We are often complete hypocrites. Especially Christians. Even while at church.
That is my best summary of what I learned from this music video. I was thinking about this song for awhile as it has remained on the top forty countdown around the world for weeks. But no matter how many times I heard it and thought about it, I just didn’t get it. I saw a blog somewhere that suggested it was all about addictions, and how you can struggle with overcoming them, and perhaps it is, but somehow that thought just didn’t seem complete to me. The lyrics that most stood out to me was the pre-chorus, listed here:
I feel something so right, doing the wrong thing
I feel something so wrong, doing the right thing
I could lie, could lie, could lie
Everything that kills me makes me feel alive
I seriously thought through this song about fifty times (it came on the radio multiple times a day). My first thought was that it is a stab at the never ending competition between what we want to do and what we actually do depicted in Romans 7. I love the translation in the Message of Romans 7:15- “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.” It is a common problem that we have intentions to eat healthier, exercise, save money, forgive someone, live a better life, or stop doing something that we know is bad for us. We try to do what’s right but then it usually doesn’t quite work out right. Truth is, we only have so much willpower, and it can’t get us to a place where we are doing everything right. However, that’s not even what this song is talking about. Then I managed to watch the video and got even more confused. And I honestly can’t tell you what the message of the song really is, and it’s probably nothing close to this, but this is what the video keeps reminding me of:
We are often complete hypocrites, especially Christians, and even while at church.
Far too often we end up saying one thing and doing another entirely. Far too often, we end up completely backwards- saying or doing things that are completely at odds with what we believe. Far too often, we cover up or completely ignore our imperfections, saying God will forgive us, and moving on to do whatever we want and live our life however we like, and wondering why we have so little willpower. Far too often, Christians come off like total hypocrites because they say God is all-powerful but somehow He can’t manage to help that Christian stop cursing, stop lying, be nice, or start doing the right thing. This happens again and again for people because they have missed the point and search for all their answers in their own willpower and their own reasoning. Your answers to whatever you are looking for are not where you are looking. They are not in getting more money, more fame, more prestige. They are not in acting like everything’s okay when you know it’s not. They are not in willing yourself to be better, work harder, dig deeper, and fight longer. They are not in pretending to have it all together when you don’t. And they are not in the stars. They are in Christ, and Christ alone.
The video creates this picture of a group of people who appear to be at a church-type service, praying and encouraging each other along. But that scene depicted in the video is not real church. That is not real life. That is a theatricality and a false-hood. Going to church and pretending to praise or experience God or living your life and acting like you are living it for God when you are not… is just plain wrong. Sadly, Christians do that sometimes, but hypocrisy that is not what God wanted for our lives. And our churches should not be a place of theatrics and show and falsehood, they should be the one place you can be really broken and still be accepted and loved. Because somehow or another, God managed to do that for each and every one of us.
See God knows the depths of our depravity, of our loneliness, of our struggle, of our fight. He knows the depths of our indecision, of our fears, of our doubts. He knows the depths of our insecurities, of our imperfections, of all of our many mistakes. And He never once asked us to spend a day each week pretending like they don’t exist. He never once asked us to pretend like everything is fine if it’s not. He never once asked us to believe something that he can’t prove. All He asked for was our heart. He asked for us to stop depending on our jobs, our friends, our church, ourselves. He asked for us to depend on Him. He is our love and He is our hope. He can make it through every journey, every problem, every struggle- financial, addiction, or otherwise. And it does require death- we have to die to our own self and our own ideas but if we will do so, we will truly be alive.
The main verse of the song says “Lately I’ve been losing sleep, dreaming about the things that we could be.” It may sound crazy, but lately I have been losing sleep, staying up late each night and just thinking, wondering. Wondering how my life would be different if I could truly trust only God and not in me. Wondering what would happen if people broke down the walls between them and let other people really see them and keep them honest. Wondering what lives would look like if people could leave the constant contradictions behind and stand on something true and unchanging. Wondering what the church would look like if we could make everyone understand not only how much God loves them but also that he has the power to change lives that we cannot manage to muster. Wondering what the world would look like if they looked at Christians and truly saw God and not pretention. Dreaming about the things that we could be…
“The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.” Romans 7:25-8:2