Typology in Red Hill Mining Town

[Freefall]

This morning I was struck by Red Hill Mining Town, and God just spoke through it so loudly it was phenomenal!


From father to son
The blood runs thin
See faces frozen still
Against the wind

(I have gone through a recent experience of shepherding in my church...this speaks to me of wounding, and how your connection to God gets thinned because of the hurt you've experienced. Your connectedness to him lapses...your face is frozen against the wind, the wind of adversity as you seek the wind of the Spirit.)

The seam is split
The coal face cracked
The lines are long
There's no going back
Through hands of steel
And heart of stone
Our labour day
Has come and gone.

(The seam is split...your veneer of control is sundered, the coal face, the face shadowed by hurt is cracked and the lines are long. The hurt is so extensive that there is no going back. The control my former pastor tried to exercise against me has caused me to make a decision about this church...I am not going back. The hands of steel, the heart of stone...trying to obey because you have to. Because of legalism, their is no grace; the labour is of force, the heart is heavy...but now it is over; grace has come, mercy!)

Yeah you leave me holding on
In Red Hill Town
See lights go down, I'm...

Hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to
I'm still waiting
I'm hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to

(Holding on in Red Hill Town...red the colour of blood, the place of the cross, Calvary where grace is found. When my church did this to me, when I chose to sunder contact with them, I was left with only Jesus, hanging onto the only thing, Person, that is left.)

The glass is cut
The bottle run dry
Our love runs cold
In the caverns of the night
We're wounded by fear
Injured in doubt
I can lose myself
You I can't live without

(The glass is cut...brokenness. The bottle runs dry...emptiness. The love runs cold...my church is gone, my ties to the denomination I thought was of God. The last verses are so obvious, do I need to spell them out for you? I can lose myself, but it is Jesus I can't live without. Caverns of night, wounded by fear, injured in doubt...)

Yeah you keep me holding on
In Red Hill Town
See the lights go down on
I'm hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to
I'm still waiting
Hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to
Hold on to

We'll scorch the earth
Set fire to the sky
We stoop so low to reach so high
A link is lost
The chain undone
We wait all day
For night to come
And it comes
Like a hunter child

(Scorching the earth...an ending of self, destroying of all we knew...set fire to the sky...even our spiritual foundations are shattered if we rest in our denomination, our institution, instead of Jesus, the True Foundation, the Chief Cornerstone. A link is lost...my church...and now the whole chain is undone...wait all day for night to come...and it comes like a hunter child...hunting for the Truth!)

I'm hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to
I'm still waiting
I'm hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to

Love...slowly stripped away
Love...has seen its better day

Hanging on
The lights go out on Red Hill
The lights go down on Red Hill
Lights go down on Red Hill town
The lights go down on Red Hill

I think you can see the rest of it...love stripped away...the love I once thought resided in my church, my Vineyard; but became control, shepherding. Love has seen its better day...but now I am left to hang on to all that is left...Jesus. Not an institution, or a denomination...but the Cross of the Red Hill.

Thought it was pretty profound. Thought I would share it.

 

[U2isthebest]

I've always had this song as one of my favs. and one of my most spiritual. I know the real meanings behind it of course, with the mining workers and the strike; but there's always been something deeper there below the surface. Your interpretation is amazing, and it sounds like you and I have similar church experiences.

 

[Freefall]

I've always had this song as one of my favs. and one of my most spiritual. I know the real meanings behind it of course, with the mining workers and the strike; but there's always been something deeper there below the surface. Your interpretation is amazing, and it sounds like you and I have similar church experiences.

You have to stoop so low to reach so high. Lose everything to begin again.

My pastor took my sketchbook last Sunday, asked to look through it, told me my art was ungodly and not edifying and I could not draw in church anymore. I have drawn only twice in church during worship as the music has led me, as the Spirit has led me. I am in a corner where no one can see me, and I do not display my pictures. They are between me and the Lord. I have tried to get this pastor and my church to come to the shelter I have been staying at; to help the poor. I see people who have one leg, disheveled, limping, hardened and hopeless. He wants me to bring people with no money, who are lame, to our church for a special dinner event. A one-time thing when they need more than a meal. As I told one of the intercessors before I left there Sunday...it is more ungodly and unedifying to have to see these people living without help or hope day in and day out.

I won't go back to faith without action; to spirituality without a body...I won't go back. He tried to tell me that my art was ungodly.

 

[popsadie]

woah..this post angered me. Your interpretation of Red Hill Mining Town was amazing...I have also always felt a spirituality within that song. The insular nature of many of our churches frustrates me to no end. My prayer is that you will be able to find a church family that sees this broken world and also realizes that we are the hands that God longs to use.

 

[Trinity3000]

Man that sucks about your pastor not wanting you to draw during church. So close minded and controlling!

 

[nozomi]

This song has usually spoken to me, although I don't listen to it much because it is full of doubt.

I, in my life, have been full of doubt and can totally relate to music that doesn't have certain truth held closely.
Most of my life, Pastor's have left the Church, after awhile, and I held hopes of them--if after only a period of time, and I think it was a test for me--it was all seemingly circumstance . . .but of course, at the time . . . and I'm sure the Lord knew what He was doing. Pastors are the "people helpers" in a sovereign way . . . of the Church, so we need to keep in mind the Caregivers over us. Especially in prayer.
Ultimately, tho, Our Lord is our Helper, so maybe He is asking you to trust Him.

 

[Rachel D.]

I hope you get through this situation!