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STORY BEHIND THE SONG: "The Motions"
Matthew West
CCMmagazine.com
The Motions
Romans 12:2
I don’t always feel it. Sometimes my faith seems stale. Numb. Sometimes I pray, but I don’t feel connected. I sing, but my song sounds empty. I write, but my words sound cliché. I ask God questions, but I don’t hear answers. I could try to act like I am always so spiritually refreshed and thriving in my relationship with God. But that wouldn’t be honest. That wouldn’t be me.
Does your faith journey ever have these desert seasons? I think one of the greatest challenges in actively living out a relationship with Christ on earth is to avoid the trap of simply going through the motions. I know what a “Christian” should say. I know how to act. I know how to put up a spiritual front, even if I’m not passionately seeking God.
That’s why I wrote this song. I was frustrated and tired of that constant settling for a stale faith. God is a God of passion. His true plan for our lives is anything but boring. Every day, the God of adventure beckons his sons and daughters to quit going through the motions and walk into a life filled with passion and wonder.
The last line of the chorus strikes me every time I sing it:
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
My surgery and silence really brought this song to life for me. Trials force movement. Pain makes you feel. I’m thankful for the difficult time I had to go through, because God used it to remind me that going through the motions is not really living.
The Motions
Matthew West, Sam Mizell & Jason Houser
This might hurt
It's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care
If I break
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming
Passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
No regrets
Not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life
‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming
Passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
Take me all the way (take me all the way)
Take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)
Take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)
Take me all the way
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming
Passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
Take me all the way (take me all the way)
Take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)
Take me all the way (through the motions)
Take me all the way
I don't wanna go through the motions
© 2008 Word Music / Songs For Lulu / Simple Tense Song / Wyzell Music / Songs Of Extreme / Cedar Sides (ASCAP)
© 2009 CCMmagazine.com. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
**This feature first published on March 2, 2009.
Most Recent User Comments
alandmuse
3/4/2009 8:11 AM
This article opens up a can of worms... one could conclude that the need to "feel" an emotional sense of connection with God, may be not that different from those who cut themselves, also in order to "feel". The danger here is creating an expectation that a relationship with God is necessarily marked by emotional "passion". One runs the risk of chasing emotionalism instead of faith. However, of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, only "joy" might be interpreted as being an emotional state. While acknowledging that God is "passionate" in His love for us, I would suggest that it is presumptuous to assume that He expects that everyone to feel as passionately toward Him. Indeed, such a passion, where it exists, is a gift, not an acquired skill. The Scriptures suggest that qualities of “love” and “faith” are more often lived out in obedience, in being a “good and faithful servant". Faith is about believing without seeing and, sometimes, without feeling. How one feels does not change truth.
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