From the Christianity Today interview with Canadian musical icon Bruce Cockburn:

“To me, everything in life is a process. There is no stopping point; you never land. If you think you’ve landed somewhere, watch out, because God or whoever is gonna pull the rug out from under you, and you are going to have to start thinking again, trying to understand how you fit into things.”

Cockburn says he doesn’t care whether people believe he’s a Christian or not.

“What’s important is recognition that there is a spiritual side of life, and that needs to be paid attention to,” he says. “There’s a real distinction between materialism and a sense of the cosmos being a deeper place than that. If it’s a deeper place, then what does that ask from us? I don’t know the answer. I’m still working on it, and that is perhaps why people are willing to listen to the stuff I put into songs.”

There’s a bit of coded language going on here – though not on Bruce’s part. I suspect it’s other Christians who say that they don’t believe he is Christian, which is another way of saying he’s not their kind of Christian. I really wish we could stop doing that. When you consider the full import of that last paragraph … there isn’t a Christian of any stripe who wouldn’t benefit from asking that question. If the cosmos is a deeper place, then what does that ask from us?

And if you’re fan you need to know about this: Brian Walsh has just released “Kicking at the Darkness: The Christian Imagination of Bruce Cockburn, via Brazos Press. Review to follow…