Contemplating Contemporary

It's okay if it's about music with Jesus in it, right? Dean Brody writes in his song  Black Sheep , "I was raised in a small town underneath a steeple/Raised with the good book in my hand//Though I loved the Shepherd/I didn't mix well with his people/So one day I jumped the fence to find new lands". As I drove down the highway this morning with my car tuned in to a local country station, I heard this song playing, and the words caught my attention. As I turned it up and listened, I was struck with a thought: this song is... startlingly scripturally accurate? In fact, Mr. Brody has done something atypical for a secular musician (though, as I like to joke, country really is God's secular music) - he's managed to provide a fairly accurate depiction of God in his music. He sings: "Sometimes late at night I get thinking about my Shepherd/How it broke His big old heart to see me stray//But if I know the hound of Heaven/He's left the flock to f...

Kanye West has never had any qualms about divine imagery. The eponymous artist of the Yeezus  album took his nickname after claiming a position over the greater rap community, identifying himself as a "god" of rap (certainly with a lower-case G). Yet, on his Homecoming  album, Kanye gives voice to some fascinating sentiments and ideas in his song Jesus Walks . And I don't think there is nothing I can do now to right my wrongs I want to talk to God, but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long, so long One of the more notable lines in this song expresses a common misconception of contemporary culture. People believe that with the place their lives are in, or with how long they've been away from faith, they have no right to speak to God or pray. To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers (Jesus walks with them) To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah (Jesus walks with them) Kanye acknowledges an i...

It's amazing to me how we stumble across things that reflect the image of Jesus in day-to-day life. I find it funny that culture has a fascination with a man so many people are convinced never existed, or at least was not the son of God. Artist Mac Miller, now deceased, spoke of Jesus in many different lights, few of them flattering, The sad and simple truth is that for many who have been hurt in their lives, the idea of a perfect Saviour can be hard to digest. Mac's depiction of Jesus would have Him as a haunted man, imperfect and haunted by His own demons. It casts Jesus simultaneously in the light of the everyman and the light of the unholiness that I suspect Mac himself feels. Sadly, though Mac is no longer living, I wish that a conversation could happen where the truth of Christ was explained and unpacked for him in a way that he would be able to reconcile with. My hope is that room exists for a bridge to be built for anyone in culture wondering if Mac was onto someth...