What endures

David Wilcox sorta became the soundtrack for my wife's and my courtship. He'd been a herald-of-understatement for the both of us separately--that is, his way of speaking truth was so subtle as to make it more compelling. When we began to listen to him together--his incongruities with our understanding of eternal truths notwithstanding--we still agreed there was much to be appreciated and heeded about his musings on what is true, good, perfect, and lasting.

My wife found this song again this morning, like an old, forgotten photo-album that when you revisit its contents has a peculiar effect on your soul: you've been in it before, but hadn't felt precisely what it produced in you by anything else since.

I share it with you (yes, a free song, can you believe it? scroll to the bottom of the page to click on the flash recording of it), because it reaffirms something C.S. Lewis makes a case for in The Abolition of Man: that which is true endures. Certain virtues are virtues because they have emerged within every culture in every era.

And what David has to say in this song only echoes...and teases out what Jesus had to say about the primacy of giving (love). Yes, David likely has in view as he composes the love between two lovers, but I'm sure he wouldn't narrow what's true about giving love to that context alone; what's true about love is applicable to any connection in which love can be expressed

So enjoy. And be reminded: His love endures forever because His truth has endured forever.

The Love You Give


Oh to be loved, good as that is,
No.
It can never take you where you want to go.
No.
Just to be loved, fine as that is,
No.
It can never teach you what you need to know.

To be loved can start the spark that gets your own love to burn.
But when you feel the fire of real love, you'll learn.

That the only kind of love that makes a lifetime,
Into a life well lived.
The only kind of love that ever fills you,
Is the love you give.

So brave is the strength of broken hearts,
Yes.
To love and love again, and give nothing less.
Yes.
Like flowing water springs from mountain rock,
Yes.
The broken place reveals what you possess.

Like the mountain broken open finds the spring that flows,
Your heart can never open till it's broken so you know.

That the only kind of love that makes a lifetime,
Into a life well lived.
The only kind of love that ever fills you,
Is the love you give.

Oh the love you get, seems like enough at first.
But then there's that hunger, and that thirst.
And the more you try to get, it just gets worse.
There's not enough on earth to get of it,
If getting's all you try.
The giving that you hunger for,
Is all that satisfies.

The only kind of love that makes a lifetime,
Into a life well lived.
The only kind of love that ever fills you,
Is the love you give.