Twenty – Four

If you have this song, it might be good to play it while reading this post.

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I’m not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I’m wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I’m not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You’re raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true

I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You’re raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You’re raising the dead in me

Listening to this song, every time, stirs something up in my spirit.  I am actually not quite sure why–for the longest time, I didn’t even understand what the words really implied.  I just knew that there was something really heartfelt and meaningful behind them.  So I began to ask myself the question, what does it all mean?  Why is this song so riveting if I know so little about it?

I started researching a little about the song.  Here’s an interesting fact: Jon Foreman wrote this song on the eve of his 24th birthday.  That’s going to help a lot in the interpretation…

So here it is, an interpretation (this is my own, whereas I am sure of some parts, I am taking a lot of guesses on many sections of the song so feel free to disagree): 

Twenty-four years have gone by in Jon Foreman’s life, and he’s experienced the different “seasons” of life depicted by the “skies” and the “oceans”.  Basically, that imagery is used by Jon to capture the essence of twenty-four tumultuous and difficult years of life.  Within that, he’s realizing (after twenty-four years of life), that each year has been the root of so many failures; that although he’s trying his best to be perfect in everything, he’s always falling short.  He’s had “twenty four” tries at life, and every year, he’s come up short and missed the mark.

Furthermore, after twenty-four years of life, he’s in “twenty-fourth” place, which is an expression of feeling inferior and just completely down and lost in this world of hardship and anxiety.  He feels like after all his efforts, the only thing that his work has netted him is a spot that not even comes close to first.  It’s almost like a feeling of “man, after all these years what have I even accomplished?  What have I even done?”  This same feeling is furthered by the “twenty four drop outs”, showing that he hasn’t finished so many things that he had intended to do.

This line of thinking culminates on the “life is not what I thought it was”, meaning that in his youth (twenty-four hours ago), he was under the naive impression that life would work out exactly like he had thought it would.  However, he was confronted with reality: that life often doesn’t work how you want it to.  Even though you try and struggle through life, so often we find ourselves on the other side of where we wanted to be. 

Yet…even in that, Foreman utters the prayers of his heart, that the “Spirit” (God) would take him up in his arms.  That even though life has been chaotic, and that life has been hard, there’s something so sweet about the embrace of God that just brings a sense of peace and comfort into his life.  Foreman feels that although it’s rough and although it’s hard, he wants to run after the one thing, the one place where he knows he has sanctuary.  God.

He then goes into a slight verse refrain, where he states “twenty four reasons to admit that I’m wrong”.  During this phase, he’s basically confessing to God that he knows he hasn’t done well in this life.  He knows he hasn’t done all that he’s supposed to yet, and that he’s still so imperfect.  However…

“I’m not coping out”, is a declaration of his heart’s intent to never “give up” and to never surrender, especially when God is “raising the dead in him”.  That even though he’s fallen short, he knows that God is still doing his work in him, and that he’s not going to give up and he’s not going to let go of his faith in Him.  He knows that God is changing Him still, and that although he has his insecurities and fears, that he’ll be made complete and find his ability to keep on going and persevering through God.

Which leads to his next assertion, “I am the second man”.  This is a declaration that he’s submitting to God, that he’s the “second man” and God is the “first man”.  That God is the one leading, and that Jon is simply trying to do his best to follow the lead.

Following this is “twenty four voices”.  This part was a little bit more tricky to understand, but the way that I interpreted it is that God is taking him through all these experiences and all these things in life and raising up “24 voices with 24 hearts”.  All of these are a hodgepodge of experiences that are screaming into the life of Jon, and that are singing out of him.  They are not BAD, per say, but they are a collection of hurts, difficulties, and tons of situations that have been flooding his life and helped to grow and mature Jon.  However, he wants to be “one today”, “centered and true”.  This is a powerful assertion: it’s a request, a beseeching of God on Jon’s part to bring him under ONE authority, under ONE voice.  That everything else in his life would drown out but the voice of God, the only voice that matters.  The only truth that matters.  He wants to be centered in God.

Finally, it goes into “I want to see miracles”.  This part is the final request that Jon makes to God, in this prayer/song.  Jon wants to experience God and wants the world to experience Him.  He wants “more than just a feeling”, “more than just a cause”.  In fact, when he wrestles with God, he wants more than “just a name”.  Basically, Jon is asking that he wants his interaction and relationship with God to be so true, and so right.  That it’s MORE than just what traditional Christianity has taught us to accept about our relationship with God.  He wants authenticity, something so powerful and real that it completely changes his life and the lives of the people around Him…

And yet, even though Jon hasn’t figured it out quite yet.  Even though life is not perfect yet.   Even though he’s failed, and will probably fail millions of times from here on out…

“Spirit, take me up in arms with You”.