Our only hope

New Way to Be Human (1999)

Jon Foreman, lead singer of the rock band Switchfoot, has recently been posting live solo performance videos (from home, of course) of various Switchfoot songs.

One of these songs, 'Only Hope', comes from their album New Way to be Human. When my brother and I first discovered this album many years ago, I was struck by its spiritual depth and musical creativity. However, I didn't recognise how beautiful and powerful the song 'Only Hope' was until listening to it again recently.

The singer begins:

There's a song that's inside of my soul
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again
I'm awake in the infinite cold
But you sing to me over and over and over again.

I interpret this to be a dialogue between the singer and God, whom the singer encounters within his soul. He hears God's song and the beauty of that song compels him to try to write his own songs.

Sing to me of the song of the stars
Of your galaxies dancing and laughing and laughing again
When I feel like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again.

This alludes to the book of Jeremiah: '"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"' (29:11).

Thus this song is about the steadfast design God has for each of us. This is also known as vocation. Here I am not talking about specific, individual vocations, such as a calling to the priesthood, marriage/celibacy or a certain profession. Although that is related, I am referring to the universal vocation that all people have: in short, to become Christlike.

Let me illustrate this. Here in the UK, we recently celebrated Mothering Sunday. This holiday (the origins of Mother's Day in the U.S. and Canada) is connected with the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Church celebrates the angel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary that her vocation is to become the mother of the Lord. Every year this Feast is celebrated on 25th March, which is quite appropriately nine months before Christmas Day.

One can view 'Only Hope' from the Virgin Mary's perspective: the song inside of her soul is Christ, whom she will carry, give birth to and mother.

Like the Virgin Mary, our vocation is to bear Christ within us. How do we do this? It begins with acceptance and offering ourselves to God. In the words of the Virgin Mary: 'I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled' (Luke 1:38).

Similarly, Foreman expresses both receiving his vocation and offering himself to God:

I give you my apathy

I'm giving you all of me
I want your symphony singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back.

God calls us, but he does not force us. We must cooperate by accepting and giving back. After accepting her vocation, the Virgin Mary sings her own song of praise (called the Magnificat) and eventually offers Christ back to God, accepting that he must be about his Father's business through ministering, teaching and eventually laying down his own life for the world.

Christ is the song inside of our souls. Can we hear him? Will we join in, giving ourselves back to God? It is through our self-offering, in our love and service to God and neighbour, that we become more like Christ.

As we offer ourselves to God, we become more truly ourselves, and this is God's purpose for us. As St Irenaeus said, 'The glory of God is a human fully alive.'

The coronavirus pandemic has changed so many of our circumstances, but in these times, perhaps more than ever, our purpose remains to listen to Christ and offer his love to the people in our lives through a variety of ways (even from home!), and in so doing, fulfil our vocation of becoming more like Christ.

So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope.