So, I regularly come across lyrical fallacies in songs that we sing in church. I’m not trying to nitpick every song, because I’m sure that there are some songs that speak to me that might not make that much sense when you really think about it. And I know that God can totally use anything to make His point. I mean, during this song today there were tons of people touched by it and a woman’s eye got healed. Bam. Like that. God is srs bsnss, y’all.
I don’t think that the songs we sing in a service really influence our thoughts or perceptions all that much- it’s the reverse. The songs that make us feel something more than usual, that stir our minds and souls, are the indicators of our current spiritual state. So when we get REALLY caught up in a song, I like to look at it and see why we really let those certain words speak to us. Sometimes it makes sense, and other times it’s really disturbing.
Today, the song said:
As I lift my hands toward heaven let Your fire fall down on me
Rekindle the fire within me, Lord, once again
Sounds great right?
Except, when you think about it….
…why’d we let the fire go out?
AGAIN?
Obviously, it’s a recurring problem if we’re saying, “once again.” I mean, really? God’s anointing doesn’t just flicker and fade and need a good dose of gas thrown on it to start going again. He’s there, constant. If we allow ourselves to become immersed in His presence and glory, the anointing on our lives will remain just as strong and constant. It will be unquenchable no matter what our circumstances are.
What if we took a new perspective on church services? At least at my church. We treat it as a a way to fix the problems of the last week, a way to return to equilibrium so we can just let the law of entropy go to work in our spiritual lives for one more week, causing us to fall apart at the seams and return to church the following Sunday to have Jesus put us back together again like so many Humpty Dumpties. Rinse. Repeat.
What if we used it instead as a springboard for the next week? Rather than trying to avoid the problems that we caused for ourselves the week before by asking God to fix everything, we could open our eyes to see what we could do, with His leading, to make things around us better. To learn and grow by putting our feet on solid ground and forcing them to move forward rather than flailing around in the ether and hoping something sticks.
To see all of the congregants so taken by these lines really struck me in an uncomfortable way. Is this what sounds good to us? Is this what we truly think that God is trying to do in us? Do we need to get baptized every week to make sure we’re cleansed and ready for new life?
Why are we still begging for the same old thing? God said that He would make all things new and that He wants us to sing to Him a new song. Maybe we should just get unstuck. Maybe we should let the fire blast us out of our rut this time, and never let it burn out.
