I’m talking to someone out there listening, feeling like you've blown it
buried underneath the shame so deep and nobody knows it
I’m talking to someone out there listening, feeling rejected
like you're too messed up and you're always stuck learning the same old lessons
Looking for purpose in all this pain, looking for sunshine behind the rain
There's more to the story that we haven't seen
So what if every heartbreak is not an accident?
And what if every failure is not a coincidence?
Not a moment wasted, not a tear in vein
I know my God can use anything to draw us closer
I’m talking to someone out there listening, feeling like you’re wrestling
Cause you’ve been beat up and you cant keep up with the rules of religion
I know there's someone out there listening, you need to be reminded
There's more to the story that we have’nt seen
All this time He's chasing our hearts
He never stops, never too far
All this time He's chasing our hearts
Drawing us closer to Him, closer to Him
Cause there is a purpose in all this pain
His spirit is moving in everything
#ryanstevenson #Closer #Able
Closer
Song Meaning
Ryan Stevenson opens by speaking directly to someone he can't see — "I'm talking to someone out there listening," he says twice, addressing shame "buried underneath" and rejection that makes a person feel "too messed up" to ever break the pattern. The specificity matters; he's not offering comfort in general, he's aiming it at particular pain.
His argument is a reframe rather than a denial of the pain itself: "what if every heartbreak is not an accident? And what if every failure is not a coincidence?" Stevenson doesn't claim the pain didn't happen or doesn't matter — only that "not a moment" of it was "wasted," even the parts that felt senseless at the time.
Paul's confidence in Romans 8:28, that God works all things together for good, sits behind that claim, and James 1:2-4 calls trials something that can produce endurance rather than only damage. Stevenson's closing image — God "chasing our hearts," "never too far" — turns the theology into pursuit rather than passive providence: pain with a purpose someone is actively working toward.