"i don’t wanna go to heaven if i cant get in"

The title of this blog post is the "hook" line of a recent song by the band O.A.R. (stands for "Of A Revolution") called "Heaven".  It's an interesting song with an interesting set of lyrics (you can read them here).

Quite truthfully, if you listen to the world around us right now, in movies, in the newspapers, on TV, on the blogs, on Facebook, etc., you'll here essentially the same message.  Consider this particular set of lyrics from the song.

all i want is understanding
to live my life the way that i planned it
wouldn’t change a thing
man, it feels like heaven underneath my feet

Essentially, listening to this song, I hear two things.

Don't Judge Me
First, don't judge me.  Don't tell me that my choices are wrong.  Don't tell me what to do, where to go, how to think.  Don't devalue me because of the way that I am.  There's no one right way.  You take this path, I'll take that path.  It doesn't really matter.  Any way is good so long as you chose it.  "You close the gate, I hear the choir".  You choose to shut me out and I'll hear the beauty.

This is a fairly underlying theme in Western society today in a lot of the current culture.  So long as it means something to me, I can choose whatever way I want.  "Everybody got a problem with the way I live".  You say I have to live a certain way to get to heaven?  Well, then, I don't want it.  If I have to give up what makes me feel good, then I want no part of heaven.

Thinking on this, I remember the words of Paul.  In both 1 Corinthians 6:12-19 and then later in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 he points out that, ya know, you're right, you can choose whatever you want to do.  You are given that freedom in Christ to make whatever choices you want to make.  But remember this as you do: just because you can do something, that you have (as the NIV puts it) the right, does not mean you should do something.  On one hand, you need to consider if what you want to do is actually best for you physically, mentally and spiritually.  You may have the freedom to do it, but there are adverse effects that may happen that you need to consider.  You can get fat from over-eating and get sick because of it.  Sexual immorality may be damaging to families and generally to relationships all around.  Lying builds distrust.  You can do it all, you have the right to do whatever you want.  But not everything you want to do is good for you.

On the other hand, you need to consider if what you want to do is going to hurt someone else.  Obviously, physical, mental, or emotional harm to someone else is a big no-no.  But Paul points out that there is a spiritual component.  When you exercise your freedom, you may be causing someone else to make a choice that will cause themselves physical, mental or emotional harm.  No, you're not doing it to them, but, through your choices, you may cause them to do it to themselves.

So, yeah, you know, there's something to be said about not judging others.  But we need to consider that no person is completely atomic.  No person is completely independent of the choices and acts of others.  Our lives are formed and informed by the choices, actions, and decisions of others all around us.  Some of it is more direct than others, but we can trace back any number of things to the choices that someone else made.  Always we must take this into account and so, while this song says "Let me choose my own way", we must speak back to this thought and say "not everything is beneficial" to yourself or to others and, in fact, some things may really be harmful.

Give Me Love
This is the cry I really hear at the core of this song.  The person writing these lyrics is crying out for love.  There is a line that literally says, "All I wanted was a shot at your love."  Please love me.  Please understand me.  Listen to me!  Hear me cry!  I want you to see me, to love me, to understand me, to hear me, to talk to me, to listen to me.  Don't hold me at arms length because of what I do.  All I want is love.  Please, love me!

To respond to this, I give you a song:

This is what people want to hear.  They want to know that they are loved, that God loves them, that we love them.  That we want to be there, listen, walk with them.  That there is a God who says, "Yes, you do some bad things.  I love you."  Notice no "but" in that.  Just a simple fact.  God loves us.  It is for this reason that heaven is there, because he wants us there with him.  The very reason for our creation was because of love.  God's love is exemplified in the eternal Trinity, that love-encompassing three-some.  And, as is the nature of true love, love wants to be shared.  God wanted to be able to bring others into this love, to be able to share it.  His intense desire to share this love overflowed into the act of Creation so that there would be more to be able to spread that love around.

Are we always deserving of that love?  No, not really.  But that does not change the love.  Again, Paul points out in Romans 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love that is truly of God is not dependent upon what we do to deserve it.  Truthfully, if love was something that was earned, it wouldn't really be love.

So, to this song by O.A.R. I say, "You are loved."  Nothing else needs to be said.  This is not an argument.  It is a simple statement of an absolutely fundamental truth.  "You are loved".  Your identity is not tied up in what you have done, are doing, or will do, it is in the fact that you are you and you are loved.  Are you perfect?  Have you always made the right choices? No.  But you are loved.  And everything else is a work in progress.  And because you are loved, we'll work on it together.