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Monday, July 31, 2017

(Some) Where I Belong: On Chester Bennington, Jon Foreman and Hope

I mourn for Chester Bennington and his family and I understand the pain of mental illness. 

I remember playing Linkin Park’s “Somewhere I Belong” to the kids at a youth group night at my parent’s house in Valemount and then telling them how there is a place that they belong according Scripture – in Jesus Christ, in community, in Heaven.

Chester Bennington co-wrote this song and you can hear the deep sincere plea for belonging: 


I want to heal, I want to feel,
What I thought was never real
I want to let go of the pain I felt so long (erase all the pain 'til it's gone)
I want to heal, I want to feel
Like I'm close to something real
I want to find something I've wanted all along
Somewhere I belong



Jon Foreman from the band Switchfoot also co-wrote a song that I think is in someways (though unintended) an answer to Linkin Park’s song, a song called “Where I belong”. He writes from a different perspective – one of reality and pain but also of eternal purpose and hope:


But I'm not sentimental
This skin and bones is a rental
And no one makes it out alive

Until I die I'll sing these songs
On the shores of Babylon
Still looking for a home
In a world where I belong

Where the weak are finally strong
Where the righteous right the wrongs
Still looking for a home
In a world where I belong




For Foreman his hope is in Christ and the heaven that is being with Him, free from the shackles of this world. I hope Bennington found this somewhere in his life before the end. I hope he has found the healing he sought...




“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4 

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  Ephesians 2:4-6,13

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