Lyric Analysis

You Found Me

I found God on the corner of 1st and Amistad
Where the West was all but won
All alone, smoking his last cigarette
I said, "Where've you been?" He said, "Ask anything."

Where were you, when everything was falling apart.
All my days were spent by the telephone that never rang
And all I needed was a call that never came
To the corner of 1st and Amistad

Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me.

But in the end everyone ends up alone
Losing her, the only one who's ever known
Who I am, who I'm not and who I wanna to be
No way to know how long she will be next to me

Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me.

The early morning, the city breaks
And I've been calling for years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve taking all I want

Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor,
Where were you? Where were you?
Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me.

Why'd you have to wait, to find me, to find me?

- The Fray

When I first heard this song, the first few verses stung my ears and I thought to myself, "Well isn't that a pretty picture?" I can't imagine God standing on a dirty street corner lighting one up. Just merely the idea, in and of itself, seemed sacrilegious.

Not long after I'd convinced myself that I didn't really care too much for the song, I learned the story behind the lyrics. Apparently the song is based on some recent tragedies that had befallen the band's lead singer. As we often do, he questioned God, which triggered a dream about a confrontation between himself and God. In this case, God appeared to him as just some Joe bag o' donuts standing on a street corner, smoking a cigarette, and thus we have a # 1 hit.

I had heard on the radio that some people had their panties in a wad because they too, as I once had, believed that the song was sacrilgious, and then it dawned on me that the situation doesn't really seem out of character for God at all. He seems like the type of person who would just be standing on a street corner - some bum. And that's not taking away from His glory at all. It's our test.

Would we be able to recognize Him if He appeared to us in such ordinary circumstances. I suppose to some people it would seem extremely out of the ordinary because we always picture God shrouded in glory and loveliness. Yet we forget that He came to this world and took on human flesh, and He is not foreign to such things as filth.

The other thing that really stood out to me about this song is how this person goes about questioning God. You've heard it said, "Who are we to question God?" but don't we do it? Yes we really have no right to question the Ruler of the Universe, the Alpha and the Omega, but we do it anyway. It's our human nature.

Yet this person is not questioning God in a quiet and feeble manner. He's coming to God and saying, "How dare you!" Of course this too makes people uneasy, but you are either a liar or have the faith of gibraltar if you can say that have never stepped up to God in anger. And I think that is what I like about this song so much. It is so real! I have been mad at God before, I have blamed Him for the mishaps in my life, and I have certainly felt abandoned by Him. There have been countless times where I wondered if God even existed because I felt He was so far from me.

It's just too bad that it's not as simple as a phone call.