Music is something we can all relate to. Artists are able to put to song words that describe our very emotions or situations, sometimes better than we were able to express them in the first place.

Churches found out early on that this is what makes music a good illustration tool, because the power behind those words can sometimes speak volumes; especially when you can put your own message into it (it also helps with memory!) I believe that God speaks to me through music.

Usually, it's a positive song of reinforcement, outlining a chance of redemption or even giving me hope for the future. Other times it justifies my own thinking or feelings. Always it gives me a sense that I'm not alone in my predicament. Rarely, and this is because I don't always like to accept these moments, it's a song of intervention.

Today it was: Who the hell do you think you are?!

Sara Bareilles is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. She's able to cut out the fluff that garners most female pop-artists, and creates instead something very real and vulnerable. She's very straightforward and honest, traits I very much admire because I'm known to be the same way; in fact, that bluntness of hers can come off as harsh at times. Still, I love her, and it is probably that love that allowed me to accept that her song "King of Anything" is actually directed right at me.

Of course I know it wasn't written specifically with me in mind...she doesn't know me...(yet!)... But the truth is that her song, whether she meant it to or not, actually speaks towards an epidemic that plagues most young men in this world (at least all young christian men and the one poor sap who was unlucky enough to piss Sara off); therefore, it is directed at me.

Let me start off by stating a fact: men love to be heroes. From the moment we are born we are fascinated by stories of heroics and valor, of adventure and expedition. Where most girls start off by grabbing that doll, personifying it, and nurturing it as their own, the boys need only to grab that good, firm stick. It becomes our staff, our lance, and our sword. We are not reluctant to save the world and get the girl, as long as it doesn't involve kissing (depending on what age you are.)

Let me continue by stating, what I believe to be, another fact: that women think more with emotion, and men think more with ration. That's not to say that there are no women out there who can be rational, nor men who can be emotional, but just that by our very nature, and our core being, our knee jerk reaction to things tends to be defined by these differences in our gender. So it's no wonder that men have this urge to save women from their own emotional plight. Hence why we tend to be a shoulder to cry on.

When it comes to me, I started off my young adulthood thinking I had it all figured out. I left high school fully confident in who I was and what I believed. Of course, this was proven wrong time and time again, an attempt at God trying to keep me humble for my own sake.

When it came to women though, I tended to be a little slow; specifically with those I wanted to be in a relationship. In my honest opinion, at the time, they just didn't seem to get it. This was probably due to the many young women who have always come to me for advice, mostly relational, and just needed to figure things out. This shaped my view that though women may mature faster, they don't make decisions any better. Men may complain about how complicated women are, but they are only that way because they complicate themselves. Women are constantly trying to understand their own lives, so it does us men no good to try and understand them ourselves.

But now I'm rambling.

Truth is that there's this girl, and despite my own feelings on the subject we are "just friends." Regardless, like the other girls in my past, we've become so much a part of each others life that I want her to become that permanent part of mine. But also like other girls in my life, there are some times where I believe that she just doesn't get it. She doesn't understand.

She
Is
Lost.

Now I want to help her. I want to be there like no one else has been there before. I want to rescue her from where she is in life, sweep her up and show her a new, and better way...my way...as it were. Yet, as mentioned earlier, the moments where I think I have it figured out, God proves me wrong. Regardless on whether or not she is actually lost in life, the truth that I had to accept, and the one that Sara Barielles so gracefully alluded to, is that she doesn't want to be saved.

This is a shock, to be sure! In a world where girls talk about wanting to be rescued by that knight on a white horse, and where they are constantly coming to me for advice in certain situations, you'd think that these girls would be be gracious that I'm willing to be their savior.

Ok, I'm being facetious.

Truth is, she has it figured out, whether I believe it or not. And the truth is, men, we are not meant to be their savior. We may grow up wanting to be the hero, to get women out of their current predicament and into our lives, but heroics are more than just dragging them from one life to another.

Men, we have to create an adventure and journey that doesn't involve the "damsel in distress." Because honestly, if we want that girl to come alongside us, we want them to take part in that adventure, not just be an object within it. Women don't want to be rescued, they want to decide; they want the option to see the story you're creating, and to decide whether or not to take part. They want to be intrigued. Inspired. Drawn in. Sure, they want affection, comfort, protection, and all that stuff, but before any of that they want the choice.

If you want to get technical, then their true savior is, and shall always be, Jesus, and that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Our job is not to save them. Our job is to pick up that stick and to fight for something we believe in; and to become who we were created to be. To become so involved in our own story that someday, a certain woman will see this, and she'll want to take part as well.

Truth is, some of us were created to be Kings (warriors). But if our focus is on saving a certain girl, and not on fulfilling our calling, then we'll never be the King of Anything.

Be King of Something first.

Then, maybe, that girl will decide that she wants to be part is Something to.

Something exciting.