So I was sitting in RCIA yesterday and a song came to
mind. The group is Vertical Horizon and
the song is “Everything you Want”
“He's everything you want
He's everything you need
He's everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
He says all the right things
At exactly the right time
But he means nothing to you
And you don't know why”
It occurred to me that, I’ve always taken this as to be the anthem of
the guy in the friend-zone. For those of
you who have no idea what that is, it when a person has a crush on another
person, but the person they have a crush on treats them only as a friend…at
best. It applies to men and women
equally. Now I’ve loved this song for
years, because it really does nail that dynamic between the two parties…but
like I said, it occurred to me during RCIA.
So I jotted a note down really quick so I could get back to the class,
but it’s been sitting there in the back of my head until it finally occurred to
me…and the revelation has probably already hit you by now…this could easily
describe our relationship with Christ.
“But Michael…” I hear you say “That’s just the chorus of the song. Surely the who song can’t apply to our
relationship with Christ.”
Wanna bet?
“Somewhere there's speaking
It's already coming in
Oh and it's rising at the back of your mind
You never could get it
Unless you were fed it
Now you're here and you don't know why”
I am really trying not be sarcastic here, so I’ll just say it straight…this
applies to everyone going through existential crisis, trying to find meaning
and direction in life.
“But under skinned knees and the skid marks
Past the places where you used to learn
You howl and listen
Listen and wait for the
Echoes of angels who won't return”
Every single time we call on God during a crisis we feel his presence,
but then we wonder why His presence isn’t there 24-7, solving every single
problem we encounter. How many times do
we make the same mistake more than once?
It may seem like the angels won’t return, but we’ve seen the solutions…we
just need to acknowledge that God has given us the answer we just need to stop
making the very specific mistake.
“You're waiting for someone
To put you together
You're waiting for someone to push you away
There's always another wound to discover
There's always something more you wish he'd say”
Sometimes we live off conflict, we project our pushing God away as Him
pushing us because then we can validate our problems, feel defined by our
struggles because we want the solutions to come to us.
“But you'll just sit tight
And watch it unwind
It's only what you're asking for
And you'll be just fine
With all of your time
It's only what you're waiting for”
We have a tendency to ignore problems, even though we could be taking
actions to resolve them. A popular one
is money, where we are out of a job and waiting for an opportunity to land in
our lap, but in fact we need to put in effort to find opportunity and figure
out a solution in the meantime. How many
are out there waiting for the right job, when they could have taken over a
dozen “right now” jobs?
“Out of the island
Into the highway
Past the places where you might have turned
You never did notice
But you still hide away
The anger of angels who won't return”
Just because you are angry at a situation or a problem, doesn’t mean it’s
a problem you should be angry at. I
mentioned this on Facebook yesterday, which a lot of life’s problems are like
clothes tangled around a washing machine agitator. If all we do is tug as hard as we can on the
part of the problem closes to the top, ie the most convenient part to reach,
all we are going to do is frustrate ourselves and cause that coiling knot to
get tighter. We get frustrated at life’s
problems because we want the solutions to be easy, but they rarely are. Pretty much every one of life’s problems can
be resolved by calmly getting to the root of the problem, which may be
uncomfortable and hard to see, but its there.
I am everything you want
I am everything you need
I am everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
I say all the right things
At exactly the right time
But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why
And I don't know why
Why
I don't know
Christ says “Come to me, I am here for you. I can help you.” But we are resistant for
reasons that defy logic. Maybe, again it’s
because we feel defined by our struggle, like it makes us important, but Christ
already thinks we’re important and wants to carry you to a resolution of those
problems.
Basically, we friend-zoned Christ and we are poorer for it.
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