To those who read my blog,
I want to share with you one of my favorite bands. This band is notorious for being party animals and doing crazy things. In one of their music videos, you can see them streaking through a city. These guys are out of control! They are the band Blink-182, and I love them!
Some might tell me that I am listening to bad music and that God would not approve but I have come to realize a few things in my own walk with God. The Father is one who encourages our creativity. Some of the best psalms, you would think (if you just heard them out of the blue) that it was something that God would be completely against. For example, what about Psalm 22 which begins with “my god, my God, why have you forsaken me?” which seems to me like something God would never do, so why even accuse Him of it? But it made it into the Bible!
Now I am not saying that the lessons of Blink-182 should be preached from the pulpit, but one thing that might be good to preach is how we should be honest and truthful and not hide behind a falsehood. Blink-182 is a very truthful band and the author of Psalm 22 was willing to be completely honest with God instead of just sugar-coating his prayer and just saying ‘o God… you are so great’. Sometimes our prayers need to be raw and gritty and full of something that is not too pleasing to our Maker’s ears. Or should I say seems to be not too pleasing to our Maker’s ears? I think God appreciates our honesty more than anything else. These people are being real and true and because they are being real and true, sometimes they say stuff that I really take to heart… for example, check out these lyrics from their song Not Now:
“Come here, please hold my hand, Lord, now
Help me, I’m scared please show me how
To fight this, God has a master plan,
and I guess, I am in His demand
Please save me, this time I cannot run
And I’ll see, you when this is done
And now I’ve come to realize
That you are, the one who’s left behind”
The song goes on from there, but did you notice the lyrics? This band, the same band who streaks and parties hardy, they just called out to God for Him to be a part of their life and admitted that He cares for them enough to include them in His master plan!
There’s this thought among Christians, and I agree with this thought, that there is a God shaped hole in all our hearts. We yearn for God. We want God in our lives oh so badly! Every once in a while, that craving is seen… but only if we’re willing to be honest with ourselves and look deeper. This is what Blink-182 has done with this song of theirs.
I’d love to sit down with Blink-182 and ask them just what they were thinking when they wrote this song. How were they feeling? What was their message?
This is why I don’t think as Christians, we should shy away from the things the world does to express themselves. We are not called to put our head-phones on and only listen to *Insert Christian Band Name Here* (especially seeing as a lot of Christian bands are really bad).
I once heard a good friend of mine tell me she stopped listening to one band because even though they said they were a Christian band, they had become very secular. Well what is secular about them? Are they denying Jesus flat out? Or are they just not mentioning Him in their songs? And even if they are denying Him flat out, shouldn’t we listen to them because at least they are being honest with us?
Besides all that, a lot of Christian bands that I hear seem to be afraid to talk about issues they are having. Five Iron Frenzy (my favorite band and also a Christian one) is willing to speak out against racism and other prejudices, but I don’t see that a lot in other bands. They seem to only be concerned with superficial stuff, and I do not believe for a second that God is after the superficial.
He wants honesty. He wants truth. He wants all of you… even the doubts! He wants us to pray things like, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (psalm 22) and then bring us to a place where we will pray, “come here, please hold my hand, Lord now help me, I’m scared please show me how to fight this” (Blink-182), and maybe when we’re done praying that, we can pray, “Thank-you Lord, for being there for me” (me).
I hope this is helpful to you, oh reader of my blog, for it has been to me!
-Joshua
