We continue our series on the New Covenant using the songs from the New Covenant musical as a track to run on. And there will be a link to a YouTube version of the song to listen to at the end of each Catch. Enjoy and learn.
What Has Gone Wrong?
Words and music by John Fischer
What has gone wrong,
I didn’t used to feel this way
The sermons and songs
Don’t sound like they did yesterday
I sing the same songs
And hear the same words
And wonder if it’s all true
I know I should be
Much better than I really am
I guess it’s just me
But I’m doing all I can
I look at others
And they don’t seem
To struggle like I do
I try to be what I know I should be
But I never seem to come through
Is everyone here as good as they seem
Or like me, are they faking it too
Maybe I need
A second blessing from the Lord
Except that I’ve had
More than maybe three or four
I just know I can’t
Keep on playing these games
I know are not true
At a Christian camp where I was speaking and singing, I was hanging out late at night with a number of the older staff members and someone suggested we have a time of prayer together before we went back to our cabins for the night, and I suggested we get in a circle and go around letting each one share something they would like prayer for. There were about a dozen people in the group and as they went around there were mostly the typical requests like a sister who wandered away from the Lord, or a camper who wasn’t a Christian, our an aunt who was dying of cancer — almost always someone else. Finally they got around to the last guy who took a deep breath and launched into a very transparent rendering of his own struggles and doubts — he was even questioning his faith — almost as if he used the very words of this song, “Is everyone here as good as they seem, or like me, are they faking it too?” And when he finally finished there was an uncomfortable silence that fell on everyone until someone broke it with, “Can we go around again?”
I never forgot that beautiful moment when one person’s honesty opened everybody up. That’s what almost always happens when someone gets real; it suddenly gives everyone else the permission to do the same. Because we all keep way too much inside.
This is the song under the surface. Everybody has one because we are all human and weak and fallible, but most of the time we keep that under wraps. We want to present our best, but our best often hides the truth, making us conflicted inside. And what so often happens is that everyone is hiding, presenting their best, thinking they are the only one struggling, when in fact, everyone is. Such a tragedy; everyone is suffering silently.
Click here for a YouTube version of “What Has Gone Wrong?”.
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? (James 2:19-20)
John Fischer The Catch 