Relient K and Romans March 8, 2008
Posted by Anya in : I won't keep things purposely vague , trackbackI was doing Omnibus. (Has anyone noticed me how many interesting ideas strike me when I’m doing Omni?) Anyway, I was answering some of the questions on Mein Kampf, and we got into Romans and how problems (such as sickness) stem ultimately from sin, and how they lead to death.
I was also listening to Relient K. Maybe to block out the noise from whatever the younger kids were doing, or more probably because I had just gotten the CD and wanted to listen to it again, and I like multi-tasking. Most of the time.
Anyway, the timing worked out (as it so often does) in a way which made my brain flicker into the on position. Reading Romans, listening to Deathbed… aha, yes.
And to be clear, I don’t think I agree with all the theology in this song — they have so much fun writing cryptically *cough* that sometimes it’s difficult to be certain if I agree or disagree or am just simply lost. But it was interesting.
I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can’t believe this is the end
But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I’ll be home The year is 1941
I was eight years old and far, far too young
To know that the stories of battles and glory
Was a tale a kind mother made up for a son
You see, Dad was a traveling preacher
Teaching the words of the Teacher
Mother had sworn he went off to the war
And died there with honor, somewhere on a beach there
But he left once to never return
Which taught me that I should unlearn
Whatever I thought a father should be
I abandoned that thought like he abandoned me
By ‘47, I was fourteen
I’d acquired a taste for liquor and nicotine
I smoked until I threw up, yet I still lit ‘em up
For thirty more years, like a machine
So right there you have it
That one filthy habit
Is what got me where I am today
I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can’t believe this is the end
I can hear the sad memories
Still haunting me
So many things I’d do again
But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I’ll be home
Got married on my twenty-first
Eight months before my wife would give birth
It’s easier to be sure you love someone
When a father inquires with the barrel of a gun
The union was far from harmonious
No two people could’ve been more alone than us
The years would go by and she’d love someone else
And I’d realized I hadn’t been loved yet myself
From there it’s your typical spiel
Yeah, if life was a highway, I was drunk at the wheel
I was helpin’ the loose ends all fall apart
Yeah, I swear I was destined to fail, and fail from the start
I bowled about six times a week
A bottle of Beam kept the memories from me
Our marriage had taken a 7–10 split
And along with my pride, the ex-wife took the kids
I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can’t believe this is the end
I can hear those sad memories
Still haunting me
So many things I’d do again
But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I’ll be home
I was so scared of Jesus but He sought me out
Like the cancer in my lungs that’s killing me now
And I’ve given up hope on the days I have left
But I cling to the hope of my life in the next
Then Jesus showed up, said, “Before we go up
I thought that we might reminisce
See, one night in your life, when you turned out the lights
You asked for and prayed for My forgiveness
“You cried, wolf; the tears they soaked your fur
The blood dripped from your fangs
You said, ‘What have I done?’
You loved that lamb with every sinful bone
And there you wept alone
Your heart was so contrite
“You said, ‘Jesus, please forgive me of my crimes
Sanctify this withered heart of mine
Stay with me until my life is through
And on that day, please take me home with You’ “
I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can’t believe this is the end
I can hear You whisper to me
“It’s time to leave
You’ll never be lonely again”
But this was my deathbed
I died there alone
When I closed my eyes tonight
You carried me home
I am the Way
Follow me and take my hand
And I am the Truth
Embrace me and you’ll understand
And I am the Life
And through me you’ll live again
For I am Love
I am Love
I…I am Love
This song really seems to do a good job summing up some of the teachings of Romans. We are surrounded by death. Its smell is everywhere, because we are dead.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can’t believe this is the end
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, … you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness… But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
From there it’s your typical spiel
Yeah, if life was a highway, I was drunk at the wheel
I was helpin’ the loose ends all fall apart
Yeah, I swear I was destined to fail, and fail from the start…
So right there you have it
That one filthy habit
Is what got me where I am today
…even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
I was so scared of Jesus but He sought me out…
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
And I’ve given up hope on the days I have left
But I cling to the hope of my life in the next…
The line, “I was so scared of Jesus but He sought me out” has a very Hound of Heaven feel to it — or, to go with the Newsboys reference, “Heaven still hounds from the smallest sounds to the cries of the storm-tossed” [Elle G].
If you managed to follow this post, I think I’m impressed. 
It is one of the dangers of quizzing… there are all these pieces of Romans floating around in my head, sort of in the same way things wander around in Arthur Dent’s head, searching for something to connect to.
Have a lovely day.
Comments»
Cryptic is the right word. But I find that with all modern music, Christian or otherwise. So it could just be me.
i like your analyzation of that song.
i really enjoy deathbed.
alexis
Hmmm….InTeReStInG SoNg…but I it IS RelientK and those guys are usually pretty…uh…interesting.
To answer your question on my blog, the poem was all MINE :), not Raora’s at all…
Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy