Tuesday 7 February 2006

Deep and Wide

In a former incarnation I was a child in the Elim Pentecostal Church. I had no idea what a Pentecostal Church was, and my parents certainly didn't know (or they wouldn't have let me and my sister go). We went because they sang and we loved to sing.
One such song was Deep and Wide
Deep and Wide, Deep and Wide
There's a fountain flowing
deep and wide
Deep and Wide, Deep and Wide
There's a fountain flowing
deep and wide
We also would sing:
Plunge right in, cleanse your sin
in the fountain flowing deep and wide...and so on

In these days of anniversary I am doing a lot of thinking about past religious experiences and that was certainly one of them. I wonder what would have happened if I had found out what Pentecostal was, and would I have gravitated towards it. Some how I think not. While I still like to sing, what attracts me to God these days is not (just) religious experience it is also reflection on truth.
While the simple sentiment of the chorus is fun, it avoids the real depth and breadth of how God has dealt with me and continues to do so. Sometimes with rejoicing and light hearted singing. Other times with pain and anxiety. I have been able to respond on occasion and be brave on others. I have gone into places where I had never imagined I could go. Sometimes I have plunged right in, other times I could not even put my toe in the water.

I found someone else's words (see here) which better attest to the mystery of deep and wide...some of the words are:
I was the woman with the voices in her head.

I didn’t know my own was missing.

But there was something about the way you softly said

My name, that all my demons stopped to listen.

Oh deep and wide, so deep and wide where no one could find me,

Deep and wide, oh deep and wide were the places I’d hide.

So deep and wide, oh deep and wide was the dark I let blind me.

So I failed to see, you’d been looking for me deep and wide
and again
I was the woman drawing water at the well

You were the one who came to test me.

And ‘cause you knew that I was thirstier than hell,

You were the first one who could best me.

Oh deep and wide, oh deep and wide was the river beneath me

But it was deep and wide, so deep and wide, yet my well had run dry.

So deep and wide, oh deep and wide, a thirst that would not release me,

And I couldn’t believe you’d bring that water to me

From somewhere deep and wide.

It's a theme worth pursuing

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salutations Stephen.
And after some 26 years of 'diachronism', what would be your response to the question "What is truth?

Anonymous said...

The author of that latter song speaks of "how their lives, as well as his life, were transformed by the relationship".
I think we sometimes forget that in a full relationship, we will be changed or transformed. That applies to all levels of relationships, with our friends, with our life partners and with God. When people enter into a relationship, I suspect they often don't realise the changes which may occur to them. For example, the statement "I want him/her to love me for who I am" seems to ignore how loving and being loved will change us.

Am I prattling on here?

Does God love us for who we are right now, flawed and unloveable as we may be? Or does He also love us for who we may be, for who we may become?

Anonymous said...

Trevor. You raise some very important points about relationships. I'm sure that it is just not coincidence that some 20 or 30 years ago within about three weeks I heard three committed Christians proclaim (quite independently) "CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A RELIGION. It is a relationship." The emphasis of course is back to front; but then again truth is not proven by shouting.
As a chronic prattler myself, no way would I say you were prattling there.
The questions you put are more than simple closed questions. They call for deep thought, and I for one don't believe that I will be able to truly claim having the perfect answer in this life. But think prayerfully about them we certainly should, and without adding the escape clause "but not just yet."

Stephan Clark said...

Anonymous asks my response to "What is truth?"...I note that as with PP who asked the original question that asking the question says more about the asker than about the one who is asked.
Certainly, too, Trevor I would attest that relationships change us. This is my experience with God, and my experience with others. It is in trying to remain the same that we get into trouble.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Stephen. Indeed you are not wrong! As time goes by, one can observe how much can be discerned by thoughtful consideration not only of the issues particular people raise; but also of the repective responses thereto. There is a degree of truth embedded in the pertinent albeit rhetorical question raised by a certain Senator yesterday: "if we duck the tough questions, what are we doing here now?" That Senator was not PP - but we digress .....