Lover's Eyes

This is my favorite song on Mumford & Son's new album, Babel. At first glance of the title, I thought it was going to be some cute song about a girl's eyes and how they loved them. You know, your stereotypical love song. However, I was completely blown away at the subject area that this song was about. Here are the lyrics:

"Love was kind, for a time
Now just aches and it makes me blind
This mirror holds my eyes too bright
I can't see the others in my life
Were we too young? And heads too strong?
To bear the weight of these lover's eyes.
'Cause I feel numb, beneath your tongue
Neath the curse of these lover's eyes.

But do not ask the price I pay,
I must live with my quiet rage,
Tame the ghosts in my head,
That run wild and wish me dead.
Should you shake my ash to the wind
Lord, forget all of my sins
Oh, let me die where I lie
Neath the curse of my lover's eyes.

There's no drink nor drug I tried
To rid the curse of these lover's eyes
And I feel numb, beneath your tongue
Your strength just makes me feel less strong

But do not ask the price I pay,
I must live with my quiet rage,
Tame the ghosts in my head,
That run wild and wish me dead.
Should you shake my ash to the wind
Lord, forget all of my sins
Oh, let me die where I lie
Neath the curse of my lover's eyes.

And I'll walk slow, I'll walk slow
Take my hand, help me on my way.
And I'll walk slow, I'll walk slow
Take my hand, I'll be on my way."

See what I mean? It's a not a true love song... or is it?

The "love" that is talked about in this song, in my opinion, is the love that we have for our sin. Imagine your sin as a person. He/she is epitomized as your sin, if it could take on a physical form. This person is attractive, personable, funny, loving, and caring. Or insert your favorite personality traits that make a particular person attractive and pleasurable to be around. (I mean, isn't sin pleasurable? It's fun and exciting.) Again, you are completely enamored with her/him. But this person is secretly seductive and evil. He/she keeps you from being focused on other things that should be of more importance. You are completely love drunk. 

I recently watched an episode of The Bachelor. *Please note that I do not condone watching this show as I lost 30 IQ points from sitting and watching it.* Anyways, this one girl in particular was with the bachelor, showing herself off and being all sweet, coy, and seductive. However, when she was with the other girls on the show, she was completely rude, arrogant, and self-gratifying. Some of the girls were completely fed up and disgusted with her attitude that they went to the bachelor and told him how she was acting away from him and how she treated the other girls. When the bachelor heard this he was flabbergasted that she acted in such a way towards the other girls because he had never seen her otherwise as attractive and nice. He acted all sad about it (though I swear this show is fixed and scripted), but when he confronted this particular girl, he was so enraptured by her "attractiveness and personality" when she was with him and despite what they said, she ended up getting a rose. For those of you who don't watch the show (50 points to you), if you get a rose at the end of the night you get to stay another week and try to win the heart of the bachelor. Ridiculous, I know.

As weird of a metaphor as this is, it paints a picture of how we love our sin and how Jesus wants us to turn from our sin and look to Him. Our sin is the attractive girl and we as sinners are the bachelor. Jesus is like the girls who brought the attention of the attractive girl's motives. Yet as sinners (the bachelor), we don't sometimes listen to what Jesus (the good girls) has to say and continue further with our sin. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Anyways back to the song, this is what it is like to love your sin. This happens regardless of what kind of sin it is. The love that you have for your sin is blinding and unhealthy in your relationship with Jesus. Now I'm not saying that once your in a relationship with Jesus that it all goes away. I think I would be the first to testify against that. But when the song says: "There's no drink nor drug I tried, To rid the curse of these lover's eyes. And I feel numb, beneath your tongue. Your strength just makes me feel less strong," there is nothing that you can do that will change the grip that sin has on our lives because it is in our nature. The Devil wants you to sin, in fact, he encourages you to sin (hence, temptation). You can try to hide it, you can try to fake it, you can try to cover it up, but eventually you will not be able to take it. And when you do? You will break and Jesus will be there to pick you up. "And I'll walk slow, I'll walk slow. Take my hand, help me on my way." Does he expect you to be perfect? No. Because you can't be. In the meantime, we just trust that Jesus will help us "tame the ghosts in my head that run wild and wish me dead."

I'm so grateful that God looks to me and doesn't see me as the sinner that I still am. I surely do not deserve it. But He does it anyways. God is so good.