Music That Matters: Smell the Color Nine

A reader has suggested that I take a song a day (I'm going to do a song a week) and post the lyrics, encourage the rest of you to listen (sorry I cannot provide the song itself - copyright infringement) and write a few lines of reflection. So, in that spirit, and hopeful with THE Spirit, I present the first song of submission. The title and lyrics follow...

Listen to it here.

[Listening to: Smell The Color 9 - Chris Rice - Short Term Memories (4:10)]

Smell the Color Nine
by Chris Rice
Album - Short Term Memories

I would take no for an answer
Just to know I heard You speak
And I'm wonderin' why I've never
Seen the signs they claim they see
Are the special revelations
Meant for everybody but me?
Maybe I don't truly know You
Or maybe I just simply believe

CHORUS:
'Cause I can sniff, I can see
I can count up pretty high
But these faculties aren't getting me
Any closer to the sky
But my heart of faith keeps poundin'
So I know I'm doin' fine
But sometimes finding You
Is just like trying to
Smell the color nine

Now I've never 'felt the presence'
But I know You're always near
And I've never 'heard the calling'
But somehow You've lead me right here
So I'm not looking for burning bushes
Or some divine graffiti to appear
I'm just beggin' You for some wisdom
And believing You're puttin' some here

CHORUS

Smell the color nine?
But nine's not a color
And even if it were you can't smell a color
That's my point...

I was introduced to Chris Rice after I purchased the Veggie Tales DVD, Jonah for my kids. He has a song on there, Billy Joe McGuffey, that my kids went nuts over. I looked him up and found other music he did that brought me back to my youth group days.

Smell the Color Nine focuses on faith. Knowing God is there when we we cannot prove it with our senses or reinforce it with a feeling of His presence. That seems to be the hardest thing of all for us. It's a Catch-22 situation many times. We ask the Lord for wisdom to know He is here, yet in order to ask for that, we have to already know.

Another good song which illustrates this is Barlow Girl's "Never Alone".