Doug Burr's "O Ye Devastator" Promo from Jon Todd Collins on Vimeo.


Christian, americana, folkster, Doug Burr, brandishes a mesmerizing photo to showcase the artist's 2010 album entitled, 'O Ye Devastator.' The audience peers in at a bride peeling aside her veil with a heavy laden skepticism so well haunting one wouldn't be far fetched to presume the bridegroom to be the whitest of the bunch beneath the altar. However, Burr's lyricism and imagery seem to suggest a very different bridegroom, one that cracked the world open and flipped itself upside down like an eggshell, a marital relationship so entirely different then the fleshly context we're used to. Frankly, the musician seems to be wanting to show us, us, in light of God and His Church, Jesus and His Disciple, the Holy Spirit and hollow flesh. Particularly, how he chooses to portray us is what seems so touching and real. The opening track entitled, 'A Black Wave is Comin'' reads:

A black wave is comin'
A black wave will fall
Touch your tremblin' lips to your pale fingertips
A black wave doth call

So where do you go my lover
And where do you go my friend
When every face you know and every low road
They have all become dark and dim

A black wave is comin'
A black wave will fall
Touch your tremblin' lips to your pale fingertips
A black wave doth call

So what do you see my darlin'
And what do you see my dear
I can't tell, I can't tell in the wild wood a spell
And the clouds forsake the sky here

So what do you see my lover
And what do you see my friend
I don't know, I don't know at Midnight comes a snow
I can't see, but I hear a little hymn

Alas, the final track entitled, 'High Blood and Long Evening Dresses' sings:

Breathtaker, Devastator, Forsaker, Heartbreaker
I don’t know fear, and I don’t know pain
Oh, rider, whiter than snow on fire
I don’t remember the sound of the name

A well written album review from Dick Sullivan mentions how this is, 'Burr’s real story of laboring in desire without knowledge. It’s the story of a bride not knowing how it ends, sometimes doubting the groom’s own promises of good intent. It’s a story that Doug Burr knows inwardly and, by his own admission, often forgets' (http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2010/05/doug-burrs-o-ye-devastator-calls-the-listener-to-a-public-confession/).

And in there, everywhere, are great expressions of our residing toil.

Despite the victory of the Gospel (Christ' immaculate incarnation, sinless life, miracles & ministry, death on Golgotha, bodily resurrection, call to humanity, and loving promise of return), we find ourselves beneath this consuming facade of a breaking, black, wave. We've been offered a reality nestled sweetly within the arms of our Creator, entirely fulfilled with no chance of a leak (John 4:7-14). At times, we find ourselves unfaithfully more intimately connected to the depths we've been saved from rather then the beauteous embrace that Jesus has restored between us and the Father...rather then the victory and glory we're slowly but surely, not to mention finitely in the breadth of the eternal, immersed in. There is this black wave of wavering trust and forgetful remembrance...a wave so armored in darkness we can't believe a radiant sun breaks beyond its waters. We're prone to these horrific moments in which we feel less like true believers, true disciples, and more like brides with crinkled waists, bowed face down with doubt, hiding behind the veil. We behave plagued by a human will prone to duck beneath the break of the waves rather then to collapse at the foot of the Cross. The Cross of the most beautiful, most awe-inspiring Creator we're meant to know. John the Baptist wisely articulates:

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less (John 3:30).

Whomever is reading, one must understand a particular day that fast approaches my life. It is hard for me to believe that it is so near and it is even more difficult for me to fathom it's blessing. Soon, I enter into the most deafening whisper of God's love through the utmost beautiful spirit of my bride-to-be, Rebekah. I'll stand beneath an altar and await a moment that suspends time throughout all my life: Rebekah, the Bride, approaching me at the altar of our Lord.

I've waited on this day my entire life without even knowing it! I can only adorn this process like that of a young child whom, with hopes of spotting the first star amidst a descending sun, blinks and awakes to a galaxy igniting across the night. In contrast to the blurry Burr portrayal of a bride white with fear, soon enough, I'll be living out an imagery restored with the intent and confidence of Christ' power and love. I'll be unified to my soul's counterpart by the unshakable power of God's Spirit. From that point on, day in and day out, Rebekah and I officially commit to endure life together, beside one another in humility, affection, sacrifice, passion, and thankfulness. When anger and might emerge, the foot of the Cross tramples. When selfishness and thoughtlessness peer through, the foot of the Cross will blind. When sin and darkness deprive, the foot of the Cross must atone. Just how the song reiterates, a black wave is comin' and even though the clouds forsake the sky we still have trouble seeing truth, we still have the propensity to live unfaithfully... but in the darkness there is hope; a hymn can be heard; a voice in the distance to call us home, call us to discipleship, call us closer to He who is whiter then snow on fire. Rebekah and I will play the role of that Christ-like utterance for one another.  Despite the abundance of error that will ensue, we'll strive to become mirroring images of love- that same love that hung from Golgotha in submission to the Father.

Earlier, I had been brainstorming as to what I would like engraved on my wedding band. The way I saw it, my parents lasted twenty plus years on their own strength, so what could be a message powerful enough to remind me to rely on His Strength? God's Spirit spoke:

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:41-44).

The imagery of this scene is completely heart-wrenching. I am deeply touched by the utter obedience of Jesus to heavenly ideals amidst the shear terror of humanly ones. So as it stands, Luke 22:41-44, rests beneath the surface of the band. There always to remind me of the answer to Burr's prose: "What do you see my darlin? What do you see my dear?...What do you see my lover? What do you see my friend?"

The black wave sung and the Burr bride depicted have not come into view yet.  For now, God has revealed to me the most beautiful bride my soul can know with warts and bruises to come.  In the mean time,  I see someone who has committed to gift me with the graciousness, forgiveness, and beauty that has splintered from the cross of Christ. I see the one I will give my life to the way Christ gave His. I see the one who held my face in tears and kissed me Love. I see my bride. I see my star.

I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done (Psalms 9:1).