The Good Word

“When it comes to relationships, I’m the dumbest one,
And I don’t mean just with girls, I mean with everyone.
Your illustrations always point out just what’s wrong with me,
It’s chapstick and chapped lips and things like chemistry.

I’m not a fan of Christian rock. The fact that it has to be labeled as such, and given it’s own radio station so that it doesn’t have to compete against the All-American Rejects, is a pretty good indication that it fundamentally falls short of both epithets. I do, however, really like Relient K. But what makes them different?

Well, primarily it’s the fact that they’re actually good. If you’ve ever heard “I Can Only Imagine” you know that no rendition of that song has ever been pleasing to God, ever.

What? Come on Zach, that song is all about God, and doesn’t God like all hymns? I’m no prophet, but I’m pretty sure that the answer is a resounding “No.”

How do I know? Because reason and experience have given me at least a rough idea of who God is. God, even if you don’t intellectually assent to any of his other attributes, is the only being that exists for his own sake, the only uncreated thing, and the source of all that is created. He’s the definition of beauty, truth, and goodness because he is the source of existence itself.

As the author of creation, God wants us to use the powers he has given us for the sake of bettering and beautifying the world. The problem is that there is nothing uplifting or beautiful about “I Can Only Imagine.” There just isn’t. Nothing about it that acknowledges human dignity or divine charity.

On the other hand, there is something beautiful about things like “Stairway to Heaven,” the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” and The Office. Not that I think these examples are the pinnacle of human achievement, but they have done far more for humanity – making us laugh, stirring our emotions, and acknowledging the beauty of human life – than any repetitious and meaningless worship song ever has.

So, what makes Relient K different? Well, unlike tunes such as “Blessed Be Your Name,” “Mary Did You Know?” and, Heaven help us, “Jesus Take the Wheel,” their songs actually combine musical talent with a meaningful understanding of what humans actually love, think about, and strive for.

Today’s song of the day is about losing a cellphone at an amusement park, and yet it asks much of listener. It acknowledges that man is the sort of being that wonders how he has the ability to write a symphony and yet gets chapped lips, how he can love roller coasters and be entrusted with the task of seeking the truth about his world and his creator, and how he can be given a conscience which tells him he ought to be perfect, but a will that causes him to fall so short of that perfection.

Just like the Bible Study that teaches an 8-year-old that “Jesus” is the correct answer to any question, bad Christian music, art, T.V., and literature (a gross misuse of the word) gets by on stock answers that do nothing but encourage the sort of shallow facade that is not only useless to man, but displeasing to God.

Can I relate to you the way you relate to me?
Can you help me out with my chemistry?
I don't want to be perceived the way I am,
I just want to be perceived the way I am.

I’m tired.

Therefore tonight’s post is entirely dedicated to the Tears For Fears song “Head Over Heels”. This was one the four songs I had on my dad’s computer during high school – the 8k connection never allowed me to get any more. The others were  Billy Joel - “River of Dreams,” They Might Be Giants - “Don’t Let’s Start,” and strangely Alanis Morissette - “Head Over Feet”. 

Take the journey with me. Or just do numbers 1 and 4. Or just 4.

1. Check out the original video here.

2. Check out a decent cover by Katy Perry here.

3. Watch this beautiful cover by Relient K.

4. And lastly, and most importantly, watch the Literal Video version, hi-larious.

Pretty good. Pretty. Dang. Good.

Thanks again Jose for sending me the book on St. Francis. The first 30 pages were so good that I couldn't stand to keep writing down quotes and thoughts on stitcky-notes and decided to head to Borders to buy a copy for myself. Really, I can't stand to read a good book without writing in the margins, underlining, etc. and G.K. Chesterton's life of Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the best books that I've come across in a long time - well worth the purchase.

In other literature-related news, I went down to the library today and checked out the book club pick for this month: "My Life in France" by Julia Child.

Chapstick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry

G.K Chesterton says of St. Francis "His life was one riot of rash vows," and that "Never was any man so little afraid of his own promises."

That courage of resolve comes from a dedication to honesty, that few are manly enough to seize with surety. We have already wronged so many. We are all so in debt already, how could we ever just decide to become men of our word? I know I'm in debt to nearly everyone I know, for so many things that even if I tried to remember them all I couldn't. So what hope is there?

The only hope is to be so completely transparent and so ready with your charity that others see in you a consciousness of universal debt. We owe each other more than we can say, so whether you get your philosophy of charity from St. Francis, or from the movie Pay It Forward, or from Barrack Obama's words at the DNC this week:

"This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes."

It all amounts to the same thing: as individuals we are better than our baggage. Now you may not agree with the way that someone else says it, but the choice we have is simple. Whenever we decide to we can clean up our act and start acting like Christ. And what's beautiful about that is that Christ was the most human person ever to live. He did humanity right and in him is every true aspect and characteristic of every individual that will ever live.

To sum it up: the Truth of humanity is so incomprehensibly big and so incomprehensibly a part of who God is that I am confident that in heaven we'll experience everything that we find true and good and beautiful on Earth.

This all struck me last night as I walked down a side-street after dark listening to the song "Ants Marching" by Dave Matthews Band. I realized that there is something about this song that reveals an aspect of humanity that was previously unstated or at least never stated so beautifully. And because of that unalterably true aspect of that song, I'm sure that a part of the adoration of Truth in heaven, whatever that ends up looking like, will include what is good and beautiful about the song "Ants Marching".

I love literature because it always attempts to say more clearly and more beautifully what we already know. Music is the same. There's something that always gets me about the song "In The Belly of the Whale," which is a children's song from the Veggie Tales movie about Jonah and the whale. The story of Jonah is one of those stories that captures a certain aspect of humanity better than it has ever been captured before.

Now, Jonah is by no means a long story, but when the Veggie Tales song sums it all up in the lines "got outta dodge, sailed on a bon-less bon voyage, you said North, I headed South, tossed overboar,d good Lord that's a really large mouth," I can't help but think that as silly as it is, it's incredibly pleasing to God.

And if all that bored you:

Brought to you by an unusual propensity toward rodentia on the part of Productivity 501, here are some tips on how to live your life from rats:
1. When you want to learn a skill, sleep a lot.
2. Too busy or tired to exercise? It's probably because you aren't exercising.
3. And finally: don't be influenced by preconceptions, otherwise your preconceptions will influence others.