Pop Song Exegesis or "Why 'Awake My Soul' will be in my ordination"

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes

I zoom from one thing to another, different interests grabbing me – Squirrel!

I struggle to find any truth in your lies

This world I live in gives me lie after lie. If I buy this, my life will be organized. If I look like this, I will be loved. “Buy and save …”

And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know

The Johari window … what is not known to me, known to others … not known to others?

This weakness I feel I must finally show

For so much of my life, I sought to hide my flaws, my weaknesses, my brokenness. Now, I let them show. I am free.

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all

You, my parishioner, if we put our hands together, if we reach out to make action, we can commit great acts of love and compassion.

But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall

Don’t fall in love with me. That’s not what I was called to ministry. It’s not about me being loved. We’re profoundly loved by God. I will love you, but don’t give me your heart. I will let you do what you need to do, which may mean letting you fall. And I will certainly disappoint you.

Lend me your eyes I can change what you see

What I’m called to is to look at life, examine it, turning it over and over and over. Maybe I can show you something you haven’t seen before. (But you can probably do the same for me.)

But your soul you must keep, totally free

Don’t substitute my judgment for yours. My job is to encourage you to strengthen your own soul, not to be a “vicar,” vicariously taking care of your spiritual needs. I will not give you the answers. I will give you seeds that you can plant, or examine and throw away. Keep your soul, totally free to find YOUR truth.

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die

You can’t run away from yourself. No matter how much you might want to. Trust me on this, if you trust me on nothing else, for it is the broken voice of experience.

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Yes. Yes. This. We can have the grandest ideas in the world, but what do we love? What do we spend our money on? What do we spend our hours on? We will look back to discover we have filled our bank with investments in that.

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul

Let us find awakening. Let us break free from the siren calls of Madison Avenue, of magazines and videos that call us to be crafted of cream cheese and to find our value in what we own, or do, rather than what we ontologically ARE.

You were made to meet your maker
Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
You were made to meet your maker

We were made to be in communion with the divine mystery, with that creative spirit that gave us existence. May we awake, and meet what created us, what continues to make us what we are.