It's almost 10 pm. I have to be at church at 6:30 am to play piano at the 7, 9 and 11 am masses, and I'm blogging for the 2nd time tonight. Why am I doing this? Well, because I have a thought stuck in my head...brought up by a friend at prayer group 2 Fridays ago. Why is it that most of the songs that we listened to, and loved, when were kids have a really screwed up message, if you really listen to the lyrics? What did we fill our heads with as kids?
Today I listen to mostly Christian music or talk radio (sports or conservative). My kids listen almost solely to Christian radio, and I'm thankful for that.
One song in particular has had me vexed (yes, I said vexed) for the past couple of days. When I was in high school, I loved the Crash Test Dummies. One song in particular that I enjoyed was "God Shuffled His Feet". You can listen to the song and watch the video at this YouTube link. I can take 2 possible meanings from this song:
1) Earthly concerns are silly and God, as portrayed in this video, is trying to demonstrate this, by not answering the questions that the people ask, and instead telling them a parable that, sadly, they don't understand. For example, they ask questions like "If you're eye, got poked out in this life, will it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?" God responds by shuffling his feet, glancing around and then telling a parable about a boy with blue hair. If I run with this interpretation of the song, God is saying, things of this earth are not important in heaven, so don't be concerned with earthly things.
2) This option is more cynical. One could take from this song that God is some distant being that is just messing with us, like we're here for his entertainment. Given the video, that is likely what the songwriter or video producer wanted me to take away as the meaning.
Where I get really off is the Crash Test Dummies have another song called, "How Does a Duck Know", and in this song, they seem to marvel at the fact that "everything seems planned out, everything seems so nicely planned out." Someone had to do the planning. When I was a kid, I assumed these guys were men of faith because of these 2 songs. I might be wrong with this assumption, but I think I can still choose number 1 as my takeaway. I was talking with Nuke about this on Friday, and he pointed me to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, "Test everything. Hold on to the good."
So, I'm going to choose to take option 1 as the meaning I get from this song that I loved so much as a kid. Even if the Crash Test Dummies meant option 2, I believe that I can choose to take the good message from it and throw away the rest. I'm also going to stick to my Christian music going forward...at least I'm pretty sure I know what message it is trying to convey.
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4 comments:
I don't remember if I've offered you access to my music collection at work yet; there's a wide range of tastes represented, but it's pretty much all solid Christian music. If I'm not listening to that, I choose 89.1 for my head-bobbing entertainment. (yes, my head bobs and my name is bob, so what? :P)
Yes you have offered me access to your music. Sadly, I've gotten a new PC since the last time, so I don't have the link anymore. I generally listen to 89.1 as well. I find it more toe tapping, but to each his own. :-P
I think we do still have to be careful with the application of that verse. For example, you take the good out of that one song from the group, then constantly listen to all their other songs that have more insidious take-away's, and before you know it you forget what you were writing this comment about. Anyway, good plan to stick w/ the music you know is good. ;)
89.1 The Spirit rocks! Back to Crash Test Dummies, I listen to that CD every once and a while. I like both songs. To me, they both fit. God's plan is for the ducks to know what direction South is. Or, for seeds to always grow towards the surface no matter the way that they were planted.
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