egm, mumford, les mis, longing.

I go to a great church.  Seriously, I get to paint the walls and help with musicals, I am challenged and encouraged, and in the last two weeks, the pastor has played both a Mumford & Sons song and the finale from Les Miserables during his sermons... How great is that?  Needless to say, the songs from the last two sermons have been stuck in my head since hearing them and they have struck a chord in me.  Both songs speak of longing--the first for oneself and the second for the world.  And I think that's why I can't get them out of my head.

"Below my feet" by Mumford & Sons is a prayer of longing, of hope, sung while still grieving.  The hope has not been fulfilled yet, but it is being called into existance.  It's like a promise: it is true, but it has not yet come to fruition.  I get that.  And I think there is something profoundly good in speaking the promise while you are still longing for it.  I think that practice does something to you, in you.

Similarly, the finale from Les Mis is a speaking of the not-yet.  But this time, it's a call for others to join you in this longing:
Come with me

Where chains will never bind you
All your grief
At last, at last behind you
Lord in heaven;
Look down on him in mercy
Forgive me all my trespases and take me to your glory

Take my hand And lead me to salvation
Take my love
For love is everlasting
And remember
The truth that once was spoken:
To love another person is to see the face of God

Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise

They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the ploughshare
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!