You Only Know

***I know this song is over two years old, but it has only in recent weeks gone viral and became wildly popular and covered, and that’s why I chose to use the song***

       In 2012 the British band Passenger released a song called ‘Let Her Go,” a bittersweet tune about newly realized values after a breakup. Two years later in the past few weeks this song has boomed to a Top Hit having been covered, quoted, and listened to by millions. At first glance there’s nothing striking about the softly crooned lyrics, but a closer examination would reveal deeply thoughtful and convicting lines. “You only miss the light when it’s burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow, only know you love her when you let her go, and you let her go.”

       Having been struggling with longing for summer after facing the effects of  snow for the past few weeks and having just realized how much I enjoy being healthy after catching a cold, these lyrics are easily relatable-- sometimes you take your surroundings for granted until they change.

      This is a classic example of the old proverb, “A fish in water doesn't know it’s wet.” We passively meander through life as we know it, not even realizing our surroundings until they are gone, changed, or until someone points them out to us. To put it bluntly, our comfortable lives and naivety about the rest of the world shows a self-centered view of life. Of course many times we can’t help that our lives are shaped by our experiences, but have you ever thought that maybe your view of the world is too narrow?

      Proverbs 18:17 says that, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” This is a clear illustration of our own simple-mindedness. Our lives are shaped by our own minds until we are challenged by a person or circumstance. From a theological mindset, our sin nature has darkened our hearts so that we can only see life from a narcissistic view, but what if we decided to dive into life a little deeper and explore different perspectives on what we think is set in stone? What if we allowed God’s Word to mold our world into reality and renew our minds? What if we trusted God’s sovereignty so much that when we encountered view-changed experiences or ideas, we find joy in the fact that we still have so much left to learn in the world?

     And what if we really started to see our lives not in context of our own small views but in the context of the Gospel? We may quickly see that the sins we so easily tolerate are offensive to God, and that our sin affects not only ourselves but others as well. Sometimes we don’t know how truly sinful we are until we hold up our life up to the light of the gospel. Taking time to meditate on and store the Word of God in our hearts is  the only true way to see life outside of yourself and not live with a blind eye to the world outside of ourselves.

      You only know you've been blind when you use your eyes, You don’t know how little you know until you’re wise. 

Passenger. “Let Her Go.” All the Little Lights. Linear Recording. 2012.

"Passenger - Let Her Go [Official Video]." YouTube. YouTube, 25 July 2012. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA>.