Every once in a while, a song comes along with a lyric that moves you deeply.
It winds its way into your heart and soul. It seeps in and saturates.
It changes you.
“Known” by Tauren Wells is such a song for me. It touches on the deep need we all have to be known, and yet the fear that if anybody really knew us they would find us unlovable.
Check out part of the lyric.
It's so unusual it's frightening
You see right through the mess inside me
And you call me out to pull me in
You tell me I can start again
And I don't need to keep on hidingI'm fully known and loved by You
You won't let go no matter what I do
And it's not one or the other
It's hard truth and ridiculous grace
To be known fully known and loved by You
I'm fully known and loved by You
Songwriters: Ethan Hulse / Jordan Sapp / Tauren Wells
Known lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Essential Music Publishing, Capitol Christian Music Group
It’s so unusual it’s frightening.
That’s for sure!
It’s one thing to show someone what you want them to see and to be accepted. It’s another thing entirely to be vulnerable enough to show the messy stuff.
The recurring thoughts go something like this:
If he only knew my inner struggle, he wouldn’t love me.
If she got a peek into my thought life, she would completely reject me.
If my past was laid bare, everyone in my life would turn 180 and flee.
The real me would never be accepted.
Because you’re human, I imagine you’ve had these thoughts, or another cut from similar cloth.
That deep sense that if you were fully known, really known, all your relationships would go sideways fast.
And yet, like it or not, there is One who knows me fully. Inside and out. Every fiber of my being. Every moment of my life. The good. The bad. The ugly.
The Psalmist said it like this:
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
He knows what I’m going to say before I say it? He knows every thought? My every move?
Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide from the gaze of my Creator.
How uncomfortable is that thought on any given day?
Hard truth.
But there’s ridiculous grace.
Ridiculous. Absurd. Preposterous.
A grace difficult to explain and harder to understand.
No condemnation. Unconditional love. Kindness that leads us to repentance. The scriptures are replete with the evidence. A love that pursues and forgives.
I remember preaching on Psalm 139 a couple of years ago and seeing something I had never seen before. An AHA moment.
The Psalmist begins with a statement of fact: “You have searched me and You know me.”
He ends many verses later with an invitation: “Search me O God and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts.”
A shift from acknowledging something is true and finding it profoundly disconcerting, to inviting it with humility and willingness.
That can only happen if you know that you are safe in the eyes of the searcher. That the searching is done by One who will never condemn you. One who loves you. One who will tell you hard truth. One who won’t let you stay in hiding or cover up sin. One who searches you out with ridiculous grace.
Are you in hiding? Are you uneasy at the thought that you are fully known?
I think all of us are to one extent or another.
But the invitation to step into the truth is ever present.
You are fully known. You are fully loved.
This journey with Jesus is about learning to believe what is already true about you.
Want to hear the rest of the song? Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbQ6Lfh5L14
Sit. Close your eyes. Listen.
Let the truth seep into you. Let it saturate your soul.
You won’t be sorry.
