This is a video of “Untitled 3″ by Sigur Ròs (titled as “Samskeyti” on Hvart/Heim). It is perhaps one of the most emotive and heart-stirring songs that I have ever heard. It is now (after much thinking and deliberation), in my opinion, the finest Sigur Rós song ever written. The artwork is from the band’s website.
Enjoy.
A couple years ago, Jars of Clay wrote a song called “Oh My God” on their Good Monsters album. It’s truly one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard or read (it’s good without hearing the music). I’ve been reflecting on this song for the past few months and I can’t seem to escape the deep, heartfelt, and even eerie mood the song exudes. The song is about the phrase “Oh My God.” People of all backgrounds, races, religions, and creeds use it. For some, it’s a praise, a curse, a plea for help. For others, it’s a question, a knee-jerk reaction, a response to pain.
The song doesn’t have a chorus. There aren’t really “verses” either. It’s a poetic rant of the world’s problems. Dan Haseltine, Jars’ lead singer, was interviewed about the album and specifically this song. “[The phrase] means so many different things and it’s used in so many different contexts,” he said, “but in the end, it means that at some point in every person’s life, they have to confront whether or not God is real.” Who says “Oh My God”?
Liars and fools; sons and failures
Thieves will always say
Lost and found; ailing wanderers
Healers always say
Whores and angels; men with problems
Leavers always say
Broken hearted; separated
Orphans always say
War creators; racial haters
Preachers always say
Distant fathers; fallen warriors
Givers always say
Pilgrim saints; lonely widows
Users always say
Fearful mothers; watchful doubters
Saviors always say
Haseltine said that he had things like McDonald’s and the lottery in his mind when the song was written. “Those things play a weird role in the story of mankind of working out his salvation and his place in the world. And those are the kind of things that cause me to kind of have these little crisis moments.”
What kind of a world is this that there is poverty, war, genocide, and…McDonald’s? Good question. There is killing going on in the world, all the while Americans ask, “Lord, can I please have a raise? a better car? a bigger house?” Jars of Clay spent some time in Rwanda before the song was written and genocide was taking place in a church of 5,000 people. Haseltine says that those people weren’t praying for a nice car or more land, but to be delivered from death from their neighbors. “[That] causes a bit of a crisis of faith, and at the same time, it also makes me realize there has to be a God, because my own sense of justice does not have a context for this. “
Someone has to be in control of a world with so much hatred, violence, disease, hunger, and hundreds of other problems. God has a greater sense of justice and in his time, he will reconcile the world to himself. Even now, it is being reconciled to himself. My heart is to be broken and contrite over this world that is so lost and lonely. The only solution for the world’s problems is Jesus. My heart is to have such an empathy for the people of this world that I lose sleep for those who don’t know Jesus.
Sometimes I cannot forgive
And these days, mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be,
Maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I dream we’re better,
Scales were gone and faces light
When we wake, we hate our brother
We still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes,
And all the fear that keeps me silent
Falls below my heavy breathing,
What makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded
That the pain is worth the plunderSometimes when I lose my grip,
I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up
All the times I had to give in
Babies underneath their beds
Hospitals that cannot treat
All the wounds that money causes
All the comforts of cathedralsAll the cries of thirsty children - this is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers - this is our greatest offenseOh my God
“For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:3).
This song has been especially interesting to me in the past month or so. It’s by Anberlin; it’s about 9 minutes long; and it truly is an awe-inspiring, gripping song, sometimes even eerie and creepy. Nevertheless, I think everyone can relate to its theme. Here is what frontman Stephen Christian says about the song:
“Fin” (pronounced like the fin on a shark’s back) means ending in French. I felt like this was a conclusion (or a start) to my epic tug-of-war with God. I have a lot of questions, a lot that I may never really understand or have the capacity to comprehend in this lifetime. “Fin” is a series of four stories, that all tie together in the line ‘patron saint of lost causes.’ The first story is a personal memoir about my life as a child and the pull on my soul even then. I deliberated even at eight years old, that it would be better that God and the devil would just both leave me alone. The second story is about a couple from my early teen years’ church who cried for a miracle. It was a promised miracle, and it never came about. That leaves an impression. The third is about a mentor that used the guise of ‘missions work’ to leave his family in shambles and eventually decay. That plays with your salvation, when one experiences it. [The fourth story is about] Billy, a traveling ‘ healer’ who crippled my life and growth right in front of me. All these things and many, many others made me lose my salvation. But later in life I realized I needed to stop looking at Christians to see Christ. I wrestled with God, and he won.
