When I found out they made a film about that famous song from Mercy Me, I just had to see it. The song was written by Bart Millard where he would imagine what it would be like to stand before God in heaven.
The song goes like this:
Created out of a lifetime
It took him 10 minutes to write, but really it took him a lifetime. The song really was his story of dealing with his relationship with his abusive father who died when he was 18.
Just before he died, his Father found the Lord and after forgiving his father for the physical and emotional abuse he suffered, he lived a short period where his father became the father he had always longed for.
It was so cruel that he spent so much time with what he described as a ‘monster’, only to spend such a short time with a Father he always wanted to have.
During his grief he penned the song, I Can Only Imagine, where he was imagining what it would be like to see his Eternal Father in Heaven.
Hope in adversity
The song has given hope to millions of people around the world going through adversity.
This writer is one of them. I first heard the song about five years ago. I was living in Grafton. I had no job, no money in the bank. I was a struggling student running a Sunday school, in a creaky old Baptist Church with only four kids.
It was the first year I had moved out of home and I was dealing with many things I never had to deal with in my life. Paying rent, keeping my head above water, I had no money for a car. I was riding around on a push bike and the push bike had a punctured tyre. I had never even put a new tube in a tyre before. All the pressure of life was bringing me down and then I heard this song.
Our Church was running a ministry called country gospel. The band was rehearsing and one of the singers was singing four words “I can only imagine.”
Immediately after hearing that song, I felt the Lord speak into my spirit, “this is only temporary”, because life is temporary and that is why that song is so powerful.
Life is temporary
Here we are living on dirty old Earth and it is a daily struggle. You’re probably going through a struggle while reading this right now. But this struggle will not last forever. God says that he is preparing a place, where there will be no more sorrow and no more pain.
There will come a time where we will stand before him and we can only imagine what that would be like and that same God is with us during the good times and the bad times.
So really that song, is so much more than just a feel good song, it is really an anthem for a Church that is under attack.
The Church has three enemies, the flesh, Satan and the world.
All three of these enemies are trying to tear down the body of Christ on earth because the enemy knows the potential of a powerful local Church. A powerful local Church can meet the needs of the entire community.
Look to the finish line
At some point, whether it’s our flesh which is trying to trick us to be independent of God, or the devil trying to trick us or even the world which tries to distract us from our mission on earth, at some point we are going to face setbacks where we are going to be tempted to give up.
But that song, I Can Only Imagine, reminds us of our finish line, that we are not alone when going through difficult times, our reward, a world with no more sickness or pain, a place where we will be surrounded by his glory.
We can only imagine what that would be like.
Ben Kruzins is the Campus Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Ocean Shores New South Wales. Ben is also a Qualified Journalist.
Ben Kruzins’ previous articles may be viewed at