you raise me up

I love the words to Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up . . . To more than I can be.

Though I’m not entirely sure what Groban intends, these words can easily be applied to our relationship with God. In fact they closely parallel Scripture’s portrait of a deity who cares and draws near.

I am very thankful for the tremendous things that God has given to me. In so many ways, I am blessed. Still, given the imperfections of this world and my own propensity for being dense, there are times when I am weary, times when I need assistance that transcends my current circumstances. Groban says, “I . . . wait here in the silence, until you come and sit awhile with me.” This reminds me of the passage that reads: “Be still, and know that I am God.” There are times, in other words, when we simply have to rest in our Maker, waiting for him to “show up.” In another place, we read: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Again, this is a common theme and one from which Groban draws.

And what happens when we “sit” and “wait” for God? Somehow, though we can’t always detect the exact movements, he raises us up. Jesus put it this way: “Come to me . . . and I will give you rest.”

Where, then, is strength ultimately found? How do we become resilient and able to persevere? What, exactly, enables us not only to survive but to thrive, to be more than we could be alone? It seems that there is a personal force that is larger than any of us. We draw on it, rather, on him, and we are, to quote Groban, “raised up to be more than [we] can be.” This is amazing stuff, the stuff that far exceeds any merely hypothetical religion. When we (together) lean on the invisible, when we (together) rely on the outwardly imperceptible (yet practically obvious?), when we walk by faith, we can stand on mountains.