song for the day

I have been feeling recently the need to not be cool. Don't get me wrong, as this blog makes obvious, I am currently very uncool. But I still sometimes fight the desire to be cool. It's not a totally bad thing, we're made for community and I recognize the need to have commonalities and close relationships but I think there is a balance between that and the sometimes insidious lure of what C.S. Lewis describes as the "Inner Circle" (in his essay of the same name). I.E. to think oneself superior to others (for usually EXTREMELY superficial reasons) and create a sense of alienation and separation based on these things.

Anyway, to get away from this musically I've been adding in the really genuine (and, these days it seems, uncool) artists of the recent past to my repertoire, namely Keith Green and Rich Mullins. I've also been reading this book about Rich Mullins and, if it weren't on loan from my former roommate Liz's dad, it would be almost totally underlined. The funniest thing about it is how many songs of his I am familiar with but didn't realize he wrote, then I'm like, oh. I'm lame. This one, however, I hadn't heard before but am rapidly falling in love with.

Rich Mullins: My One Thing

Everybody I know says they need just one thing
And what they really mean is that they need just one thing more
And everybody seems to think they've got it coming
Well I know that I don't deserve You
Still I want to love and serve You more and more
You're my one thing

Save me from those things that might distract me
Please take them away and purify my heart
I don't want to lose the eternal for the things that are passing
'Cause what will I have when the world is gone
If it isn't for the love that goes on and on with

My one thing
You're my one thing
And the pure in heart shall see God
You're my one thing
You're my one thing
And the pure in heart shall see God

Who have I in Heaven but You Jesus?
And what better could I hope to find down here on earth?
I could cross the most distant reaches
Of this world, but I'd just be wasting my time
'Cause I'm certain already, I'm sure I'd find

You're my one thing (one thing)
You're my one thing (one thing)
And the pure in heart shall see God
You're my one thing (one thing)
You're my one thing (one thing)
And the pure in heart shall see God

Every night and every day
You hold on tight
Or you drift away
And you're left to live
With the choices you make
Oh Lord please give me the strength
To watch and work and love and sing and pray

'Cause who have I in Heaven but You Jesus?
And what better could I hope to find down here on earth?
Well I could cross the most distant reaches
Of this world, but I'd just be wasting my time
'Cause I'm certain already I'm sure I'd find

You're my one thing