How He Loves Us
"He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.
Yeah, He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves.
So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way
That He loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He love"
____________________
Ok, call me ridiculous, but I am of the opinion that most contemporary Christian worship music these days quite frankly, needs help. The writing is "cheap" (I mean seriously, "Woah" and "Lalalala"?), the tunes are regurgitated from every other worship song, and the whole atmosphere of a service with such music just screams, "I wish I were at a rock concert, but I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with this...maybe if I pretend I'm at a rock concert and scream along, the hott worship leader will notice me." Well, I'm probably taking things a little far with that picture, and to be sure, I know many people who sing worship music with seemingly genuine hearts, but I'm just saying, the music itself just doesn't exactly seem real, or heartfelt, or very worshipful at all. That's why I was exceedingly appalled last August when one of the University's worship teams brought out this song. Sure, I had issues with the "woah, woahs" and the illogical flow of the lyrics, but they were tolerable until third and fourth sentences of the second verse: "If grace is an ocean we're all sinking, So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest." Those lines, particularly the line about the "sloppy wet kiss" were a little shocking. Describing God's handiwork as a sloppy wet kiss seems like an insult to me. I mean, I've had sloppy wet kisses (ex-boyfriend story) and let me tell you, they were not pleasant. I dreaded kissing-it was gross, and awkward, and basically miserable. So anyway, what I'm saying is, the word picture is disgusting and I have two reactions when I hear it sung:
-1.) I want to hurl-because I can relate to the idea of a sloppy wet kiss, and
-2.) I am angered that something as sacred and wonderful as heaven meeting earth (the divine reaching down to touch the temporal and sinful) is compared to something so unpleasant.
Of course kissing, in and of itself, is not gross, and with someone you care about and enjoy being with, it's a lovely thing, but I'm saying I just take issue with the way the song is written. Now I am sure that the writers of the song didn't mean for it to be gross, or disgusting, or de-valuing in any way. I don't know much about the guy who wrote the lyrics, but I'm sure he's a great Christian guy; I just have a problem with the seeming "cheapness" of the lyrics. Compared to the great hymns and choruses of years past, the song seems to bear resemblance to something a teenager would have written in a moment of passion using the limited life experience that most young teenagers have. Of course, who am I to judge? I guess someone could do the same thing to my writing: compared to someone like Chopin, or Melville, or Chaucer, it is utter garbage worthy of the burn pit (it's actually probably worthy of the burn pit of it's own accord), so I don't mean to be judgmental about the writing-it's just how it seems. Also, it is possible that the hymn writers of old had hearts further from the truth than someone sitting in chapel genuinely singing these words, it's just the impression that the song makes that causes me some discomfort and for that reason, I will not sing it.
-1.) I want to hurl-because I can relate to the idea of a sloppy wet kiss, and
-2.) I am angered that something as sacred and wonderful as heaven meeting earth (the divine reaching down to touch the temporal and sinful) is compared to something so unpleasant.
Of course kissing, in and of itself, is not gross, and with someone you care about and enjoy being with, it's a lovely thing, but I'm saying I just take issue with the way the song is written. Now I am sure that the writers of the song didn't mean for it to be gross, or disgusting, or de-valuing in any way. I don't know much about the guy who wrote the lyrics, but I'm sure he's a great Christian guy; I just have a problem with the seeming "cheapness" of the lyrics. Compared to the great hymns and choruses of years past, the song seems to bear resemblance to something a teenager would have written in a moment of passion using the limited life experience that most young teenagers have. Of course, who am I to judge? I guess someone could do the same thing to my writing: compared to someone like Chopin, or Melville, or Chaucer, it is utter garbage worthy of the burn pit (it's actually probably worthy of the burn pit of it's own accord), so I don't mean to be judgmental about the writing-it's just how it seems. Also, it is possible that the hymn writers of old had hearts further from the truth than someone sitting in chapel genuinely singing these words, it's just the impression that the song makes that causes me some discomfort and for that reason, I will not sing it.
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