As Christians, we are fully aware of the concept of sin. The deeper our relationship with God grows, the more we see that we cannot go through life on our own. This Beautiful Republic is releasing a CD August 19th called Perceptions. The first single off the record, “Learning to Fall,” is a song that deals with learning to give up our pride, and give everything to Jesus.
In the first verse lead singer, Ben Olin, displays honesty in simple words singing, “I've heard it said a million times, that I should hold on tight to Jesus. But I took this road so far from home, and distance came between us.” I believe it’s safe to say every Christian has dealt with turning from what we know is right, after all we are human. We make mistakes, we sin, we can’t get around that. But what can we do to fix it?
I found it interesting in the pre-chorus how Olin sings, “When I walked away, I knew one day, I'd need Your grace.” It makes me wonder, what keeps us from living pure and holy lives? Can our pride really be that significant and keep us from getting closer to God?
The chorus sings of giving up, letting Jesus take what He took for us on the cross, “So now you'll find me on my knees, surrendering, cause I know that I'm really not so strong. And now, I'm done fighting for control, Oh, you can have this life that I've been holding for so long. I'm learning to fall. Let my world crumble.”
The revelation of giving God the authority of our lives is so powerful, once we muster up the strength and courage to do so, we reap the benefits of allowing Him use His strength to take our pain, guilt, sorrow, etc. Ben tells the response God has when we cry out to him in the second verse, “You ran so fast to rescue me, while I was barely breathing. You picked me up, You touched my face, and I began to see more clearly.”
“Though I'm such a disgrace, you still forgave. Your love remains…Take me as an offering. I surrender everything. No more living without You.”
This song is lyrically very simple, but the meaning, and truth behind it is surreal. The idea of giving God our pain, guilt, sorrow, hardships—sometimes is an overwhelming task, and bullet to our ego—but once we give everything up, God shows Himself.
It all seems to simple to write as a devotional, but the truth is we sometimes need a simple reminder. I remember on an outreach I went on, we went to the middle of downtown Portland, OR. We set out to go around asking “surveys” about what people think the gospel is. Me and my partner came across a guy who went by the name of Radar. He was a clean-cut, ordinary looking guy, but he wasn’t. You see, Radar was a homeless man, trying to help his family get through a rough time. He told us of his past, he was studying to be a youth pastor when life happened; flash-forward and now he’s on the streets, and his toddler had just passed away from a preventable sickness, and he was left to ask why it all happened to him and his family. We got the chance to pray for Radar, and encourage our brother.
If people like Radar could be reminded of this simple, yet profound truth, then the time it took to write this was worth it, the time it takes to listen to the song is worth it. The song shares hope, and it’s our job to share it with those who have little-to-none.
Article by Jeremy Koering for MusicFaith
