Love Songs

Here at the Beck house we've been enjoying Lauren Daigle's release "Thank God I Do" from her forthcoming album. If you've not heard the song here's a link to the official lyric music video. The lyrics:

I've seen love come and I've seen love walk away
So many questions, will anybody stay?
It's been a hard year, so many nights in tears
All of the darkness, trying to fight my fears

Alone

So long

alone

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you
I'd probably fall off the edge
I don't know where I'd go if you ever let go
So keep me held in your hands

I've started breathing, the weight is lifted here
With you it's easy, my head is finally clear
There's nothin' missing when you are by my side
I took the long road, but now I realize

I'm home
With you 

I'm home

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you
I'd probably fall off the edge
I don't know where I'd go if you ever let go
So keep me held in your hands

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you
I'd probably fall off the edge
I don't know where I'd go if you ever let go
So keep me held in your hands

You're my safe place, my hide away
You're my anchor, my saving grace
You're my constant, my steadiness
You're my shelter, my oxygen

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you
Thank God I do

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you
I'd probably fall off the edge
I don't know where I'd go if you ever let go
So keep me held in your hands
I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know you

Thank God I do

What's fascinating about the song is the duality. You can sing the song to your romantic love, or you can sing the song to God.

As I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, a criticism you hear voiced a lot among the seminary-educated is that modern worship music is "too romantic," castigating it as "Jesus is my boyfriend" music. Such an opinion, though, betrays a vast ignorance of the contemplative tradition, especially of the female mystics. Teresa of Ávila. Catherine of Siena. Julian of Norwich. Thérèse of Lisieux.

It also betrays a Biblical blind spot, the recognition that the Song of Songs, like Daigle's "Thank God I Do," also plays with a romantic duality. Throughout Jewish and Christian history, the romantic content of the Song of Songs has been read as a poem expressing our love for God and God's love for us. One of my favorite stories from the life of Thomas Aquinas is how, when he was dying, he asked that the Song of Songs be read aloud to him. Who knew that the author of the Summa Theologica had such a romantic relationship with God?

All that to say, I love how I can sing "Thank God I Do" to Jana, but also how I can sing the exact same words to God:

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know You
I'd probably fall off the edge
I don't know where I'd go if You ever let go
So keep me held in Your hands

You're my safe place, my hide away
You're my anchor, my saving grace
You're my constant, my steadiness
You're my shelter, my oxygen

I don't know who I'd be if I didn't know You