About five years ago, I was very struck by a song that came out by an American rock band which was very honest about the fact that there is nothing in this world, not even human love and marriage. The song is called “Didn’t Fix Me”, and he goes through lots of different things he’s tried to get fixed, but nothing works. He says:
I went to see a healer
With that mic strapped to his face
Talked about which habits to surrender
And which habits to embrace
And for the next few days or so
I was feeling pretty good
But it didn’t fix me
It’s fascinating, because the idea starts in a sort of churchy/religious context, but all he hears is law. And it doesn’t fix him.
Then he goes on:
I even started volunteering
With the local Sacred Heart
We feed the homeless on some weekends
We pick up trash in all the parks
And even though we’re cleaning up
The whole [dang] neighbourhood
It didn’t fix me
It didn’t fix me like I thought it would
And really, that’s more law isn’t it? Good deeds. They don’t fix him.
So he tries literature/art:
I got that book you recommended
About the spy in East Berlin
I really liked the way it ended
How he forgives his friend who turns him in
And I think I see what you were sayin’
‘Bout how technically it should, but…
It didn’t fix me
It didn’t fix me like I thought it would
And then he has the prospect of fame and worldly success, and hopes that that will fix him:
I finally got a nomination
For an award that I don’t need
But I say that out of obligation
I really spent hours on my speech
I thanked my biggest inspirations
And the good folks back in Hollywood
But it didn’t fix me
It didn’t fix me like I thought it would
And in the last verse it sounds like he’s going to be fixed because he meets the love of his life and gets married, and the description of the joys of married life is so beautiful:
I finally found someone that loves me
And to her, I will be true
She sees the ways in which I’m ugly
And loves me for those reasons too
And even though I’m feelin’ stronger
Than I ever thought I could
It still didn’t fix me
It didn’t fix me
It didn’t fix me like I thought it would
It’s rare to find a song so honest in the world of popular music, I find! And one feels for the man who’s singing. He’s desperate to find the answer, but—as another rock-star once put it—he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.
And yet, most of you know the answer! You know what he needs—or rather who he needs. He needs Jesus, the living bread who came down from heaven! And even though all of us who have found Christ are still works in progress, and we all have remaining sin, yet—at the very least—we have hope that we are being fixed, and we’re fixed a little bit more every time we get a step closer to the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
