Vice Verses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1mVk5ZiEPc

This is the title track for the newly released album, and it's a beautiful song. He uses the ocean to describe the ups and downs of life and the duality of things. And like the ocean, this song is soothing, melodic, gentle, yet has a lot of power.

“You got your babies, I got my hearses

Every blessing comes with a set of curses”

One of the strangest and most interesting things in life is how many good things can end up being bad, or how bad things can end up doing good. Encountering obstacles in life is unanimously considered not preferable, yet through obstacles, we grow and become stronger people. And going through life with all the blessings in the world would seem to be a great thing, yet we all know the stereotype of the snobby rich person who complains when they don’t get something they want. Nobody likes that person, because they haven’t developed themselves through trials and obstacles in life.

“A little resurrection every time I fall”

It’s amazing that God uses shortcomings of ours to strengthen us. There’s that one verse about God being made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Cor 12:9), and that other verse somewhere in Romans about God working all things for the good of his glory (both verses were paraphrased of course). He delights to make us strong through our weaknesses, if we’ll let Him.

One thing I really love about this song, and music in general, is that it doesn’t have to offer the answer or the solution to anything. In this song:

“Where is God in the night sky?

Where is God in the city light?

Where is God in the earthquake?

Where is God in the genocide?”

These questions aren’t answered in the song, and the song isn’t about hope even. It’s an expression, an authentic collection of thoughts and emotions. I don’t think we always need to be given the solution or the answer. Sure I could say, “Well, genocide is a result of sin, which God can’t be a part of …” but I think sometimes we answer things too quickly. Even if you feel you know the answer to these types of questions, it’s beneficial to meditate on them, it leads to even more questions: “why does God let things like genocide happen? Why doesn’t God just get rid of all the super evil people out there? Is that God’s character?” Asking these questions leads to a deeper understanding than throwing a quick fix solution at it. Asking questions can often be more insightful than getting answers. Jesus knew that, Rob Bell knows that, the guy who wrote the book I’m reading (“Tactics”) knows that. There’s nothing wrong with not having all the answers. After all, what would God be doing if we knew everything?

As water rises and falls with the tides, so do our lives with the changing seasons we go through. It’s a give and take; it’s the tension that is crucial in life if you want to have any kind of personal or spiritual growth.

Wholeheartedly seeking God is hard, a lot harder than simply believing that your actions don’t have consequences. We need to ask ourselves the hard questions if we want to grow. We need to never be satisfied to the point of complacency. We need to keep challenging ourselves and our beliefs, even if money has long since been a problem for you, like Switchfoot.