How To Grow Up Big And Strong

Rich Mullins sketches a "strong man" in clipped, almost broken English and lets the portrait condemn him. He "strangle universe," is "blinded by the mission of a thousand wars," lives to "pound little wooden crosses in the bloody ground," and takes "no prisoner." Each verse repeats the same refrain about him: he is "fit and dominant," he "rise above," and the one thing missing is "the word that mean love."

Between the verses a steady chorus keeps time: "And the world keep on turning / And the sun keep on burning / And the children keep learning / How to grow up big and strong." The line is not praise. The children are watching and copying, and the song never says so outright; it simply repeats the lesson until it sounds like a warning.

The last verse turns a familiar prophecy upside down. The strong man "beat the plowshare" and "forges sword," the reverse of Isaiah 2:4 and the same swap Joel 3:10 sets out as preparation for war. He "take the flower and he curse the thorn," and his hand "is absolute." Set against 1 Corinthians 1:27, where God chooses the weak to shame the strong, and Matthew 5:5, where the meek inherit the earth, the song leaves its answer unspoken but easy to hear.