Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Do You Realize?

“Do you realize?” That’s a song by one of my favorite artists: The Flaming Lips. They moonlight as philosophers and I’ve entertained their ideas to greater extent than their intent. Now that I’m submitting to the authority of the Bible I see art and philosophy in a much different light.

Rather than swelling art and thought in my head, as a consumable. I use it as a launch pad to the single truth in Christ. The lyrics are great, but they are simply the beginning of great. Here’s some of what the song says:

“Do you realize that were floating in space?
Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize that everyone you know some day will die?
Do you realize the sun don’t go down, it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.”

These are all great thoughts that really soothed me as an unbeliever because I didn’t think in those terms. I kept my head down just plowing with the problems I had and the mountain I’ve made. So when I hear The Flaming Lips talking about the sun not setting and how we can treat people differently if we think of them as dying. Those ideas called me outside of myself. Not to serve, but simply to look outside of myself even if it was just for the duration of the song. God calls me to serve now, to share myself with kids, neighbors and friends. I am to deny myself, to die to that self centered will. So I can realize that it is imperative that Christ be victorious in the lives that are dying around me. Everyone I know will die, but many are spiritually dead now.

I think art puts the taste of God in an audience. Its got godly characteristics: creativity, communication and reaction; but rarely is it a vessel for the Gospel. Art is quick to a conflict and rare to find resolve. It is more a lawyer than a judge. That is why I think it might be hard to be a Christian artist. Audiences will listen to a lawyer all day, but hearing from a judge might be tiresome especially if the material evokes action.

I honestly don’t understand the rash of bands that claim to be saved and have bland uninventive music and non-praising lyrics. What a mute platform that is. Honestly, I will be thinking about God everyday for the rest of my life. More often than not, it will be about how Jesus changed me, and how historical, obvious and honest He has become to me.

Faith is part of our being. If these Christian bands could at least talk about how faith is real and judge what science and philosophy says about it that would be a start. As an unbeliever, I didn’t grasp faith’s existence within me. I thought it was like believing or trusting. Those virtues are learnable; they are allies to faith and if desired they can be cast out of you. –Not faith. Jesus requires our faith to gain His work of atonement.

So now that I have that personal faith founded relationship with Jesus, I’m starting to build through faith. My heart that was once broken by trusting the wrong things is now trusting in God’s will at work, in answered prayers and provision for my future.

Likewise, through faith, my beliefs are sorted through and exchanged for the Word of God. My thoughts were roofed by logic and self-discovery; now in faith I do believe that the world was created in six days and that Jesus was fully God and fully man, therefore He was without sin and able to resurrect from death and deny Satan in every trial. Jesus liberated me 2000 years before I was a twinkle in my mother’s eye.

On November 10, 2006 (love saying that) I used my faith in Jesus Christ to believe that He was thinking of me specifically as He died so slowly, painfully and unjustly. So that I could find the Father’s will and follow God.

So my mind’s at work finding creative “do you realize” statements that are highly relatable and faithful to my walk with Jesus Christ. My preacher preached about the world outside of self-concern. He molded it around “Why Praise God?” super fitting because of my latest difficulties of walking with Jesus, being sick and working lots make me revert to my selfish needs of wanting to be better now instead of enduring it.

Do you realize that we’re floating in God’s space?
Do you realize that we’re created to worship?
Do you realize that Christ saves us from the presence of sin?
Do you realize that we’re welded to eternity?
Do you realize that darkness is no place to hide?
Do you realize that obeying is freeing?