Believer

“First things first I’ma say all the words inside my head”-Imagine Dragons 

“Believer” by Imagine Dragons took over the top spot on the Hot Rock songs chart from Billboard this week. The song and the accompanying video featuring Dolph Lundgren focus on the way pain changes us even if we’re pretty sure we know how this all ought to happen.

“Second, don’t you tell me what you think that I can be

I’m the one at the sail, I’m the master of my sea, oh ooh.”

We all go through rough times and we all react a little differently. “Believer” references being “broken from a young age” and yet “singing from heart ache from the pain.” Hopefully we learn and go on wiser “speaking my lesson from the brain.” But how are we changed? Are we still able to see beauty after our experience? Clearly, some are not.

“Third things third

Send a prayer to the ones up above

All the hate that you’ve heard has turned your spirit to a dove…”

And it seems that, at least at times, our attempts to get along in our world as we know it are futile.

“I was choking in the crowd

Living my brain up in the cloud

Falling like ashes to the ground

Hoping my feelings, they would drown

But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing

Inhibited, limited

Till it broke up and it rained down”

We need something else. Eventually we arrive at the end, at our conclusion,

“Last things last

By the grace of the fire and the flames

You’re the face of the future, the blood in my veins, oh ooh

The blood in my veins, oh ooh”

“…You made me a, you made me a believer, believer

(Pain, pain)

You break me down, you built me up, believer, believer

(Pain)

I let the bullets fly, oh let them rain

My luck, my love, my God, they came from

(Pain)

You made me a, you made me a believer, believer”

So what’s the takeaway; what’s the lesson from “Believer”? What are the ‘Dragons trying to get across? Well, another guy who wondered about how we’d be as a result of what we’d gone through was Isaiah. He wrote, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10) That might be just like the ‘Dragons’ “grace of the fire and the flames.”

Then there was this other guy named Job (no not Jobs, Job, long “o”) who went through about the most awful stuff you can imagine and came out on the other side knowing God all that much better. “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5) Maybe that’s the whole “You break me down, you built me up, believer…” idea.

Bottom line is that much of our change whether for good or for bad comes as the result of at least being uncomfortable and at worst from suffering. But just like Isaiah knew and Job discovered, the Imagine Dragons understand that belief occurs as a result of coming through pain.

The Everyday Question: Which direction are you going or being molded toward by your pain today? 

If you would like to check out the full lyrics for the song, they’re here and the video is here. You can find Job’s story (it’s something else) right here. This is a new venture on the blog so please let me know what you think and pass it along to others if you think they might like it. 

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