Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Empty & Beautiful

I have a love/hate relationship with St. Paul. Well, I guess it's something like I LOVE Paul and I hate that I am not more like him. Paul is probably the most fascinating Christian in all of history. That's a big statement but, lest we forget, this is the man who held cloaks while the first follower of The Way was stoned to death, purportedly dragged people out of their houses to denounce them as Christians, and then became the apostle most zealous that no law, minimum standard of behavior, or "sin-management" strategy could ever save us and, in one of the biggest turnarounds in all of history, rejected what he had been most passionate about in favor of TOTAL FAITH in the crucified and risen One who spoke to him, blinded him, and gave him sight again. For Paul there was no one and no goal but Jesus Christ. I love Paul.

So this song is quickly becoming my favorite on the album. There are so many brilliant things about it, some I already mentioned; Matt singing in a more intimate style, it's from the viewpoint of St. Paul, it is so relatable, it is so biblical. This is an example of Matt's poetic ability as an artist really shining through- to take one of Paul's epistles and inhabit it in a really emotional way, that is a gift.



Here Matt shares a snippet of his thoughts about this song.

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