Songs of the Soul | “Longtime” by Boston
Shared by Rick Blum
Like many 50-year-old men, I love the band Boston. For many of us, listening to their first album is a rite of passage during our youth. But my feelings for the band, and one song, go to a different level.
When I went to college, I had a roommate from Massachusetts, and he really looked at Boston differently. He looked at the band at a spiritual level, and how the words spoke to him personally. His inspiration helped me when I took my first job after college in Topeka, KS as a television reporter. I moved to a town where I knew no one, and I was 500 miles from anything that was familiar to me. The lyrics from the song “Longtime” by Boston helped keep me strong. “It’s been such a Longtime, I think I should be going. Time doesn’t wait for me, it keeps on rolling…”
It wasn’t just classic rock that kept me strong. When I moved to Topeka, I found a Lutheran church, where I became very active as a youth volunteer and volleyball coach. It became my second home. It was there where I felt God leading the way, when the family and friends I knew my entire life weren’t there to do it. It was where the words of the psalmist really rang true to me. “Your word is a lamp to my feet; and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
Eventually, I would leave Topeka and move closer to family and friends by coming to Wisconsin. But the song “Longtime” became my metaphor for the dreams I was trying to chase in my television career. “There’s a long road, I gotta stay in time with. I gotta keep on chasing that dream, although I may not find it….I’m always right behind it.”
As it turns out, I never quite caught the dream I was chasing. I wanted to work at a television station in Chicago where I grew up. I made it as far as Madison. But after a while, you realize that maybe the dream you were chasing, wasn’t the dream you wanted.
That hit home 2 years ago, when I finally got to see Boston play live for the first time at Breese Stevens Field. This time, I had my then 15-year-old son with me, and we had a great time… together. All the emotions I had about that song and that band hit me that night. I thought about my life. I had a loving wife, two great kids, a nice house, a 27-year career in television news. And I thought, “That sounds like a nice dream to have, too. Maybe God was leading the way after all.”
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This post is part of our Lenten devotional series “Songs of the Soul” – learn more at gslcwi.com/lent
