If the world was ending...

If the world was ending, you'd come over right?
The sky'd be falling and I'd hold you tight.
And there wouldn't be a reason why
we would even have to say goodbye.
If the world was ending you'd come over right?
Right?

I don’t know if starting my blog with this song (see the link below to listen) needs a disclaimer or an apology. I know it's not a Christian song. The storyline is shaped more by hookup culture than church school talk- but what a great song! It’s catchy with a caramel kind of flow and has that internal tightness that every good song effortlessly emanates. Can 40 million Spotify listeners be wrong? I get really tired of the debate around what is Christian, especially when swimming in pop culture waters.  Partly inspired by Luther’s off-hand comment "the devil has no need of all the good tunes for
himself, " but more out of conviction that God doesn’t hate the world but loves it, I think our joyful theological task is engaging what we find out there and mining it for God’s power, truth, and love. It is the task of theological reflection not to ponder what is easily digested but rather act like brave foodies savoring and engaging cultural offerings; discerning what is real, true, even holy.

If the world was ending, you'd come over right?

We thought this was a good song for 2019 when it came out last October, but how’s it sounding just now? Here’s the thing that I think makes this a great song to think about theologically. Yes, it throws us into an ocean of vulnerability, and the title and repeated refrain  if the world was ending  is a little too apocalyptical for comfort (and as one friend pointed out atrociously incorrect, grammatically speaking). It’s the resiliency, the power, the presence of real hope, real love, real connection that drives this song and makes it so worthy of singing along. The world could be ending and nothing would matter anymore, but you would, declare the duo to each other. You, we, us would matter! They may no longer be together as they’ve convinced themselves that what they had was casual and completed. When the world is ending, though, what is most important is revealed. Turns out these lovers, separated by distance and circumstances most likely of their own making, have been bound together all along. They may have acted carelessly, but love knows how to weather all kinds of storms. 

The world is not ending. Well, it is in that things are always changing and swirling sometimes like a beautiful kaleidoscope and sometimes like a raging dumpster fire, but the world is still God’s. God still loves the world. There is time right now amidst all that is stressful and fearful to remember that you are held and remembered. You are loved and cherished.
There are relationships that have blessed you and need you to acknowledge that blessing. There are people who need to know that you matter to them, and they matter to you. There are friendships to heal, and there is love to claim. There are prayers to make and letters to write. There is a God to welcome, the holy friend who drew near to us and never left.

Maybe, a good prayer for when the night is long, the way unclear and it all feels like too much is this song to our Lord: If the world was ending you’d come over right?  No, there wouldn't be a reason why we would even have to say goodbye. If the world was ending, you’d come over right?

JP Saxe- If the world was ending