You Were On My Mind

The Lord gave us an incredible ability to focus. Sometimes we use that gift to meditate on good things but sometimes we fixate on unworthy or the impure to our own detriment. This is about one of my favorite songs which looks at the relationship between love and the brain. I wrote the following devotional entry on 12-30-05.


I'm still in St. Louis with my folks. This afternoon, I used Dad's car to run errands. I'm a scan and seek kind of radio listener. I waffle back and forth, looking for talk radio or Oldies stations. In St. Louis, the Oldies format is the domain of KLOU, 103.3 on the dial. It doesn't matter if you are in St. Louis, Houston, or Nashville. These stations have identical play lists or so close to identical few can tell the difference. Someone in rock and roll history coined a term that is part of the vernacular: One Hit Wonders. This phrase pertains to groups or solo artists who produce a huge hit and show tremendous promise, only to disappear into pop music purgatory. Gogi Grant (The Wayward Wind), ? and the Mysterians (96 Tears), and Norman Greenbaum (Spirit in the Sky) are a few fitting the definition. Tom Hanks portrayed a fictional, and most likely typical, One Hit Wonder band in his 1996 film, That Thing You Do! Coming out of nowhere, the Wonders, a better than average garage band, streaked to the top of the charts with the song the movie is titled after. Then, just as rapidly, the band disintegrates, going their separate ways. It was a sequence played out in real life repeatedly during the 1960's-1970's.

I heard one of those One Hit Wonder songs as I cruised suburban St. Louis today. The artists: a five member group who deemed themselves We Five. Based in San Francisco, this folk-rock quintet scored a blockbuster hit in 1965 with You Were On My Mind. Although they stayed together for years and cut other records, We Five never duplicated their lone commercial success. You can still catch their act in 8 second film clips as part of the Time-Life Music Collection infomercials. It was such good music that Time-Life included it on two albums, The Folk Years AND 60's Gold! So much for poking some gentle fun at the culture of the 1960's. You Were On My Mind really is a wonderful song. I guess the lyrics would constitute it as a love ballad but it has deeper meaning to me than the normal boy-girl theme. Look at the first verse:
When I woke up this morning,
You were on my mind,
And, you were on my mind.
I've got troubles, whoa-oh.
I've got worries, whoa-oh,
I've got wounds to bind.
That is a good synopsis of our relationship to God. The Lord should be the first thing to cross our minds when the alarm clock detonates. He should be our final consciousness when our weary heads crease the pillow at the completion of day. Troubles, worries, wounds to bind-sounds like me! We have instant access to our Creator/Savior/Lord and Master/best friend. No need to type in a password or access code. I tried to check on my canceled checks today over the phone. I called the free phone number, 1-800-YOU WAIT. (Just kidding!) They were having a computer glitch and finding someone who would actually listen to me took fifteen minutes. (In all fairness, the lady I finally spoke to couldn't have been more helpful or pleasant.) What a blessing that our Father in Heaven doesn't put us on hold until he finds it more convenient or until those ahead of us in the prayer line are taken care of. We just have to take advantage of this most incredible communication ever. The shepherd king of Israel had the model attitude towards God. In Psalms 63:6, David penned these words:"On my bed, I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night." First thing in the morning to the last thing at night. That covers all time frames! Isn't that what we do when we're in love? Our thoughts are always on the objects of our affection. If we do that with earthly, temporary relationships, shouldn't we do it with the one who gave his life for us and sustains our being? The scriptures teach us to pray constantly. When our spiritual lives mirror the words in that Oldies record, we won't have to be reminded. It will be the most natural thing in the world... and in the world to come!

Applicable quote of the day:
"The radio of my youth is now a quaint memory..., replaced by computer hard drives."
Phil Donahue

To watch and listen to WE FIVE sing You Were On My Mind, copy and paste the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29uNvGHsRlc

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com