Michael Card‘s latest album, Luke: A World Turned Upside Down, features a song called “The Bridge,” based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, demonstrating just what kind of misadventure mere head knowledge of the Word of God can be. I just heard last night that he’ll be conducting his current Biblical Imagination Conference an hour away from my home, down at Waxahachie Bible Church on April 8-9. Don’t know if I can make Friday, don’t know if I can make the conference all day Saturday, but some of us may attend the concert Saturday night. I’ll keep you posted if it does happen. Anyway, I wanted to share this song with you, since it’s so consistent with the theme of this blog. But first, the passage from God’s Word which inspired the song:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

(Luke 10:25-37 ESV)

THE BRIDGE (click here to listen to song)

Michael Card

There was a legal-minded man

Intellectually inclined

But the facts just seemed to pile up

And fester in his mind

So he asked a twisted question

“What am I supposed to do?”

His heart said he should love

But his mind still wondered, “who?”

From the head to the heart

From the heart to the mind

The Truth must make a journey

If we ever hope to find

You can see it as a bridge

Or as a narrow, winding road

The fact is Truth must travel

If it ever will be told

Then the answer came concealed

In the story Jesus told

Of a lonely, outcast traveler

Upon a dangerous road

When men with all the answers

Left the wounded man to die

While the lonely clueless stranger

Refused to pass him by

The answer’s not an answer

If it’s for the mind alone

It’s the orchard in the apple seed

It’s the seed that must be sown

It has to do with loving

And giving all you have to give

But only those who cross the bridge

Can ever hope to live.

2010 Covenant Artists ASCAP

piano, Vance Taylor

bass, Norbert Putnam

drums, Chester Thompson

vocals, Scott Roley, Michael Card

percussion, Ken Lewis