Rise

In the first month of releasing videos I took a look at the song Rise by Nine Lashes. Since then I have learned a lot about making videos and that video is not my best work. That doesn’t mean the song doesn’t give us some valuable lessons.

I recently went back and read just the first verse;
I remember all too well
Just wishing for the sun
Yet holding onto darkness
And I remember calling out
TO BREAK INTO THE DAWN
And I remember all too well
Wishing that I could find
A place to be and live and breathe
And forget what lies behind
But still had the night,
I STILL HAD THE NIGHT

The song as a whole is coming from someone that has been through the struggle of life and has found a way out. We see in the first verse that the struggle is a cycle. The desire to break free from the darkness but the inability to do so. And you always try to make changes in your life to be better but they seem to fall flat. The idea here is that breaking free is against human nature. If we look at Romans 7:15-20 we see a similar dilemma.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

We see the same issue, trying to do what is right and flee the darkness but falling back into sin. This sin is not and will never be justified but struggling with it is not a new concept. And the good news here is that there was a human with the ability to break the human nature. He lived only in the light and died not for his own wrong doing but for all of ours. This alone brings no joy, every sin, everything we know not to do but do anyway is another hammer to the nail and thorn in his head. The joy comes from his resurrection. He took the darkness down with him and left it there when he came back. Jesus is our reason for joy and hope and someday we will be with him.