This has song has been on repeat for me this past week.
The Lord really knows my heart and He speaks to me through music as some of you who read this may know. (I really enjoy house music.)
So far I’ve seen this song as a really chill house song, but also a song for us discerning MVs or anybody discerning a certain way of life. So I’m going to try and break this song down and share with you how I have reflected with it.
We’re a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea
But as long as You are with me, there’s no place I’d rather be
I would wait forever, exalted in the scene
As long as I am with You, my heart continues to beat
As a missionary you can be sent so far from home. Even when you live in the city you grew up in rather than living in a city that you never thought you would be sent to, I think that you can still live so “far” from home because of all the things that a missionary is called to do. Looking at the Full Time Pastoral Workers here in Canada as an example, the majority of our full-timers are in a city that is far from the place they’ve grown up. But I bet that all missionaries can agree with this statement. “As long as You are with me, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Right now as an MV I am discerning to be a Full-Time Pastoral Worker, meaning that I need to patiently, not necessarily forever. As I am exalted in the scene I will continue serving the Lord in the way he calls me. As a CFC-Youth MV “as long as I am with (Him), my heart continues to beat.”
With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay
Strolling so casually
We’re different and the same, get you another name
Switch up the batteries
The Lord is with us in every step we take, from one end of the earth to the other end. (Kyoto is in Japan and The Bay may refer to The Bay in Los Angeles California.) I don’t see my self strolling so casually, but I see the Lord walking with us wherever He sends us. To say that we are different and the same can have truth behind it. We can never be the same as Jesus, but we are definitely called to live like Him. As God’s children doesn’t that mean we are in some way called to be ‘Christ’s’ to others. Isn’t this our vision for CFC-Youth? “Being and bringing Christ wherever we are.” “We’re different and the same,” we all have other names but as we encounter God all so very differently. In this way He does “switch up the batteries.”
If you gave me a chance I would take it
It’s a shot in the dark but I’ll make it
Know with all of your heart, you can’t shake me
When I am with you, there’s no place I’d rather be
I see these next few lines as a dialogue between myself and the Lord. If You gave me a chance, Lord I would take it. This is not necessarily for just a call to be a FTPW but in every day when we see God. Even when we fail to see God “it’s a shot in the dark, but I’ll make it” because the Lord is there.
The Lord then responds saying “Know with all of your heart, you can’t shake me,” because just as much as I am in the pursuit of love, the Lord is in pursuit of me and He does not quit. And of course I respond to the Lord just simply acknowledging that “when I am with You, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
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For some of you this kind of reflection may be weird, but for anyone reading this I suggest that you to try to see what the Lord is telling you with the next verse of this song. Maybe this can be your prayer with the Lord.
We staked out on a mission to find our inner peace
Make it everlasting so nothing’s incomplete
It’s easy being with you, sacred simplicity
As long as we’re together, there’s no place I’d rather be.
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I am definitely incomplete with the Lord, for the peace I am searching for is God within me and those who I encounter everyday. Listening to songs like this really enhances my relationship with the Lord because it is something I believe I share with the Lord. When we share things with the people we love don’t we just have a better relationship with them. I’m happy that the Lord showed me this song. I firmly believe that he knows what I enjoy and this song was a gift from Him so that I can share with you what I enjoy.
I strongly believe that by sharing things that we enjoy in life, and the pains we endure in life, will strengthen the relationship you have with the Lord.
The Lord wants to be in relationship with you, He just invites you to share your life Him. And in this we will truly find that “as long as we’re together, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
And with that, may the Lord be forever praised!
