Music and Lyrics

It's currently 11:52, and I should be in bed right now. Or studying. But I've had this thought the past week, and want to share it before I forget it. As of late, I've heard many people singing the tune "Lead me to the Cross" by Hillsong United. It's a beautiful song. I adore it. Truly, I do. I guess I've just come to recognize that *trying to restate the obvious, and it isn't quite working for me* there is a difference between music and lyrics.

In the day of Jesus, I highly doubt that you would have seen people walking around singing "Lead me to the Cross." Why? Because a Cross represents death. Agonizingly, afflicted, labored, struggling death. The lyrics to Brooke Fraser's song are as follows:

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me, lead me to the cross

I believe the reason I'm finding myself annoyed is because of this: if everyone who sang this song, lived lives like this -- lives where their daily plead was God take me. Hang myself, my desires, my passions, my sins, my boasts, my life, my everything -- kill me, so that I might be alive in You. If people started living lives that reflected the lyrics to the songs they sing, I think our world would have a totally different view on followers of Jesus.

Maybe to the world, voluntary surrender and intentional death of self sounds like a preposterous idea, but if the Spirit of God came into our lives and filled us in the places that we are currently occupying, I think the world would want to know -- to know and encounter this same Spirit. They would want to experience the Spirit that is the source for our endless mercy and love -- which would be our natural expression from dwelling with the Holy One.

To experience the love of a Father so deep that nothing can separate us from it. To rendezvous with the one that will never leave us, nor forsake us -- the One who will never break our fragile hearts or hurt us. The One who rejoices over mending our mangled self, and playing the role of the lover in the stories of our lives. Maybe, the reason I'm having such a hard time with this is because as Heirs of His throne, why is it that we look so much like the Heirs of this world? Maybe it's about time we, as followers, actually reflected the One we are following.

May it be said of us that we willingly welcomed the end of ourselves -- that in partaking of His death we might have new life. May the Spirit of God, which is promised to those who believe, be heavy in your life, and live your life through you. May we be His ambassadors, and resemble our true calling in life -- sons and daughters of the King who adores us. How great the Father's love for us! How vast -- beyond all measure! That He should give His only son, to make this wretch His treasure. May you know your value in His eyes, and may all of you be all for Him.