Today's Journal: Miracles Don't Exist [Unless] We Just Wish Ourselves Away.

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I walk faster but it always catches up to me 

We talk all night, never saying anything 



I am all that's in my way 
Do you ever feel the same? 

Miracles don't exist in us 
We just wish ourselves away 

I'm not right this way 
Removed and so ashamed

Wisher by Terminal

  



     Terminal, in this melancholic song, presents us with a view of a tragic situation which is on the verge of, but never crosses the border into optimism. As I listened to these lyrics there was something  that rang true. We are the greatest obstacle to truly living a life Christians are called to. Our human frailty and sin is a real issue. The removal of self focus is important. The first line "I walk faster but it always catches up to me", speaks of a tragic flaw that cannot be escaped. "We talk all night, never saying anything," portrays a conversational impasse in attempt to solve the problem. I thought of this impasse as being based on an unwillingness to give up one's own issues, pride, and vanity. The analysis of the problem seems fair.
      Where I disagree is that Terminal is too pessimistic. The answer is wishing ourselves away in a certain respect. John the Baptist said "I must decrease, He must increase", while Terminal's lyrics give the feeling that wishing one's self away is a broken farce of the miraculous. Maybe the writer is suggesting that actually when we wish ourselves away there might be a potential for miracles, but I don't think this is the tone of the piece. In the end the writer concludes "I'm not right this way, removed and so ashamed." The conclusion leaves us with a cry that is self pitying and self focussed. We do not need to wish ourselves away. Christ has taken away our need for self justification that deals with the first stanza's problem and the feeling of shame in the last stanza. If we give, not wish, our (sinful) selves away and take on Christ we are no longer removed from the source of all worth and being in the universe, the Creator, God himself. He has taken away our pride, shame, guilt, self pity, and all the need or desire for torturous introspection.

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