Jesus Answers Emos - “Bring me to Life”

I remember this beautiful song that came out my junior year of high school. “Bring me to Life” by Evanescence. My friend and I listened on the school bus daily until tragedy struck. She and 3 of our friends were in a car accident. This accident shook me and our community of friends. Two of those in the car died.

Though my listening-friend survived, those days on the school bus were lonely without her (as she fought for her life in the hospital). Her absence was a symbol of the friends we had just lost.

What I didn’t realize was that the Evanescence song quickly turned into a prayer:

“Wake me up (I can’t wake up).”

“Save me.”

“Call my name and save me from the dark.”

“Wake me up.”

“Bid my blood to run before I come undone.”

“Save me from the nothing I’ve become.”

Thus opened the floodgates of the catalogue of emo-screamo-metal songs. Songs which are cries for help. Screaming in community of mosh-piters to our own “unknown gods.”

What I didn’t realize at the time was how Jesus would bring those answers. Over the years, I’ve come to understand him as a shepherd near to the broken-hearted (Psalm 34). He provides life (John 10:10). He is, in fact, life (John 14:6). Dying with him means we raise with him (Romans 6). He is the Savior my little emo heart cried out for (Ephesians 2:8).