The Great Exchange

Earlier this month, while searching for a song to use for an updated memorial video for my high school class, I listened to several different songs with the intent of picking only one, but decided instead to go with three different genres: Country, Contemporary Pop HipHop, and Christian. They each have a story to tell.

The Country song, Temporary Home, is beautifully sung 🎶 by Carrie Underwood. Co-written ✍🏻 by Carrie Underwood, Zac Maloy, and Luke Laird in 2009, the lyrics 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 has 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 that this world is not our home and is yet a precursor to the world that is to come. We are literal “strangers, sojourners, and aliens” who are mearly passing through.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, 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

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The Contemporary Pop/HipHop Mix, “See You Again” is a catchy and very popular tune 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.

The story behind the lyrics is that Charlie Puth co-wrote ✍🏻 the lyrics, along with Justin Franks in 2014, in memoriam of movie star Paul Walker as a result of his 2013 tragic car crash. The movie, Furious 7, was not yet completed at the time of Paul Walker’s death. 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 lyrics include much about friendship in contemporary terms, memories made, and a hopeful themed refrain to “see you again,” however the song takes a couple of left turns when the lyrics speak of death in terms of “Damn, who knew,” and “And any road you take will always lead you home.” Two contrary non-Christian themes.

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

Not only is there just one road to heaven, the gate to that road is narrow.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14

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

For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Ecclesiastes 9:5

Therefore,

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news! Mark 1:15

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The Christian song is one I first heard back in the mid 1990’s, and has long since been one of my favorite songs. Written ✍🏻 in 1990 by Bruce Carroll and Barbara Kinnamon, and beautifully sung 🎶 by Bruce Carroll, the lyrics speak for themselves, telling the gospel message in it’s entirety. It is aptly titled, The Great Exchange:

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