JESUS IS JUST ALRIGHT

SESSION 3: Jesus, Forgive Me for the Things I’m About to Do

Pop songs are full of prayers. But rather than relying on familiar words, musicians lift their voices to Jesus in ways that are often highly personal and heartbreakingly honest. This session explores what we can learn about prayer – and faith – from the pleas and tears of a wide variety of artists. What to do they pray for? Why and how? How do we see ourselves in these songs, and how might it affect the way we think about prayer?

QUESTIONS:

1.) Have you ever prayed like this? Why? If you haven’t, have you ever wanted to pray like this, but felt like you could not? If so, what was it that kept you from doing so?

2.) What can you learn about prayer from this song?

Help Me

Carrie Underwood: Jesus, Take the Wheel (2005)

She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati on a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her mama and her daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go, and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It'd been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind, and she didn't pay attention
She was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was so scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus, take the wheel
Take it from my hands
'Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
And save me from this road I'm on
Jesus, take the wheel

It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder
And the car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock
And for the first time in a long time
She bowed her head to pray
She said, "I'm sorry for the way
I've been living my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight

Jesus, take the wheel
Take it from my hands
'Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
And save me from this road I'm on."

Oh, Jesus, take the wheel

Oh, I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
From this road I'm on
From this road I'm on
Jesus, take the wheel
Oh, take it, take it from me
Oh, why, oh

Indigo Girls: Hey Jesus (1987)

Hey jesus it's me
I don't usually talk to you
But my baby's gonna leave me
And there's something you must do
I am not your faithful servant
I hang around sometimes
With a bunch of your black sheep
But if you make my baby stay
I'll make it up to you
And that's a promise i will keep

Hey jesus it's me
I'm the one who talked to you yesterday
And i asked you please please
For a favor but my baby's gone away
Went away anyway
And i don't really think its fair
You've got the power to make us all
Believe in you
And then we call you in our despair
And you don't come through

Hey jesus it's me
I'm sorry
I don't remember all i said
I had a few, no, too many
And they went straight to my head
And made me feel like i could argue with god
But you know it's easy for you
You got friends all over the world
You had the whole world waiting for your birth
But now i ain't got nobody
I don't know what my life's worth

I'm not gonna call on you any more
I'm sure you've got a million things to do
All i was trying to do
Was to get through to you
Get through to you
Because when i die and i get up to your doors
I don't even know if you're gonna let me in the place
How come i gotta die
To get a chance to talk to
You face to face

Save Me

Denzel Curry: Speedboat (2019)

I went from sticking pennies in the jar
To offshore bank accounts
See me and Malcolm Don X is lucrative
I'm talking big money, big chains, big guns nigga
More power

Big talk, speedboat (Speedboat)
Pray to God, I don't get repoed (Repoed)
Didn't go to college for a free throw (Swish)
People getting killed through the peep hole (Blah)
Have your money up before you go to war (Hmm)
Put the mask on like a luchador (Hmm)
My dawg didn't make it to 21, so I gotta make it past 24

Put a red beam to your head like Arby's
Either go to school, go to jail or the army
Keep a close eye on the things tryna harm me
Warn me if anybody try to swarm me (Uh)
Invest in a rock and a Rottweiler
Pile up hella stacks when the bills pile up
Dollar, it's the only way to get the style up
Riled up 'cause you motherfuckers used the dial up
My dawg is gone and the result is to have my teflon
Christian Dior and the fashion beyond
Talking Polo, call me Polow da Don
Throw some d's on the thong
I got hella keys in the phone
I put hella G's in the vault
It took only three to assault (Damn)

Jesus, please deliver us from evil
Please pray over all my people
What you see in life's illegal
I don't wanna use my Desert Eagle

