Great Whites

I have always thought sharks were scary.  I remember as a kid getting an intensely ominous feeling whenever I watched the sharks lazily lurk in the tank at the aquarium.  I would imagine being in the tank and recall documentaries that showed sharks thrashing, swarming and snapping in reaction to blood or attacking the camera cages.  Hammerheads are creepy looking, but great whites are enormous and have no rival.  They can reach 5,000 lbs and grow to nearly the length of a school bus.  When they choose to attack, whatever they zero in on is doomed.  I also heard stories of sharks attacking surfers.  When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, a great white fatally attacked a swimmer at a nearby beach.  She still reminds me that I went surfing the next day.

These sharks lurk in dark, cold water, circling and stalking prey.  They wait for the vulnerable and attack blindside.  Dead, black eyes, and gaping razor-toothed mouths show no emotion.  The great white has the sole purpose of self-preservation.  Many have skin and fins marred by fights with other sharks.  No matter how injured, the countenance of a great white does not change.  They are cold creatures of the deep sea, and no work of fiction could create a more foreboding, ghostly, and underworldly image.

Acts of cruelty and abominable perversion litter the news daily and make me ask why.  Why do such wicked things exist?  People can be so set on self-preservation that, like predators of the deep, they are given completely over to a callous heart consumed by self.  Whatever their senses tell them to do, they obey, and an evil idolatry forms and leads to unthinkable pain for others and eventually for themselves.  This has been the vicious cycle of sin in the world. 

It may take a while, but people reap what they sow.  God’s sun shines into the darkest places and will expose the secrets of the human heart.  Only grace can intervene and cause someone to honestly seek forgiveness and truly change us and pardon each wrongdoing we’ve done so we can live in peace.  Jesus’ death on the cross secured forgiveness for those who will seek it. 

At first, I shied away from these lyrics.  I have never liked songs that sound like they vaguely accuse.  At first listen, it might seem that Great Whites does just that, but I’m learning to live with the tension  knowing that it isn’t accusatory, but rather meant express my processing the immense evil that confronts each person on earth.  There aren’t easy answers, but in the midst of pain caused by evil Jesus’ cross and the grace he secured offers hope in forgiveness and perfect justice.  He has suffered for us and suffers with us when evil seems to overcome.  In his grace, victims are healed, criminals are pardoned and seek restoration.  Redemption is an unstoppable process in the lives of those who love God no matter where they have been.  

This song has been well received.  A music writer in Greece deemed it the best unknown song of 2012.  The spaghetti western riff evokes lonely wastes, deserts or sea floors.  The drums are steady and create a shoegazer hypnosis as the guitars increase in noisy, frenetic energy.  The Wurlitzer adds dark texture throughout.   This is the backdrop for considering the themes of evil, grace, redemption, healing and judgement.