I can only imagine
While we were in the hospital visiting with family, and Anne’s grandfather, a commercial for a religious/inspirational music CD came on the TV. The CD, I Can Only Imagine: Ultimate Power Anthems of the Christian Faith, has, what seems to me, an incredibly ironic name. If god is really so incredible, so amazing, so wonderful, why must one “only imagine”? It seems to me that if god were so great, there would be no need to imagine.
I understand that the album is titled after a song (which I’ve chosen not to listen to). I’ve read the lyrics, and it’s about death, and how the singer will react when he/she finally comes face to face with Jesus in heaven.
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I guess the most charitable I can be about it is: you can only imagine because you don’t know anything about what happens after death. No one does. None of the promises in the bible mean a thing because we have no reliable evidence that anything happens after death. Therefore, we are left to imagine. That, to me, is not a song of inspiring faith–its a song of despair.
