When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down on your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

 
At the time of this posting, almost 18 million people have viewed the Coldplay’s music video Fix You on YouTube. It's a song whose lyrics seem to resonate with many who hear it.

And the tears come streaming down on your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

There are various views on why Chris Martin wrote this song.  Probably the most popular view is the one that says he wrote the song after his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, came home from the hospital after her father’s death. She had been crying and when she saw Chris she began to weep again.  When Chris asked what he could do for her she said, "...just hold me because you’re the only thing that can fix me right now."

FIX YOU – how often have we wanted to fix someone we love; a child, a spouse, a friend, a parent.  Someone who aches from pain, from failure, from rejection, from addiction. What would we be willing to give up to have the power to step in, to wave our hand over their life and make it all right. But the harsh reality is there are some things we can’t fix.  We can’t make it better when there is a loss of a loved one.  We cannot right the wrong. We cannot take away the desire that rages within the soul of the addict.  What we can do is we can comfort. We can listen. We can offer our suggestions.  We can lend our courage.  We can do what the church ladies do in the movie Lars and the Real Girl – they join Lars, knit and just sit with him.  They are there to just to provide companionship when things can’t be fixed.

But there is a hope.  A hope greater than the pain of loss, the failure felt, the struggle with addition.  Someone who is greater than whatever challenges us.

Bonus: Download a live version of Fix You here.