“Lay Down the Burden of Your Heart” by Amy Grant
It’s a cold, cold world
That we’re walking through.
Lay down the burden of your heart.
But it’s warm as toast
Walking two by two,
Lay down the burden of your heart.
Lay down the burden of your heart.
I know you’ll never miss it.
Show your Daddy where it hurts,
And let your Daddy lift it.
It’s a fine, fine line
Betwixt love and hate.
Why, it’s tough to tell the two apart.
But you know it’s love
That He offers you.
Lay down the burden of your heart.
Lay down the burden of your heart.
I know you’ll never miss it.
Ohh-ohh, show your Daddy where it hurts,
And let your Daddy lift it.
Lay down the burden of your heart.
I know you’ll never miss it.
Ohh-ohh, show your Daddy where it hurts,
And let your Daddy lift it.
Ohh-ohh, show your Daddy where it hurts,
And let your Daddy lift it.
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Adrian Plass / David Clifton / Ian David Blythe / Philip Andrew Baggaley
Dear God, I have a couple of thoughts on this song this morning. I came across it while I was trying to find another Amy Grant song that I never did find. But I’ve always liked this one so I thought I would spend some time with it this morning.
The first thought was based on a conversation my wife and I had yesterday about our image of you as “father,” and how some people with “daddy issues” can have difficulty separating you as our father from our earthly fathers. I’ve never had that issue. I mean, it helps that my earthly father is an honorable person. Sure he’s flawed like we all are (probably not as much as I am), but overall I’m fortunate in that way. At the same time, I’ve never thought of you as father in the same way as him as my father. For me, you’re God. You have this amazing love for me. I understood just a little bit of that love in a new way when I became a father. But I don’t expect the same things of you that I expected from my earthly father growing up. And now that I’m an adult I have a different kind of relationship with my earthly father than I have with you. Frankly, while my relationship with him is reasonably good, my intimacy with you is much great. Yeah, maybe that’s the word: intimacy. Maybe that’s what I was trying to articulate to my wife when we were talking about how I see the difference between you as “father” and my earthly “father.”
So when Amy sings about showing you, my “daddy,” where it hurts and letting you fix it, I think she is describing something I’ve done with you many times. And I know that “letting you fix it” can sound cliche and like just words, but there’s something real to it. And often you don’t fix it. You just hold me while I hurt and then let the natural healing process happen (tears in my eyes as I type this). Thank you for just holding me when that’s what I need.
The other thing that came to my mind was the writers’ decision to include the line, “It’s a fine, fine line betwixt love and hate. Why it’s tough to tell they two apart.” First, they chose the word “betwixt.” I Googled it to see if it was a specific reference to a piece of literature and didn’t immediately find anything, but I don’t think it would have changed the rhyming scheme to say “between” instead of “betwixt,” but they went with the latter. I wonder why.
Second, they chose this phrase for this song in the first place. A song about laying down my burdens includes this curious quote. “It’s tough to tell the two apart.” As the four writers sat down and wrote this song, I wonder if they talked about how sometimes what someone does out of love can seem suffocating and like hate. I think my children have interpreted that from me sometimes. And I have sometimes interpreted your actions that way. So they added the line, “But you know it’s love that He offers you.” I can have faith that while it might sometimes look like hate that I’m experiencing from you, I should know have faith that it is always love. Always love.
Father, I’m here to lay down the burden of my heart. I told a friend yesterday that I’m preparing to really spend some time with you and meet with you during Lent this year. I feel like I’m preconditioning my heart to some extent. I don’t want to go in cold. I want to be in an already “present” state with you so that I might simply sink into what you, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, my Triune God, have for me this year. I need you. I really do need you. So I will stay in the moment. I will keep my eyes off of the water and on yours. And I will let you hold me while some of my wounds continue to heal.
I offer all of this to you in Jesus with the Holy Spirit,
Amen
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