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Paul Race's avatar

Very well said. In some fundamental circles where emotional highs are taken as a sign that you're on the "right path," preaching becomes more emphatic, new doctrines (or heresies) are invented periodically to reinvoke the heartfelt enthusiasm of the early days, and people actually move away from faith in God toward faith in experiences.

I once was working on a song similar to this one at a Christian musical workshop. The song didn't mention faith specifically, just that the narrator had got to a point where he/she realized that trying to do the right thing had worked out wrong as often as not, apparently wasting years of his/her life. And nobody who seemed to have it all together was any help in finding out why.

The session leader, a great person and great songwriter, said, "That's a good start. Now just have him get saved and everything changes." I said, "But I've been saved for twenty-five years and I still feel like this half of the time." He just looked at me.

When I sing it in public, the "unsaved" have no trouble feeling that I "nailed it." "My God, I feel like that every day! How did you know?" The "saved" look at me askance. Apparently, having lost that first swell of emotion is akin to "losing your first love" or some such. Or at least confessing it is.

Thanks again for your honesty.

- Paul

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