SPECIAL FEATURE REPRINTED FROM THE MANITOWOC HERALD-TIMES REPORTER:Hearing the voice, promises of Jesus at MetroJam

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “If I am another waste of everything you dreamed of, I will let you down. If I am only here to watch as you suffer, I will let you down.”

Those are actually the lyrics from “If I Am” by Nine Days, the headlining band at last Saturday’s MetroJam. Nine Days delivered an energizing set of anthemic, slightly grooved rock ‘n’ roll, a sound recalling the Outfield and Better Than Ezra. “If I Am” is their Top 20 single from the 2000 album, The Madding Crowd.

I saw lead singer John Hampson on stage, but I heard the voice of Jesus calling us. Like many love songs, “If I Am” portrays the speaker in a messianic light—having an absolute love and the ability to save the object of his love (“I will never leave you/I will never let you down”). The speaker in the song is trying to convince his lover that he will not abandon her as she assumes.

A rock ‘n’ roll song about love resonates with us when it touches on a love we’ve experienced or wish to experience. Songs like “If I Am” reveal our need for someone’s devotion to us and our desire to have that devotion to another person. Yet, it is not a realistic description but a sweeping, uplifting, bigger-than-life picture of love—hyperbolic poetry about a love that is much more mundane, troubled, and flawed.

With Jesus, though, it is not hyperbole. That bigger-than-life picture reflects the reality of the love of Jesus Christ who will never leave us or let us down.

We struggle to believe that Jesus could possibly be the answer to all of our dreams. If He doesn’t fulfill those dreams, though, then He will let us down. With the words of the Nine Days song, Jesus is declaring that He isn’t a waste of our dreams; He answers our deepest desires.

We see so much suffering in this world that we doubt God cares about us. If Jesus is just standing by while we suffer, then He certainly will let us down. The Nine Days song implies that the speaker will not fail his lover. In that same way, Jesus did not come to let us down. He came to rescue us from eternal death (“So you’re standing on a ledge/It looks like you might fall/So far down”).

Our desire for love is answered by the true Messiah who sings the Nine Days lyric, “So give me a little credit/Have in me a little faith/I want to be with you forever.” Between two people, those words only mean so much. Between Christ and us, they mean everything and more.


This article is reprinted with kind permission from the Manitowoc Herald-Times Reporter, Saturday, June 23, 2007. www.htrnews.com Thank you to Nine Days for the review CD.