Music Day - War Games

This song is literally my entire life for the past year and a half.

Title: War Games
Artist: Keith Green
Album: Keith Green Live
Year: circa 1975, released 2011
iTunes here; YouTube here.

Hey God
Where were You today?
You didn't answer my prayer
Seems like
I pray and I pray
And lately You are not there...

This is quite a departure from the in-your-face Keith Green of For Him Who Has Ears To Hear and it is many miles away from the joyful psalm-singing Keith Green of Songs Of The Shepherd. The rich emotional vocal style is the same, and the lovely sweeping piano work is the same, but the lyrics are very different, both in topic and in affect. Keith tackles the frustration that comes with being a Christian and seeing your life fall to pieces around you despite allegedly having the all-powerful and all-loving God of the universe on your side. This is one of the very, very few songs recorded by an artist with a Christian worldview that outright asks 'what's the point of being a Christian when I have to depend on myself for everything anyway?' Even Daniel Amos -- who do not shy away from controversial depth and frustration in their lyrics -- never (to my knowledge) come quite this close to that question.

It may be worth noting that this song was apparently written before Keith actually committed himself to Christ, but I find the pain and anger in the lyrics can be quite accurate. Sometimes you do just feel like screaming at God -- maybe it'll get His attention.