Lucky Now

Christian symbolism in unlikely places

Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash

I forget when I first heard Lucky Now, by Ryan Adams, but I’ve loved it since I first heard it. I always like the scene in This is 40 where Pete and Debbie go to a club for his birthday, and Ryan Adams and his band play this song. Drawing inspiration, they agree he should go talk to Adams after the show and see if he is interested in a new record deal. I remember playing this song when my oldest boy was just a baby, and he would look up at me and smile.

I don’t often look to Ryan Adams for Christian inspiration, but sometimes we find it in the most unlikely places. Adams has said this song was written about his time living in New York, so I don’t think he had any Christian symbolism in mind.

The opening line and first verse remind me of life before we become Christian believers.

I don’t remember were we wild and young, all that faded into memory…

A lot of us believers led wild lives before finding salvation in Jesus. For the purpose of our own testimony, it’s important to remember the past, but it’s best if we don’t remember the person we were as if it were a distant memory. At the end of the first verse, Adams questions if he is who he was. Thankfully, as Christians, we are born again, and we are no longer who we were in our past lives.

The chorus goes through a few different iterations, but it’s the final chorus that I’ve always liked the most.

And if the lights will draw you in And the dark will take you down But love will mend your heart But only if you’re lucky now

Jesus is our light, just as we, as believers, are to be a light in the world around us. But it won’t be an easy road for us, as the darkness, the devil, will try to take us down. But we are the lucky ones because the love of Jesus will mend our hearts.

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