I walked into our living room yesterday morning and on the television is the Kidz Bop version of Old Town Road. Ugh. I've heard it too many times.
If you aren't familiar with the original, it is a creative song with an easy-to-get-into beat, and lyrics that no 9 year old should be memorizing by singing it. The Kidz Bop version keeps the beat and drops the sketchy words.
The chorus goes something like this:
Can't nobody tell me nothing, You can't tell me nothing
Can't nobody tell me nothing, You can't tell me nothing
(The country-fied twang changes "Can't" to "Cain't")
It isn't just the beat that is east to get into...its how close to our hearts the chorus gets. We don't have to be taught that attitude. It comes naturally, by default.
I read a tweet from a dad yesterday that expressed the human nature he sees in his son: "I love listening to my 16 year old playing the drums in the garage…do I need to go tell him to stop to make sure he keeps playing?"
We don't like being told what to do. Right or wrong, good or destructive, we want to do what we want to do.
Our king has a law. That is his right. He gets to tell us what’s good... and what we can do. But as a good Americans we push back on that. Maybe it isn't even about being an American. Maybe it is about being a human. We push back, even if what we push back on might be good for us.
We respond to the command as if our Father isn't loving merely because it is a command.
But what if what our God commands is also good for us? What if what is behind our pushback is an assumption that what our Kingly Father decrees isn’t good for us. What if we are unwilling to even give his words a chance?
*Sorry if it is in your head now. Honestly sorry. Maybe.