The first time I heard this song it immediately caught my attention. Part of it is the dissonance. The fun and upbeat sound of the song clashes with the seriousness of the lyrics. But those sobering lines also caught my attention for another reason. They reminded me of the destructive effect the truth of the gospel has on the earthly lives of my Central Asian friends who come to faith. By earthly standards, once they come to faith, most are signing up for the complete implosion of their lives – at least for a good many years to come. In the West, few talk about this reality of conversion.
Rosaria Butterfield would be one exception to this. In her powerful memoir of coming to faith out of a LGBTQ background, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, she writes, “In the pages that follow, I share what happened in my private world through what Christians politely call conversion. This word–conversion–is simply too tame and too refined to capture the train wreck that I experienced incoming face-to-face with the living God.”
By the way, if you’ve never read Butterfield’s book, I can’t think of a better way to kick off America’s Pride Month. She’s an excellent writer. I am due for a rereading myself.
While this “train wreck” aspect of the truth is particularly true of those becoming Christians by apostatizing from religions like Islam or the West’s cult of sexuality, it’s something that all Christians eventually know in some measure. The gospel comes after our idols. And the love of God means he will do whatever it takes to rid us of whatever spiritual venom is still running through our veins and to grow us into “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). It can get painful.
The truth will set us free,
But not before it rips your chest out
And not before it puts your back against the wall
There’s a painful coalition
A cardiac collision involved
The truth might set you free
But first it’s gonna set fire to your house
It takes what you’ve been trusting
And breaks it down to nothing at all
That's how it sets you free
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Entrusted to the Dirt 
Such powerful thoughts! I’ve been a Christian 35 years and it never really occurred to me the heartache that can come with changing literally everything about your life for those who come from complete lifestyle backgrounds.
I mean, I knew it was hard and all, just breaking away from the old you is difficult enough for all of us, but I hadn’t really thought how hard it would be to be able to make sense of the new situation that necessarily turns your whole life upside down… 🤯 thanks for sharing these thoughts…
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