From the Desk of Jeff King

Going Home

The first time I heard Mary Fahl sing Going Home was in a near-empty movie theater in 2003. And I immediately got a lump in my throat. Her haunting ballad is played during opening credits of the Civil War movie Gods and Generals. On screen, battle flags of the North and South snap in the wind as Fahl croons, "I'm bound for the hills where cool waters flow. On this road that will take me home."

I heard the song again last week and wept. My daughter Sara bought me the movie DVD for Father's Day, and one of the first features I clicked on was Fahl's music video of Going Home. I felt something break deep in my spirit. The video includes a scene of rows and rows of Union soldiers marching into a hail of Confederate fire. Seconds later we see hundreds of Union corpses strewn across the open battlefield in the stillness of night. The camera then pans up to the stars and northern lights. Whether it was intended or not, Fahl's lyrics reflect the hope expressed by Christian soldiers in the movie of a future restoration:

They say there’s a place, where dreams have all gone
They never said where, but I think I know
It’s miles through the night just over the dawn
On the road that will take me home

I know in my bones, I’ve been here before
The ground feels the same, tho the land’s been torn
I’ve a long way to go, the stars tell me so
On this road that will take me home

Love waits for me round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrows shall find their end
and all our troubles will be gone
And I know what I’ve lost, and all that I won
When the road finally takes me home

And when I pass by, don’t lead me astray
Don’t try and stop me, don’t stand in my way
I’m bound for the hills where cool waters flow
On this road that will take me home.

The struggle here reminds me of Romans 8:22-23 – "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." And also Revelation 21:4 – "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' "

Fahl's lyrics promise an end to sorrows, but fail to identify the source of that relief. Messiah Yeshua says in John 4:14 that He offers water from which we shall never thirst. He is the love that waits for us round the bend.

Posted by Jeff King at June 27, 2004 11:33 AM