Part 2 of "Is God Out There?": The Worldview of David Gray

This is part 2 in a 3-part series that analyzes three aspects of our culture's view of the presence of God. Part 1 covered Twitter, and how humans universally desire to heard, acknowledged, understood, and known deeply. Part 2 goes beyond technology to discuss music, and in particular, David Gray.

The best artists are culture-makers. And a good culture maker is one who expounds a worldview that connects with the mileau he or she resides in. David Gray is one such artist. He writes with a musical beauty and lyrical profundity that can inspire the depths of a person's soul. Yet despite such beauty, his worldview has depressing and ultimately empty conclusions. One might even wonder if Gray believes that people have souls. Now I recognize that one song does not reveal the entire worldview of a person, but his message in "Ain't No Love Guiding Me" is powerful and it attempts to be comprehensive nonetheless. What follows is a run through of Gray's lyrics and some of my thoughts in response:

Maybe that it would do me good
If I believed there were a God
Out in the starry firmament
As it is that’s just a lie
And I'm here eating up the boredom
On an island of cement
Give me your ecstasy I'll feel it
Open window and I'll steal it
Baby like it’s heaven sent

This ain’t no love that’s guiding me

Gray clearly states that to believe in God is following a lie. That is a statement of absolute truth- God does not exist. At first though, one cannot tell if Gray is flaunting this truth or lamenting it. But Gray makes a crucial point that many Westerners miss: belief in God and moral behavior or intimately linked. The fact that there is no God is a basis for the whole song, and thus for his whole worldview: love cannot guide David Gray. On the other hand, the music is so melodious and intimate and Gray's voice so earnest that makes the listener feel Gray's pain. Perhaps its both then. Gray flaunts the fact that God doesn't exist and laments it simultaneously. The next verse:

Some days i'm bursting at the seams
With all my half remembered dreams
And then it shoots me down again
I feel the dampness as it creeps
I hear you coughing in your sleep
Beneath a broken window pane
Tomorrow girl I'll buy you chips
A lollipop to stain your lips
And it’ll all be right as rain

This ain’t no love that’s guiding me
This ain’t no love that’s guiding me

Then Gray turns to human relationships. He thinks that relationships bring deep joy but then reminds himself of the brokenness that occurs even in human relationships. He presents many unpleasant images to point out that fact, and again concludes: "this ain't no love that's guiding me." As Gray seeks to repeat this line, one cannot help but feel Gray's despair at his atheistic worldview. He is trying to maintain some kind of irrational existentialism, as if life can still have meaning even if God or love cannot guide him, but his search continues to prove fruitless as he presses on.

No it ain’t no love guiding me
No it ain’t no love guiding me
No it ain’t no love guiding me

This ain’t no love that’s guiding me
This ain’t no love that’s guiding me

This is where the music takes over. Where Gray had been repeating "this ain't no love..." in low and quick tones, he turns to this chorus here where he soars a high and drawn out melody. The music is incredibly beautiful at this point, but it proves misguided. In Gray's pursuit of existential beauty without meaning, even musical beauty lacks meaning no matter how beautiful it is. And make no mistake, Gray's music is beautiful. But Gray isn't done searching for meaning just yet. He goes to nature next:

On winter trees the fruit of rain
Is hanging trembling in the branches
Like a thousand diamond buds
Waiting there in every pause
That old familiar fear that claws you
Tells you nothing ain’t no good
Pulling back you see it all
Down here so laughable and small
Hardly a quiver in the dirt

This ain’t no love that’s guiding me

He points out a descriptive and beautiful scene from nature and then reminds himself that "nothing ain't no good." His search for meaning is over. Even the rapturous chorus isn't worth repeating. There is simply no love guiding Gray. Despite the incredible sadness and atheism in the song, Gray is a brilliant artist. He depicts his worldview lyrically, melodically, and dynamically. Gray realizes that his quest for meaning and search for truth has the most profound affects on his life- the biggest effects of all, really. If only apathetic Westerners would realize this fact. It's just that Gray came to the wrong conclusions.

There is a God who is there. He is personal and all-knowing. He knows each person and loves them deeply, despite their deepest wrongs and brokenness. He is there. He is not silent. He still speaks, and he still wants to know those he has created in the most personal way.

For the most profound writings on this subject (and indeed even some language that I borrowed in the preceding paragraph), see Francis Schaeffer's writings, and particularly The God Who is There. You will not be disappointed with Schaeffer.