The F**kin' Perfect Grenade

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There is a saying: “Judge not, lest you be judged.”

Sometimes, I am tempted to think that The Voice is hard to find. In some cases, maybe, if you look “in all the wrong places,” that may appear to be true. How about the explicit lyrics of today? How about a song called “F**kin’ Perfect”? Is the Voice there?

You might be surprised. Heck, I was. As of the date this podcast was written, it was the #1 download on iTunes. True, the song isn’t ‘church-worthy’ but the Voice can be heard in some of this little tune about how the Holy Spirit sees us as perfect. Check it out…

“Look, I'm still around

Pretty pretty please, don't you ever ever feel
Like you're less than f*ckin' perfect
Pretty pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you're nothing
You're f*ckin' perfect to me!

You're so mean, when you talk about yourself, you were wrong
Change the voices in your head, make them like you instead
So complicated, look happy, you'll make it!
Filled with so much hatred...such a tired game.”

That was “F**kin’ Perfect” by Pink.

Perfect has to do with a standard that one measures against. There is only the One… and One is perfect.

Another Top 5 iTune download also has a nugget buried deep within it. It is about the Love of the Holy Spirit for us, but in this song, it is buried deep in “language”. It’s called “Grenade”. Take this one to church too? Maybe not, but the message is that the Holy Spirit loves us no matter what and to the limits of life.

“To give me all your love is all I ever asked,
Cause what you don't understand is
I’d catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’d jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby;”

That’s “Grenade” by Bruno Mars

Straight out of the New Testament, huh? You know, Jesus died for us? My whole point here is that the Voice leading us back to heaven is available to all and in places some of the older folks would not ordinarily be listening. Suffice it to say, God speaks to all of us in ways that we can accept.

Yes, the songs often are meant by the singer and writer to be sung to another human being and in a relationship context. They probably did not mean to say what I am hearing. But, it is another example of the Holy Spirit taking a song that has issues and using it to help us on the journey back to our Source, our First and Only Relationship!

Finding God, Hearing Heaven

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I never thought I would hear the Voice For God in lyrics by Madonna. Intriguingly, it is a song I have heard many times before, but never really heard it. God is Life. We are the “children” of Life. We are the ones who have turned our back on our Oneness with God and have the key to see again our true relationship with All that Is:

“Open your heart to me, baby.
I hold the lock and you hold the key.
Open your heart to me, darlin’,
I’ll give you love if you, you turn the key.

I think that you’re afraid to look in my eyes.
You look a little sad boy, I wonder why.
I follow you around but you can’t see.
You’re too wrapped up in yourself to notice,
So you choose to look the other way.
Well, I’ve got something to say:
Don’t try to run. I can keep up with you.
Nothing can stop me from trying, you’ve got to

Open your heart to me, baby.
I hold the lock and you hold the key.
Open your heart to me, darlin’,
I’ll give you love if you, you turn the key.”

Thank you, Madonna for sharing even more than perhaps you were aware of at the time.

Sometimes when I look at the headlines and listen to the folks on radio and TV as they share their concerns about the future of our world, it becomes clear to me that this world is not sustainable no matter what. It was created by Ego and our bodies are created to shut out our heavenly parent as much as possible. But what ego has meant as separation, the Holy Spirit uses to point the way back.

That is one of the many reasons I like music so much. It is greater than just the words alone. This is one of the ways the Holy Spirit turns something physical, like sound and music and maybe even the world, into a way to help us understand what needs to happen inside of us:

“Music speaks louder than words
It’s the only thing that the whole world listens to.
Music speaks louder than words,
When you sing, people understand.

Sometimes the love that you feel inside
Gets lost between your heart and your mind
And the words don’t really say the things you wanted them to.
But then you feel in someone’s song
What you’d been trying to say all along
And somehow with the magic of music the message comes through.

Music speaks louder than words
It’s the only thing that the whole world listens to.
Music speaks louder than words,
When you sing, people understand.”

(written by Howard Payne, Edgar Pease, and Michael Scarpiello)

That was Peter Paul & Mary in an evergreen tune that speaks a truth we all need to take into consideration.

You could say that words are ego stuff and you would right. Words are of their very nature part of a language, part of a culture, and are part of the apparent separation between us and God. That is not necessarily true of music and why it can add so much.

When you think about it, words often do get in the way, which is why we search for songs that remind us of the Voice for God.

Have you ever really understood a Buddhist or Hindu talk about God and spiritual experience… if they are using their native language? Music transcends that lack of understanding.

Some songs remind us of our true relationship with God and each other… and it is the music that does much of the work.

From the world’s point of view, the choice for God is crazy and incomprehensible. But is it really? The choice is referred to in this oldie made new by Shiny Toy Guns about Major Tom. His is an astronaut close to achieving orbit around the earth, but then apparently decides to keep on going instead. He doesn’t respond at first to the frantic voices from Mission Control who are sure that something has gone wrong…

(From Major Tom (Coming Home):

Peter Schilling from 1983

Version by Shiny Toy Guns.)

“4, 3, 2, 1
Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, calling, calling, home.

Across the stratosphere
A final message, “Give my wife my love”,
Then nothing more.

Far beneath the ship, the world is mourning
They don’t realize, he’s alive.
No one understands but Major Tom sees:
Now the Light commands: “This is my home,
I’m coming home.”

Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, calling home
Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, coming home

Earth below us, drifting, falling
Floating, weightless, coming, coming home
Home.”

The sound of Home, where the heart is. Home is heaven. We can never really leave, and we can never completely forget. We can fall asleep and pretend that our temporal, temporary world is real and get all caught up in the thinking, the worrying, and trying to fix it. If we just remember that we are already there and just look past this temporary world and see our brothers and sisters as ourselves, as they really are.. Just like Jesus once said: “Love your neighbor as your self.” Music helps us get there!

The full versions of all of these wonderful tunes can be downloaded from iTunes.com or Amazonmp3.com just as I did.