One of life’s aggravations is finding yourself singing a song and grooving to its beat even though you hate the meaning of the lyrics.
“What’s love got to do with it?” is one of the foremost offenders. I’ll be singing along, bobbing a knee to the catchy rhythm and intoning “oh, oh, oh,” and another voice in my brain scolds me with the question, “What are you saying?!”
I suddenly put on the brakes of the song and do my best impersonation of my old dog, “Beau,” upon being scolded — putting his head down, shrinking his forehead and tucking his tail as he plops down and looks up at me with apologetic eyes.
“What am I saying?” I ask myself. “Love has EVERYTHING to do with it!” The song’s message is that you should try to ignore that the thrill of boy meeting girl means anything more than a physical attraction. Wrong. Love is far from a “second-hand emotion,” as the song declares. “Love is patient,” in the iconic words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “love is kind … love never fails.”
This suggests how we have grown up in a culture that has spread its share of bad messages.
“If it feels good, do it.” Not so fast. At the very least, the reaction to “if it feels good” ought to be akin to ‘trust but verify’ before doing it. This can be a most dangerous philosophy at a wide variety of levels – from naively thinking it will feel good to pet the buffalo near you at Yellowstone to thinking it felt so good to get to first base with your date that you should try for a home run. Let’s just say as a counter: “All that glitters is not gold.”
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” This quote from the book and later the movie “Love Story” is TOTALLY wrong. Saying you’re sorry implies you’re seeking forgiveness. It’s often the quickest way to reparation, a mending of fences, or calming troubled waters. Love and forgiveness go together like peaches and cream.
“Baby, baby, don’t get hooked on me.” Mac Davis sang this song in the Seventies, and, again, it has a catchy beat and words you can get hooked on, but it’s reflective of a throwaway society where temporary physical thrills are what matters, not lasting relationships. “I’ll just use you and I’ll set you free,” is one of the lines. To counter this philosophy, consider the words of Abraham Lincoln: “Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.”
“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try.” Really? What are you saying?
Care to say those words to a friend or relative on their deathbed? Some consolation that would be! If there is no heaven or hell as the song invites us to “imagine,” then what purpose do we have in this life? We’re living for today, yes, but not just today. We crave the day when we can be reunited forever with our Creator, who loves us more than we can imagine.
How long will it take for us to reject bad messages in our culture?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.