Dedicated to Cassandra Payne
Released: 8/15/1998
I thought for awhile abouit just how to express the thought behind this song. The reason for this wasn't the deliberation required so much as it was an apparent paradox: Faith is the only Biblical way of salvation, but at the same time faith in and of itself can't save us. This is because, as Josh McDowell and others have put it, faith is only as valid as its object.
For instance, you can believe that wearing a certain pendant or charm will save you. Realistically, though, just what does a piece of metal or rock do for you? The only way to heaven, and salvation, and safety, and security is through Jesus Christ - and that occurs only through faith.
So... the paradox concerned just how to state this in the lyrics. And I eventually settled on what we have here. I suspect it's not perfect - but then, how does one describe the infinite and ineffable in limited, constrained words? The other detail: We, having been made rational (well, okay, rationalizing) beings by God, tend to think that we're capable of reasoning out the end of every matter by the power of our minds. Yet the Bible tells us that God's ways are beyond our comprehension and wisdom. And by virtue of our foolish pride, we ignore His way and continue to think that we can arrive at holiness and perfection on our own even though we're in a fundamentally flawed and irretrievably depraved state.
If you haven't yet placed yourself in Jesus' hand - I invite you to do so! He's the only one who can give complete peace and security, and He's the only one who can keep you and me in that state.
The clue to this song is in the words. Funny thing, Ashley came to rehearsal the next day with a very confident ":I know the answer" - well, it turned out that I'd forgotten to remove the dedication from the first GIF page I posted to the Web site... but it probably wouldn't have mattered because LW was hot on the track by the time she arrived.
Anyway, the clue is "common sense". If you'll recall a bit of American history, a gentleman named Thomas Paine wrote a publication by that name in the 1700's. It so happens that Cassandra's father's name is Tom...