"I Want to Know What Love Is": A Meditation
The song comes from the middle of the 1980’s, the greed is good, the decade of decadence generation. Here are some hit songs then on the radio that give us a flavor of that glam-gilded decade:
- 2 songs titled “Jump”
- Karma Chameleon
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun
- Ghostbusters
- Footloose
- What’s Love Got to Do with It
- Glamorous Life
Waiting in the wings to be a hit in 1985, Material Girl, a song epitomizing the materialism of the decade.
Amid the “it’s all about fun and materialism” era, comes this introspective, gospel music like song that would become a #1 hit in 1985.
The song is written by Foreigner’s lead guitarist and co-founder, Mick Jones. Lou Gramm, the lead singer, added some key, powerful lines he improvised during the recording.
Another key to the song is the contribution of the gospel choir, the New Jersey Mass Choir. The choir enhanced the song’s gospel music quality and its spiritual message.
There’s a lovely story involving the recording of the choir. According to Mick Jones, the choir’s first attempts to sing their part in the studio didn’t have the divine spark he was looking for. But then they gathered in a circle and recited the Lord’s Prayer together. The divine sparked on the next take. Mick Jones’ parents happened to be present for the recording, and they, along with their son and others, were moved to tears by the choir’s power.
The New Jersey Mass Choir would record their own version of the song, making it a Gospel music hit in 1985 as well.
I first heard this song on the radio coming home sick from school. My mom’s friend picked me up because she was busy caring for my baby brothers at home. I knew the sound of Lou Gramm’s voice. My brother-in-law loved Foreigner and once played the record “4” for me. But this was Foreigner unlike I or anyone had ever heard. This was a power ballad about Love. Not just any kind of Love. It’s not about romantic love, really. But about a deep, abiding, spiritual love, the love of God.
One line I’ve been thinking about for a long time comes at the beginning.
I better read between the lines in case I need it when I’m older.
I get the “read between the lines” line. Often, for deeper understanding, to obtain wisdom and truth, we must read more just the words on the page. We must read between the lines. We must read the context, the situation surrounding the words, the time and space we’re living in. When it comes to wisdom and truth and a life-saving love, we must probe deeper than the surface level.
This applies to reading the Bible, yes, and to life in general.
I also get the line, “I need it when I’m older.” We need wisdom and truth and abiding love as we move beyond our youth and grow older. Living a surface level life at 65 years of age, experiencing relationships as fleeting and shallow flings, well, that seems like a waste, right? With age ought to come wisdom!
But why the “in case I need it when I’m older”? There seems to be no option to needing wisdom when we’re no longer young. It’s not an “in case I need it when I’m older,” it is “because I’ll need it when I’m older.”
What gives?
Well, we’re at the beginning of the song. We haven’t gotten there yet. The singer is still figuring things out. He’s searching. He’s still at the “in case I need it” stage, not the “because I’ll need it stage.” He still needs “time to think things over.” Life is a process. But trust me, he’ll get there.
Okay, let me say a word about the song’s context that is crucial to understand its spiritual truths.
The context of the song is grief and loss.
The singer is grieving the loss of love. It’s a loss so deep that he no longer feels he knows what love is anymore.
Love has gone. His knowledge of love has gone. He is left with only heartache and pain. His pain is so great he feels paralyzed. He can’t face the world. He can’t conjure contentment any longer. He’s stuck. He’s hidden himself away. The loss of love has left him lost.
Have you ever been there? Are you there now?
But what he comes to discover is this: there’s a light behind all these clouds. The light sometimes penetrates the darkness and breaks through.
“Through the clouds I see love shine.” This is a pivotal line in the song.
The clouds are real. The clouds haven’t dissipated. For those who grieve, life is less Orlando and more Seattle. But even in Seattle, the sunlight breaks through the clouds and reminds us that Love is real and ready to embrace us!
Even in our grief, perhaps because of our grief, we want to know Love is real. We want to know who God is. I want to know God who is love.
I want you to show me.
Who’s the “you”?
Well, maybe the “you” is found in the text he’s now reading. Maybe he’s gone from “better read between the lines” to actually reading now. Maybe he’s reading the text and reading between the lines of the text, searching for spiritual truths, seeking to find the “you” that shows him what Love is.
Is he reading the Bible? Maybe. We can find the One who is Love there. We can find what Love is there, for sure.
But maybe he’s reading the sacred epistles found in another’s life?
In one of his letters, Paul says something incredible. Verses 2 and 3 of 2 Corinthians 3 says, “You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are Christ’s letter... You weren’t written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You weren’t written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
We can sometimes read sacred words in the human hearts of our fellow sojourners in Christ!
The Christ of the Bible can both show me what Love is! But you as a letter of Christ can also show me what Love is! And that of Christ found in an enlightened songwriter and in his song can show us what Love is, too!
Okay, let’s talk about that bridge. There’s a basic structure to a pop song. Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus. Our song has an intro and pre-chorus thrown in. So, it’s Intro – Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus – Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus.
Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, the pop-rock star, says “the Bridge is akin to therapy.” He says, “You set a situation out in a song: First verse – ‘I'm lonely.’ Chorus – Yes, I'm lonely. You re-iterate that again [in the second verse and chorus]. And then you get to the Bridge. [Something] different… comes in (and you think) maybe I should [choose a different way]. That viewpoint leads to a change, which leads to ... things aren't so bad. It's a kind of therapy. The structure is therapy.”
He laments that “in modern music the bridge has disappeared.”
Well, I Want to Know What Love Is has a bridge, mostly improvised. The Bridge is marked by a change. The Choir takes center stage with the lead singer. You have the choir in the first and second chorus, but the choir sings more in the background. But in the Bridge the choir really comes forward, responding to and shining their light on the singer.
The Bridge is therapy! The community of the choir provides that therapy.
You can’t make it alone. You can’t discover what love is without a community to help. You just can’t hide, the singer proclaims, and expect to see the light. You need others to help you come into the light and find love.
The gospel choir joining the singer represents all of this. A community of people accompanies the lost and lonely, seeing that the once-hidden are now seen and embraced.
Sting is right. Pop songs need to return to the therapy of the Bridge. People also need to return to the therapy of the church community! Simply put, people need church, choir included!
One last thing to close.
We’ve travelled so far together, you and me, on this road to Glory.
Yes, we’ll be parting ways soon. But don’t stop travelling forward, knowing we’re both still on the road to Glory. There’s further to go for both of us.
On that road, keep seeking after Love. Keep seeking to go deep and probe the depths of God’s love.
Rely on each other along the way. Be akin to that choir shining on brokenhearted ones. Remember, you’re called to be the one showing the depth of God’s love others need.
Simply put, seek to know God and share what you’ve come to know. That’s the Christian life in a nutshell.
Amen.
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