The Contemporary Message Is So Predictable

I drove to the Appalachian Trail with three junior high girls in my car. I listened to the pop music of these young teens all day. The contemporary message is so predictable. Its extent is shocking. The longing is the same...for love, fullness in life, meaning, purpose. The secular answer is always the same...has been since the dawn of human history: Sexual titillation and expression; money and possessions; people used as a commodity to make one happy.  The depth of emptiness is amazing.

One song, the newest by Eminen and Rihanna, "Love the Way You Lie," is about a violent relationship between a guy and a girl, obviously not married but living together. That fact in itself would have been shocking only a few decades ago. Now the depth of depravity in the relationship doesn't even raise an eyebrow...the teens sing it out without even realizing what they are affirming. The melodic chorus Rihanna sings is:
           "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
            Well, that's alright because I like the way it hurts
            Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
            We'll that's alright because I love the way you lie
             I love the way you lie"
Each verse grows successively more violent till the last verse where he promises to tie the girl to the bed and light the house on fire if she ever tries to leave again. The song ends with her singing the chorus melodically:
          "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

            Well, that's alright because I like the way it hurts

            Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

            We'll that's alright because I love the way you lie

             I love the way you lie

             I love the way you lie"

Another song spoke of "bullet proofed" hearts that have been broken never again to be susceptable to love because true love is "impossible." Yet another sang the praises of finding completion of life in another person as in "I need someone to love." The worst deception is in a half truth. It is true that we need someone to love but that need can only be satisfied by loving God. 

2 things - How could we ever think that our lives could ever be completed by another imperfect human being with an ego of their own trying to satisfy their own needs and not ours? AND more importantly why would anyone want to be the person upon whom such a responsibility is placed? As if we could be a god who can give such completion to another person. Definitely looking in the wrong place. 

What is shocking is that this empty meaningless clatter is being honored. This contemporary message of an old old lie is glorified and too many have become deaf to its sound. Open our ears, O Lord, to the true Word that lasts and lasts and lasts....