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Ya Hey

this is the kind of beauty i always aspire to translate to my fiction: 

this cover made me stop and notice the following lyrics as if it's the first time i'm hearing it:

all the cameras and files
all the paranoid styles
all the tension and fear
of a secret career
and i can't help but feel
that You see the mistakes
but You let it go

it hits me in a new way. "all the tension and fear of a secret career": how often i longed to just obey and finish my book already and query agents and take the plunge, jump into the river of doubt, trust God, let go. how it all feels so secret, this career that's yet to actually be born, held hostage by fear of failure, dependence on self, lack of trust in God's plans.

this song is honestly so beautiful (and the cover even more so). it is the bare confession of a band in the midst of an almost existential crisis attempting to unravel the threads of a complex God who will not reveal Himself to the faithless, to the doubters, to the skeptics, who loves not because the "fatherland" or "motherland" will love Him in return but simply because He is love, period. He is eternal, limitless, undying, everlasting, timeless love personified. "I Am that I Am".

the old testament is an incomplete book without the Messiah revealed in the new testament, because only in Jesus Christ do we begin to understand the complexity of this complex God who has been unravelling for us His complex threads throughout history, beginning with creation. in Him do we see True Love demonstrated: "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). when Jesus is removed from the equation, we are left with an albeit beautiful song but no answer to life's most important questions. we are left with a question like "so why love anything?", projecting on Love personified our incomplete, human understanding that love must be transactional (i.e. love only when you're loved), asking the Love That Cannot Stop Loving, "why love anything when no one loves You?"

nonetheless.

the yt comments got me looking into another video by The Brilliance, "Yahweh":

Jerusalem was the last place i visited before the pandemic began so that music video tugged at my heartstrings. to loosely quote one commenter, it penetrated my soul. once in a blue moon you will stumble upon a song that encompasses your mission to this world. that will remind you of your purpose and give you hope and restore your faith in what God is able to do with your life when you let Him.

what great grace God has lavished upon us through music, man. it's such a mysterious thing--music. how it changes our mood effortlessly, touches our souls (the stuff of the Divine), speaks volumes when we have no words. 

just for kicks, here's a third video - basically, if i were to describe the current book i'm working on with a song, this is it:

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