“Running Up That Hill” . . . To Escape the Upside Down
My wife and I love Stranger Things. For anyone who may not know, it’s an intense sci-fi/paranormal adventure show set in the 1980s and reminiscent of that era’s pop culture.[1] Part of its charm—especially if you’re a fogey—is that it “features impeccable, classic hits from the era that thematically coincide with the show’s most pivotal moments.”[2]
The just-completed season 4 highlighted Kate Bush‘s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill,” which has now run back up to the top of the pop-music mountain due to the immense popularity of Stranger Things, “toppl[ing] a whole host of records along the way.”[3]
The two-time hit “straddles the line between synth-laden operatic gold and a deeply personal and spiritual song about the quest for greater understanding.”[4] Indeed, the song’s subtitle is “Deal With God,” involving a miraculous exchange:
Do you want to feel how it feels? . . .
Do you want to hear about the deal that I’m making?
You
It’s you and meAnd if I only could
I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill . . .Come on, come on, darling
Let’s exchange the experience[5]
Bush explained in a 1992 interview:
I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can’t understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other’s roles, if we could actually be in each other’s place for a while, I think we’d both be very surprised! And I think it would lead to a greater understanding.[6]
Not very religious, right?
But then she says that—
really the only way I could think it could be done was either . . . you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, “Well, no, why not a deal with God!?” You know, because in a way it’s so much more powerful, the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called “Deal With God,” that was its title.[7]
Obviously Bush only had in mind earthly, human relationships. This is why it’s so ironic that God did make a “deal” with her.
Just not the type she had in mind.
Manger Things
The heroes in Stranger Things encounter a horrifying domain called the “Upside Down”:
. . . an alternate dimension existing in parallel to the human world. The dimension originally consisted entirely of sprawling mountains and floating rocks, and was home to a race of humanoid predators. Somehow, the Upside Down transformed from its original state and became a perfect copy of the human world, . . . overrun with alien vines, spores and membranes, and completely devoid of human life.
This fictional realm parallels our reality: we live in a contorted and crippled version of the world God created. It retains some continuity with what existed before we rebelled against our Maker; we are still the sub-lords of all the Earth. But we have warped the world into a shadowy, decaying reflection of the paradise[8] it once was.
And since redemption could not be accomplished by religious zeal or a handful of plucky nerds, the Creator stepped out of eternity . . . into the Upside Down.
In doing so, He actually engineered an exchange between a man and Kate Bush. More precisely: between a God-Man and all of humanity. The Great Exchange turned human expectations “upside-down.” It began to take shape . . .
. . . in a virgin’s womb and then a feed-trough for animals.
In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1:1]
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ” [Matthew 1:23]
The Word became a human and lived among us. [John 1:14]
And . . . the time came for her baby to be born. . . . And there was the baby, lying in the manger. [Luke 2:6, 16]
The intent of this manger miracle was to have a divine Man walk in our shoes—experience an earthly, human life . . . and then pay for our sins.
What this means is that there’s a Man who really does know how Kate Bush—and every one of us—feels. In order to fulfill his role as a go-between for humanity and God the Father, Jesus “was tempted in the same ways we are tempted,” and therefore he “understand[s] our weaknesses.” (Hebrews 4:15) “And now he can help those who are tempted . . . because he himself suffered and was tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)
As God, Jesus knows our hearts and minds, and therefore is perfectly aware of everything you're feeling or thinking. Whatever is in Kate Bush’s heart that she wants to share with a man—there's one Man who already knows all about it. To the nth degree. And he's able to feel what she feels.
“Let’s exchange the experience”
So goes a line in “Running Up That Hill.” And God said: “Yes”—because it was His idea in the first place. “Let there be light” in the Upside Down. “Let there be . . . a great exchange.”
. . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. . . . For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” [2 Corinthians 5:19, 21]
The revelation that God was “no longer counting people’s sins against them” doesn’t mean everyone’s automatically saved and can go on living like Vecna—in the real world, Satan—as if nothing matters. The reason Jesus saves people is to give them new life in relationship with God. If we reject the New Life, then we’re basically saying that we’d like to stay in the Upside Down; that we prefer death and darkness.
