CN | Vedran Smailović: Days of Song on Spot of Scorched Earth

 

Vedran Smailović painting by Deryk Houston

"Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars." + Dale Carnegie

For this City Notes (CN) focused on when life is so searing and enflamed, the smoke seems to snuff out any hope, I wanted to highlight a story that pierced my heart and soul this week. The adapted excerpt below comes from Dominic Done's timely book, When Faith Fails, that's part memoir, part philosophical reflection, part biblical theology, and something even more.

In the Tension of Uncertainty: We All Breathe the Second-Hand Smoke of Doubt

The year was 1992 and bombs were falling throughout the country of Sarajevo as war was breaking out, decimating towns, businesses, and lives. On May 27, a bomb fell on a bakery, killing twenty-two people. It just so happened that the cellist from the Sarajevo Opera, Vedran Smailović, lived nearby. He heard the explosion and rushed outside. 

Bodies, blood, and fractured pieces of the building were scattered everywhere. Smailović was devastated but decided to fight back in the only way he knew how: music. For twenty-two days, a day for each victim, he carried his cello to the scorched site of the bombing, sat on a chair, and played. In a place of ruin, his songs became a symbol of renewal. In the confusion and tragedy of war, an anthem of peace.

Victims of that conflict, not only in Sarajevo, but throughout the world, were reminded that beauty could be born in broken places.

Our world is like that bombed-out bakery. We're confused and lonely, stretching frantically through the rubble in search of purpose. We're handed two scripts. One says there is no meaning. It's all an accident. Things happen ... 

But Jesus gives us another script. He says that life does have meaning. And everything about who you are, the breath in your lungs, the heart pounding in your chest, your tears, fears, and dreams, matter. He promises that justice will reign, mercy will triumph, what's ruined will be rebuilt; and he invites us to join him the best we know how.

Some say this is nothing more than a fantasy. And maybe they're right. But ...

I believe there is more to existence than blind, pitiless indifference.

I believe in a God who created us, loved us, gave Himself for us, and is drawing us relentlessly, inexorably, lovingly, to Himself.

I believe life has purpose.

I believe death does not have the last word.

I believe in ultimate reality and, like Nunez's valley (in H.G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind"), it is teeming with life, beauty, color, and depth.

I believe doubt is sacramental. It breaks us, wounds us, but then – if we let it – brings us back to life. I believe even when the sun goes dark, it will return again. The eclipse will pass. The world may look different, but so will we. And I believe there is more to us than matter. Where some see mud ... I see stars.

+ "See Stars" excerpt from Dominic Done's When Faith Fails: Finding God in the Shadow of Doubt, pgs. 67-69

Next post: CN | God in the Garden: Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark

Here are links to other recent CN books:

A Time To Heal (Shalom); Gathering to Anticipate Artistry; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; Red Skies, White Elephants, Gray Rhinos, Black Swans; Saintly Swagger in the Story of God

With presence, peace, and many blessings,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

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