“Run to the Water” by Live

The Distance to Here
Radioactive Records
1999

This song draws on the popular theme of water, which evokes images of baptism, quenching thirst, life-giving rain, etc. The picture here is of water drops joining with the ocean to become one, which parallels the uniting with God that will happen with us as we grow more intimate with God. Most of the song uses the plural “we” to describe both intimate experiences with God and falling back away. This is to signify that redemption and embrace by God is ultimately for all of creation (“we”) and not just the few individuals who get the recipe correct.

Oh desert speak to my heart

Oh woman of the earth

Maker of children who weep for love

Maker of this birth

'Til your deepest secrets are known to me

I will not be moved

Don't try to find the answer

When there ain't no question here

Brother let your heart be wounded

And give no mercy to your fear

Adam and Eve live down the street from me

Babylon is every town

It's as crazy as it’s ever been

Love’s a stranger all around

In a moment we lost our minds here

And lay our spirit down

Today we lived a thousand years

All we have is now

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

And I will never leave you

'Till we can say,"this world was just a dream

We were sleeping now we are awake"

'Til we can say

In a moment we lost our minds here

And dreamt the world was round

A million mile fall from grace

Thank god we missed the ground

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Yeah, I can see it now Lord

Out beyond the breaking of waves

And the tribulation

It's a place and a home of ascended souls

Who swam out there in love!

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Rest easy baby, rest easy

And recognize it all as light and rainbows

Smashed to smithereens and be happy

Run to the water

Interpretation

Oh desert speak to my heart

Oh woman of the earth

Maker of children who weep for love

Maker of this birth

'Til your deepest secrets are known to me

I will not be moved

In this stanza the narrator describes his search for truth. The “desert” implies an atheistic search for answers, while the image of Mother Nature (“woman of the earth”) describes a pantheistic approach. The “maker of children who weep for love” depicts pagan religions and especially fertility cults. The “maker of this birth” finally includes God (and the rebirth through Christ) in the search for truth. The narrator resolves not to give up (to “not be moved”) until he finds the answers to his questions (the “deepest secrets” of life).

Don't try to find the answer

When there ain't no question here

Brother let your heart be wounded

And give no mercy to your fear

The narrator gives advice to fellow truth-seekers (“brother”) in this stanza. The first two lines reveal that the narrator believes we create unnecessary questions. Our answers might be good answers but the questions are imaginary, which invalidates the answer. He advises that a search for truth shouldn’t just be an intellectual pursuit but must be born out of brokenness (a “wounded” heart) and fear; we shouldn’t try to bottle up our fear but allow it to inform us.

Adam and Eve live down the street from me

Babylon is every town

It's as crazy as it’s ever been

Love’s a stranger all around

In this stanza the narrator compares the Biblical “Adam and Eve” to people all around him. The implication here is that the sin done by “Adam and Eve” is repeated by all of us. According to the narrator, “Babylon” (Biblical shorthand for an evil empire that opposes God) is “every town”; every group of people are guilty of opposing God. The narrator has covered the sin of individuals and communities already and reinforces this idea by stating that “it’s as crazy as it’s ever been” meaning that we have not become any less sinful as civilization has aged. That “Love’s a stranger all around” shows what the remedy is: Love.

In a moment we lost our minds here

And lay our spirit down

Today we lived a thousand years

All we have is now

This stanza describes the forgiveness and grace the narrator experiences when he lays his “spirit down”. This powerful conversion experience is described as living “a thousand years”. The statement “all we have is now” is directed to God and states that the divine union possible only through complete transformation is a blissful moment that the narrator hopes will not end. When taken with the previous stanza, the narrator is confessing his sinfulness (and the sinfulness of all humanity) and then experiencing redemption and renewal. Since this stanza uses a plural pronoun, the narrator may be anticipating the redemption and renewal of all creation even as he is experiencing this reality personally.

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

This stanza builds on the previous picture of salvation. Far from a warm and cuddly experience, the narrator is “burnt to the core” by his brush with God and evokes images of Isaiah 6’s ‘who will go for us’ passage. Emerging from this encounter, the narrator says that “we’ll cut through the madness” referring back to the third stanza and how, as transformed ambassadors of God’s kingdom, we will combat the evils on earth (“these streets below the moon”).

And I will never leave you

'Till we can say,"this world was just a dream

We were sleeping now we are awake"

'Til we can say

The narrator pledges loyalty to God (“I will never leave you”) as a result of his conversion. The second and third lines represent a hopeful wish that God’s kingdom will replace the current world that is “just a dream”. The narrator says that the evil dream world continued only because “we were sleeping”, but, because all things are renewed in Jesus, “now we are awake” and the evil world will be redeemed.

In a moment we lost our minds here

And dreamt the world was round

A million mile fall from grace

Thank god we missed the ground

This stanza parallels the fourth stanza that described a conversion experience though here we see a temporary slide back into trusting human wisdom rather than God’s. The narrator (and all the rest of us—“we”) wants to know answers scientifically, but in the reality of God’s kingdom, the world is neither flat nor “round”. By putting our faith in a scientific way of knowing, “we” miss the point (“a million mile fall from grace”). Thankfully, God offers us another chance; “we missed the ground”; we didn’t have to face the consequences of our sin.

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Yeah, I can see it now Lord

Out beyond the breaking of waves

And the tribulation

It's a place and a home of ascended souls

Who swam out there in love!

Until this stanza the song has been a veiled message. Here the narrator breaks out of ambiguous poetry and clearly describes our final destiny in God’s kingdom. The “nuclear fire of love in our hearts” refers to God’s Spirit empowering us. With this power we transcend the evil of this world (“the breaking waves and the tribulation”) to “a place and a home of ascended souls”. This is a picture of God’s kingdom experienced now by transformed people who “swam out there in love”.

Run to the water and find me there

Burnt to the core but not broken

We'll cut through the madness

Of these streets below the moon

With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Rest easy baby, rest easy

And recognize it all as light and rainbows

Smashed to smithereens and be happy

Run to the water

This final stanza describes the power of God’s love as “nuclear” and how in it we “rest easy”. If we walk with God we walk in the “light”. The “rainbow” refers to the sign given to Noah as a covenant promise from God’s of peace with humanity. In God’s hands we are “smashed to smithereens” as we are transformed into perfect beings and so we are “happy”.