Share the Well by Caedmon's Call
So Different That Maybe It Will Make Us PrayMy first thought when I heard this album was, "What the heck?!" Had I written a review on a first listening, it may have been one or maybe two stars. The sound is nothing like Caedmon's normal sound. The content is definitely a step away from the normal. But on my second and third and fourth and now on probably my fifteenth, I think I see what this album is all about.
Many of the fans of Caedmon's Call are much like me. We prize theology and view a literal interpretation of the Bible as the best way for us to know who God is and how we should live in response to that knowledge. We love to hear of God's sovereignty, power, holiness, justice, love, and grace. We can explain how that knowledge should lead a Christian a Christian to love others, to share the gospel, to be gracious, to pursue godliness and the things of God over worldly pleasures and aspirations...the problem is that I think that we get so comfortable in our theology and in our conceptualizations that we forget the billions of people that we do not reach. The songwriters for Caedmon's Call have always been concerned with this struggle that they have identified within themselves; we see it in their former cds; we see it in Derek Webb's solo works (all of which I HIGHLY recommend). But I think that even when we are challenged in those things, we can grow comfortable in the abstractness of it.
That's where this disc comes in. With its narrative inserts, its world style, and very different sort of lyrics and sounds, Caedmon's Call confronts us with a world that we are often guilty of not thinking much about, not doing much about, and certainly not praying much about. My prayer is that this disc will not disappoint you because it is different, but its difference will snap us-the hearers out of our comfort zones-and knock us to our knees in prayer for these countries and maybe some of us out of our suburbs and onto planes or boats or whatever to share our Savior with the billions who do not know Him.