With a new album out soon, the band Thrice has navigated its way back to the top of my iTunes playlist. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve forgotten how wonderful the Alchemy Index albums are. So legit. Here’s an older song, Moving Mountains (Alchemy Index, vol. IV), for your listening pleasure:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
(1 Corinthians 1:1-3)

LYRICS:

I speak in many tongues of many men
Argue with angels and I always win
But I don’t know the first thing about love

I prophesize and know all mystery
All living things are opened up to me
But I don’t know the first thing about love
Don’t know the first thing about love

I have the keys to open any door
Give all my possessions to the poor
But I don’t know the first thing about love

And moving mountains ain’t a thing to me
Have faith enough to cast them to the sea
But I don’t know the first thing about love
I don’t know the first thing about love

All other things shall fade away
Love stands alone and still holds sway
all other things shall fade away
Into the ground into the grave

I give my body up into the flames
And never once have I denied your name
But I don’t know the first thing about love
I don’t know the first thing about love

Thrice is an Orange County-based band. Lead singer Dustin Kensrue also leads worship at Mars Hill Church – Orange County. Thrice’s new album, Major/Minor, will be available in stores and online September 6th.

The song from Beggars that I’m really loving at the moment is titled In Exile. It’s legit.

THRICE // ‘IN EXILE’

I am an exile, a sojourner
A citizen of some other place
All I’ve seen is just a glimmer in just a shadowy mirror
But I know one day we’ll see face to face

I am a nomad, a wanderer
I have nowhere to lay my head down
There’s no point in putting roots too deep when I’m moving on
Not settling for this unsettling town

My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no I don’t belong here
I’ll never call this place my home
I’m just passing through

I am a pilgrim, a voyager
I won’t rest until my lips touch the shore
Of the land that I’ve been longing for as long as I’ve lived
Where there’ll be no pain or tears anymore

—-end song—-

Such a rad song. As I listen to it, I consider the words of the apostle Paul in his letter to the saints of the church in Philippi:

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

(Philippians 3:12-21)

Oh, Lord, haste the day.