Thank God for Music that stirs and moves our spirits!...

     People are motivated by many different stimuli; a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the snow swirling around a mountain top on a day when it feels like one can just put out one's hand and touch the sun and clouds; the sound of a dove cooing when the rest of the world is still and quiet. All these things make my heart stir, make me smile, and bring peace to my spirit.

     Music is another stimuli that stirs my soul, and tonight on a movie called “Country Strong”, I saw one of the most amazing performances of a song I have ever seen, and for me that is saying a lot. Yes, I understand that this is a two year old movie, but I would not watch it before...for many reasons, but flipping through the channels last night, I saw it and watched it and was absolutely spellbound.

     To make a list of them all the performances that come to mind that “move” me would be too time-consuming, and probably boring, but tonight, I saw one of the most amazing total package performances, at least in my opinion, that has ever graced a movie screen, when Gwyneth Paltrow, in the closing number of her comeback performance as Kelly Canter, a Nashville Country Music superstar that is recovering from losing a baby and a serious addiction problem sings a song “Coming Home”, and suddenly, I was just sucked right into her heart, and her into mine.

     Country Strong overall was a “good” movie, but not a great movie, and there are parts that make it's PG-13 rating seem too conservative, so I would not let my children under seventeen go see that movie unaccompanied. But Paltrow's performance is worthy of note, especially in the finale where she sings “Coming Home”.  In that song, there is great symbolism as she is singing it while home movies of her early childhood are playing in the background. The lyrics of the song are obviously speaking her heart as they did to mine.

     The typical drama of the superstar who does not necessarily want the fame, but her husband promotes her and is pushing her back to performing before she is really ready to leave rehab sets the mood, and then events that happen during her attempts to come back and perform set the stage for a make-or-break night where if she does not perform at superstar level, she is washed up.

     Paltrow's performance where she is doing her stage show is great. I was amazed at the quality of the girl's voice, and I think that Paltrow never has to worry about making a living, because she would be a screaming success as a singer in any genre if she ever decided to give up acting.

     All throughout her stage show, she does fast, slow, and in-between songs, but when she starts her finale, her whole demeanor changes. She is performing, but it is more than that, she is singing her farewell song, and she is announcing to the world that she is “going home”, but not her earthly home.

     Here are the lyrics to “Coming Home”; as she sings it, and here is a link to a You Tube video of her performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4cpl0v0WBY; I encourage anyone to watch it; it is moving...very moving. my heart was broken for her; I felt her pain. She made me believe she was Kelly Canter, and that she finally knew where her pain would stop, when she went home.

“It's a four letter word
A place you go to heal your hurt
It's an altar, it's a shelter
One place you're always welcome
A pink flamingo, double wide
One bedroom in a high rise
A mansion on a hill
Where the memories always will
Keep you company whenever you're alone
After all of my running
I'm finally coming
Home - the world tried to break me
I found a road to take me
Home - there ain't nothing but a blue sky now
After all of my running,
I'm finally coming... Home
Well they say it's where the heart is
And I guess the hardest part is
When your heart is broken
And you're lost out in the great wide open
Looking for a map
For finding your way back
To where you belong
Oh well that's where I belong
Home - the world tried to break me
I found a road to take me
Home - there ain't nothing but a blue sky now
After all of my running
I'm finally coming... Home
Home
Home - the world tried to break me
I found a road to take me
Home - there ain't nothing but a blue sky now
After all of my running, I'm finally coming...
After all of my running
I'm finally coming... Home “

     It touched my soul. There are only a few songs that can do that. “God Bless America”, “The Lord's Prayer”, “America the Beautiful”, they all stir my heart and fill me with gratitude. When Barbra Streisand sang “With One More Look at You” in “A Star is Born”, I felt her pain and her victory as she displayed the emotions she felt over losing her husband, then finding the strength to come back and perform. When a trio of amazingly talented singers sang "Hallelujah, We've Been Found" at our church Christmas program in 2009, , I felt the wonder that Mary, the mother of Christ must have felt when she beheld her infant child, knowing that she looked into the face of God and the Messiah.  When I heard a Marine Corps Sergeant bugle “TAPS” at my Uncle Bubba's funeral, I felt the loss and the mournful sorrow that those notes echo as they have been played at innumerable military funerals and I saw the beauty, courage, respect, honor and dignity that the honor guard displayed to my uncle's children as they folded and presented the flag from his casket.

     Yes, music is a great gift that God has given us to touch our souls when the spoken word might fall short. Music gives us solace in times of sadness, worship in the time of intimacy with God, empathy in the time of mourning, and excitement in the time of celebration. It has been a long time since I saw a performance such as I saw Gwyneth Paltrow display last night as I watched the conclusion of “Country Strong”. I hope I see another one soon.