Kingdom of Heaven in "Fidelity" By Regina Spektor

Music is a language all it's own and it fascinates me.  I have no musical ability.  I can not hear music and pick out anything.  I can barely distinguish between the sound of the piano and the guitar.  When God was giving us gifts, music was not one that came to me.  That's fine.  I don't have to make it or understand to be moved by it.  The song that has recently been playing in my head is Fidelity by Regina Spektor.  The first verse goes like this:

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the soun
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

What a sad and beautiful statement.  I can not fully love my wife if I have a back-up plan.  When I asked her to marry me, I laid it all out there.  I didn't tell her to think about and come back to me if she thinks nothing better would come along.  I think that's why our marriage is almost to 10 years and going so well.  I did not keep one foot on the ground.  I went head over heels.

The same is true in my relationship with Jesus.  I fell in love completely with him.  He would die for me just the way that I am.  He would come down from Heaven to the earth to be with me, teach me about life, and save me.  He went in all or nothing.  The act of dying on the cross is a desperate act.  It is desperate in that Jesus went all or nothing.  There was a lot of prophecy and deliverance that God was bringing to people in the Old Testament.  He tried and tried and tried.  He brought about his wrath to bring about redemption.  He brought about his grace and deliverance to bring about redemption.  His efforts stretch as far as the universe that he created.

And yet we are still afraid to trust him with our lives.  We live as if we have to have "one foot on the ground."  That is no way to live life.  There is no back-up plan.  It is all or nothing.  It is head over heals.  It is full engagement with the redeeming King from Nazareth.  The lion, the lamb, the king of kings, the prince of peace, and the redeemer of our lives.

Are you all or nothing?  Am I living all or nothing?  How am I (or you) living life with a back-up plan?

Why must we have one foot on the ground?  Doesn't that sound eerily close to the Kingdom of this Earth and the Kingdom of Heaven?  Satan is the prince of the kingdom of the earth and Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Revelation 19 shows us that Jesus wins the war without ever fighting.  As a matter of fact, he gave himself up so that he could win from the inside.

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

It's easy to talk ourselves out of taking risky chances.  It's easy to rationalize.  It's hard to really go for it.  Don't settle.

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