I’ve always had a very sensitive saccharine meter. What I mean is I have no patience for sugar coating, empty promises, or an imaginary view of what the world is actually like. I’m insufferable to watch TV with because at every commercial break I annoyingly comment on the ways the advertiser is lying to us. Unfortunately, fuzzy-feeling commercialism can bleed into Christian art and media too, which then spills over into some bad theology. Sometimes mainstream Christian art sells a feel-good brand that seemingly prioritizes profit over faithfulness, and record sales over reality. An unfortunate chunk of the artistic content that has come out of the current evangelical mainstream reeks of an overoptimistic triumphalism that finds little basis in the average Christian’s Tuesday morning.
Sorry, that’s a thick sentence — let me explain. What I mean is, there are loads of Christian songs about victory, heaps that promise you that God can move the mountains in your path. None of that is untrue, but since those ideas are what sell records, that’s about all we get, and my fear is that the sheer number of them can skew our theology. There are shamefully few songs that offer help in the moments after you realize that the particular mountain currently in your path just might be the one you die on. Fewer still that remind us that we will all die, if not on this mountain, then certainly on a future one. We created this collection of songs because we’ve noticed a glaring absence of songs in Christian churches that give emotional solace, grounded theology, and helpful direction in times of suffering.
An absence of a solid theology of suffering can inadvertently let a fatal dose of prosperity theology slip in. What does that look like? When the only message you’re given is one of earthly victory, you’re not going to know how to handle an earthly loss. Our true and ultimate victory is secure when we place saving faith in Jesus — and that is a victory worthy of song. But if we don’t understand that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and that sometimes His victory looks different from what we imagined to be “best,” we’re left confused, angry, and adrift. Few things shipwreck a person’s faith as quickly as believing God has promised things for this life that He actually never did.
When we sing about God’s “Breakthrough miracle power,” or sing popular bridges like “He’s gonna do it, just let the Waymaker through,” what do we think we mean? Does God assure us earthly victory in every circumstance? Did God promise I’d never lose my job? That my marriage will never end in divorce? Does He whisper certain promises that the cancer we fear won’t eventually kill us? Or that the habitual sin that we’ve struggled with will be defeated on this earth? The hard answer is, no, He didn’t, and He doesn’t.
Certainly, God can and does act miraculously, and we seek his face and request He do so. But He hasn’t promised that He will do so every time. And realistically, more often than not, the world works through what seem to us to be mundane natural laws that He instituted and upholds. These types of songs may be well meaning, but vague lyrics chocked full of lazy theological statements and hyper-charismatic victory theology can lead to an overemphasis on an earthly victory that is never promised to us, and the result can be crippling.
It’s a great tragedy when people walk away from their faith thinking God lied to them because He didn’t come through on a promise He never made to them. And what a shame when our false ideas about earthly deliverance obscure the things that God does promise us, things far deeper, more glorious, and more eternal than circumstantial improvement. In our pain, God promises us the greatest of all things — Himself. He promises us His presence, His guidance, His love, and His holiness.
This project, which we are calling “To This I Hold,” is a list of songs that seeks to provide a place for us to go when we’re confused, disappointed, struggling, and suffering. It is meant to be a safe place to wrestle, to cry out, to pray, and to be reminded of our hope in Christ that is deeper than this shallow world could ever offer.
Some of these songs we wrote for our church family, and two others we’ve curated and re-arranged. None of these songs provide easy answers. They do not promise things that God has not. They simply remind us, in the suffering, that God is with us and He is good, and that, in the end, He wins.
If we have a God who cannot handle the brutal suffering of this world, He will fail us. But the truth of our God is that He can handle our questions, our hurts, our doubts, and our fears and, even better, He can empathize with us. Our God grieves with us and comforts us. Even death is not too hard for Him. He is, after all, the One who conquered it. And His promise is that, amidst everything, He is with us, even to the end of the age.
Written by: Danny Nathan, Worship Director