Luke 11:9-10

Luke 11:9-10

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.


No Way Out of Here by David Gilmour

There's no way out of here, when you come in you're in for good
There was no promise made, the part you've played, the chance you took
There are no boundaries set, the time and yet you waste it still

So it slips through your hands like grains of sand, you watch it go
There's no time to be lost, you'll pay the cost so get it right
There's no way out of here, when you come in you're in for good

And never was there an answer, there an answer
Not without listening, without seeing

There are no answers here, when you look out you don't see in
There was no promise made, the part you've played, the chance you took
There's no way out of here, when you come in you're in for good


This song was written in the late 1970s by the guitarist and singer for the group "Pink Floyd". It is one of the most depressing tunes ever written by a group known for their bleak lyrics and melancholy music. Can a person truly live this philosophy honestly? How can someone find the motivation to get out of bed knowing that there is no way out except death, and death ends the game? Gilmour gets even more specific with his despair by declaring that there was no promise made, that your life is a product of chance. There are no answers.

Yet even the most despairing soul has to grasp a rope, no matter how frayed. Never was there an answer, not without listening, without seeing. Well, which is it? Is there no way out, or is there a way out?

The sadness in the song, the feeling of utter despair, even the very notion of despair implies something which is usually denied by the existentialists. Why despair? Why mourn the loss of meaning, if there was never any meaning to begin with? What is it in our inner being which demands meaning and then mourns the loss of meaning as we supposedly discover reality? For a true existentialist, there cannot be any sadness in this song because it only describes the obvious, the natural, and the indifferent. The universe does not note our existence or our passing. Our lives blink like the spark of a firefly, with no consequence and no significance. There are no answers, and we don't even need to ask the question. So what is the problem? Why the sadness?

The search for God begins with either joy or despair. Go to either extreme and find Him. The problem with most people is that they stay in the middle. The modern skeptic adopts the intellectual content of this song, but lives life to a different tune.

Jesus destroys despair. Ask and it will be given you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. Many seekers today do not ask, they demand. Rather than ask, "God, I need You, please reveal Yourself to me, save me from my despair", the tone is one of challenge and superiority, "Why haven't You revealed Yourself to me, why did You create this world of pain, why did You create me in the first place?" Why should God reveal Himself to someone who already has their own paradigm of perfection? "We don't need God, we will make the world perfect through our own efforts."

But to what end? There's no way out of here when "here" is spelled "hell". Who knows, maybe that's what Mr. Gilmour is singing about.

Thank God for His mercy and grace, that everyone who searches finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.