Where - at a student acoustic night, or youth event with the James Morrison track 'you make it real' looping in the background.
When - when you want to introduce people to the gospel for the first time by engaging with popular culture.
You make it real…
Music can be an expression of a number of different things. It can be an expression of the desire to make money. It can be an expression of the desire to make something beautiful for others to enjoy. It can be an expression of the desire to be different, to stand out. Or it can be an expression of what is really going on inside – the hurts and pains, joys and sorrows. Music that tells a story.
Personally, I love music that tells a story, and I tend to be drawn to musicians who are good at telling stories with their music.
James Morrison produces this kind of music – moody, folk, rock, blues that tells stories about what is going on in the heart. The track you can hear in the background is called ‘You make it real’, and entered the UK charts this week at number 7. The track will play twice and by the end of the second time through I will have finished what I have to say. I like it – and it tells a great story – that we can all associate with. Its a story of enemies and a hero.
The enemies.
He talks about a real world where all is not easy and smooth. He writes about there being ‘so much craziness surrounding me, there is so much going on that it gets hard to breathe.’ Many of you will just have started at University – it may feel like that already, with Freshers events, housing and accommodation issues, new people to meet, courses to get your head around. In the quiet moments it may feel overwhelming. And even if it doesn’t, all we have to do is turn on our TV’s and watch the news and we get a good dose of reality. He sings about living in a world where he is not equipped to cope on his own.
But its not just a song of what is happening around us – He tells a story of what is happening inside him too. ‘When I’m not sure of my priorities, when I’ve lost site of where I’m meant to be.’ He is a confused man, not really sure what his life is all about, he knows he has meaning, but not what his purpose is. I think that this is true for most of us – it is just that musicians express it more readily than most of the rest of us. Without a purpose, life – no matter how exciting and new, no matter the potential the future holds, no matter what pleasure and entertainment we throw ourselves into. When we allow our heads to hit our pillows we often ask the question – why? So he sings his story – of living in a world where we need some meaning outside of ourselves to set our priorities by.
His reaction to this lack of meaning is that he makes himself the meaning - he gets carried away with his own self-importance ‘…my head is strong and my heart is weak – I’m full of arrogance and uncertainty’ He sings of a world where, actually, the problem is me. I make myself the most important thing – and it doesn’t work.
The Hero
But as with any story, he has a hero. The one who ‘makes it real for me’.
‘And I’m running to you baby
You are the one who save me
That’s why I’ve been missing you lately
Cause you make it real to me’
She is the one who gives him his faith and confidence back, when it is gone, she is the one who gives him meaning and purpose, she is the one who teaches his heart to speak when it is arrogant and uncertain.
‘You got to be the only one
Who knows just who I am…
If you’re here with me
I know which way to turn…
The only place that I want to be
Is right back him with you.’
Like much music, this story is a love song. It is a song of devotion and worship of the girl in his life.
His lack of purpose, his inability to cope, his struggle with himself and the world he lives in is OK – because she is the answer. She is the one who can save him, she is the one who makes it real. He is looking to her alone to save him.
Now don’t get me wrong – I love love songs. But I think there is a problem here. I think James Morrison is right in his diagnosis of a problem. He is right, we all struggle to live in the world we live in, we all struggle with ourselves. We all need meaning in our lives. In short, we all need saving. But he is looking to the wrong place for his answer. You will not find purpose, confidence and forgiveness in someone who is in the same boat as you. That is too big a burden for anyone to bear.
So where do we find the answer.
Jesus Christ once said these words. (John 3:16-17)
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.’
The thing is, we do live in a world where we need saving. And Jesus makes clear elsewhere that, at the heart of the lack of meaning and purpose, at the heart ofbeing unequipped to cope on our own, at the heart of our own self-importance is what the Bible calls sin. Our rebellion against God that seperates us from him, that cuts us off from our real meaning and purpose in life, to live for him and leaves us thinking we are the ones the universe revolves around. When Jesus speaks of God sending his son, hs is speaking of himself. And whe he speaks of sending him into the world, he is referring to the fact that he came, died and rose again so that the punishment for the sin that cuts us off from God might be placed on him. So when he died, and rose again, we can be free to know God and live for him. He came to save the world, and to save you.
And when he speaks of eternal life, he means a forever future, with God in perfect relationship with him in heavene - what we were ade for. So through Jesus, we can be saved.
For me, I like James Morrison's song, but I'd rather sing of someone who really does know who I am in all my weakness. I'd rather sing of someone who I belong with who has the power to really save me and give me purpose. What about you?