Smile

Chris Rice's "Smile" lives in the ache of waiting. The singer opens with a question that never quite resolves — how far is God, how close am I? — and admits that belief can persist even when the feeling of God's presence doesn't. There's a striking honesty in the line about knowing God's words are true while not feeling them inside, and the admission of gasping and aching while asking where God is now. The chorus turns that longing into something almost childlike: the singer dreams about the promise of Christ's return and just wants the waiting to be over. The earthly detail that grounds it all is the image of feet planted here on earth while the heart is elsewhere, keeping the faith while God prepares a destiny. Time itself becomes the enemy — every minute takes an hour, every inch feels like a mile — until the imagined moment when the singer finally gets to see God smile. That final image is the song's emotional payoff: not a theological argument but a face-to-face reunion, intimate and specific. The repeated plea for Christ to come back soon keeps the song from settling into passive resignation; it's a waiting that leans forward.