Dear god, I'm trying hard to reach you
Dear god, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes it’s so hard to believe in
Good god I know you have your reasons
Dear god I see you move the mountains
Dear god I see you moving trees
Sometimes it’s nothing to believe in
Sometimes it’s everything I see
Dear god, I wish that I could touch you
How strange sometimes I feel I almost do
And then I'm back behind the glass again
Oh god what keeps you out it keeps me in
Well I’ve been thinking about,
And I’ve been breaking it down without an answer
I know I’m thinking aloud but if your love's
Still around why do we suffer?
Why do we suffer?
Dear god, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes it’s so hard to believe in
Good god I know you have your reasons
Dear god I see you move the mountains
Dear god I see you moving trees
Sometimes it’s nothing to believe in
Sometimes it’s everything I see
Dear god, I wish that I could touch you
How strange sometimes I feel I almost do
And then I'm back behind the glass again
Oh god what keeps you out it keeps me in
Well I’ve been thinking about,
And I’ve been breaking it down without an answer
I know I’m thinking aloud but if your love's
Still around why do we suffer?
Why do we suffer?
I'd be lying if I said this doesn't affect me; I can identify with the writer's struggle. Sometimes no matter how much I feel God's presence and see his majesty around me I am still just faced with that puzzling question: why do we suffer? As Christians we know where suffering comes from [Gen 3], and we know where Hope is found [John 3.16]; yet, that still does not always satisfy us.
The lyrics resonate somewhere deep inside my idealistic self that longs for a perfect world - a world without suffering. I was made for something more than this beautiful but screwed up place. Creation is not what it was made to be, and we recognize that there is something deeply wrong. The writer of the song recognizes that there is something wrong.
There's a kind of paradox in our culture today. On the one hand, it tells us that there is no meaning to life so we can all live how we want with no moral standard. Yet, that same culture is crying out for justice, meaning, order, and hope. There is something in each of us reaching out, wanting to touch the divine, wanting to fix what's broken.
The recognition of that universal longing in each of us can only point us to the reality of a higher order; a good God, who created us for good. We wait expectantly for the day when suffering ends, but, in the meantime, we wrestle with discontentment. We identify with a billion other voices who know there's something more. We remain unsatisfied. We let the lyrics speak.
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
Then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared.
Speak to me in the light of the dawn, mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh, and with all creation groan, as I wait for hope to come for me
- C.S. Lewis Song, Brooke Fraser
The lyrics resonate somewhere deep inside my idealistic self that longs for a perfect world - a world without suffering. I was made for something more than this beautiful but screwed up place. Creation is not what it was made to be, and we recognize that there is something deeply wrong. The writer of the song recognizes that there is something wrong.
There's a kind of paradox in our culture today. On the one hand, it tells us that there is no meaning to life so we can all live how we want with no moral standard. Yet, that same culture is crying out for justice, meaning, order, and hope. There is something in each of us reaching out, wanting to touch the divine, wanting to fix what's broken.
The recognition of that universal longing in each of us can only point us to the reality of a higher order; a good God, who created us for good. We wait expectantly for the day when suffering ends, but, in the meantime, we wrestle with discontentment. We identify with a billion other voices who know there's something more. We remain unsatisfied. We let the lyrics speak.
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
Then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared.
Speak to me in the light of the dawn, mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh, and with all creation groan, as I wait for hope to come for me
- C.S. Lewis Song, Brooke Fraser
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