The age old story lines about teenagers like yourself include these words, "lost, immature, searching, lazy, unsure, naive, easily influenced, and daring. The list can go on and on. From my own experience as a teenager I can attest to the above adjectives and affirm their meanings because I have been and still battle with those at 28. Nine Inch Nails wrote a song that I'm going to talk about in this blog and I want to hear back from you if this song is "your life." Is this song speaking about where your at in life? This song USED to describe me.

Every Day Is Exactly the Same
by Nine Inch Nails

I believe I can see the future
As I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again
That might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now i never make a sound
I just do what I've been told
I really don't want them to come around again

Oh, no

[Chorus]
Everyday is exactly the same
Everyday is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Everyday is exactly the same

I can feel thier eyes are watching
In case I loose myself again
Sometimes I think I'm happy here
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can't remember how this got started
But I can tell you exactly how it will end

[Chorus]

I'm writing on a little piece of paper
I'm hoping someday you might find
I'll hide it behind something
They won't look behind
I am still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could have been any other way
But I just don't know- I don't know what else I can do!

[Chorus]

I can look back in my life and see a lonely/searching young man/boy who desperately wanted someone to "show him the way." This song used to be me (emphasis on the past tense of the word "used.").

What part of YOU is in this song?

If you find yourself identifying to any part of these lines then let me be completely honest with you my friend, if I can. The identity you claim in this song can be traced back to some amount of pain and anguish and/or tragedy you have experienced. Do not let yourself be lied to that this is it; that it all stops here for you in these lyrics. That is where the lie is. It doesn't have to stop here. You have to choose whether or not you want to live in pain and anger your whole life or if you want Rescue. If you feel like there is, "no love here," I am here to awaken you to the fact that there is. This Love is waiting on you to reach out to Him and make Him the place where you run to and confide in. This Love is Jesus Christ.

Do you, "wish [there] could have been any other way,
But [you] just don't know- [you] don't know what else [you] can do!" If you feel your life is the epitomey of this song then change it. Your tears have you bitter and through with your life I'm sure. Depression has rendered you cynical, dry, and desolate. Wake up and be restored. Jesus said in John 4:14, "...whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Jesus Christ is the "other way" in the lyrics. When Trent Reznor "didn't know what to do" Jesus was an option the whole time. What will you choose? Stop pretending. Stop focusing on the "bledding." This is the time to truly "find yourself." Everyday doesn't have to be exactly the same. When you drink from the Living Waters which is Jesus Christ everything changes. You become a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). You are no longer a slave to your pain you have endured because Jesus died and rose again to take it away from you.

Stop "repeating the same routine" away from Jesus Christ. Or this song will continue to be all you know. Your indentity will be these lyrics. And you'll continue to act out the pain you don't want to show.

If you want to know more, ticked off, totally disagree with me, or somewhere inbetween email me. I would love to talk about this with you. I once held tightly to alot of what this songs says. Jesus Christ bailed me out. I just want to show others that are trapped that there IS a Way out.

clint@belleaire.org