Just reading these comments is really powerful- especially eriequiet's!
i agree that this song is about any trial in life. God pushes us, tests us, and in the end uses the pain of it to develop us into His likeness (that is, if we don't jump ship in the process). As my pastor says, "nothing teaches you a lesson like pain. When something hurts, you don't forget it. Think about when you were a kid. Maybe you don't remember every second of summer camp, having fun with your frineds, but i bet you remember every single time you got a whoopin'! you even remember why you were in trouble..."
People need to feel pain in order to change, and this is really relevant with regard to God, because, left to ourselves, being constantly blessed out the wazoo, we're the oposite of useful to His purpose, because we either take Him for granted, taking credit for our skills and blessings, or we simply remain stagnant in our faith. We never grow. So, yes, He could use us even as we're corrupted and sinful. But where does that leave us, as far as eternity? No, pain is something built into us to help us learn, to break us down to our most basic, incompetent selves, so that we can precisely see the power of God's hand as He swoops in at the final milisecond to deliver us. We say, "whew! that was a close one! i thought i was a goner." when in reality, His hand wasn't away from you for a second. and sure, it's easy to say, "there will be hard times, so that we'll be like gold that's been purified through flames." What we seem to forget sometimes is that, in order to be purified, you need to /go through fire/. And i think this song really was born out of that period when all you can see, and all you can feel, is that flame, and you want with everything you have, to just let go and quit. Whoever wrote this is blessed with an immense amount of couage, faith, and strength that makes for a mature christian who's as tough as leather, and shines golden from the inside out.
Just reading these comments is really powerful- especially eriequiet's!
i agree that this song is about any trial in life. God pushes us, tests us, and in the end uses the pain of it to develop us into His likeness (that is, if we don't jump ship in the process). As my pastor says, "nothing teaches you a lesson like pain. When something hurts, you don't forget it. Think about when you were a kid. Maybe you don't remember every second of summer camp, having fun with your frineds, but i bet you remember every single time you got a whoopin'! you even remember why you were in trouble..." People need to feel pain in order to change, and this is really relevant with regard to God, because, left to ourselves, being constantly blessed out the wazoo, we're the oposite of useful to His purpose, because we either take Him for granted, taking credit for our skills and blessings, or we simply remain stagnant in our faith. We never grow. So, yes, He could use us even as we're corrupted and sinful. But where does that leave us, as far as eternity? No, pain is something built into us to help us learn, to break us down to our most basic, incompetent selves, so that we can precisely see the power of God's hand as He swoops in at the final milisecond to deliver us. We say, "whew! that was a close one! i thought i was a goner." when in reality, His hand wasn't away from you for a second. and sure, it's easy to say, "there will be hard times, so that we'll be like gold that's been purified through flames." What we seem to forget sometimes is that, in order to be purified, you need to /go through fire/. And i think this song really was born out of that period when all you can see, and all you can feel, is that flame, and you want with everything you have, to just let go and quit. Whoever wrote this is blessed with an immense amount of couage, faith, and strength that makes for a mature christian who's as tough as leather, and shines golden from the inside out.
ok, The End.