A Song That Points Us to God

Faithful readers of this blog (if there are any) will remember that our initial post here concerned a song written by Bob Dylan called "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall." In that post, I talked about how that song drives more deeply to the heart of God than much of what we hear in contemporary Christian music, even (if not especially) that which is often mistakenly called "worship music." This gave us the title for the blog -- "The Sacred in the Secular." I can't speak for my S/S teammates here, but for me, the dichotomy is a bit artificial and often stretched. I believe that part of the image of God in us is an insatiable longing for Him. As Augustine said, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee." C. S. Lewis referred to this as sensucht. This comes across in our culture in the music, film, literature, and other arts of humanity. And often it comes through most clearly and certainly inadvertently in that which would be called "secular" by many evangelicals.

Last fall, I was exasperated because of a number of pressing frustrations I was dealing with. It caused me to have frequent paralyzing anxiety attacks, and produced bitterness and a crusty shell of lovelessness in my heart for others. I know all the verses, I have read all the books and heard all the sermons, but the fog would not lift. Yet, on Thanksgiving Day, I arose early to sit with my son for one of our annual traditions that I used to enjoy as a child with my father -- watching the parade on television. Anyone who has watched the parade for a number of years will know what I mean when I say that it has become more of a song and dance show than an actual parade. Usually that frustrates me. I want to see floats and balloons and marching bands. I don't want to see kick-lines and Broadway troupes and the stars of the new fall lineups. But I decided to endure a performance by Josh Groban. I had heard him sing before, and thought he had a tremendous voice and a good taste for timeless songs. On Thanksgiving Day, he sang a song called "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)." And listening to the words of that song, I felt the embrace of God over me, and was lifted up from my despair to apply all those spiritual truths which I knew, but which I had ignored, avoided, and given up on during those stressful days.

Since that time, I have kept that song in the playlist on my iPod and find myself listening to it often. I am not a music video fan. I have never seen the music video for the song, and don't even know if one exists. But every time I listen to "You Are Loved," a series of images passes through my mind. These are the images I see on a near daily basis. I see the desperation on the streets around my church -- lives ruined by drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, mental illness. I find the scenes of families mourning at gravesides; lonely people lying in hospital beds on ventilators with no loved ones at their sides; people all around us trying to pretend to have it all together, when inside they are falling apart.

If I was to radically obey the words of the Apostle Paul when he says in Epehsians 5 that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," then I would be pointing people to the 34th and 91st Psalms and singing these words to them and encouraging them to feel the loving embrace of their Father in Heaven as He comforts them with these promises. The singer isn't citing scripture, and I don't even know if the writer of the song had God in mind when he wrote it. But every promise in this song parallels a promise God has given us in His Word. As I copy the lyrics here, I will insert in parenthesis some of the places God has made these comforting promises of assurance to us:

Don't give up; It's just the weight of the world
When you're heart's heavy, I will lift it for you (1 Peter 5:7)

Don't give up; Because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you, I will break it for you (Matthew 10:19-20)

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you (Philippians 4:6-7)
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved (Galatians 2:20)

Don't give up; It's just the hurt that you hide
When you lost inside, I will be there to find you (Luke 19:10)

Don't give up; Because you want to burn bright
If darkness blinds you, I will shine to guide you (Psalm 119:105; Matthew 5:14-16)

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved

Watching Movies Without Violating Your Conscience

Frequent readers of this blog, and my other one, Searchlights from the Scriptures, will readily recognize that the art of film is one of the most influential mediums for modern messages in our day. Every film that is made is made for a purpose, and rarely is that purpose merely entertainment. Usually, there is an underlying worldview that is being advanced through the film. Surely, there is much entertainment value in watching films as well, and we don't want to minimize that. It is an absolute delight to curl up on the couch together with my wife and our little ones to watch a movie. However, most Christians would also recognize that seldom are the offerings of Hollywood suitable for Christian family entertainment. Vulgarity, sexuality, and brutality often detract from the enjoyment of film. For many years, we had to just steer clear altogether of movies unless we knew for sure (from the reliable testimony of others who had seen the film) that the particular movie we wanted to watch was free from those things which would violate our consciences and Christian convictions.

Last year, a landmark court case put the kibosh on family friendly "edited" versions of popular films. In that case, the only two companies (CleanFilms and CleanFlicks) who were producing "cleaned-up" versions of DVDs chose to cease operation rather than appealing the courts rulings against them. When I read about this, I was embarrassed that I never even knew of these companies! If I had, I would have been a customer. But through all of this, I learned of another company which has opened up movie viewing for my family.

ClearPlay makes a DVD player that uses "filters" for DVDs that have adjustable settings for filtering out language, sexuality, and violence. We purchased one of these in October of last year, and have truly enjoyed watching movies again without having to keep our fingers in the kids' ears or our hands over their eyes.

I commend this to you for your own enjoyment. Certainly there are still films which would be inappropriate even if filtered. Some films would be little more than opening and closing credits after all the objectionable content was removed. However, many which would have been "off limits" for us in the past are now easily enjoyable because of the ClearPlay filters.

If you are interested in learning more about it, visit www.clearplay.com.