We are Way Too Clean

Eminem begins his song Love the Way You Lie with these words: "I can't tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like."  This line, for some reason, is constantly on my mind.  Over the past year or so, I have started listening to the popular artists with a new focus, through a new lens - the lens of redemption.

As Christians, we have a responsibility to understand the world in which we live.  Music is a very good way to gain this understanding.  There is a reason why the songs are on the radio.  There is a reason why Eminem is so popular.  Music is a common medium for people to express, however illogical or immoral, how they feel and what they desire.  Dave Matthews is a case in point.

Many are listening to these songs with a deep sense that someone has finally articulated with words what they are feeling inside.  Someone has identified with them.  Love the Way You Lie is a remarkable depiction of a common (idolatrous) relationship; the kind in which undoubtedly millions are enslaved.

Yes, the little white, blonde-headed rapper can tell us what it feels like; but he is at a loss to tell us what is actually going on.  Eminem only has half of the truth.  But a large portion of Christian music doesn't bring much more to the table - nor, for that matter, does the church from which the music flows.

Rarely do you hear Christians, or Christian songs say, "I can tell you what it feels like (because I have been there too)."  Rather, we say things like, "But I sure can tell you what it is" or, "I can tell you what you are supposed to feel like."  The pendulum has only swung to the other side.  The listening masses remain in the dark.

It has been my experience that struggling people would rather live among those who identify with them, and not with those who merely diagnose them.  In a sense, our lives are way too clean.  We desire to diagnose, but we don't want to identify.  We can help you, but let's be clear that we are not like you.

As a result of this, we live among people in this world who do not trust a word that we say.  The Scriptures are pretty clear: If we say we have no sin, we are a liar, and the truth is not in us.  We can only put on the facade so long before the watching world says, "Liar."

We have to be careful not to communicate to a sinful world that Jesus only saves really clean people.  I'm not saying that we should go get dirty; but rather that we should confess that we are dirty and that Christ alone makes us whiter than snow.  By doing so we can identify with sinners (because we are sinners as well); and we can also help in diagnosing their sickness (because we know the One who washes sin away).