Song Thoughts: Run To The Father
First off, this is just my interpretation/what I feel and understand out of this song. If you want the real story behind the song, both writers have videos online talking about their heart and inspiration behind the song and you can find those videos at these links:
Both Cody Carnes & Matt Maher – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEM033ay64
Just Carnes – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE1OSZrsnaY
The first time I got to lead Run To The Father was at a Trinity Western mid-day chapel service last school year. I was a bit of a last-minute addition to the team and I was asked to lead this song. Typically, when you are leading worship and leading a song for the first time, you should probably a) know the song musically, b) know it lyrically, and c) have spent some time worshipping God through it, and come in ready to actually lead the song, not just sing it and get off the stage. Well… let’s just say I hadn’t really done any of those things particularly well, not to mention that I was also playing electric guitar while singing which meant my guitar playing was most certainly gonna be taking up the majority of my brain space over this set. So, to be honest I didn’t have high expectations for what was to come
Worship started, we got to Run To The Father and I just started… well, trying really hard to cover up how much I was having to think about the technical aspects of leading worship in that moment. I just put on a big ol’ smile, tried to move around a bit to encourage people to enter in, and we got down to it. As we were singing, those lines from the end of the chorus jumped out and grabbed what little attention I had left;
My heart needs a surgeon / My soul needs a friend
So I’ll run to the Father again and again and again and again
I thought that was pretty wild; what a profound image. God as my surgeon. God as my friend. God as my Father. All wrapped up in one little half chorus. Even through all the other things I had running through my brain, that stood out.
Fast forward to some other chapel, some other day. I don’t remember who was leading, if there was any context around the song, how my day was going, it’s all a blur–guess school will do that to you. But I do remember actually hearing Run To The Father for the first time. I mean I probably listened to it at some point between when I sang it and this chapel, but man. As the song said; I fell into grace.
I've carried a burden \ For too long on my own
I wasn't created \ To bear it alone
I hear Your invitation \ To let it all go
Yeah, I see it now \ I'm laying it down
And I know that I need You
Isn’t it strange how it is often so much more comfortable to hold onto ‘things’ in life than to let them go? Not just good things; sure those are hard to let go of, but the statement ‘good things are hard to let go of’ makes sense so that’s not so strange. But isn’t it fascinating how so many things that hurt us are also the things that we hold on to the tightest? Are the hardest things to let go of? In some sense, we often actually hold them dear! We don’t let anybody in to help us work through them. We don’t let anything that might change the situation take place because if the situation changes–even for the better–it will reopen the wound and hurt again. For myself personally, that is where Run To The Father struck the deepest chord.
Man, I LOVE to hold on to stuff I shouldn’t. The situations and ‘things’ I hold onto are usually saturated in my negative emotions, and I hold to them at this point without even realizing it. When I first heard this song and worshipped along with it, like I mentioned at the beginning, that headspace is where I was. So wrapped up in emotions, activities, and just random 20-something angst, that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face anymore–let alone see Jesus in my everyday life. Maybe you’re in a similar boat. All of us are to some extent, it’s human nature (see verse 2: “You saw my condition / Had a plan from the start”).
We are SO so blessed that right in the midst of this struggle to let go, we actually have a God who not only can take those hurts, pains, burdens, and struggles from us, but who wants to, AND WHO ACTUALLY ASKS US TO.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Re-reading this verse, I’ve started to take it more as a command than a suggestion. The God of heaven and earth is telling YOU who are weary and burdened to give Him what you are burdened by. Not out of some weird religious sacrifice, He simply wants to give you rest and to walk alongside you; to be yoked with you in all that you are doing. And here is where the good things that we hold on to come in, ‘cause that instruction is not just for the bad burdens. It’s for the good burdens that we have too. The ones we like to carry that don’t even seem bad really… in any way. Are there good things in your life that if God came and asked for you to surrender them to him, you would be unwilling to part with? If there are… well it sounds like whatever that good thing is had become an idol in your life, to which we are all called to flee from. We’re called to put our idols to death (check out Psalm 16:4, or pretty much the whole Old Testament if you’re unsure of the danger of having idols in your life). Is your job an idol you’re holding? Is your phone an idol you’re holding on to (literally)? How about social clout? Are your children an idol in your life? Your skills as a parent? Is even your religious performance an idol that you’re holding? His yoke is easy, His burden is light. He can take all that stuff, just like He can take the bad stuff, and you can trust Him with it. And once you give it to Him, His grace can actually cause it to flourish. It’ll bear real, God anointed fruit. If you continue to clutch onto control over those good things–WHICH GOD GAVE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE ANYWAY (James 1:17)–you are limiting God’s ability to interact in them and you will see limited fruit. We are asked to lay everything down before God; we’re called to die to ourselves, to deny ourselves daily if we’re “to be called [His] disciples”.
As we lay all this down before Him and prayer and worship, His grace comes and fills these areas. It heals areas of brokenness, it strengthens and nourishes blessings he has placed in your life. As we let go of ourselves; as we let go of all the good and the bad stuff we find in our lives; as we simply “fall into” the grace of God afforded to us by the sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ, we receive the strengthening and the filling of His Holy Spirit and we are fully transformed as we truly come alive. We fall into the love of the Father and He surrounds us with perfect love, perfect joy, and perfect peace. The things that once seemed difficult seem manageable, the things that were heavy become light. But it is important to note though that this prayer, this running back to the Father as it were, is not a one-time deal. Certainly, we receive a once and for all salvation for our sins and an indwelling of the Holy Spirit through baptism, but to be truly surrendered and to be filled with the Holy Spirit is something that we are to desire as a routine; ideally as a daily practice.
I know I used a bunch of big words there so let me just sum that up really quick:
Jesus can come in and save our lives from sin, and we can welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives, but that does not mean that God is just going to constantly come in and fix all of our problems and that we are always going to be filled with His spirit and were then gonna feel like we’re floating around on a little sparkly cloud. Throughout the New Testament, we as believers are called to lay down our burdens–both good and bad–and to be filled with the Holy Spirit constantly. It’s something that we are called to do repeatedly throughout our lives. And ya know, maybe all of our problems won’t be fixed right away… maybe some might even stick around in some form or another until we are with Jesus in eternity. BUT WE GET HIM. And that’s what matters. We begin to receive the fruits of His spirit as He comes and makes us whole. And slowly but surely as we spend time with Him, and look to Him, and follow Him, and are filled with His spirit, we are transformed into the people we were created to become.
Maybe this point is not the core, central heart of this song in a generalized view, but it is certainly what stuck out for me. After the first verse the authors go on to speak to our human condition; to continually sin against God, to continually hold on to things we shouldn’t, and continually hide and run away from a loving Father who desperately wants us to know the power of His love and the depths to which that love pursues us. It details how He had a plan for that human nature of sinfulness; the sacrifice of Jesus. And through both lyric and musical composition it sings of that glorious moment as we let go of the sins and weights that hold us back, as we run back to Him and fall into His arms of grace. How we have found our surgeon. How we’ve found the friend to our soul. And how we will continue to run back to Him, to lay it all down and to receive, again and again, and again and again.
This Sunday during our Online Service, we will be featuring Run To The Father as one of our online worship songs for the first time. You can join us at 10am and 5pm on our Facebook page at facebook.com/thisislifechurch.
