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– Second Hand Heart –
Performed by Ben Haenow
(Featuring Kelly Clarkson)
The light of the morning finds you sleeping in my bed
And it’s not like the stories; it’s never like what they said
I know who you want me to be but I’m just not there yet
Yeah, the broken road’s always been home and it’s so hard to forget
Wait for me now
Will you wait for me now?
CHORUS:
I might think too much, drink too much, stay out too late
I know I’m just a fool, but I swear I can change
I can’t steal you the stars, but I can give you this secondhand heart
All your friends think I’m hopeless, they don’t understand
That this imperfect love can start over again
It’s been broken apart, but will you still take my secondhand heart?
(FIRST STANZA REPEATS)
(CHORUS REPEATS)
FIRST BRIDGE:
If you let me show you, I could love you the same
And I can’t steal you the stars but I can try every day
Oh, you know they’ll never tear us apart
SECOND BRIDGE:
And I’m just a fool, but I swear I can change
And I can’t steal you the stars, but I can try every day
Oh, you know you got my secondhand heart
(SECOND BRIDGE REPEATS)
* * * * *
“I might think too much, drink too much, stay out too late.”
This one is pretty simple: We all have problems. No one is exempt from personal struggles and challenges, and some of those challenges can keep us from having a healthy, personal relationship with God and our Savior. The Apostle Paul taught the Romans in his epistle that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” but that our redemption comes “freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
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| Though it may seem harmless, over- thinking is one of my downfalls. |
For some of us, drinking alcohol and staying out too late might very well be among our biggest vices; but arguably, there is excess as well as moderation and dearth in all things—even the things we deem as generally “okay.” Sometimes a little indulgence can do us good, like around the holidays when we eat more, spend more, and hopefully love a little more than usual. Other times, we may need to regulate our habits, or cut out behaviors that are causing us stress or harm. I cannot offer any insights on drinking alcohol, at whatever frequency one might; and though I consider myself more of a night owl by habit, I’m afraid that my advice in that regard is also scarce.
Thinking too much, however, is a problem I personally have. It is part of having obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorder. I overthink and overanalyze just about everything. I get stuck on certain thoughts for hours sometimes, looking at them from every angle, even the impossible ones that I know are outlandish and would never happen; with OCD, this has been referred to as “looping.” I also worry and get anxious about how other people perceive my words and actions, and criticize myself a great deal for doing things “wrong”—something I am working on changing.
But there is some good that can come from it. I love my attention to detail, even the tiny things that I think other people don’t notice, like remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions and trying to help others celebrate them. I also enjoy having a heightened sense of how others are feeling and being able to read emotions and body language, because I pay close attention to those things; it helps me guide my actions and words so that I can comfort others, make them smile, or offer reassurance when I am sensing a need for those things.
The book of Proverbs offers the common wisdom, “For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The Apostle Paul encourages this Old Testament advice in his counsel to the Philippians, too:
“… Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things
“Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9, emphasis added).
Though Paul surely personified all of these virtues himself, still he knew and acknowledged the source of goodness and virtue—The Holy Father and His Beloved Son. And with His perfect life, as our Exemplar, Jesus Christ invites us all to follow Him back to the Father by abiding by the things that we learned, received, heard, and saw in Him. Note also that Paul’s instructions were not just to think on the good things of God, but to act upon them—to do. The famously-quotable American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
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| In living a life of faith, our words and our actions should always fit comfortably together. |
Perhaps the cliché, “Actions speak louder than words,” is so frequently used that tracing it back to its author of origin would be difficult; but both quotes here are applicable in this case. It is not enough to merely think of our God and our Lord and to acknowledge Their divinity. Our choices and actions, how we treat others and conduct ourselves, ought to be a reflection of our internal foundations of faith and trust in the Godhead, and not just a deceiving outward display of the sackcloth and ashes of faux humility and penitence.
