Okay, so I was going to make today’s DiM post about my listening experience from last night’s grocery run, but I decided to make it more of a bonus edition since the song isn’t on any charts I reviewed.

We are going to take a slightly different approach to this bonus post. I want to give a sneak peek into what goes on in my head when a song grabs my attention while I’m driving in the car. Have you ever noticed how quickly your mind can race when given the right mix of anticipation, frustration, or excitement? So we are going to walk through the song as if it were playing for the first time, and I’ll share the thoughts I had as the song played…

Lyrics (via K-Love.com)

I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how’d we ever get so far down
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”

Whoa there… God has done everything for us, don’t go blaming Him for the sin in the world

Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”

Uhm… the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, dude. Maybe this is a Job type of story where Matt West is about to be corrected in his thinking by the Word of God or something

He said, “I did,…{pause for dramatic effect}

Okay, cool, God is going to remind Matt of what He did at the Cross, right?

“… I created you”

::sigh::

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it’s time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something

So… the direct revelation from God regarding the problems of sin in the world is that God created us to “do something”? Really?

So, what is it, pray-tell, that we should be doing that will bring an end to all this pain?

I’m so tired of talking
About how we are God’s hands and feet
But it’s easier to say than to be
Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves
It’s alright, “somebody else will do something”
Well, I don’t know about you
But I’m sick and tired of life with no desire
I don’t want a flame, I want a fire
I wanna be the one who stands up and says,
I’m gonna do something”

So the reason the world is in sin is supposedly because we’ve been living lives of apathy, lives with no desire and a flame won’t do but we want a fire. My wife chuckled at this line and said “isn’t a fire a flame?” to which I smiled (while the chorus repeated) and said, “touché”. Still the song nagged at me… so apparently we’ve moved on to thinking that even asking God to do something is part of living the apathetic life, huh? I guess we are not asking God for this fire that isn’t a flame?

We are the salt of the earth
We are a city on a hill
But we’re never gonna change the world

::sigh::

By standing still
No we won’t stand still
No we won’t stand still
No we won’t stand still

Wow… that was awful. The irony of this situation, is that the performer of this song never gets round to saying what it is we should be doing. People pay money to hear him sing a song of judgement for somehow not having already put an end to sin and death here on the earth.

God did do something

Romans 5  (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Don’t set aside the Gospel of Jesus Christ to sell a music album or push the false-gospel of social activism. Stop co-opting the social justice nonsense, the Great Commission isn’t about “changing the world”, but about preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

John 3:16-21 (ESV) | For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

I pray this song disappears from the Christian airwaves. Thoroughly troubling. Apparently the music video is all about the Good Works that answer the “do something” appeal… I’ll share it here for fairness sake, but there is no music video when this song plays on the radio.

[youtube http://youtu.be/b_RjndG0IX8]

So yeah… “Do good works… or else… the world won’t change”.

In Christ,
Jorge