Day 11

Welcome Back!

I am currently in the middle of a 30 day challenge to listen to nothing but Christian Music. The hope is that this journey will help me grow closer to God, and help change my life in a positive way. If you want to learn more about what I am hoping to get out of this, then I suggest you go back and read Day 1 of this blog. And if you are wondering if there has been any change to my life yet in this challenge, I suggest that you go read any other day. Now, let’s get into the blog for today.

For those of you who read my blog from last night, you will know that I said I would try and put up another blog before heading to bed. Unfortunately, I was unable to do that, because grading took much longer than I had hoped. I guess it isn’t too surprising though, especially given the fact that I had 560 kids to enter grades in for a whole unit. Anyways, I am back now, and we are going to talk about a song and topic that I don’t feel is addressed enough. The song is called “Save My Life” by Sidewalk Prophets, and the topic is doing the uncomfortable thing and reaching out to help someone.

This is a song that I actually first heard while listening to the album “Live Like That”. Listening to whole albums is one of my favorite things to do, because you get to hear an artist’s full body of work. I love finding new music, so naturally I am going to want to listen to ALL of the new music. And when I heard this song, I was like “Wow, this is a powerful song!” I didn’t think too much of it though, and moved on with my life. However, a few months later I started hearing it on the radio, and I gave the song another listen. On my second listen, some of the things that I missed the first time really stuck out, and I was fully able to appreciate what the song is trying to do.

This song is one of those songs that really has a lot to say lyrically, so that is where I am going to be spending most of my attention for this blog. The song starts out by talking about a seemingly average and unimportant interaction between a waiter/waitress and a customer. The lyrics are “We’ve met half a dozen times, I know your name, I know you don’t know mine, but I won’t hold that against you. You come here every Friday night, I take your order, and try to be polite. To hide what I’ve been going through. If you, looked me right in the eyes, would see the pain deep inside? Would you take the time…” Wow.. talk about some heavy stuff! The lyrics of this song talk about how the waiter/waitress is going through some stuff, and is honestly calling out for help. The do their best to put on a happy face, but they know that if someone looks into their eye, and really looks at them, they would be able to see the pain deep inside. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have certainly felt that way before. Sometimes you just feel like you are crying out for help from anyone who will listen, and the main chorus challenges us to be the person who steps up and helps those people who need help.

The main chorus starts off by saying “Tell me what I need to hear, Tell me that I’m not forgotten, Show me there’s a God who can be more than all I’ve ever wanted. Cause right now I need a little hope, I need to know that I’m not alone. Maybe God is calling you tonight, to tell me something that might save my life.” Wow… now I don’t know about you, but writing down those lyrics just gave me chills. That is so powerful, and it is something that we don’t really ever talk about. You don’t really hear a lot of people going around and talking about how we might be able to save another person’s life by speaking into it the life giving words of Jesus Christ. There aren’t too many sermons on Sunday’s that talk about this. But this is something that is literally life and death! We need to realize that there are some moments in life that God puts us in for the very specific reason of saving another person’s life! Maybe it is when someone is about to commit suicide and they need to talk to someone, or maybe it is just someone who is about to fall away from the faith and do something that they could never recover from. Who knows, maybe someone just needs to hear about the love of Jesus Christ for the first time, and you are put in the place to share that with them. Whatever it may be, we need to have the courage to do what God is calling us to do, and to step out of our comfort zone and be there for other people.

Now, I would be done with the song review here, but the second verse has a story in it that I feel needs to be shared. The lyrics of the second verse are this: “I’m the pastor at your church, for all these years you’ve listened to my words. You think I know all the answers. But I’ve got doubts and questions too, behind this smile I’m really just like you. Afraid and Tired and Insecure, if you, could look me right in the eye, and see the real me inside, would you take the time to…” Now obviously, this heads into the main chorus again, but I want you to just read those words again and think about it. I think that we all sometimes forget that our pastor’s are real people too, and they feel things just like us. I am being completely honest when I say this, but I heard this song for the first time my Freshman year of college, and I legit had an epiphany when those words were sang. It wasn’t until then that I had even had the thought that pastors were like the rest of us. I had always held pastors up on a pedestal as if they were above me and I had to take everything that they said as truth. However, through this song, and my church back home in Iowa, I saw the truth that pastors are people too, who have real emotions. And they want to be included in things, and they want to be loved too. Back home in Iowa, the church that I attend is a very close knit family type church, and every New Year’s Day, one of the families has a soup party. Everyone in the church basically comes out to it, and that includes the pastor. Now, I have been to a few of these because one of my best buddies is a part of the family that hosts the party, and watching the people interact with their pastor outside of church has really helped shape the way I want my relationship to be with my pastor someday when I settle down. When I have a family someday, and I join a church, I am going to make sure that I know that pastor that he and his family are more than welcome to be a part of anything that we are doing, because I want him to know that we love and appreciate him and everything that God is doing through him and his family. My prayer is that you will read this and think of your pastor, and reach out to them and let them know that they are loved and cared for. They should know that they have some one there for them when times get tough, just like how they are there for you when times get tough. I hope that this blog and this song have helped you in any way, and I pray that God be with your and your pastor.