We are now at the third week of May and over half way through our IPod theology. As we have explored our first two songs and hopefully have a chance to listen to them, I think we can all agree with Johnny Depp “Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can't.” This is why it is so important for us to know the meanings of song’s lyrics and why singing songs with good meanings can help lift our spirits.


“Should’ve Been Me” by Citizen’s Way
This week song is a song called “Should’ve Been Me” by Citizen Way. The band got its start in Elgin, Illinois and is composed of two sets of brothers: Ben and David Blascoe and Ben and Josh Calhoun.

When I first heard the song I was immediately drawn to the words of the refrain/chorus: : “It should’ve been me. It should’ve been us. Should’ve been there hanging on a cross. All the shame, all of the scars should’ve been stains that were never washed away.” The song’s central message is that Jesus paid our price for sin.

If we look at that passage in Genesis that speaks to us of the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, we see God promise to provide a sacrifice that would reconcile God with all humanity. Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac out of love for God, the Father would willing offer His Son Jesus for our sins.

John the Baptist declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God and this would have invoked images of the Paschal lamb that was offered once a year on the feast of Passover for the salvation of the Jews. Jesus would be the spotless lamb that is offered for the entire world.

Finally Jesus tells us that no one has a greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend and so He willingly takes our place on the Cross and becomes sin so that we can receive eternal life.

We were the people through Adam and Eve that created the division between God and man that needed to be heal it and He chose to forgive and pay our debt.

What should we do now that we admit that our God has paid our debt? “I guess it just leaves saying thank God It leaves me saying thank God, thank God.” Gratitude is the only proper response to God’s goodness.

There have been times in my life where I have had to ask someone to do something for me and that involves me doing a lot of pleading, begging, asking etc. On the other hand there have been times when I have wondered how I was going to get a task done only to discover that someone had already accomplished it. All I can do in those moments is show gratitude. We should not approach God as someone who we have to beg to love us but rather we should approach Him with gratitude for all that He has done for us.

I would like to end with this quote from Helen Alexander:
“In Jesus’ life on earth we see God caring deeply about the things that make human being hurt—sickness, being a social outcast, being lost. In his life, his ministry, and his death, Jesus shows us a God who is with us in our pain, and who knows our being at its very worst. The message of Jesus is a simple one: heal the sick, accept the outcast, and find the lost. In other words, love one another, just as your Father in heaven loves you. Time after time, though, that message is ignored, and some of the most tragic sequences in human history have resulted—not from a vengeful God determined to punish his erring people, but from our own willfulness and selfishness… Suffering is not the opposite of love, but rather an integral and productive part of it.”