I have been sans iPod for months now, so I burned 3 CDs worth of music so I can listen to songs I know I like in my car. No offense to the Christian radio station in the DC metro area, or anything, but if I’m going to hear the same songs repeatedly, I’d like to have a choice in it. Anyhow, one of these CDs contains Ginny Owens’s “I Am Nothing.”
I’ve always thought this song was a rather neat variation of the theme of I Corinthians 13, the oft read Scripture passage on love read at weddings. Just as I thought I was gonna get tired of hearing the same set of lyrics yet again (even though the CD player is in shuffle mode), the opening lines of the song seemed brand new to me, the words pointing surgically at me.
just to share Your story, bring You glory, and win souls for You.
I think, “Hmmm, doesn’t that sound kinda sorta like. . . oh, I dunno, the World Race?! Or other missions trips I’ve been on?” How interesting, eh?
full of drama and emotion, so the world would know Your truth.
“That reminds me of being on praise team (not the singing like an angel part though) and CTI,” I muse. I keep listening.
to restore those people who are poor, lost, and down-and-out.
Oh, I could succeed at all these things, find favor with peasants and kings,
but if I do not love, I am nothing.
I could live a flawless life, never cheat or steal or lie,
and always speak so kindly, smile so warmly, and go about doing good.
I could dedicate myself to do what everyone else wants me to,
listen to them, compliment them, say the things I should.
I could show up every Sunday, lead the choir and bible study
and they all might come to know me as a leader and a friend.
Oh, I could achieve success on earth, but success cannot define my worth
and all these actions, all these words, will not matter in the end —
Songs will fade to silence, stories, they will cease.
The dust will settle, covering all my selfless deeds.
So as I strive to serve You, won’t You make it clear to me:
if I do not love, I am nothing.
If I cannot live my life loving my brother, then how can I love the One who lived His life for me?
Sent to earth from heaven, Humble Servant, Holy King,
come to share a story, get no glory, and save my searching soul.
You knew that I’d deny You, crucify You,
but nothing could stop You from living for me, dying for me, so that I would know —
Songs will fade to silence, stories, they will cease.
The dust will settle, covering all these selfless deeds,
but Your life here has made it clear enough for me to see
that if I do not love, I am nothing.
Listening to this song was like looking into one of those magnifying mirrors, although, throughout the song, and especially during the bridge, I also thought, “Perhaps I need to insert ‘(You)’ after ‘love,’ and ‘I'”. And I can’t very well live my life loving anyone, unless I am fully aware that I am loved thus respond in kind by loving Him back, can I? ‘Cause the thing is, I haven’t been very successful at any of things Owens lists in the lyrics in the first place.
My response to love and grace is to trust and obey, out of love and grace…otherwise, and without which, I am nothing.
