"The Living Years" is a ballad written by Mike Rutherford and B. A. Robertson, and recorded by Rutherford's band Mike + The Mechanics. It was released in December 1988 in the UK as the second single from their album, Living Years. The song was a chart hit around the world, No.2 in the UK. The song addresses a son's regret over unresolved conflict with his now-deceased father. It won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1989, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1990. In 1996, famed composer Burt Bacharach opined: "'The Living Years' is one of the finest lyrics of the last 10 years."
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defense
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts
So don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different date
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be O.K.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
I wasn't there that morning
When my Father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say
I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
This song "Living Years" is about mourning the death of a loved one and being comforted in the midst of that grief and sadness. It's a song of regret and at the same time a song of deep discovery. "Living Years" is also a story of listening and appreciating what is right there in front of you before it is too late. When we are young we are protected from mourning. I know I was when I was young. It was not until later years that I began to experience mourning in a real way. Mourning is a part of life and one of the reasons that we are sometimes protected from mourning is that it is often associated with death. Death is still one of those subjects that is fairly taboo in our society. Jesus offers these words of help to us this morning.
There are two avenues of mourning that I would like to highlight this morning in this second of the beatitudes devotional from Matthew 5. One avenue is about a natural morning that occurs when we face the loss of a loved one the second is a spiritual mourning when we face our loss of God and of his image in our lives. There are other avenues of mourning than these two that could be highlighted but using them would be an essay or an article and not a devotion. I am at least aware of other thoughts that I could have included.
The first avenue of mourning is that death in our lives can bring us onto a place of real loss and sadness. The death of a loved one, a close friend, a brother or sister, a mother or indeed as in the song a father. We are faced with a life without them and that produces sadness and mourning. That sadness may be tinged with regrets and plans that have and never will be realised. We may wonder if we ever will get over a loss like we are facing. The truth is that we probably never will. We build our lives around and adjust our lives, the pain of parting may never leave us, we just find ways of coping.
The second avenue of mourning is when we realise the poverty of the human spirit (Our own heart) can bring us into mourning. This can happen when we realise that before God we have nothing and in that realisation we discover that there is no-way to reverse the condition of our hearts or the destiny to which we are heading. This can bring mourning to our lives because we are telling ourselves that there is no way out. This is a mourning of our spiritual condition. We may feel trapped in this place with no way out because we are confronted with the knowledge that we are made in the image of God, in the likeness of God and we were designed to live with God but we have ended up so far from God, like the prodigal son we mourn the distance from where we are to where we could be, and at the same time we mourn our state and condition.
It is into these areas that Jesus says "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted" It's into these places that Jesus offers all who mourn a way of dealing with the loss of loved ones and distance from God. Jesus is offering comfort from God and from a relationship with him. This is plain and simple this is the God of all comfort offering us through Jesus a peace and comfort that is from him. We see that comfort personified in the life of Jesus in the gospels, It's there before us - Jesus says "They will be comforted" it's a promise that comes to us through him the Alpha and Omega of peace and comfort. May you today know comfort as you mourn. Our mourning may never leave us but may we all know the comfort that Jesus offers. Amen.
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