Pressing On

This is some of the most amazing Gospel music my ears have ever heard.

Such passion, I love this song.

This album is my first accidental confrontation with Bob Dylan some twenty years ago. Believe I rescued the vinyl from the trash and remembered it since.

The line: "What's lost has been found, what's to come has already been" shows the miracle faith really is, because it comes from within. It also shows our lack of appreciation of the miracle our life fundamentally is.

The closing line: "Because he sinned I got no choice, it run in my vein" annoyed me at first: I get annoyed, because we are all personally responsible for our actions and hiding behind faith doesn't absolve you from your sins. -Only faith can do that. The law is another more mudane matter :-)

It really annoyed me. After a while I explored the significance of the context, where "what to come, has already been" connects to the inherent mental constitution of human beings: In Dylans words: [the sin].."runs in my veins" and I cant see it before its too late, because it has “already been". Thus we are saved because of what we are. -No matter what that is, and no matter what our peers believe it is or should be.

We are inherently sinners and there is nothing we can do about it. But he is "pressing on" anyway? Why do that, when everything is predetermined? To transcend divinity and its predetermination? Maybe the answer is to strive to be the best person you can be, even when you can never succeed. Is the challenge really to accept the inherent shortcomings when striving for a goal you can never reach? If no, why bother to press on?

In short, I personally see the song as a concrete application of the concept of hope regardless of religion.