There are some songs that stick in your head forever. This is one for me. I don’t even know how I came across this album in high school, but I did. Anyway, I think Reese Roper really got articulated something profound in this brief and fairly unpoetic song. Here’s my favorite bit (it starts at 00:59):

Limping through the world
There’s a knowing look or two
Is it just the cripples here
Who understand the truth?
Why is love so painful
Why do we always lose
Paving pathways for the lost
The bitter, and recluse?
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurt to think it’s true
did it nail Him on a cross
did it crucify Him too?

Lyrics

Billie Holiday on the radio
My sluggish heart is beating seven beats too slow
Another sad song and another shot of blue
Cold and unconcerned are anything but new
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurts to think He’s right
If I mark the span of failure
Is his burden just as light?

I am, Spartan
Close my heart so tight
Jesus
Save me
From myself tonight

Limping through the world
There’s a knowing look or two
Is it just the cripples here
Who understand the truth?
Why is love so painful
Why do we always lose
Paving pathways for the lost
The bitter, and recluse?
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurt to think it’s true
did it nail Him on a cross
did it crucify Him too?

(Bridge)
The angels are singing over the plains
The shepherds are quaking, echoing refrains (Echoing refrains)
And all of our slogans designed to take away the pain
Meant nothing to the Son of God that night in Bethlehem