Guilty Pleasure Songs
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Everyone has their guilty pleasure songs. Mine are Mandy Moore’s “Wanna Be with You” and “Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors. This past Friday night, while I was out roller skating with my boys, I was enjoying my Mandy Moore fix when Savage Garden came up next in the “suggested songs” queue. I remembered loving “Truly, Madly, Deeply” as a middle schooler, so I enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
It had been years since I heard this song, so I was hearing the song with “fresh ears”. The lyrics floored me. Although many love songs can be turned into worship songs, this one seemed more suited in most parts as a worship song than a human love song. So much so that the next time I hopped off the rink, I did a quick search on the song origins, wondering if Savage Garden had some hidden spiritual agenda. Alas, Darren Hayes apparently intended it as a human love song to his family (esp. his wife), from whom he was living apart at the time.
But, just for kicks, can we pretend Hayes had other intentions?
A New Beginning, A Reason for Living
The song starts off like a sappy love song. The singer promising to be someone’s dream, wish, and fantasy. Then there’s a shift.
I will be strong, I will be faithful 'cause I'm counting on
A new beginning
A reason for living
A deeper meaning
The word “faithful” of course helped me make the leap to a spiritual meaning. And with the line “a new beginning” I began reminiscing about my new beginnings in faith.
There were two “huge leaps” forward in my faith journey. The first came in college, the second about three years ago. In both instances, it wasn’t external circumstances or an emotional state that drove it but rather a shift in the will, a “will” to have a different life with deeper meaning. A life consecrated to God.
This consecration gave me strength. I knew that although I was physically the same person, something huge had shifted internally on the spiritual plane. I was making a new beginning in my life. As I went “all in” for God and my life took on new meaning, my will gave me the power to be faithful to my promise.
So, right out of the gate, this song was speaking to me on a spiritual level.
Blissed Out with God
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Then we get to the chorus.
I wanna stand with you on a mountain
I wanna bathe with you in the sea
I wanna lay like this forever
Until the sky falls down on me
I’ve definitely had romantic moments (all G rated) in the ocean, on mountaintops, and under the stars. But even more so, the times when I’ve felt closest to God, that I felt wrapped and absorbed in his love, were in the mountains, by the ocean, and just lying in bed happy to be alive.
Those moments of complete bliss, feeling surrounded, upheld, and guided by God, were “mountaintop” experiences. As Peter says at the transfiguration,
“Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Matthew 17:4
In those moments, we just want to be like that forever, “until the sky falls”. It surpasses any feeling of earthly love. It is all-encompassing and takes us out of ourselves into union with God.
Surrounded by God’s Protection
Yes, there’s more. My boys (now middle-aged men) from Savage Garden just didn’t stop…
The tears of joy for all the pleasure and the certainty
That we're surrounded by the comfort and protection
Of the highest powers
Just recently, I’ve found myself living in that blissed out state more and more, and it’s bringing me to “tears of joy” on a regular basis. God is teaching me that I am ALWAYS surrounded by his comfort and protection. It’s not wishful thinking, it’s a certainty. As God is teaching me, unlike earthly happiness, heavenly joy doesn’t have to end. I can’t summon those moments, they seem to be completely a gift of God’s grace. However, it does seem that they are more frequent the more I will to live in communion with God.
Twice in the Gospel of John, Jesus expresses his desire that our “joy be full” (John 15:11 and John 16:24). In John 16:24, Jesus teaches us to “ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
Live confidently that God wants you to have the joy and peace that are not circumstance dependent but rather reliant on being eternally surrounded within and around by God’s presence.
You Don’t Have to Close Your Eyes (though you might want to after viewing the below AI-image fail)
(Back to serious…). And then came the line that led me to turn this into a blog post.
You don't have to close your eyes
It's standin' right before you
All that you need will surely come
I’m a big meditator (take a look at the website url!), but we don’t have to close our eyes to find union with God. God’s presence is all around us. As I skated around the rink that night, I took in parents laughing with their kids, couples skating together hand-in-hand, adults roller dancing (is that a thing?) to the music on their headphones, teens laughing as they chased each other around the rink, and the cutest pre-schoolers with their little balance scooters smiling from ear to ear. Each one of these people were adored by God and I could palpably feel God’s joy at it all.
When we align our wills and intentions with God’s, God’s joy becomes our own. It truly is standing right before us, if we have eyes to see it.
Finally, all that we need will be provided. Every time we feel slightly “off”, it is just an indication that we not fully aligned with God. These challenges are exactly what we need to become fully in-tune with God. God knows exactly what lessons we need to reach our highest and best. When we trust in His plan, we release our resistance to the flow of life and enter into a state of full, blissful surrender.
Pollyanna
I’ll leave you with this thought. If you’re a first-time visitor to this blog and scoffing because “I clearly don’t know what you’re going through,” you’re right, I don’t, and I’m sorry things are tough for you right now. Please remember that this joy and bliss has NOTHING to do with what is going on in the world and entirely to do with what is going inside of us.
As Jesus promises us,
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
-John 16:33
So, may you take heart that God wants you to have peace and joy. May you be truly, madly, deeply in love with Him.