Wednesday, October 28, 2015

We're not broken just bent: wisdom in a song

Wisdom and Truth are ultimately all derived from God, and are powerfully manifested in his revealed Word, but they can also be found in unlikely or unexpected places.  As I was driving the other day a song came on the radio that I had heard before but whose lyrics really struck me this particular time.  The song was "Just Give Me A Reason" by P!nk, and it contains this chorus:

Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough,
Just a second, we're not broken just bent,
And we can learn to love again.
I never stopped, you're still written in the scars on my heart,
You're not broken just bent,
And we can learn to love again!


The song is about a couple trying to work through a difficult patch in the relationship and rekindle their love, the imagery of a bent, but not broken, flower pops into my head, something that has been battered by a storm but will stand back up afterwards.  These words also remind me of the traditional vows that I've often utilized when performing a wedding, "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health..."  Marriage is a long-term, a life-long commitment, one that will have difficult days and seasons, but also one that can bloom again, that can be brought back from life-support and made whole again.
There are a variety of things wrong with relationships between men and women in our culture today, including the confusion of sex and love and the willingness of many to start with sex, hope for love, and some day look for a commitment.  This backwards attitude, for commitment (i.e. marriage) is the only sure foundation upon which love and sex can truly be built, has led our culture to a place where relationships, like so much else in society, have become disposable.  Why work through a difficult phase in a relationship, why learn and grow as a person, why sacrifice for someone else, when you can just ditch the relationship and move on.  Relationships are abandoned when sexual desire fades, relationships are given up on when feelings of love subside, yet these were never meant to be the building blocks of the union between one man and one woman, for they cannot stand the test of time.  There is a reason that a marriage ceremony includes vows and promises, and when these are not taken seriously, or when a relationship is attempted without them, the end result will far too often be to give up when things are bent, to not try to learn to love again, but instead to walk away.
Relationships are disposable in our society, love is just an emotion, and sex just a self-fulfillment.  The answer to these shallow and ultimately damaging attitudes (just ask the kids left holding the bag) has been with us all along, it was the plan of God for us from the beginning: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Mark 10:7-9)  If you are bent, you don't need to break, you can learn to love again.

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