Something’s Got a Hold on Me (and You)

Something’s Got a Hold on Me (and You)

In this edition of Pop Song Theology, we’re looking at a Steve Forbert song whose message may seem a bit of a cliche within the folk-rock genre that Forbert inhabits. The inability or unwillingness to “Settle Down” (ironically, the title of a much earlier Forbert song, from his impressive debut album, Alive on Arrival) is a prominent theme in pop music, one that perhaps is part and parcel of life on the road, the occupational hazard of the live performer.

But our job in Pop Song Theology is to dig deeper, and to not so humbly thumb our noses at the conventional interpretations. (Your job is to overlook our pomposity . . . .which of course is the tougher gig.)

So, let’s dig in. Listen, if you so desire, to the music and lyrics here, which we recommend, or you can just read the words below (which really is cheating):

Something's got a hold on me/An' it won't let go/Ev'ry time I close my eyes/
I hear a freight train blow/My papa was a gamblin' man/An' mama tried, tried, tried/
Ev'rybody's got their thing/I like to ride, ride, ride

Something's got a hold on me/Tuggin' on my heels an' toes/Something's got a hold on me/
An' it won't let go 
(Chorus)

Something's got a hold on me/And it won't back down/Ev'ry time you kiss my lips
I hear that highway sound/Carolina looks real good/If I'm in east St. Paul/
Oklahoma looks just fine/If I'm in Montreal

Something's got a hold on me/An' it calls my shots/I don't want your golden rings/
Or your forget-me-nots/I throw out my ramblin' shoes/Can't get a full night's sleep/
Anything I think I've got/I know I just can't keep
(Repeat Chorus)
(Words and music by Steve Forbert; Copyright with Lyrics © DEMI MUSIC CORP. D/B/A LICHELLE MUSIC COMPANY)

Surely, it’s not only folks in the music industry that suffer from the pull of freight train whistles and highway sounds, if you’re open to considering these attractions more broadly. We Americans seem especially prone to the disease of discontent, an affliction all too evident in our consumerism, relational infidelity, and occupational instability. But what drives our discontent?

In “Something’s Got a Hold on Me,” the singer’s propensity to search for that new, satisfying, “thing,” isn’t because he’s faced with a greater array of choices than in prior eras. The song implicitly conveys that the singer is constitutionally incapable of satisfaction, except perhaps momentarily. He may intuit that the happiness he seeks is elusive, but he’s not prepared to abandon the search.

Can I propose that many of us — both Christian and non-Christian — find ourselves in the same boat, even while our internal struggles might differ significantly? Let’s look at the respective experiences of the believer and his or her unbelieving friend.

“Train Whistles” and the Christian

 Ironically, the Christian may be more prone to the torment and futility of chasing happiness, since we’ve tasted the joys of salvation’s feast, yet have difficulty staying, “at the table.” The “new creation” that is the Christian’s regenerated spirit mysteriously coexists with the dethroned remnant of the sinful nature — what many translations of the bible refer to as, “the flesh.”

While, at conversion, the sinful nature loses its singular authority over our wills, we Christians often act as if we’re oblivious to the fact we’re under new management. Consequently, our path to holiness is often a perilous one, dotted with land mines and the booby traps of old and destructive habits. The Puritans aptly called those habitual sins, “besetting sins.” Our “institutional memory” is powerful, and the old corrupt man fights tooth and nail to hold sway.

At bottom, these traps and landmines are idols — anything we give precedence to above God — that we believe can bring us fulfillment: control, family, success, recognition, money, sex, power, relationships, experiences, stuff, etc. And we fall prey to them again and again, until we truly despair of their promises to make us happy — a good thing, even if the process can be agonizing and costly. While our new status as “saints” who possess eternal life is a concrete, indestructible, and instantaneous reality at the time we believe, our path to becoming righteous often is a excruciatingly slow process that we’ll be working out until we expire, and God finally perfects us.

Folks outside the church are often astonished that the conduct of Christians is so abysmally at odds with what we “saints” profess to believe as true. Hence, the not surprising charge of hypocrisy. Yet, a non-negotiable condition of salvation and membership in the “invisible” church is the admission that one is a moral failure and utterly incapable of keeping God’s law. When we say the law is good, and simultaneously admit we can’t and don’t keep it — that’s not hypocrisy. Still, it’s crucial that Christians remind ourselves and the world just how far we are from living up to God’s law, and how dependent we are on grace.

