Orig #4

Thanks for sharing, everyone. This is a really awesome thing.

Wow, it's pretty late, but I would like to share something before I go to sleep. There are actually two songs that I would really love to share, but I think I'll only share about one of them, since it's getting late. The song is Goo Goo Doll's "Black Balloon" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTSroAUygiQ



It's a secular song, but that doesn't take away from what God may be telling me. I think this should be a pretty familiar song to a few of you, but the song has greatly impacted me.

The imagery in the lyrics is incredible. The song is about a drug addict, and how it affects her life and her relationship with this boy, from whose perspective this song is sung. I guess you can interpret this song however you want, but I like to see this as sung through the perspective of God--and I am the drug addict.

I believe that the drug in this song is either meth or heroin, but we all have our own "drugs," something bad that we get addicted to and gradually overtakes your life. Sure, the drug may feel awesome in the beginning; I got my initial high--"baby's black balloon makes her fly." What's worse is that I know that my own "drug" is bad for me, and that God can actually save me from myself, but what do I do? I embrace my drug-- "you know the lies they always told you / and the love you never knew / what's the things they never showed you / that swallowed the light from the sun..." In today's sermon, Pastor Sonny explained that, as our bodies--Christ's and mine--are united, so too are my actions with His; when I sin--when I take my drug--I force Jesus to just look on as my sin overtakes me. "A thousand other boys could never reach you / how could I have been the one / I saw the world spin beneath you / and scatter like ice from the spoon..."

Like with most drugs, it's so easy to get hooked after even the faintest initial taste of it. The temptations become so great. The drug eventually does take over. But what I love about this song is the reminder of hope at the end of the song: "And I'll go on to lead you home / all because I'm / and I'll become / what you became to me." Even when our world has been turned over by sin, He's going to lead us home. And He'll become, what I became to Him--someone whom He loved so much that He offered His own life for my depravity. That one line at the end...powerful.

I love this song. Sorry for making this email kind of long. This song is just really powerful to me.

I am very tired. I need to sleep. Bye.

-Neilson