There’s a Slow Train Comin’

I grew up with Bob Dylan music in the ether, but was never really a fan of his. It’s only been lately that I’ve sort of been coming around to appreciating his genius (in an odd sort of way). I’m intrigued by him and the wide range of subject matter included in his repertoire especially in his earlier days. Admittedly, in order to “get it” I have to listen to his socially provocative folk pieces from the 60s over and over, which is painful, as his voice, not to mention his solo guitar playing, to put it bluntly, grates on me. But I do love the lyrics of some of those old songs that I overlooked in my youth.

Even when he did his overtly Christian albums, I paid little attention.  So, when I listened to his 1979 Slow Train Coming it was like hearing it for the first time. I love its straightforward, if not disturbingly blunt, lyrics. I particularly love its title track. I love the music and can even tolerate Dylan’s singing voice. But it’s the lyrics that move me most like those of the prophets of old. If you listen to it a time or two before reading on, I think you’ll be more likely to get the gist of my drift.

He comes right out of the gate with:

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions
Are they lost or are they found?
Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

I don’t know if he’s referring to his Christian or non-Christian companions, but I can’t help but be particularly concerned, if not outright disgusted about some (not by any means all) of the behavior of church folk these days. Are they lost or are they found? Hard to tell sometimes. (Fortunate for some, it’s not up to me.) Have they counted the cost to follow Jesus? Do they abandon earthly principles for the sake of their faith or the other way around?

There’s a slow train coming that will tell the whole story, the true story about how we’ve managed our lives. Its slow pace gives us time to get it right or to continue to get it increasingly wrong, not to mention affording us the impression that it isn’t coming at all. But it is coming for all of us, for each of us. It’s now just around the bend.

In a later stanza, Dylan sings:

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency
All non-believers and men-stealers talkin’ in the name of religion
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

Could this be even more true today than when he composed it nearly a half century ago? Big-time negotiators. I can think of a few whose negotiations are slick and always play to benefit their ego and personal power. Can you? False healers, woman haters, and masters of the proposition wearing a cloak of decency are not far behind. People using religion as a prop to get what they want. I’ll withhold the long list of names that come to mind.  

It may be slow but the train is just around the bend.

The train will judge the social as well as the personal, the systemic as well as the individual.

People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions
They talk about a life of brotherly love
Show me someone who knows how to live it
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

There’s plenty for everyone if some would just quit taking more than their share. Jesus was pretty clear on this point. I wonder if that’s the main reason he was so hated by the greedy among both his religious and secular contemporaries. Some people talk about brotherly love with the intention to apply it everyone but themselves.

There’s one other line in the final stanza that strikes me as particularly poignantly to our time:

But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets

I suppose we vary in those we identify as pulling the strings and to what end. But the best and most sinister strings are the invisibly subtle ones. Yet today, if we’re paying attention at all, the puppeteer’s strings and even his hands are in full view. In some cases, it’s awkwardly obvious. Still, the puppeted senselessly obey his every tug, his every command.  

Are you bothered by the same today? Do you know people who wolf down entire toxic ideas posited by self-aggrandizing ideologues replete with outlandish conspiracies aimed at the gullible consumer? Sadly, it seems hucksters are evenly spread between those “inside” and outside the faith.

Or might you be the object of the concern of others watching you standing on the tracks with your back to the oncoming locomotive?

Beware of the slow, but decidedly inescapable train comin’ up just around the bend.