The other day, I heard a new Christian song on the radio that caught my attention. At first I liked the sound of it, but when I listened to the lyrics it got me thinking...
"I wanna be different I wanna be changed Til all of me is gone And all the remains Is a fire so bright The whole world can see That there's something different So come and be different in me" Now there is so much about this song that I do love, which is why I felt like it needed to be talked about. And before I do, I want to make it clear that I don't think this artist is bad or wrong. I believe that the root of the falsity in this lyric is something subtlety pervasive in current Christian culture, which is why it needs to be addressed. I DO want to be different! And I want that difference to be completely visible to anyone who's looking. I want to live boldly and unashamedly of my savior and of the work He's doing in my life!! That is something that burns deeply inside of me and that I absolutely love to celebrate whenever possible. BUT There seems to be a subtle implication if not an overt statement out there that for me to be filled with God, I have to go. You hear it in lyrics like these where they say "till all of me's gone." The implication of this message is that I am inherently bad and that for me to be good, the part of me that's ME needs to be replaced with something else - and that makes me so sad!!! I could not disagree with it more! GOD - the perfect, loving, wise creator of the universe - specifically designed YOU. He made you who you are, complete with flaws and quirks. Who YOU are is the whole package: your personality, your predispositions, your likes and dislikes, your gifts and talents, and especially your flaws. Who you are is also, most importantly, what you decide to do with those things - and that's shaped by series of your own choices. Flaws are important because if we didn't have them, we wouldn't need Him. None of us were ever meant to be perfect on our own - we were meant to need and thrive in relationship with the Father. So yes, we become better when we are in that place of relationship. He teaches us and helps us grow through our struggles and our hard times. He helps refine us with fire (biblical) so that we can become the most US versions of ourselves, but in no way does that mean that I have to go. God loves ME. God made ME. He knows ME and knows both my strengths and my weaknesses are a part of ME. Becoming like Christ isn't losing my weaknesses, it's learning how to rely on God through them. God didn't create us so He could systematically replace aspects of ourselves with aspects of Him. He made us with aspects of Him already hardwired in, and the need to learn how to embrace them in the way they were meant to be all along. Maybe I'm beating a dead horse here, so forgive me if I'm rambling a bit, but I'm really passionate about this so I want to be as complete and thorough as possible... To get rid of a part of yourself is to get rid of a piece of reflection of God in you. Sure, it may be tainted or twisted from something sinful in your life, but the solution is to clean and restore it, not to get rid of it! To look at God's creation and say that it needs to be replaced is to say that God messed up and made you wrong, which is completely, totally, and unequivocally WRONG!!!
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March 2023
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