The next song for my Blog was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland and was first released in 2002. A link to Josh Groban performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.
You Raise Me Up
When I am down, and, oh, my soul, so weary
When troubles come, and my heart burdened me
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence
Until you come and sit awhile with me
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up to more than I can be
I don’t normally write about songs that are primarily a repetition of a chorus and have very little verse, but this song is so powerful that I decided to add it to my Blog. As you listen to the song via the link below, listen without distraction to the building power each time the chorus is repeated. I was blown away by the power of the message of the song and the delivery by Josh Groban. The song doesn’t mention God or Jesus, but the words are about things only they could do and have done.
There are many times when we are down and feel as if nothing is going right in our lives. Maybe there are problems at home, at work, with family, with friends, money, and the list seems to go on and on. On some days, it just seems as if we are facing the perfect storm of problems that just seem to drag us down. On these bad days, we feel pain and misery to our very core, to our soul. We have trouble coming out of the pit and struggle to find any joy in our life. Does any of this seem to resonate with you and how your life just seems to sometimes fall apart?
The best thing we can do is try to stop the noise and the outside influences and open ourselves to our Savior. As we start blocking out the world, we start opening our heart and senses to the Holy Spirit, which resides within each of us once we have accepted Christ as our savior. I am not saying it is easy to find this quiet time or quiet space, but we can’t communicate effectively with God unless we allow ourselves to listen to that still small voice. He is always there, so the challenge is with us to open our hearts and minds to his guidance and peace. As we start to feel his presence in our heart and soul, we also start to feel his peace. How long he sits with us is really up to us, maybe it is a minute, a few minutes, or even longer; but it is this peace that helps us to win the battles each and every day. The less we communicate with God, the more difficult and challenging the battles become.
The chorus jumps in with how God can immediately raise us above the battles we face everyday. He can make us feel as if we have been taken to the highest mountain. Stop for a minute and think about being on a tall beautiful mountain. What can you see, what can you hear, who made the mountain anyway? Psalm 121 tells us who made the mountains: I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. From my perspective, I see the beauty of the surrounding mountains and valleys, I don’t hear anything except maybe wind and birds, and I only feel peace. God can give us this feeling without leaving wherever we are, we just need to let him. God doesn’t need to actually take us to the top of a physical mountain for us to have the escape, but he showed many times in the bible that he can if necessary. Abraham, Moses, and Elijah were all called to a mountain by God. Jesus called Peter, John, and James to the mountain to witness the transfiguration.
The first line of the chorus tells how God can lead us to inner peace. The second line tells us how God can lead us through the most difficult times. Troubled waters is a good analogy for the bad days in our life. The waters, aka problems, become so scary that we do not want to even risk getting in a boat to get to escape and we certainly don’t want to get out of the boat in the midst of the storm. Jesus tried to show Peter that all it took was faith and trust in him and he could walk on the troubled waters; and Peter did walk until he took his eyes off of the savior. It is in quiet time with God when we get our strength and as soon as we break our quiet time, we are back in the midst of the storm. The longer we have our focus on God, the less time we have to spend navigating the troubled waters.
The third line of the chorus reminds me of the Footprints poem when the person asked Jesus why there was only one set of footprints in the sand when life was the most difficult; and Jesus replied that was when he carried us. This line references how strong we can be when on the shoulders of Christ. Basically we are invincible when we are relying completely on God. Yes, we will have tough days with challenging battles going on in our lives, but nothing can separate us from him, his love, and the peace only he can offer. He has guaranteed us an eternal life of peace and love once we leave this place. On the bad days, a good go-to verse for me is Isaiah 40:31 which says: but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So basically he is giving us the strength and courage we need if we just rely on him. Every battle we face has already been won by God.
The last line of the chorus gives us the encouragement we need to take another step and take on another challenge. We can be spiritually lifted up higher than we can ever imagine. We can be stronger than we ever thought possible. We can have a peace that exceeds our highest expectations. God can raise us up to be more than we dreamed we could be and allow us to achieve far greater things than we ever envisioned.
Just stop and think about who you could really be and what you could really do if you allowed God to raise you up.
Click Here to View Josh Groban Perform You Raise Me Up