u/fauxrealistic

Was thinking about Sufjan and this song and, after reading some analysis blog posts about its lyrics, I noticed how differently Christians and non-Christians view this verse:

"All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes, and He takes, and He takes"

Non-Christians seem to view it as God taking from us in a negative sense (see this one: https://medialoper.com/certain-songs-2538-sufjan-stevens-casimir-pulaski-day/; "All of this naturally precipitates a crisis of faith in young Sufjan: why did his friend have to die so young? What would their future have been? What kind of God allows this to happen to people of faith? All of which are unanswerable questions, of course. But the anger and resigned bitterness of “And He takes and He takes and He takes” resonates even with a heathen like me).

To me (and I would guess Sufjan) it's that God and Christ take and take and take our suffering, our grief, and our place when he died on the Cross.

Totally understand the difference of opinion (and I could be wrong with my analysis of Sufjan's writing), but it really goes to show what a remarkable songwriter he is.

You know, Heaven's River has really grown into one of my favorites

Back when I got an account 20 years ago you had to reach a certain point in the song for the scrobble to count. I can’t tell if that’s still the case

And He takes, and he takes, and he takes.

Just the absolute dumbest person on the planet.

Servant of God Dorothy Day's advice to the United States on the occasion of the bicentennial.

I have "an attack of the shits" floating around in my head most days.

I've been going through a bit of an OCD spike and really having trouble coping, so I've been rewatching from the beginning. The camaraderie the contestants have really is so lovely. Thank God for this show.