“Love and Only Love”
I wrote this song while I was still in college. Since it’s been almost 10 years, the meaning of the song for me was bound to change.
It started as a challenge.
See I went to a Bible college, and we would do Lent every year where you give up something for the 40 days until Easter.
For some reason I had chosen to not “slander” people.
Granted, I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge gossip or even someone that makes up lies about others. But it was something I felt like I needed to do or at least pay attention to.
It definitely made me realize how much of a human I was.
Very humbling.
I think some of the time we don’t realize how much we can run our mouths without even realizing it.
So I wrote the line “Jesus will you please take my tongue, because i’ve hurt too many to count, and I am bitter and broken, I am so outspoken, to others of them.”
Meaning I talk a lot without taking into account who I’m hurting.
As the years have gone by it has morphed from a challenge into a lament of my short comings.
A lament of falling short of the call I have on my life, to be like Jesus.
I want to be like Jesus.
Did Jesus talk crap about people?
Did Jesus call people out and condemn them?
No. So why would I?
Within the last few years it has been EXTREMELY difficult for me to call myself a Christian.
To be associated with people spewing hate towards homosexuals, transgender, people of different colors, people who have different beliefs than them, left/right wing, and the list goes on.
It’s honestly embarrassing.
Because as much as you don’t want it, stereotypes are formed.
After a while, when someone meets a Christian out in the wild, they automatically associate you with those hateful words or acts.
So I wrote this song to bring forth Love.
To sing about love being the only thing that I want to leave my mouth.
I don’t ever want to be a reason for someone to think God is hateful because I have said something hateful and I am supposed to look like him.
We are supposed to be an example of God’s love, so what kind of example are we setting?
Are we loving people where they are at?
Are we loving people for who they are?
Because God does.
God loves everyone, no matter what.
God does not hate “the gays.”
God doesn’t just “not hate” he “can’t hate.”
He cannot hate His beautiful creation.
If He did He would be going against the entirety of His nature.
God is Love.
1 John 4:16 says “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.“
So even though love is the call on our lives.
I will not shame anyone for the way that they live their life, because I myself have fallen short and that would defeat the purpose of love.
But I will choose to forgive my past self of the short comings and the potential hate that I have spread, and move forward with the new goal of Love.
And I hope that when people encounter me, people of different races, beliefs, genders, or lifestyles, that they will feel God’s love. Because this is life, and love is the point.