And y 'all welcome back to the semi seminary
the podcast that takes theology out of the clouds
and Sits it right down on the gravel where we
real folks walk we talk Doctrine without the
dogma scripture without the scowl and sometimes
well just sometimes We find Jesus in the course
of a red dirt country song today. We're doing
just that we're diving deep like Augustine meets
Galatians meets Apostle Paul deep into Jason
Boland's Dark and Dirty Mile. This isn't just
a country tune. It's a piece of pastoral theology
disguised in steel guitar and worn out boots.
So settle in. It's going to be a long walk, but
that's kind of the point. So here's the map.
We're going to walk through Dark and Dirty Mile
verse by verse, but not as music critics. We're
going to walk as theologians. Systematic theology
gives us categories like harmatology and anthropology
and sotirology and eschatology, and we're going
to use them like lenses to read the dusty poetic
scripture of this song. But first, let's define
the mile. This isn't just a literal It's the
existential pilgrimage of a broken human soul.
In Bowen's song, the road is a symbol of inherited
fallenness, human limitation, and just, I mean
just barely, enduring hope. Think Pilgrim's Progress
meets Roman's Seven. So the song opens with the
lines, I refuse to spend the rest of my days
trying to get away from all of the things I did
when I knew not. what I had done. This is a confession,
and not the weak mumbled kind. This is liturgical.
It's psalm. It's raw. It's the voice of someone
who's lived in the shadow of guilt and is just
done pretending it's not there. Theologically,
this introduces armatology, the doctrine of sin.
Not just sin as action, but sin as ignorance,
and as a condition. Augustine would call this
concupescence, the internal inclination towards
sin, even when we don't know the name of what
we're doing. Paul echoes in Acts 17 and 30 in
the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but
now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
There's a grace in realizing what we've done.
because that's where the repentance actually
begins. Big part of the human experience, shame.
Verse 2 says, because we'll all be dust a few
short years from now. This verse delivers one
of the song's most potent cultural critiques.
A theology of the body under tension, Boland
names the confusion sown by a world that oscillates
between condemning and commodifying the body.
Theologically, this aligns with the doctrine
of anthropology. What it means to be human, embodied,
fallen, and then redeemed. The body is to be
feared, echoing purity culture's legacy of associating
flesh with shame. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 reminds
us, the body is a temple, not a trap. But here,
cultural messaging has reduced it to a liability.
In fact, it's the path to mortal sin. Then, The
same time it's to be wanted and not in the sacred
song of songs kind of way but in a Panic nihilistic
sense the idea that we should somehow grasp pleasure
now because will all be dust is the worldview
of Ecclesiastes 8 and 15 eat drink be merry for
tomorrow we die It's Augustine's disordered love
at full volume misdirected desires in a body
we neither understand nor honor. This theology
is doing business with shame and mortality and
hope, the doctrine of what it means to be human.
And here, the human is a creature of desire,
but also of exhaustion. and of rebellion. Boland
continues with the words, it's a broken hearted
world we inherit. All we're told to do is sin
and bear it for a little while on the dark and
dirty mile. Now we've hit the chorus, the theological
gold mine. And at the center of that mine, that
middle line, all we're told to do is sin and
bear it. This lyric strikes the heart. of our
modern malaise and our ancient curse of sin.
It is not a call to hedonism, rather it's a recognition
of resignation, a world in which sin is assumed,
and where virtue feels optional or irrelevant,
and ultimately we're suffering simply the price
of existence. Theologically, this is the doctrine
of total depravity made lyrical. Not that every
person is as bad as they could be, but that every
part of the world is touched by the fall. This
is Romans 3 and 10. There is no one righteous,
not even one. And to bear it is not passivity.
No, it's not. It's endurance. It evokes James
1 and 12. Sid is the one who perseveres under
trial. It also echoes the first letter of Peter
5 and 10. 10. And after you have suffered a little
while, the God of all grace will himself restore
firm strength and establish you. This lyric names
are groaning, but it doesn't erase hope. The
phrase, for a little while, is profoundly eschatological.
It's the soul reminding itself that pain is not
eternal, and that even exile has an expiration
date. It's a broken -hearted world. Hey, that's
Genesis 3. The world we inherit isn't Eden, it's
exile. This chorus is the 90th Psalm with a pedal
steel, a reminder that our days are numbered
and fleeting. Psalm 90 and 10 says the years
of our lives are 70 or by reason of strength
80, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They're
sooner gone and we all fly away. It's lament
and longing in equal measure. All we're told
to do is sin and bear it. This isn't theological
prescription, it's cultural diagnosis. Bolan
here isn't saying that it's right, he's saying
that it's real. It's a commentary on systematic
fallenness. That's Romans 8 and 20, for the creation
was subjected to frustration, but in hope, but
only for a little while. That's where the eschatology
of this song sneaks in, because time is finite
and the mile does in. Now, let's look to some
of the wisdom of the song. The next verse, It
took a while at least for me to live enough till
I believed none of what I heard and less than
half of what I saw. That, friends, is a verse
of Ecclesiastes with a southern drawl. It's not
just mistrust. It's the wisdom that comes after
disillusionment, blind critiques, untested faith,
or borrowed beliefs. It demands an incarnate
theology, not ideas, but lived. individual suffered
truth market days have come and gone some were
lost and some are on their way back home to figure
out a place to place it all this is the theology
of restlessness the market days are missed opportunities
maybe parables of the talons left buried but
there's movement on their way back home that's
That's repentance. That's Luke 15. That's the
story of the prodigal son who squandered his
inheritance and came to himself amongst the pigs
only to find a father waiting for him with open
arms. That's hope. Finally, Jason says, finally,
I realized That knowledge better make you wise
or all the nots you've learned believe you in
a ball. Again, this is Proverbs theology. The
biblical claim that knowledge without the fear
of the Lord is useless. James 3, 15 through 17
calls out such wisdom. It says, such wisdom does
not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual
and demonic. Wisdom in this verse is not information.
It's transformation. It's not knowing that we
live, it's knowing how to live. Otherwise, the
same knowledge that promises freedom ends up
tying us up in despair. Jason continues, helpless
as when we were born, threadbare and wholly worn,
worn out, shivering as summer gives way to early
fall. The final image is one of decline. aging
and mortality. This is Psalm 103. As for man
and woman, their days are like grass. The wind
passes over it and it is gone. This is the theology
of frailty, of return, of ashes to ashes. It's
the final stanza. It's the final verse before
salvation. The song ends where it began. It's
a broken -hearted world that we inherit. But
now we've seen the depth of that brokenness,
the shape of that inheritance, and the hope that
while subtle, still sings to us between the lines.
The dark and dirty mile is a long obedience in
the same direction. It's sanctification. It's
exile with a compass. And in this, we see homotology,
sin named and felt, anthropology, humanity, and
motion and limitation. Sotirology hinted rescue
through confession and wisdom, and eschatology,
again, a mile that eventually ends and where
glory begins. Jason didn't write a systematic
theological textbook. No, no, no. He wrote something
much more honest. A soundtrack for weary saints.
And maybe that's what we need. less perfect doctrine,
more dirt under the fingernails truth, songs
that let us walk our own dark and dirty miles
with perhaps a little more courage because in
the end the only theology that matters most is
the kind that walks with us. Hey, thanks for
walking along with me today on the semi seminary.
It's old pastor Jim here listen if this episode
helped Maybe you see a little more gospel in
your gravel. Do me a favor share it with a friend
and as always remember Man theology isn't just
for classrooms or church rooms. Sometimes it's
for long roads Sore feet and a song that seems
to tell the truth I'll see you next time you