Stars That Don't Burn Out

STARS THAT DON’T BURN OUT 
Small town voices say you’re too far gone 
All these tired, tired lives 
Everybody’s got a Radio 
But not a single song to call their own 
Everybody’s got a white picket fortress
But not a courageous moment to take home
-Here’s to all the words you never spoke
Songs that burned your mouth in silence
Letters that never found a stamp -
-Here’s to all the paint you never spilled
Portraits in black and white stillness
Destinations that never found a map
Chorus: Close your eyes Dream out louder
Run until the morning sun bleeds pink to orange hues
Drive until the evening brings the silver out in you
Close your eyes Dream out louder
We will lay you down
Beneath a blanket of impossibilities
Your star will never burn out
Raise a glass to the check-out stand Visionaries
Your star will never burn out!
-Fly above the gray haired children
In the house that fear has built
Let your hymns of freedom break the chains
Cause it sounds like chained up melodies they’re handing out
-Anthems of Mothers afraid to be alone so they control
Fathers like weary lions locked up in a cage too long
Sons that won’t leave home to find their strength
Daughters who want the knight but fear the sword
Chorus: Close your eyes Dream out louder
Run until the morning sun bleeds pink to orange hues
Drive until the evening brings the silver out in you
Close your eyes Dream out louder
We will lay you down
Beneath a blanket of impossibilities
Your star will never burn out
Raise a glass to the check-out stand Visionaries
Your star will never burn out!
-Dream out louder until nobody here
Is afraid to be alive
Friend tonight is yours to be a dreamer
No one here is going to steal the light you shine
Close your eyes Dream out louder
We will lay you down
Beneath a blanket of impossibilities
Your star will never burn out
Raise a glass to the check-out stand Visionaries
Your star will never burn out!
Stars that Don’t Burn Out is about all of the trailer park poets and check out visionaries and those people all around us whose life seems far too small for their talents or their dreams or their passion. The voices all around us, the voice of “reason” (the name the world has given the solemn faced executioner of wayward dreams) tells us, instructs us, commands us and even threatens us with all of the urban legends of men and women who hungered for more than mediocrity. We are warned of the fates that befell them all as if trying and living with “failure” was less “life” than ploughing a field you never look up from just to harvest an abundant crop of boredom and the bland produce of “respectability”.
“Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope.
You're gonna do great things I already know
God's got his hand on you so don't live life in fear
forgive and forget but don't forget why you're here
Take your time and pray
These are the words I would say” Words I Would Say by Sidewalk Prophets
Respectability is grey fruit that will feed your body while your heart starves to death without anyone ever noticing, because a heart without hope is malnourished and a heart without passion will become absolutely emaciated. Respectability is often associated with being honorable, but they are far different. Honor includes fulfilling your duties, keeping your word, holding those who need holding, fighting who needs fighting and even ploughing a field if ploughing or pushing carts or working a cash register or pumping gas or flipping burgers means feeding the family, but unlike “respectability” honor doesn’t require your heart to commit a slow suicide just because it’s what was expected of you. Respectability is to give up on all you expect of yourself or worse yet what your Creator expects of you even though you both know what is locked inside, all because the people around you are aware of what is inside everyone else after what was locked inside them died. A lion locked in a cage for too long and no more a lion at all, he is just a housecat with a weight problem because the keepers fed the body inside that cage but starved his heart. Lions that still roar don’t accept the cage as “home”. A Lion who still roars has Honor, one who doesn’t merely has “Respectability”.
“Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.” 2 Samuel 7:8
The photo album in my mind is full of the trailer park poet’s and check-out stand visionaries I have been blessed to encounter, very similar to the film “Peaceful Warrior” that has Socrates the Gas Station Philosopher who changed the life of Dan Millman the Olympiad spent his days washing windows in a mechanic’s uniform. When I met my Sensei who trained me in the ancient and mystical art of Ninjutsu he was working at a factory that made windshield wiper fluid in a town without a traffic light, when I met the Jewish man who introduced me to Messianic Judaism he was working the paint desk at Hobby Lobby, and when I met my high school girlfriend who now designs Opera Sets in San Francisco after a full scholarship to art school she was living in a trailer and her dad was a member of a 1 Percenter Biker Club. Everywhere I have travelled the most inspired, most passionate, most brilliant people I encountered where those behind cash registers or covered in grease or asking me if I wanted fries with that.
“Seems like all I can see was the struggle
Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
Bound up in shackles of all my failures
Wondering how long is this gonna last
Then You look at this prisoner and say to me "son
Stop fighting a fight that's already been won" I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off theses heavy chains
Wipe away every stain now I'm not who I used to be
I am redeemed All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head"
I remember oh God, You're not done with me yet”
Cause I am Redeemed. Thank God Redeemed”
Redeemed by Big Daddy Weave
The most brilliant Bible Teaching I had ever heard at the time came from a man who hung sheet rock for a living, the deepest conversations I have ever had were in the middle of unloading boxes from a truck at Lowe’s and the most intelligent people I have ever known were honestly generally the ones who dropped out of High School. Their commonality, aside from their passion or talent or inspiration or intellect was this one factor, that “life” had gotten in the way. Some were victims of their own choices, some were victims of the selfishness of others, and some just seemed to be trapped by a generational or geographic curse and others seemed to be supernaturally held back for some reason only the Creator knows just as Joseph of which it is written “And the Word of God Purged Him while he was in Prison”. The “Word of God” being the Dream he had of his brothers bowing down.
The difference is always in the eyes though, some are merely talented or passionate or intelligent but others have the trait John Paul Jackson listed in his “6 Signs of a Rising Warrior”. He states that “The Rising Warrior knows that somehow, someway, deep down, they were born for a such a time as this”. There are people being prepared right now through the terrible test of mediocrity that the world never saw coming and there are also busy preparing others through their teaching or their parenting or their example or even just their smile which many would find to be a test of mediocrity in itself. Make no mistake, there are Davids walking your dog and Josephs mowing your lawn and Nehemiahs giving you your change back and Miriams cutting your hair and Deborahs teaching your children. There are Solomons staring at an “F” on their report card Esther’s getting their cavities filled and Gideons being bullied on the playground and Samuels being prescribed medication to stop the voices and Samsons at the GNC trying to bulk up to the size of their other Jr. High Classmates.
I have seen them before, I see them more and more as the time draws near for their hour. Sadly, they do not see themselves, well they may see something in themselves but they are only looking in a mirror darkly. Many do not know the King they will serve or the Kingdom they will build or the sacred duty they will be given, but they all know that there is more than the field they are ploughing. The best we can do for them is feed the fire inside, give it direction, breathe life gently into it before it turns to embers, and pray their eyes are open when the hours comes. When the Red Sea parts again that staff may be held by a man whose nails are covered in engine grease or calloused from years of blue collar labor.
“Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of theLord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. AndMoses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ... Exodus 3:1
Suggested Resources:
“6 Signs of a Rising Warrior” by John Paul Jackson on Youtube.
“Peaceful Warrior” Film starring Nick Nolte

Prayer for The Stars That Don’t Burn Out

Dream Giver

We ask for You to return to us all the Dreams they Stole

We ask for You to lock the door inside that let the Vision Stealer In

We ask you to take us Home where we have never Been

We ask for the Courage to open our eyes and believe in You Again

More than this, We ask for to You show us what You can do through us if we let You

If we let You be the One that is the Source of Our Hope, the One that lets the Impossible Begin

“I will bless ADONAI, who counsels me. Even at night my heart instructs me.”

Psalm 16:7 Tree of Life Version

Resource: www.dreamsandmysteries.com