I feel as if everyone can identify with that, especially for me in the past few weeks as I’ve been figuring out how to wrestle with the Lord. In the chorus, Christian sings: “I am the patron saint of lost causes.” Aren’t we all just that? Without Jesus, we are just a lost cause, hopeless, helpless, and lonely in a dark world.
Here are the lyrics:
Feels like I’m miles from here in other towns
With lesser names where the only ghost doesn’t tell
Mary or William exactly what they want to hear
You remember the house that we drew
Told you and the devil to both just leave me alone
If this is salvation I can show you the trembling
You’ll just have to trust me
I’m scaredChorus:
I am the patron saint of lost causes
Aren’t we all to you just mere lost causes
Are we all to you just lost?Tommy you’re left behind
Something you’ll mean everything right before you die
But if you gain the whole world
You’ve already lost four little souls from your life
Widows and orphans aren’t hard to find
Their home missing daddy who’s saving the abandoned tonight
wish your drinking would hurry and kill you
Sympathy’s better than having to tell you the truthThat you are the patron saint of lost causes
All you are to them is now a lost cause
All you are to them is now cause lost.Billy, don’t you understand?
Timothy stood as long as he could and now
You made his faith disappear
More like a magician
And less like a man of the call
We’re not questioning God
Just those he chose to carry on his cause
We’ll grow better, you’ll see
Just all of us, the lost causesAren’t we all to you just lost causes?
Aren’t we all to you lost?
Lost causes
Aren’t we all to you
Is all we are, is all we are
What we are is all we areChoir:
Patron saint. Are we all lost like you?
They just saved all of the lost, like you
(Lost causes, we are is all we are)
Patron saint. Are we all lost like you?
(To you, lost causes)
Patron saint. Are we all lost like you?
He just savedEnd Bridge:
Take what you will, what you will and leave,
Could you kill, could you kill me
If the world was on fire
And nothing was left but hope or desire
And take all that I could recall
Is this hell
Or am I on the floor
Over desperate cold hands?
Screaming of love again?And take, fall away, follow me
From my bad dream
Figure this out
It’s me on my own
A helpless, hurting hellIs this all that you promised
‘Cause I’m stranded and bare
To me this is worse still
But all that I have does not deaden this at all justAnd this takes the place
Of the father you never had
Bending and breaking and tearing apart
This is not heaven, this is my life.
How glorious are these words? The love of Christ is so pure, so comforting, so splended, so stern! It is too vast for my understanding. The lyrics of this hymn are priceless. I could not have penned better verses to describe the love of my Savior. Enjoy!
james
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O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
’Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
At the beginning of September, I went to the LifeLight music festival in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On Saturday night, the band Leeland was playing and during their set, the sang the song “Agnus Dei.” Toward the end of the song, Leeland Mooring, the lead singer, started singing these lyrics to the same tune:
Lord, we need you.
Lord, we need you.
Lord, in America, we need you right now.
Lord, we need you.Right now, right now.
In America, we need you know.
Lord we need you now.
Lord, we need you now.
Right now, right now.In America, we need you now.
Our schools need you now.
Our teachers need you now.
Our families need you now.
Our children need you now.In America, we need you now.
As I listened and began to sing along, I started to get goosebumps. My heart was resonated with the extemporaneous lyrics. My soul was crying out to God for my country as I was thinking about how opposed we are, as a whole, to Jesus Christ. Truly, truly, America needs Jesus now. There are no revivals going on in America. We are dead spiritually. Don’t get me wrong–this is a great country. We are free. We have liberty. We can go to church and pray in our homes. Still, there are so many things that go on in this country that make me cringe, cry, and sing, “In America, Lord we need you right now.”
Do I need to go on? There are so many things that come to mind when I think of what’s wrong with America. Thinking about the direction of this country makes me extremely sad. Looking at a list this small, I hope, would make us all ask the Lord for mercy and grace. He is being very patient with us. We are on a thin thread of grace from the hand of the Most High. Pray for our country. In America, have we never needed more of Jesus. In America, have we never been more deviant, selfish, proud, and wicked.
So many American Christians think we need to “go overseas” and share the gospel with the world. That is so glorious, beautiful, and important. Yet, we ignore the problems in our homes, our schools, our businesses, our own churches. We ignore those facts from above and continue to invest in foreign lands. We should do that–because God commands it and it is a worthy thing. But, we also need to pray for and help change America.
O, Jesus, we need you now. In America, we need you now.
