Even when your hope is gone, move along.

"When all you've got to keep is strong// Move along, Move along like I know ya do// And even when your hope is gone// Move along, Move along just to make it through// Move along."

- "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects

That song popped into my head this morning as I was babysitting. I wish the whole song in general was actually intended to move me how it did, but I don't think it was. I always seem to find an alternate meaning in songs than what is actually there. I have found recently, as I radio surf while K-Love plays a song I don't like, the stark difference between the two worlds of music. One is totally and completely GOD glorifying, while the other is totally and completely SELF glorifying. Prime example- here is the chorus from the Francesca Battistelli song "Beautiful, Beautiful".

"Like sunlight burning at midnight
Making my life something so
Beautiful, beautiful
Mercy reaching to save me
All that I need
You are so
Beautiful, beautiful"

I love that song. I sing it all day long in my head. It uses "my life" as a means of redirecting praise to God in everything. Success and failures. Compare that to "I Made It" by Kevin Rudolf, Birdman, Jay Sean, and Lil' Wayne.

"I look up to the sky

And all the world is mine

I've known it all my life

I made it, I made it

I used to dream about

The life I'm living now

I know that there's no doubt

I made it, I made it."

It makes me sad. Honestly and truly. I love the sound of the song and the voices of the guys who sing it, but really. ONLY in the chorus, they used the word "I" a total of 9 times and made no reference or hint that their success in life had anything to do with something other than themselves. They are wasting there talent on a cause that will burn in the end. When we are given a talent, we are supposed to use it to help win people over for the kingdom, rather than fill people's minds with self-gratifying thoughts of "I MADE IT". I want to tell them, "No, you really didn't make it. You think you did. And in this life, you might have... but what will your success matter in one thousand years from now?" What matters is how you decide to use your gift. And if you use it to bring yourself glory instead of God, you'll have to answer for it in the end.

What I am not saying is that ALL secular music is bad, just a lot of it. No matter how much we can try to deceive ourselves into thinking we have control over it, in the end... what goes in will most definitely come out in some way, shape or form. Whether it be muttering swear words under your breath, thinking impure thoughts, or caving in to pressure. We have to stay strong!

Our generation is in some serious trouble... not because we are supposedly "running out of clean water" or even because of global warming. There is a MUCH more harmful pollutant silently creeping into our lives without notice. No, its not radon- its music. As hard as it is (I know from experience) to filter through some seemingly amazing masterpieces of music, you have to think about more than just the moment... does it have eternal value? What is this song trying to convey emotionally? Does is have any alternate meanings? Many songs do. And often I wonder if the writer felt something spiritual as he/she wrote the song.

Something that helps me when trying to decide whether or not to leave the radio on a song is to ask myself- what emotion does this song evoke in me, and can that emotion be used to help me in life? Either one of two things will happen, I have to fight to lift my hand off the steering wheel to change the station, or listen to the song with a new appreciation for it. It's hard, and I don't always do it BECAUSE its hard. But in the end when we stand on God's throne to be judged, will God say to us, "You did it. Yourself. How much easier would it have been with me helping you from above?" Or will he say, "Well done, MY GOOD and FAITHFUL servant. You may now enter my kingdom?"