gift is the possibility of transformation waiting on the other side- and there will always be an "other side" regardless of how things play out. The lyrics of this song, like many others that make my top ten list, give us such gifts- that of insight and/or new realizations- in a much better way (in my opinion) than any sermon could. Are you at at a critical juncture of any sort in your own life? Do you have a song that really hits you like a ton of bricks on a deep level? Please share!