I Cry Language Revolution!

I love this video. It is simple, powerful, thought-provoking and there are some very important truths communicated in this 3-minutes & 16 seconds. But… there are parts of this video that could also be very confusing.

Here’s what I like:

God isNOT a White Man. It’s true, God supersedes any boundaries of race, gender, language, political party or culture. Derek Webb also has a fantastic song about this. He writes, “the two greatest lies that I have heard is that if you eat the fruit of this tree, you shall not surely die; and that Jesus Christ was a White middle class Republican.”

God IS love, and to be like Christ is to love unconditionally. John 13:35 has been one of my favorite verse lately. True, genuine love cannot be faked. It’s like the un-forge-able mark of genuine Christianity.

God CANNOT be bought. Not only does God not identify more closely with one racial or political group, he cannot be contained in an institution. A God experience cannot be manufactured and mass-reproduced. God is not subject to the rules of government or economics.

It’s amazing how quickly the song changes tone. It is doubtlessly light-hearted throughout until the bridge. When Gungor starts singing “Please Stop the Hating” I quit laughing. It wasn’t funny anymore, it was passionate. I love songs/videos that can change moods in the middle. It’s a funny video, but it has a very serious point. Hate is the opposite of Christ-likeness, but it is what conservative Christianity is most known for.

Here’s What Made me Laugh…

• Terrorists, Lesbians, Abraham Lincoln and Pat Robinson were listed in the same group of people. (what really sets these people apart from one another?)
• The church congregation chasing “God” with butterfly nets. (Don’t we do things equally as absurd?)
• The angry-driver switched to pogo-stick. (Is my mood so easily affected?)
• The Pat Robinson balloon-head in the parade. (Why is Pat Robinson so funny?)

Here’s what I didn’t like:

God DOES care what happens in this world. He is concerned about our actions. Certain human activities please him and others do not. God’s love for everyone is the same, but, “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”  I believe this video stretches the word “love” beyond it’s semantic range. God is love and God loves everyone, but he is not pleased with the actions of everyone. And difficulty comes (communicated in the form of vegetables, traffic and storms) to everyone. The fact that God loves me doesn’t change the fact that life is hard. The video seemed to say that God’s Love makes the world a perfect place with candy for dinner, fireworks instead of suicide bombs and resurrecting hamsters.

It’s true that contact with God’s Love will change a person’s life irrevocably, eternally and instantly but it doesn’t mean that life is “pogo-sticks-in-traffic” ever after. Allowing oneself to be a conduit of God’s Grace will certainly make for more pogo-sticks all around.