I have heard two country songs within the last few years that have caused me to stop and think. For those of you country haters who follow my husband's lead, you are probably thinking that in itself is quite a feat. But I press on:
The first one, called "Angel Eyes," goes on to say,
"There's a little bit of devil in her angel eyes
She's a little bit of heaven with a wild side
Got a rebel heart a country mile wide
There's a little bit of devil in her angel eyes
A little bit of devil in her angel eyes."
The other one, made famous by Toby Keith, "God Love Her," talks about a girl who was "baptized in dirty water" and holds fast to "me and the Bible on the back seat of my motorcycle."
These are both super catchy, and I've found myself singing them quite a number of times. But I've always stopped to think: Can you really be both? Can purity and rebellion coexist?
Tragedies like the massacre today in Colorado only fuel this thought process for me.
Sometimes we dumb down and glorify sin, thus undermining the significant sacrifice that Jesus made to abolish it.
Sin is so much darker than we even let ourselves fathom. We may light-heartedly tell our children that sin is simply pushing a child down on the playground or saying "No," to your parents-- but we often adopt this mentality ourselves in the process.
Jesus came to redeem the world from masked murderers who kill innocent people who just wanted to watch a movie. He came to extinguish every dark blot that we have plaguing our lives.
So don't settle for having a little bit of devil in you. Don't find a girl attractive because she goes to church on Sunday and rebels the other 6 days of the week.
Strive for purity. Strive for perfection. Strive for a Christ-like spirit.
And live as big as the sacrifice.
Great point. It reminds me of parts of Mere Christianity, which was probably the first place I ran into the idea that it's largely circumstance that keeps a lot of us from committing atrocities - that the self-indulgence, self-centeredness, ignorance, aggression, and hatred that make a person an average bully or grudge-holder in one situation might lead them to commit murder or genocide if they were placed in a different situation. Knocked me back on my heels quite a bit. I can still work up a lot of righteous indignation about terrorism, genocide, or the torture at Abu Ghraib (I think that's healthy), but not without some sense that I can never know if I'd do any better if I had lived through the experiences of the people whose actions I'm denouncing.
ReplyDeleteI have to add - although it's easy for me to say, hard to live by - but it's probably more consistent with your overall point to say that Jesus came to redeem the world not "from," but "including" the masked murderers.
Hey, I really liked this blog. Very thought provoking.....and you know your Mema--on a serious note! You are so right: Sin is nothing to wink at or find amusing...what sometimes seems trivial to us can become very dark. Praise God for His Son & the grace that redeems us from all our foolishness and the darkness of our soul. Mema
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