| "Belief" by John MayerThis is the quintessential rainy day album. The downpour today extended my commute long enough to listen to the whole thing and a few songs over again. John Mayer is a songwriting genius and his latest offering is more evidence that he really does "got it" when it comes to rhythm & blues. His lyrics also reveal a depth of thought and insight that is atypical of our generation. Read the words to his KILLER jam "Belief" and tell me what you think: --------------------------------- Is there anyone who ever remembers
changing their mind from the paint on a sign?
is there anyone who really recalls
ever breaking rank at all
for something someone yelled real loud one time?
oh, everyone believes
in how they think it oughta be
oh, everyone believes
and they're not going easily
belief is a beautiful armor
and makes for the heaviest sword
like punching underwater
you never can hit who you're trying for
some need the exhibition
and some have to know they tried
it's the chemical weapon
for the war that's raging on inside
oh, everyone believes
from emptiness to everything
oh, everyone believes
and no one's going quietly
we're never gonna win the world
we're never gonna stop the war
we're never gonna beat this
if belief is what we're fighting for
we're never gonna win the world
we're never gonna stop the war
we're never gonna beat this
if belief is what we're fighting for
is there anyone who can remember
ever surrender with their life on the line?
we're never gonna win the world
we're never gonna stop the war
we're never gonna beat this
if belief is what we're fighting for
we're never gonna win the world
we're never gonna stop the war
we're never gonna beat this
if belief is what we're fighting for
what puts a hundred thousand children in the sand?
belief can, belief can
what puts a folded flag inside his mother's hand?
belief can, belief can ----------------------------- In light of the events of our day, there's an obvious political angle to what he's communicating. The track fades to haunting questions about the images of war but I was left with a less obvious but more relevant question. If we don't fight for what we believe, what will we fight for? Because of man's sin, fighting holds many negative connotations but the reality is that all of life is a struggle. It's a struggle for survival, excellence, efficiency, joy, peace, purity, hope, faith and justice. In some sense, we might justify the two as synonymous and say that to struggle is to live. Furthermore, the all-satisfying beauty and love that all God's creatures (including John Mayer) yearn to behold was purchased, preserved and perpetuated within a supernatural struggle enveloping all time. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave His own life to conquer the power and opponent of evil with triumphant finality. He was living and dying for the joy set before Him, waging war with a new kind of weapon: humility. His pursuit of ultimate self-sacrifice to champion all that is good is our example. He is our motivation to fight sin, every day. He embodies what we are required to stand for in this world and illuminates the darkness we should all struggle to slay. His humility will be honored above all and only by His wounds are we healed. If we don't live for Him, who will we live for? Thank God He's won the world. Someday, He'll stop the war.
Phillipians 2"5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." |
