hymns | From the Observation Deck

I’ve been hearing conversations lately about the importance of context. Often conflict arises because of false assumptions, many of which are made because of a lack of knowledge about the context that surrounded a conversation. My pastor just came back from Isreal talking about how being immersed in the culture of the holy land changed his perspective of scripture in a huge way.

So then I was asked (for a contest) to name my favorite hymn/christian song. I was trying to remember the name of it so I went online to Google it and found some interesting songs on YouTube. Man, they put everything up there nowadays. When I was a kid, it was “Jesus Loves Me.” I found a video of some kid in a rainbow wig singing that. What kind of context would that be for people looking at that video 200 years from now?

Then I found the pot of gold. (A little Irish humor for you today.) Seriously, this video made my jaw drop. I knew I wasn’t supposed to laugh because it’s a praise song afterall, but again, context is everything. Maybe back in the 70’s this would seem cool. Some of the lyrics include, “He’ll zap you any way can (Zap),” and “I can praise God and still play rock and roll.” Oh My Girlish Figure.

Okay. Moving on. The third video is from my favorite comedian, Tim Hawkins, who discusses Christmas songs. Take a minute and a half and just enjoy it and laugh.

And the last video is in fact one of my favorite hymns. There are so many to choose from. The context? A hard world can be changed with the love of our Father. Be content, be generous, be loving, be gracious, and take the gift you’ve been given. No strings attached.

Jesus Loves Me