Your Mind Is Not Your Friend
Andrew Duhon, Josh Ritter, Pinegrove, and The National
“Don't you understand?
Your mind is not your friend again
It takes you by the hand
And leaves you nowhere”
-The National feat. Phoebe Bridgers
Can you relate?
Read all the way through to catch Scott Meadows’ reflection on the song, “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend.” It’s beautiful. Here are three songs we recommend for your Friday (and weekend) playlist.
Andrew Duhon | Promised Land (Ben)
This is the opening track on Andrew Duhon’s 2022 album, Emerald Blue. Duhon’s got soul and the gift of “turning-a-phrase,” which is a recipe for a good song. If you don’t know his music, you will immediately have a few musical influences come to mind - I’d love to hear who those are - we can compare notes.
Josh Ritter | For Your Soul (Kody)
Josh is one of my all-time favs. This song from his new album, Spectral Lines, is requested every time we get in the car by our two-year-old and three-year-old. It’s fun and easy to sing along to. I love the female backup vocals during the chorus. We recorded a video of the kids singing for Josh and he loved it. Pretty special tweet right here:
Pinegrove | Aphasia - Montclair, NJ (Jonathan)
Can’t quite place their sound, but I know I like it. Maybe it’s indie rock, maybe it’s alt-country, either way, Pinegrove stands out. This song Aphasia is one of my favorites of theirs and is featured on a new live album they recorded in their hometown in New Jersey. The original is so good but I love hearing the crowd on this live album.
Bonus Track: Your Mind is Not Your Friend: A Reflection on The National and Phoebe Bridgers by Scott Meadows
In his extended poem titled “Station Island XI,” Seamus Heaney beautifully captures the voice of his forebearer St. John of the Cross. Heaney, knowing himself to be a sinner, gazes into murky water only to forget all sight of the imago Dei in himself.
Out of the mud, “a monk’s face that had spoken years ago from behind a grille” appears before him. It is here where Heaney directly quotes St. John of the Cross as the monk exhorts, “Read poems as prayers.”
Looking forward to the Eternal Fountain, Christians may approach poems, prose, and song as prayers themselves. Our transcendent Creator is the great Architect, Author, and Artist of creation.
All love songs point to and signify Christ's archetypal love. Displaying both literal and allegorical love for His bride, each member of the church is the recipient of His grace. Ancient, contemporary, and future songs showcase the eternal glory and creativity of He who ignites the imagination of men.
It is my conviction that we as Christians may contemplate the good, the true, and the beautiful in all art. Read poems as prayers and enjoy music as shadows of our final end – the supreme rest of worship amidst heavenly song above!
In recent weeks I have been taken off guard by one song, quickly becoming a prayer. Just as the Psalter displays the full spectrum of emotion within human experience, so may we find it in human creativity. This particular track carries a melancholic tone: Your Mind is Not Your Friend (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
Last summer the band The National released a song with Bon Iver titled “Weird Goodbyes,” which beautifully depicts lyrics of separation and loss.
“The grief it gets me, the weird goodbyes.” While dealing with the sorrow of losing a family member, undergoing major life transitions, and experiencing God's loving guidance, I discovered catharsis and emotional resonance in The National's lyrics. However, their new song with Phoebe Bridgers has proven even greater.
“Your Mind is Not Your Friend” isn’t a complicated song lyrically. Overall, the chorus and verses are repeated ad nauseum as if learned from a contemporary worship band. Despite its simplicity, these words strike a chord deeper within me than many modern worship songs. Through a grand orchestra and well-crafted lyrics, The National achieved the biblical feeling of lament within a poem as prayer.
“Don't you understand?
Your mind is not your friend again
It takes you by the hand
And leaves you nowhere
you are like a child
You're gonna flip your lid again
Don't you understand?
Your mind is not your friend”
Lament.
Confusion.
Unknown.
Don’t you understand?
A Pauline expression that we cannot control our own flesh.
What we want to do, we cannot do, and what we do not want to do, we do.
The band members of The National are presumably in their 40s-50s. As they’ve gotten older, life has likely taught them that our inner child always remains. Their lyrics demonstrate the maturity of lament.
Some days I wake up in a melancholic state. Even when life is well, its cause is undefinable. The heart of man is like deep waters, often requiring God’s help and biblical community to draw it out. My friend Levi (the Poet) wrote a beautiful piece by typewriter that now hangs over my prayer corner: “Try not to overthink it all… Try not to go digging for your deepest, darkest motive. Just be alive.”
It's true – some days your mind will not be your friend. This is a prayer of lament. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. This popular Solomonic phrase alludes to enigma, mystery, and the incomprehensible motions of the human experience. When I experience this feeling of sadness, I know there are two paths. One is the feeling of self-discouragement and debasement. The other is the emotional release and supplication to Jesus that lament provides.
Mankind knows more about outer space and the ocean’s depths than it does about the mind. Your mind is not your friend. We so easily forget this. When we think that life makes sense, pride is crushed by the realism of experience. This crushing reality points to our desperate need for dependence on God each and every day.
Sometimes we flip our lids. Sometimes our inner child comes out. God knows how horrible I can be when performance-driven anxiety arises. Our affections are misaligned from the fall and will only find wholeness in Jesus. Sanctification and our longing toward new creation is one of the saint’s sweetest delights.
Though your mind is not your friend,
Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.
He has intricately woven us in the womb.
He has directed our ways and establishes the work of our hands.
He is near to and intimately mindful of mankind.
He will return to judge the living and the dead.
He will wipe away every tear.
He is actively clearing this world of sin, preparing the way for new creation.
He has, is, and will be the object of every longing in our soul.
One day your mind will be your friend. Until then, lean on the mind of Christ.
Scott Meadows is a grad student in theology who lives in Kansas City, MO. An album he loves released before his birth is Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” and the song first up on his desert island playlist would be “Decimal” by Novo Amor.
What’s on your playlist right now? Swap your songs with us! Leave a comment or email us at emailthemusicswap@gmail.com.
-TheMusicSwap