Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The deification of the opposite gender: a look at your typical love song

How closely do you listen to the lyrics that pour into your ears through your iPod buds? Have you ever stopped to think about what it is that many of us listen to on a daily basis?

“You are the end and beginning of each and every day, You are the reason I stay sane… But you make me beautiful, For the very first time.” These are the lyrics to a popular song entitled Home by Katherine McPhee. I would submit to you that these words are more appropriate to be sung about God rather then a boyfriend or girlfriend. God should be the end and the beginning of each day. He is the one who gives us value. It is only because of His grace and His handiwork that we are beautiful.

“Honey you are a rock, Upon which I stand… And honey you should know, That I could never go on without you.” These lyrics come from Coldplay’s song Green Eyes. Should we really be depending on the opposite sex to be our rock or should we be standing on the Rock who will never fail us? When we decide that our happiness is dependent on an erring human being, we set ourselves up for a lot of hurt. To say “I could never go on without you” to someone other than God is wrong! We CAN go on without a romantic companion. In fact, we can thrive without one. I know that might be hard to believe here at Southern where we walk down the promenade with one eye on our notes and the other on the cute guys walking past but it really is possible! God can and should be the only one who we need to survive. “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” (Psalm 62:1-2)

“This is going to bring me clarity… She is everything I needed, She is everything.” This is from the song She Is by The Fray. Again, this is giving an erring human the power to make or break our lives. A girl or guy should not be the one to bring us clarity! God does that! First we gain clarity by searching the scriptures and getting our priorities straight. Only then should we feel ready to search for a Godly mate.

I picked out the lyrics from these songs strictly because I happened to have them on my computer but these are only a few examples of what most of the love songs out there contain. When we listen to lyrics like these, is God uplifted or are we putting a boyfriend or girlfriend in a place that only He should fill?

4 comments:

Caitlin said...

Wow. good thoughts Christy!
Thanks for bringing clarity to a muddy issue!

Joel said...

Good point. Fortunately I haven't had much experience with such songs ;)

Azure said...

Great Post! I often notice too that in secular songs that they seem to refer to a special someone as one really should refer to God. I have recently decided not listen to secular music, including Christian rock and rap music. I know I'm not perfect and in some situations with others it can't be avoided and you can force others to listen to what you want to listen to but at least I can make better choices in my own personal life. I cleaned out all my CD case and left only music that I feel confident is uplifting. I have heard so much stuff about how rock music affects you negatively. I looove any kind of music but I have been slothful making sure I am not trashing myself and I've been listening to anything that's on the radio. So anyway, I really want to make some changes in my life and one of the changes I want to make is in what I listen to.

Phoebe said...

Those are pretty profound thoughts, girl! Thanks so much. It is so awesome that we can be happy single or dating, when the Lord is the apple of our eye, the center of our lives. :D

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