Hard to Get

 

Last night I had a dream where I was about to have a meal with some folks (don’t recall who) and instead of saying the customary Grace, I sang the first few lines of this song.  In the dream, I only remembered the first line, and basically mumbled my way through the first verse.

Naturally, I had to look up the song.  It was written by Rich Mullins.  He had recorded a demo version of the song, along with an entire album, and was killed in an automobile accident before the album could be produced.  Rick Elias and the rest of The Ragamuffin Band produced the album after Rich’s death.

The song is basically a modern day Psalm.  In it, the writer expresses his questions  to God.  He uses a phrase we often use… “hard to get”.  Initially, I thought this was referring to the expression we use when we say a person (usually a woman) is “playing hard to get”. 

However, I don’t know that Rich was using it that way. Yes, he was probably using a play on words, but “Playing hard to get” would imply that God feigns a lack of interest in us to encourage us to pursue Him.  I’m not sure that was Rich’s point.  I think he may have been using the phrase “hard to get” to express the idea that God is “hard to understand.”  That would make more sense here, since at the end of the song, Rich basically says “As hard as I try, You are hard to understand.”

And that is the story of our lives.

 

Hard to Get

    by Rich Mullins 

 

You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened by the hurt

 

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said

 

Still I'm so scared, I'm holding my breath
While You're up there just playing hard to get

 

You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then

 

Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat

 

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You're up there just playing hard to get?

 

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

 

And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know

 

Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret

 

I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get