In honor of my 50th high school class reunion planned for October 2022, I began searching for a song several weeks earlier to use for our class memorial video. I listened to several songs with the intent of picking only one, but decided instead to go with three different songs.

I believe they each have a story to tell:

• Temporary Home, by Carrie Underwood

• See You Again, by Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa

• The Great Exchange, by Bruce Carroll

1. “Temporary Home,” beautifully sung by Carrie Underwood was co-written by Carrie Underwood, Zac Maloy, and Luke Laird in 2009. The lyrics, set to country music, tell three stories about temporary homes:

• a young boy living in foster care,

• a young mother and her child living in a halfway house,

• and an old man in a hospital bed surrounded by his loved ones.

The refrain includes a Christian themed message:

“This is my temporary home,

it’s not where I belong

Windows and rooms

that I’m passing through.

This was just a stop

on the way to where I’m going

I’m not afraid because I know

This was my temporary home.”

The Bible tells us in the Book of Hebrews that this world is not our home and is just a precursor to the world that is to come. We are literal “strangers, sojourners, and aliens” who are mearly passing through.

“… admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Hebrews 11:13-14

********************

2. “See You Again” is a popular contemporary song with a “sentimental, miss my friend” message. Sung by Charlie Puth (with Wiz Khalifa) for Furious 7, the seventh movie in The Fast and the Furious franchise movie series, which was released in 2015.

Charlie Puth co-wrote the lyrics, along with Justin Franks in 2014, in memory of The Fast and the Furious movie star Paul Walker after he died in a 2013 high speed car crash. Charlie Puth and Justin Franks reportedly co-wrote the lyrics drawing from their own personal emotions from each having had friends die in tragic accidents as well.

The emotional and secular lyrics include much about friendships, memories, and a hopeful themed refrain to “see you again,” however the song takes a couple of left turns with the lyrics, “Damn, who knew?” and “And any road you take will always lead you home.” Two misleading statements.

As,

The Bible clearly teaches that there is only one “road” to heaven and that road is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

And death is inevitable, 10 out of 10 people die.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. Hebrews 9:27

**********************

3. “The Great Exchange” is a Christian contemporary song written in 1990 by Bruce Carroll and Barbara Kinnamon, and beautifully sung by Bruce Carroll. The lyrics creatively tell the gospel message:

Once upon a time,

upon a hill far away

An unfair proposition

before a righteous Man was made

Could’ve changed His situation

but instead chose to obey

At the great exchange.

An eternity He traveled

to be there at that place

The chosen destination

to show mankind God’s grace

His longing to redeem us

could only be explained

At the great exchange.

At the great exchange

Even then, He knew me

and He bore such pain

And He did it all for love

An undeserving servant

who’ll never be the same

Since the great exchange.

I walked that same hillside,

as I knelt down to pray

He showed me all the wrong I’d done

And the price He paid that day

And then I arose forgiven

His loss became my gain

At the great exchange.

Everything that mankind lost,

Jesus has reclaimed

The pathway to eternity

by His death arranged

And all of this, He offers

if you’ll meet Him today

At the great exchange.

At the great exchange

Even then, He knew you

and He bore such pain

And He did it all for love

An undeserving servant,

you’ll never be the same

Since the great exchange.

At the great exchange

Even then, He knew you

and He bore such pain

And He did it all for love

An undeserving servant,

you’ll never be the same

Since the great exchange

Since the great exchange

The great exchange.

YouTube links:

https://youtu.be/hX8nD5ltUbI Temporary Home

https://youtu.be/JNg9m5CaUKs See You Again

https://youtu.be/74RdwUVA11o The Great Exchange