The Apostle Paul, who surely was more sanctified than we’ll ever be, got this. Even the great Apostle — after Jesus, by far the most important figure in the New Testament — experienced intense inner torment in his struggle with sin, which he describes in this passage:

“Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 7:21b-24)

Truly, as long as we’re breathing, our dispossessed demons will behave as if they still own the joint, vying for our affections, and pretending as if the eviction notice wasn’t final and irreversible. And we remain susceptible to their empty promises, despite our new capacity to experience joy in and by God’s indwelling Spirit.

Thus, there is a battle in every believer that pits the new and holy nature against the old and corrupt nature. The cross is God’s way of delivering us from bondage to the old nature, that we might be like Christ. The Apostle Peter puts it this way:

[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

In short, Christ’s suffering, applied to us, breaks the power of sin. The tug or pull of the world for Christians will lessen as we understand and appropriate the meaning and power of the cross.  As we do, we’ll more willingly yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us.

“Highway Sounds” in the Non-Christian

The war going on in the unbeliever is of a different nature. The person who hasn’t experienced regeneration will still experience temptation in many forms, but the struggle is not between what is holy and unholy. Rather, it pits different idols against each other. For instance, the idol of financial success and security might be exposed by a market crash, a divorce, or other catastrophe, destroying one’s confidence in money as the font of happiness and well-being. But suppose money is then replaced by relationships as one’s chief source of meaning and self-worth; surely, idols that perhaps are preferable to money, but even more susceptible to crashing and burning in short order. Swapping idols — even from socially frowned upon idols to socially acceptable ones — does not constitute genuine spiritual progress.

Here’s the great irony: the very idols we pursue to give us meaning, pleasure, and satisfaction are the very things that frustrate us and make us miserable. Simply put, no idol will ever fill the God-shaped void in the soul.

Mission Impossible: Serving both God and Idols

In Christianity, motivation is everything. It’s not merely what we do, but why we do it. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot’s famous line, our worst sins may be the good deeds we do for the wrong reasons (likely because they pile deception onto ill motives). Outside of a relationship with God and a desire to carry out his will, our good works won’t win us any brownie points with God, since we’re told in scripture that:

“[W]ithout faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

So, how does this all relate to the Forbert song? Christians and non-Christians alike are confronted and tempted by idols, as the song says, “tuggin’ at our heels an’ toes.” This side of heaven, Christians will be plagued by temptation and sin, as we noted is even true of spiritual giants, like the great Apostle.

Which is why Paul exhorts us to be, “slaves to righteousness” rather than “slaves to sin.” The truly converted will continue to be “tugged” in both directions, but God’s sanctifying work enables the believer to increasingly assent to righteous impulses, however slowly and unevenly this transformation typically occurs. (Romans 6:15-23)

Contrariwise, the slavery of unbelievers worsens, and apart from intervening grace, hearts become more calloused, animosity toward God and His people grows, and “ears” to hear the Gospel close. The natural tendency of an unredeemed heart is to drift further and further from God as judgement nears, somewhat like the proverbial frog in boiling water. (1 Timothy 3:13) Time typically hardens, rather than softens, hearts to the gospel.

To summarize, if you are separated from the life of God, your choices will merely reflect your preference for one idol over another. (Romans 6:20) Only those in Christ will know the “tug” of true righteousness and be capable of following it. Of course, Christians exercise free will as they decide to (or not to) cooperate with God, in concert with the grace that God supplies. Consequently, sanctification is not robotic, but the fruit of hard-won battles engaging the believer’s heart, mind, body, and soul. Surely, at least in part so we don’t despair after repeated failures, Paul assures us, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6b)

Of course, as noted, no such struggle exists in the non-believer — he or she is hopelessly entangled by the sinful nature, and unable to please God. Yet, in some unfathomable way, this also is a work of grace:

“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32)

Perhaps God uses our inborn hatred of slavery and our despair at fixing ourselves as a secondary means to repentance and faith. At least that rings true for us at Proofs and Spoofs.

Conclusion

Well, let’s get back to the song, and it’s last few lines, where the song’s character makes this honest admission about the fleeting and ungraspable nature of happiness:

Anything I think I’ve got

I know I just can’t keep

That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? The sobering transitoriness of the relationships and things we cling to in this world, which the singer acknowledges won’t and don’t last. Ultimately, death will wash them all away, and we’ll stand naked before God. At that moment, only the Christian is assured that God won’t let go of what is left: our souls. Jesus says He has an unshakeable hold on believers:

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

Who or what has a hold on you?