Jesus, as God-incarnate, was able to make the Great Exchange precisely because he had walked in our shoes and knew what it meant to scrape out a necrotic life in the Upside Down. He was therefore in a position to act as the legitimate proxy for you and me.
He embraced that role with unparalleled vigor.
The word uphill often serves as a euphemism for adversity or challenge, such as in the phrase “uphill battle.” Jesus—being human as well as God—dreaded that battle. In spite of this, he was of one mind with God the Father; They both knew it was the only way to save humanity.
And so, Jesus ran up that hill: Golgotha, just outside the walls of first-century Jerusalem. Where the Romans crucified rebels and certain other criminals. Of course, he couldn’t literally run up the hill, because he’d just been tortured and beaten in advance of his execution.
But in his heart . . . oh, he ran. To the battle line; to execute the Father’s plan of salvation, both out of love for us and his own anticipation of heavenly joy.
Running Up That Hill . . . to Be With Jesus
I’m “running up that hill” constantly. Repeatedly. For a lifetime.
There’s a verse in the Psalms that poses this forlorn question: “I look up to the hills, but where does my help come from?” This may allude to the ancient pagan belief that various gods dwelt in the mountains.
I’m certainly not going to look to the “gods” for the power I need to live the life I was meant to live.
But tweak that verse just a tiny bit—by dropping the ‘s’ in “hills”—and that’s exactly where I need to look: “the hill.”
God reminds me on a regular basis to look to Golgotha: to run up its rugged slope and kneel at the foot of the Cross, and reflect on my identification with Jesus. To remember that he and I traded places, so that I wouldn’t have to be separated from God because of my sin.
Now, “to me, living is Christ.” Because I died with him on that hill, and rose with him three days later. Because Jesus traded places with me, and did those things in my stead—God now relates to me as if I had done those things.
That’s the foundation. That’s sea-level, as it were.
Because of this relationship with God, I am now empowered to climb and conquer whatever hill or mountain rises before me. Without Christ I am powerless—but “I can do everything through” him.
And in another sense, the believer’s entire lifetime is an uphill marathon: we start low but climb steadily higher. We start out earthbound and race heavenward. When we gain the summit—finally, after all that God has brought us through—we find that we have left behind the Upside Down, with its pervasive shadow of death, and are now basking in the glory of the risen Son.
It was the same with Jesus. He suffered and died outside the city so His blood would make the people clean from sin. So let us go to Him outside the city to share His shame. For there is no city here on earth that will last forever. We are looking for the one that is coming. [Hebrews 13:12-14]
“Those who win the victory”—who keep running up that hill, all the way to the top—“will receive this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
The starting gun has sounded. Bolt from the blocks.
And don’t stop running until you run into His arms at the crest of the hill.
[1] A caveat: over the course of the series, the Lord's name is used as a swear word a number of times. And while, yes, it involves the paranormal, it's not occultic—but is, as I've indicated, quite intense. I certainly don't recommend it for kids.
[2] Pallavi Bhadu, “The Connection Between Max and the ‘Running Up That Hill’ Lyrics Is So Deep,” Popsugar (8 June 2022; accessed July 7).
[3] Jack Whatley, “The Story Behind The Song: 'Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)' | Kate Bush's ultimate bargain,” Far Out Magazine (22 June 2022; accessed July 9).
[4] Whatley, ibid.
[5] Bhadu, ibid. (Emphasis added.)
[6] “Reaching Out: Interviews & Articles,” Kate Bush GaffaWeb (n.d.; accessed 16 July 2022) (I cleaned up the original edit a bit.)
[7] Ibid. (Emphasis added.)
[8] The English word “paradise” derives from the Greek paradeisos, referring to an enclosed park or orchard. Biblical writers understood it to refer originally to the Garden of Eden, but reapplied it to the future abode of blessing that God’s people will one day experience—and into which He will reshape the entire cosmos.