Bible journal with me: OneRepublic Counting Stars, ten-year anniversary edition

Happy Wednesday, my friends! Today is the ten-year anniversary of the release of “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic. I remember when this song first came out and how popular it was, and I wanted to take this opportunity to revisit a post I made based on it back in 2020. I’m also taking you along with me as I create a page in my journaling Bible to help me remember what I learned. Enjoy!

The fandom

Overall, “Counting Stars” is talking about life and how confusing it can seem at times, with the constant need to make decisions and the fact that right things feel wrong and wrong things feel right. And there’s this refrain of “No more counting dollars, we’ll be counting stars.”

Based on the other songs that OneRepublic has made, my understanding is that the singer of “Counting Stars” wants to achieve the American Dream: make the money, get the house and the car and the shiny new iPhone, and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. It’s very self-reliant.

In my original blog post on this song, I reflected on the other side of that coin: the constant feeling that life is too expensive to handle. At the time that I wrote that post, I was making $200 or so per paycheck, so spending $20 felt like a lot. Now, I have a different perspective, but the principle still stands. Life is expensive. To read the rest of my thoughts on this, here’s that post : ).

Today, in celebration of OneRepublic “Counting Stars” ten-year anniversary, I wanted to spend some more time reflecting on what I learned from the lyrics and the Biblical truths that they bring to mind. Hope you enjoy the process!

The journaling process

To make this page in my journaling Bible, I used some Himi jelly gouache paints to create a watercolor galaxy. I took lots of inspiration form those who have come before my on YouTube. Starting with the lightest colors, I layered lots of pinks, oranges, and yellows fading into purples and blues. I don’t always do this, but on this page I chose to avoid the verses that I was reflecting on. The rest of the page is still readable though!

I gradually started to add in some darker colors to the scene, and finished with an abstract hilly landscape at the bottom of the page. If this process had been on watercolor paper instead then I could’ve done some more layering, but Bible paper can only handle so much 😅 So, after adding some metallic silver splatters for “stars”, I had to stop there and let the page dry.

The next step in the process was lettering out the lyrics of the song! I did this with my Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen, which is no longer waterproof (grrr) but is still a pretty good pen. I also added a piece of *stunning* scrapbook paper with some more thoughts on the song.

Below are some photos of the finished product! For a video of the full process (and a sample of the song that inspired it), come see me on instagram.

Here are the thoughts that I had as I was journaling this page in Isaiah 40:

Shifting our focus outward and upward (looking to God to define who we are) instead of inward and downward (looking to ourselves or other people) leads us to the position of awe, humility, an unshakeable peace that we were created to occupy. We aren’t in control of our lives, so we don’t have to stress about every little detail. Instead, we can trust the God who created the universe and counts the stars to take care of us.

Conclusion

If I could go back to 2013, I would have so much to say to my eighth-grade self. Some of that would have to do with NOT TALKING TO THAT ONE GUY AT SUMMER CAMP 😅🤦‍♀️🙄, but much more would have to do with the things I was worried about back then. Fourteen-year-old me was obsessed with getting perfect grades and for that one boy to notice me from the other side of science class (again, so not worth it). She was plagued with doubt of her salvation and with sadness over things that had happened in the recent past. And she had many thoughts of criticism and negativity towards herself.

I would let her know, as I’m letting you know now, my friend, of how loved and cared for she was. I would tell her to look upward and outward instead of inward and downward. And I would tell her that God is infinitely capable of taking care of us, no matter what our feelings tell us.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post celebrating OneRepublic “Counting Stars” ten-year anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been that long since this song came out! Do you have any songs from your teenage years that still bring back memories? I’d love to know!

Happy fangirling!