Break through, break through all my doubts
Break through, break through all my fears
Break through that I may worship You
Break through, break through all my pain
Break through, all my guilt and my shame
Break through like only You can do
Chorus
You are brighter than my darkest night
Stronger than my toughest fight
Just one touch from You my King, my friend
And I’ll never be the same again
Break through, break through
. . . like only You can do.
And I got thinking: I don't "live there." I don't want to "live there." I don't want even to try to "live there" with those emotions: doubts, fears, pain, shame.
Somewhere during the service someone mentioned infirmities.
I realize all of these emotions and physical experiences are part of life. Everyone experiences them. Sometime. Sometimes. But . . . Why would we--the church--"embrace" these things? Almost revel in them? . . . Isn't it true that the church, in history, has tended to "dwell" there? A major part of Christian "piety" through the years seems to have focused on remorse, regret, "woe is me," "I am unworthy," "I am but a worm." . . .
But then I look at the people who seem, often, to dwell in these regions--some of whom are very close to me: I don't want to be like them! I don't feel like a loser. I don't experience feelings of shame for the way I live. (At least not often!) And while I have plenty of doubts about a lot of things; and while I can think of things for which I realize I should be--need to be--afraid; and while I can think of battles I need to fight: somehow . . . I don't dwell in meditations about such things.
[I can imagine medieval knights meditated on such things--and needed to engage in such meditations. They were living in the midst of battles that deserved fear and required strength of a nature few of us today ever require. . . . ]
But then I got thinking: the things I think of as needing battle, as engendering fear: they are of a completely different nature than the things with which those I know, for whom life itself is a "struggle" . . . --The things I fear and battle are of a completely different nature than the things that those people "fear" and "battle."
I want to tell these others, "Get over [your (unfounded) fears and] your 'struggles'! It's time to move on with your life!"
. . . So . . . Where does one go if one wants to take on bigger battles than personal survival? Is there room in the Protestant church for committed communities that seek to do "great things" for God?
And . . . what about songs that focus less upon "me" and my (potential) "woe-is-me" state and more on the majesty and power and greatness of God . . . almost without reference to me? ----Even some semi-"contemporary" songs like Joey Holder's 17-year-old Scripture-based standard "Unto the King" (from 1 Timothy 1:17):
Now unto the King Eternal
Unto the King Immortal
Unto the King Invisible
The only wise God
The only wise God
(Repeat)
Unto the King be glory and honour
Unto the King forever
Unto the King be glory and honour
Forever and ever
Amen
Amen
