rain to wash me away

I don't know about you guys, but I find a lot of my inspiration through pieces of (using the term broadly) literature. Not just other films, but novels, songs, poems, lectures, you name it. I was just listening to this song "I Need You" by Jars of Clay. I think it might be my favorite of their songs, at least for now. Here are the first two verses.

Strangely out of place
There's a light filling this room
Where none would follow before
I can't deny it burns me up inside
I fan the flames to melt
Away my pride
Do I want shelter from the rain
Or the rain to wash me way?

I might sound like a fool
But I think I felt you moving
Closer to me
Face to the ground
To hide the fatal cut
I fight the weight
I feel you lift me up
You are the shelter from the rain
And the rain to wash me away

I love the power of that image, of God being both a shelter, a protector, and the one who "washes me away." When I think of this I don't think of a gentle "washing" clean sort of deal but a literal washing away, like blowing away, like i'm-drowning-and-I-think-i'm-gonna-die kind of wash away. I want God to protect me from hurt, but at the sime I want to be ripped apart and so overwhelmed that I can't help but fill my lungs with him when I take a breath. I feel like God does both things for us. Kindda weird. Jars of Clay took a concept I have heard and felt in my life and gave me words with which to express it, making it new and somehow more real. Love it! This is exactly what I want my work to do.