In the song, True North, by a-ha, I detect what may be an unintended message. But be that as it may, it is a vital, profound, and true message. What do you think?

Jesus:

As the crow flies
In a line from A to B
No more false starts
Just find your way to me

Due north
You just have to believe

And sail to the end of the world
But good sailors always return
So, hold on to hope and
Pray there will be
Fair wind and following sea

You and I:

As the tide is turning
And I am far from shore
You’re the nighttime beacon
Guiding me to port

Due north
My true
True north
We just have to believe

And sail to the end of the world
A good sailor always returns
So, hold on to hope and
Just pray there will be
Fair winds and following seas

Windward turns are how we learn
How to be free

And through the dark
We will sail by the stars
On fair wind and following sea
True north

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Sometimes art communicates a truth greater than the artist may have consciously intended. That is what I hear in a-ha’s True North. Beneath its imagery of sailors, stars, contrary winds, and finding the way home is a remarkably powerful metaphor for our relationship with Jesus Christ.

At sea, everything moves. The wind changes. The currents shift. Storms push us off course. Darkness obscures the horizon. But true north does not move. Spiritually, the same is true. Cultures change, churches change, philosophies change, people disappoint us, and even our own understanding changes as we either gain greater light and truth or reject the truth that is made available to us. But Christ remains the fixed point by which everything else must be measured: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He does not merely show us the way. He is the way.

Perhaps the most powerful idea in the song is that a good sailor always returns. A good sailor is not one who never encounters a storm, never gets blown off course, or never makes a mistake. A good sailor recognizes when he has drifted, corrects his heading, and returns. That is repentance. Mortality was never meant to be spent safely tied to the dock. We are here to encounter opposition, exercise agency, learn, fall, rise, and become better.

“Windward turns are how we learn how to be free.” Lehi taught that there must be “an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11). Contrary winds are not evidence that we are lost; but rather, learning to navigate them is part of learning to become free.

And when darkness comes, we sail by the stars. When we discover that we have drifted, we correct our course. When we are far from shore, we look for the Light guiding us home. Jesus Christ is the light we must follow. He is our True North. Wherever the winds and currents of mortality carry us, the great imperative is simply this: never lose our bearing, and always focus on being guided by Jesus Christ, the Eternal Beacon of Light, our True North.

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