I am a person that was brought up on a rich diet of eighties music, and whilst there were some shocking bands about, there was also the occasional glimpses of beautiful music, like Sinittas epic masterpiece, Toyboy, and the sublime Agadoo by Black Lace, there was the very moving Chicken Song, by Spitting Image, and there was the sexy duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgely, who wrote the deep dark lyrics, "Wham Bam I am a man" from the award winning ditty, Wham Rap.
George Michael is a man i,m rather intrigued by, for all his dodgy lyrics and public indiscretions, he is a man of great wealth who appears to have spent much time in dark places(no pun intended) From the early days of Wham he did go on to record some really stuning pieces of music, like Careless whisper, Faith, and Jesus to a child just to name a few and he has couple of songs with lyrics that really got me thinking,
In his big hit Praying for time, he wrote, the verse,
"Cause Gods stopped keeping score, I guess somewhere along the way, he must have let us all out to play, Turned his back on all his children and crept out the back door". and he continues " Charity, is a coat you wear twice a year" and concludes the song with "It's so hard to love there's so much to hate"
I'm this tune was around the time of Live Aid, and there was a massive drive to reduce poverty in Africa, and it is something that lives long in the memory that were about to see it.
But this notion that God doesn't care about his children is the one that is frequently thrown at christians by agnostics and athiests. If God loved his children why is there so much suffering?
In a more recent offering from his Album, Patience, in one of his songs, he asks the question "If Jesus Christ is alive and well, then how come John (referring to John Lennon) and Elvis (Presley) are dead"? and concluded the song by writing, said "If Jesus Christ is going to save us from ourselves
How come peace, love and Elvis are dead?"
It is very hard to say my loving God allows suffering, but I suppose I rationalize this with my belief that things happen with a purpose and a reason, Nature is Nature, rain will fall, sun will shine, ground will crumble, tides will rise. There is indeed much to hate in this world, but there is so much more to love, it's humans who choose to hate, they can also make the choice to love as well, but that appears to be a more difficult proposition for so many individuals. I don't believe God has turned his back on his children, but I do absolutely believe, that people are turning thier backs on God.
Something that really inspires me about the Muslim community in my home town is the demonstration of love for their God by the way their children regularly attend mosques to learn about the faith thier parents want them to be brought up with, yes it's a fair challenge to suggest it's brain washing and a docterine you don't agree with, but if you hold your faith and belief that it is a sound docterine and teaching then I don't think it is wrong to want the same for your own children and their children's children.
What I do believe is that if you have a faith, large or small in a supreme being then you must be a witness to that faith. When I have days of fun, pleasure and wonder I turn to God and give thanks just as when things are tough and painful, depressing and hard going I also turn to God to find the courage and strength to keep going, that faith sustains me more than I ever thought it could.
John Lennon was a talented songwriter, and Elvis was full of charisma but to suggest that either of them come anywhere close to the magnitude of Jesus appears to be rather silly comparrison.
John Lennon was not the son of God, and Elvis as I recall did not die so that we should live, Jesus is and did!
Jesus is not a personality, nor a rock star, nor a comedian, not a showbiz character of any description, he is the son of God, who through his own incredible suffering, demonstrated that darkness would always be overcome. He defeated the dark side of life, and offered us the hope of eternal life.
The late Dr. S. M. Lockeridge, a pastor from San Diego, California
said these words in a sermon in Detroit in 1976:
"Death couldn't handle him and the grave couldn't hold him"
yours in christ
Alextheanglican.
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