Is there really a "Christian" versus "Secular" world out there? (Repost from 9/3/2007)

I have been listening a lot to the new Nickelback single lately and it's gotten me thinking... new blog coming but I had to repost these thoughts :-)

I just got back home from Labor Day... 4 days removed from hopping on a jet plane to head to Estonia via Amersterdam, and finally left alone to a.) prepare for the week ahead, which includes preparing for the week beyond the week ahead and b.) to start to seriously process a lot of what Don Miller (the speaker) talked about over the weekend and the happenings on the retreat.

One of the ideas that we talked about was the cultural seperation that we see in today's world between what we consider "Christian" and what we consider "Secular." And in a sense, it may actually be true that Christianity in America has, in-fact, created an entire little world in which we can go through life and never have to truly interact with someone that doesn't know Jesus. I'm not sure how true this actually is IN REALITY but if there really are "Christian office supply stores" out there on an off-ramp near you, then it truly has gone into the realm of the ridiculous. Testamints, anyone?

Prior to Labor Day Retreat, this entire thought came into my mind on the ride home with a girl (a pretty cool one, if I recall correctly) from going out for Mexican food. We were talking about how I had just bought this CD from Nickelback because I loved a particular song on the CD (If Everyone Cared)... especially the lyrics because they conveyed the desire in our hearts for eternity and the truth that "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (Eccl. 3:11b). The one thing that my friend said while we were listening to the song was that she thought that this could have been a Christian song (and they may be a Christian group)... now I also during the evening played another song that I had gotten quasi-addicted to which is a satirical (I think) song entitled "Rockstar" - which is all about the rock star lifestyle of trading life for fame, fortune, sex, drugs, and rock and roll... and in some essence glorifying this lifestyle as something worth seeking... obviously not to be endorsed but still a funny song to listen to if you understand that it's just a song and don't get TOO offended by some of the swearing and references to the "Joining the Mile high club from 37,000 feet" (which sheltered little me didn't "get" until watching "The Wedding Singer" the other day), popping pills from a pez dispenser, and other such things.

The dichotamy between these two songs... and really several of the songs on this CD really got me thinking, especially from trying to reconcile the beautiful yearnings for eternity that they sing about and the in-your-face sex, drugs, and posturing (for lack of a better word) tone of several of their other songs, especially the non-ballad (radio-play) songs.

When I started to really noodle on this, I started to realize that the songs that they were singing was not really as much of an enigma as I first believed. At a surface level, it looks like two different songwriters, moods, world views... but a deeper look you can see in the bands' lyrics a yearning for the truth of the gospel to become reality in their lives, a searching for meaning and paradise, a desire to be freed from the pain they face in this world... while at the same time searching for the thing we found in Christ in these other things (drugs, sex, romance, status, etc.), and when that thing does not deliver the goods, it leaves the songwriter depressed, angry, and potentially suicidal.

...While all the time searching for eternal bliss in these things...

I have to wonder if the reason why songs like this (and there are more like this) get so much radio airtime is because the messages and the heart cries represented in these songs resonate so much with our culture today. We want real hope and we're searching for it whereever we think we can get it. What is sad, though, is in a time where we who have found this hope in a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the only one that can truly deliver the goods, need to engage relavantly with our culture; many of us have withdrawn from it. When our culture needs to see real hope demonstrated, are there many Christians investing in relationship with them to give them the opportunity to actually SEE hope? This comes to the seperation... are we seperating ourselves from others because it's what Christ commands us to do? No - we do it for safety, and unfortuantely a world searching for hope is not getting better because of it.

Now... back to the song. I originally was somewhat dissapointed to find out that Nickelback was not really talking about God, but about romance. But, thinking about it more and more, to someone that doesn't know Jesus, romance can feel like a very close substitute from an emotional perspective to eternity. What I do see, though, is no assurance in the song... it's always "if" and no "when," which is our hope as Christ followers that He will make things right one day as He promised. So, if I had to rewrite the song to present it in a Bibilical world view, I probably wouldn't change much... so here goes...

"If Everyone Cared"

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

[Chorus:]
If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died

And I'm singing

Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll teach the world a brand new song
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
(I'm alive)

[Chorus x2]

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
When True Love comes to set us free
Then you'll see, the world will be

Where everyone cares and nobody cries
When everyone loves and nobody lies
and everyone shares and swallows their pride
Then we'll see the day when nobody dies
When nobody dies...

[Chorus]

We'll see the day, we'll see the day
When nobody dies

What is cool, is seeing this reality reign in lives where Christ is Lord today... I pray that our friends see this in us more and more, and also sense the overwhelming reality that Jesus loves them because we are investing in them and loving them too... because that's what Jesus would do.

chris <><