As you come to fill my mouth
With food for thought from your abundant past,
Why wonder that I do not eat?
For I am not molded in your cast.
You tell me you can tell me what truth is,
But truth is that truth for right now
Is not yours to give.
You tell me you can tell me how life should be,
But my life is not your life to live.
As you come to fill my mouth
With food for thought from your abundant past,
Why wonder that I do not eat?
For I am not molded in your cast.
When I was young you gave me milk.
As I began to grow up, you gave me meat.
But now the time has come for me to feed myself,
You’d rather see me starve to death
Than sick from what I’d eat.
You feed me from an empty spoon.
About this Song:
Sometime around 1970 I read a fascinating non-fiction book by Sunny Decker. That I can even remember her name is a real tribute to the power of her book. But the title itself left even more of an impression: An Empty Spoon.
Sunny wrote about her real-life experiences teaching out of her comfort zone in an African-American school. While I don’t recall anything specific about her story, I do remember feeling so overwhelmed when I finished reading it that I picked up my Epiphone 12-string guitar and just started playing and singing. Once something started to gel, I just kept playing it over and over.
The words to this song came very quickly–as did the tune and the chord progression. Probably faster than any of my other songs.
I can’t look back now and relate the lyrics to Sunny Decker’s book, but I can and do think about how easily adults–perhaps especially those of us who’re supposedly more mature –think we have all the answers to life’s questions. If not that, we’re apt to at least have strong opinions and recommendations about pitfalls to avoid.
Although our advice may be well thought out and legitimate, we’re often a bit too free offering it at times. And it may not be received as willingly as it is offered.
As Bob Dylan said so eloquently around that same time in American history, “The times they are a-changing.” So “An Empty Spoon” becomes an imaginary protest against those of us who fail to note the changes and think things ought to continue being done the same old way.
That’s apt to be true even regarding spiritual matters. While the truth of God’s love and His plan for salvation for each of his creatures through faith in Jesus Christ is unchanging, the world is filled with false religions. If we are to share our faith with others, we need to know how Christianity differs from the other faiths that are vying for young peoples’ attentions.
Even though we may speak the truth in love, we must make its relevance evident to those we’re sharing it with. Else we may be just like the person to whom the lyrics of “An Empty Spoon” are addressed.
If this post speaks to you, please share a comment.
Free lead sheets (lyrics, tune, and chords) are available for many of my songs. Click on the Lead Sheets tab at the top of this page to see whether one is available for this song. Videos for many of my songs, some recorded at home and some at our church’s nursing home ministry, can be accessed at my website, RogerBruner.com, under the Listen tab.
Look for me again next Wednesday. Better still, subscribe to receive these weekly posts by email.
Best regards,
Roger
Links you might be interested in:
- Roger’s other blog, On Aging Gracelessly
- Roger’s website, RogerBruner.com
- Roger’s free Christian lead sheets
- Roger’s books on Amazon
As I Come Singing. . . 