George Michael
Photo by Laura Vinck on Unsplash
Over two-years after the death of George Michael, the sale of his art collection raised £11.3 million for causes he supported. It’s quite amazing to think that even after death, someone can still be having a very real and positive impact on the lives of others.
I think this thought must have been lodged somewhere in my mind when I sat down to write a talk about listening to others. I was reminded of George Michael’s second solo album Listen Without Prejudice. What a great title. Just what I needed to inspire the title for my sermon. The concept of listening to someone without the prejudice of our previous experience or what we think we might know of them was such a powerful concept.
When someone really listens to us it has such power to unlock and heal our emotions. Listening to someone with no agenda, no pre-decided course of action, no pre-judgement about the person or what they say, allows us to treat the person with genuine respect. It gives them real freedom.
As I started to mull it over, I thought I’d listen to the album again. It starts with an awe inspiring social commentary, Praying for Time, which is where the title of today’s thought has come from. The song begins pointing out the irony of the rich saying they are poor whilst others are hungry and begging. The song could have been written today, it's so on point, commentating on the growing economic inequality, the increasing use of foodbanks and the misery this brings to the lives of so many.
And then, I was hit by the lyrics about the wounded sky and praying for time. Wounded skies? Yes, not only in the sense of the environment, but also the sense that we share the same sky, the same earth. We live in a community which is damaged and hurting. Further, it also applied to us as individuals. How often does our environment, the world in which we live our day-to-day lives, is wounded? For many of us, it may feel our skies are wounded and it’s too late for anything to change. This was certainly my experience when suffering in the pits of depression.
Yet there is hope for us to hang on to as George Michael says. Hang in there. All might seem beyond redemption, but with time things can, and often do, change. As the song ends and the second song on the album begins. We are encouraged not to give up and not to let others down. The uplifting opening lyrics of Freedom! So, have some faith in yourself this week. With time, you don’t know where life might take you.
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