Friday, July 26, 2013

Praying the Blues

"When you least feel like praying is when you really need to."

The Gospel according to Hooker Man.

Sarah and I met Hooker and his beautiful wife Levy last year in St. Martin, though I'd heard about them previously from our friend Hugh.

Hooker and Levy are musicians who reside in Coleman, Michigan. He wears glasses over a nose that floats above a long gray beard and you just know he played Woodstock. Wearing overalls and sandals, he stands lost in the sounds wailing from his guitar.

Levy's hair falls over her shoulders but her large captivating smile is what affects you. Her smile throws warmth your way. Her voice soothes. A gifted story teller, her eyes work the crowd then shares devilish delight with Hooker's as they make the music of angels.

On a hot Tropical night in St. Martin, Hooker and Levy performed an impromptu concert on the patio of their Garden Chalet. Our friend Marty joined in wailing on his harps. Perhaps thirty of us stood under the moonlit Palm Trees with the waves crashing on the reef serving as percussion.

"In spite of ourselves," Levy sang while Hooker played, "we'll end up a sittin' on a rainbow."

The lyrics to the John Prine song were our wedding vows when Sarah and I married under a full moon on the beach at Tybee. We smiled and danced as Hooker and Levy re-gifted our vows to us.

Michigan is a long way from Tybee Island but through the magic and wonder of Facebook, we all keep up with each other. Isn't it wonderful that once one time meetings that became distant memories are now ongoing friendships where we can immediately touch over distance and time?

At 3:00 in the morning Hooker posted that when you least feel like praying is when you need to. I don't know if he played last night, he could have just gotten home from work and was sitting there having the days last cigarette and washing it down with a beer. Levy might have been rubbing his shoulders. Or he could have been laying there, trying to sleep before saying "To hell with it!" and sitting before the computer thinking about prayer.

I don't know.

I do know that a friend of Hooker's was hurt really bad yesterday. Great musicians think with their hearts and Hooker's was troubled. Sometimes prayers are really the blues, our way of saying to God, "This just ain't right."

And that's alright. Sometimes life just isn't right and we have every right in the world to tell God and everybody else it ain't! Bad things happen. Incredible life's are cut short. Friends hurt themselves. Lover's disappear.  Loneliness is found. Hunger of all sorts happens.

I believe that God prefers listening to the blues. It's far purer than choirs of Angels singing Hymns. It's far more substantive than the Gospel songs of praise heard in church. It's much more honest than anything in the Hymnal.

At 3:00 in the morning, without his guitar, Hooker was praying the blues.

And I heard you man.

And I'm praying them with you.