Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Several events in my life recently layered themselves to direct my attention to Pink Floyd (I'm sure that happens to all redeemed retro's from time to time, right?). My son's 5th grade science fair project in which we constructed a light box and attempted to view the spectrums created by various prisms (purchased at moderate expense on e-bay) was heavy on inspiration but light on actual results, so I went in search of a way to add a little pizzazz to his presentation. Two days before the event, my only hope of finding a prism with color spectrum on a t-shirt was--of course--finding a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt at the local Target. (I admit I enjoyed imagining the quizzical looks at the sight of a 10 year old pastor's kid wearing the shirt, but that's another blog entry...)

Our good friend, Norman Barnes, happened to be staying with us when Noel first put on his t-shirt. You must know Norman to imagine his response, so I will attempt to succinctly describe him. One part quintessential British gentleman, one part rock and roller and one more part fiery preacher, he is unforgettable indeed. And he LOVES Pink Floyd. When he saw Noel in the shirt, Norman interrupted whatever conversation may have been going on at the time with his impromtu rendition of Shine on You Crazy Diamond, reminding us all how much he loved that song. We all chuckled (and later when we caught him not listening to a discussion, accused him of actually having Pink Floyd piped into his hearing aid), but the song stuck with me days after he had returned to his flat on the English coast.

The phrase intrigued me. I had been meditating on the gifts described in Romans chapter 12, gifts we who like to name things often call, "the motivational gifts" because they seem to describe a person's gestalt or innate inner agenda. What had occurred to me when reading these gift descriptions (Romans 12:6-8) was that rather than cautioning us about the possible excesses of our natural bents, God seems to be handing out hearty endorsements. In other words, rather than saying, "Now you administrative types, you be careful that you don't become too bossy and alienate those around you...," God rather says, "If you are going to administrate, do it with diligence!" Everything in me thinks, "But God, people (including myself) will go wild--you'll have a free for all on your hands! Are you really advocating the unbridled release of whatever is inside us??? Wouldn't that give free reign to the flesh?" Once I ceased from the ever-useless argument with the Creator, I realized that I still didn't understand "the flesh".

God endorses, encourages and even sponsors the release of the gifts he put inside us. HE is not the inner governor that tells us, "be careful and don't overdo." THAT, once finally unmasked, is actually the voice of the flesh powered by that irritatingly persistant force: the fear of man (the fear of what people would think if I dared to "shine"). God created us with inner circuitry intended to receive the flow of his divine energy--each of us is a laser light show that declares, "there is a God," in our own unique way. Ultimately, I became so passionate about this facet of the goodness of God that I summarized it, in "Maxwellian" leadership form, as something I called, "The Law of Endsorsement," stating it in this way: "You enter a new zone of power when you realize that God, who created the essence of your being not only wants to release you to be yourself but further wants to display himself through your uniqueness."

My Law of Endorsement, however, seemed to have already found expression (minus the inclusion of God) in Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Thanks to YouTube, I was able to quickly access a version of the song and thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to fill in the gaps in my knowledge about it and about Pink Floyd. It turns out that the song was written as a tribute to Syd Barrett, the member of the group whose head was ravaged by the drugs and fame so much so that he had to leave the group. The words call out to him to somehow keep on shining--adding his own important hues to the color spectrum of humanity. They are a moving call to anyone who has fallen from the mainstream and is edging into oblivion--a call to life, even when life doesn't make sense.

If Pink Floyd could see that every diamond needs to shine on, no matter how "crazy" they may appear to others...that every person was created with a beauty meant to be displayed and not hidden, surely the body of Christ can see that truth! If they can issue a beautiful and haunting call to shake off the shame of personal tragedy and commit to letting our inner light shine, surely Christians whose light is fused with God's can actually answer that call!

The diamond metaphor infers that the pressures and heat of our lives only serve, in the grand scheme of things, to compress boring carbon into stunning gemstone. And it further implies that our gifts, like diamonds in the ground, may be buried deep under a whole lot of earth that masks their value. But still, in spite of it all, I hear Norman Barnes singing loudly in my head, Shine On You Crazy Diamond...more than that, I think I hear echoes of Jesus in that song. Because the fact is, HE is glorified when I remove the inauthenticicty and just dare to shine...and he is NOT glorified when through false humility, I fail to...