Big talk, speedboat (Speedboat)
Pray to God, I don't get repoed (Repoed)
Didn't go to college for a free throw (Swish)
People getting killed through the peep hole (Blah)
Have your money up before you go to war (Hmm)
Put the mask on like a luchador (Hmm)
My dawg didn't make it to 21, so I gotta make it past 24

Pouring out scotch
Gas, all in my brain, if human get in my thoughts
Thinking 'bout intricate plots
To get out the hood, that's when I started to jot
Not given the opportunity to let the devil ruin me (No)
Even though the jewelry froze, ice cubes get depot
Word on the street, everything heat
Everything hot boy, Texas peat
Pulled up in a Lexus and a Jeep
All black, no tag, time for the sweep
Too many guns, too many sons
Lost in the river of blood in these streets
Master of none, pastors and nuns
Let's bow our heads for the ceremony

Jesus, please deliver us from evil
Please pray over all my people
What you see in life's illegal
I don't wanna use my Desert Eagle

Big talk, speedboat (Speedboat)
Pray to God, I don't get repoed (Repoed)
Didn't go to college for a free throw (Swish)
People getting killed through the peep hole (Blah)
Have your money up before you go to war (Hmm)
Put the mask on like a luchador (Hmm)
My dawg didn't make it to 21, so I gotta make it past 24

Fuel: Jesus or a Gun (1999)

Walk away, I walk the wire
And my fields are burning in the flames
Feel my way, blind in the mire
Struggling from your voice inside my head

But now everything's trying to drag me down
But I'll rip the sky from the ground
But tell me now, who's my saving one
Jesus or a gun

Stripped away my last desire
Nothing comes and nothing's sent away
Happiness I couldn't hire
Struggling from these thoughts inside my head

But now everything's trying to drag me down
But I'll rip the sky from the ground
But tell me now, who's my saving one
Jesus or a gun

All that's safer falls from my favor
When it's over who will cry for me

It's safe to say I don't desire
Everything you push inside my head
And I'll reject it until I'm dead

But now everything's trying to drag me down
But I'll rip the sky from the ground
But tell me now, who's my saving one
Jesus or a gun

Forgive Me

Concrete Blonde: Jesus Forgive Me (For the Things I’m About to Say) (1993)

Oh, Jesus, please forgive me for the things I'm about to say

I killed you in my mind today
I cut you up, I watched you bleed
I killed you in my heart today
For everything you did to me

I murdered you a hundred times
I shot you dead and never cried
I killed you in my mind today
I laughed and watched you die

Screaming at me all on fire
Liar, liar, liar
I buried you with my desire
Liar, liar, liar
I buried you so far below
Liar, liar, liar
I hate to see you go

Oh, Jesus, please forgive me
Oh, Jesus, please forgive me

On my knees beside my bed
Liar, liar, liar
I'm sorry for the things I said
Liar, liar, liar
I've washed the sheets a million times
Liar, liar, liar
I'm paying for my crime

Oh, Jesus, please forgive me
Oh, Jesus, please forgive me

I killed you in my mind today
Oh, Jesus, please forgive me
I killed you in my mind today
Somehow

Joshua Hyslop: Everything Unsaid (2016)

For everything unsaid there is a flourish of my pride
It is deep and dark and wide
I can't tell the weeds from vines
But if I had the strength I'd move the mountains in my mind
But it's taking all my time
Just to start to realize
That I'm not the man I hoped to be
And though I'm not alone
I still feel so lonely

Come Monday, I've forgotten all those promises you said
All your holy words in red
Reaped in guilt and golden thread
And if I had the strength to be who others say I am
I wouldn't look into my eyes
See the shadow of a man
Well I'm not who they say I've become

For I know the things I've said
Won't compare with what I've done
No, no, oh, no

Now all of these monstrosities
Choices I have made
Will not go away
I've made my bed and here I lay
But is there still forgiveness if we know what we have done?
every single one
Respect?
Well it's not just the day that meets the night
Seems to me it's in the darkness we can finally see the light
Oh, oh, oh, oh