4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Notes
Track four turns the framework inward, into the anxious heart of a believer. This is the song for the man or woman who has spent years inspecting every prayer for evidence the verdict held, scanning every doubt for the proof that I was one of His. I know that posture. The song calls it bridge-building - straining across a chasm to reach a God on the other side.
And then the song does what the whole album does. It pulls up the floor. The turn comes in verse two, on a single word. I was reading Acts seventeen one Sunday - in him we live, and move, and have our being - and the word in did something in me. Not across. In. The believer had been picturing God on the far side of a gap, and Paul was saying she was already inside Him - the air I was breathing was His thinking, the floor I was standing on was His will. The questions did not get answered. They stopped applying, because the chasm was not there.
That is the title, and it is the load-bearing line of the song. The room I was reaching for was the room I was already in. And the bridge says it as plainly as I know how - I was being thought the whole time. While I was building, while I was inspecting, while I was doubting, He was thinking me into being. And the thinking was the love. There is no gap. There never was. He was always closer than that.
Lyrics
[Intro]
I had been reaching for something
Across a room I thought was wide
Trying to bridge what I was told
Was a chasm with His will on the other side
[Verse 1]
I was inspecting every prayer
For evidence the verdict held
I was scanning every doubt
For the proof that I was one of His
I was running the catechism in my head
At every traffic light
I was reading my own heart for receipts
Of a love I could not see
[Pre-Chorus]
But the questions never stopped
Even in the answers they gave
Even on the days I knew
I would lie awake and ask if it was true
[Chorus]
What if the chasm was never there
What if the bridge I built was a story
What if the room I was reaching for
Was the room I was already in
The room I was already in
[Verse 2]
I was reading Acts seventeen one Sunday
"In him we live, and move, and have our being"
And the word in did something in me
I had been picturing Him across the room
And the verse was saying I was inside Him
That He had never been across at all
That the air I was breathing was His thinking
That the floor I was standing on was His will
[Pre-Chorus]
And the questions began to quiet
Not because they were answered
But because they stopped applying
The chasm I was straining toward
Was not a chasm I could reach
Because the chasm was not there
[Chorus]
The chasm was never there
The bridge I built was a story
The room I was reaching for
Was the room I was already in
The room I was already in
[Bridge]
I was being thought
I was being thought the whole time
While I was building
While I was inspecting
While I was bridging
While I was doubting
He was thinking me into being
And the thinking was the love
And the love was the ground
And the ground was the room
[Final Chorus]
The chasm was never there
The bridge I built was a story
The room I was reaching for
Was the room I was already in
The Author had been thinking me
The whole time
The whole time
The room I was already in
[Outro]
He was closer than that
He was closer than that
He was closer than that
The room I was already in
Commentary