A pastor friend, Bob Hyatt, shared a pie-chart on Facebook the other day that I really liked. The heading was: “What the LORD requires”. The slices were roughly 30% each for “do justly”, “love mercy”, and “walk humbly with God”. The final 10% was “more cowbell”. Now, if you are young or just live with your head in the sand, “more cowbell” is a reference to the classic ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch (April 8, 2000) with Christopher Walken spoofing the recording of the Blue Öyster Cult song, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper”. It is considered one of the funniest ever SNL sketches. Personally, it is one of my favorites. I can’t hear the song or see a cowbell without smiling.
So, the LORD requires “more cowbell”? I would say Bob made a perceptive, albeit intent on humor, observation, here. No doubt that God wants us to live our lives justly, mercifully, and humbly, but he wants “more cowbell”, too. In other words, we should live life fully and enthusiastically—with a smile on our face.
If I could start every day with the meditation that “the LORD requires that I do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God, and give it more cowbell”, I am going to have a great day. I am going to treat others better, and I am going to love life.
“More cowbell” is what we all need. “The Bruce Dickinson”, played by Walken, admonishes Gene Fenkel, played by Will Ferrell, to “explore the studio space”. After annoying his band mates, Fenkel delivers an impassioned speech in which he declares that Dickinson’s stature lends a great deal of weight to his opinion about the cowbell part and that, the last time he checked, there weren’t a lot of songs that feature the cowbell. He would be doing a disservice to himself and every member of the band if he “didn’t perform the hell out of this.” To me, carpe momento might just be translated, “more cowbell”.
So, when you go about your day, live justly, mercifully, and humbly, and give the world more cowbell!
Image source: NBC.com