Every now and then I hear a song on Christian radio that just infuriates me. I have to admit that I was really disappointed when I discovered who sang the one that sent me over the edge today. I’ve always liked Casting Crowns but this current song is the stupidest Christian song I have ever heard bar one. In fact, I seriously wonder, when lined up with the Word, if it would be considered “Christian” at all. Here are the lyrics.
What do you think about when you look at me
I know we’re not the fairytale you dreamed we’d be
You wore the veil, you walked the aisle, you took my hand
And we dove into a mystery
How I wish we could go back to simpler times
Before all our scars and all our secrets were in the light
Now on this hallowed ground, we’ve drawn the battle lines
Will we make it through the night
It’s going to take much more than promises this time
Only God can change our minds
Maybe you and I were never meant to be complete
Could we just be broken together
If you can bring your shattered dreams and I’ll bring mine
Could healing still be spoken and save us
The only way we’ll last forever is broken together
How it must have been so lonely by my side
We were building kingdoms and chasing dreams and left love behind
I’m praying God will help our broken hearts align
And we won’t give up the fight
Seriously, this is all they could think of to write a song about? From all the scriptures, all the attributes of God, all the wonders of Christ, all of the hope and love and compassion we find in Jesus, THIS is what they chose to write a song about? Seriously, can you see the redeemed standing in front of the throne of God singing this song?
I get it that people get married not knowing what they are getting into. Honestly, that is most people’s story. It certainly was mine. Had it not been for the saving and sanctifying grace of God, we would be divorced today but instead we are completely fulfilled and happy in ourselves and in our marriage. I understand perhaps what the composer was trying to do, but this song really offers no hope and no faith that God WILL help them! “I’m praying God will help our broken hearts align?” Why not believing God can change our hearts?!!!!!! If this song had not made me so mad, I would have been totally depressed by it. At times like this, I’m thankful for my Scotch Irish heritage. That little streak of red hair that runs in my family serves me well. Seriously, this is so wrong on so many levels, it may take me days to describe how much this song stinks!
1. Music was created by and for God. It’s sole purpose is to glorify, magnify and reveal Him. Much of what I hear on Christian radio in no way meets this criteria. I doubt God even considers it music. You know, he hates the “noise” of our faithless songs! No wonder so many Christians today are spineless, sniveling, defeatist ninnies. Yes Saul, in his sin by the way, used music to soothe his soul, but I guarantee that David wasn’t singing some cry in your chalice song. No! He was probably singing some of those wonderful Psalms that we know and love in the Bible. Broken Together, as poetic as it sounds, in no way glorifies God. And it certainly does not lift the spirit. In fact, I seriously cannot understand how it could be classified as Christian. It sounds more like some secular sad sap country song. It’s right up there with a classic a friend of mine wrote when in jest. The first line was “she broke my heart, so I broke her jaw.”
2. It offers no hope. How can you write a truly Christian song that offers no hope? That’s impossible! In almost every evangelical church in America, the message is “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” This song not only denies that message, but makes it sound as if it’s God’s will for people is to remain “broken together.” No mention of redemption. In fact, being incomplete is expected and suggests that the two incompletes can never equal even one whole. And truly, suggesting that living hopelessly broken because of Christ is the Lord’s wonderful plan for your life is such a drawing card for the gospel-NOT. Come and live miserably, it calls! Ooooooo...that just burns my biscuits! God makes each of us complete in Him alone so that when we come together, we are ready to bring blessing into the marriage. While we are giving to one another, we are glorifying God and being a living witness of His power, love and humility. I do not need a man or my husband to make me complete! I was completed when I came to Christ. He fulfilled and completed me. Nor does my husband need me to be complete. He is complete in Christ. That is what makes us work so well together. Because I have Christ, I’m not dependent on Him to meet my needs. They are met through Christ. Christ just uses him sometimes and in some ways to meet them but if I didn’t have a husband who is open to the leading of the Lord in his marriage, Christ would meet them some other way. Christ is truly all we need in this life! Everything else is just extra blessing! No ones life is perfect, not even mine but we can have joy because we have Christ. We can have love, forgiveness, and peace because we have Christ. Christ can fix ANYTHING!
3. The thing that really, really disturbs me about this song is its complete denial of the power of God to change hearts and lives. It gives the message that getting fixed is a pipe dream or would take a miracle. Well, it will take a miracle, but what we view as a miracle, God views as His Will and His power is more than enough to accomplish it and He does-daily! That is what salvation is all about and it seems that the people in this song are at least claiming to be Christian. This song is a long way from “Power in the Blood!” Why are we writing defeatist songs in the name of Christ when Christ has already won the victory? Listen, the work that Christ did on the cross not only cancels sin, the cause of their troubles in the first place, but it washes and makes new! It re-makes! Hearts are re-made, minds are renewed, lives are changed! THAT is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t leave us in our misery, especially when two people are submitted to His will! Is it easy? Heck no! That I know first hand. My husband and I were miserable after just a few months of marriage and talking divorce. Then within 2 months, the Lord saved us both. It took years for Him to get us where we are today, but He did it. We’re not perfect but we are being perfected in Christ and we are happy in God and happy in our marriage. We didn’t have to live “broken together” forever. And neither does ANY OTHER COUPLE! This song does nothing but appeal to broken, ugly, flesh. It may even confirm the hopelessness that some people are experiencing leaving them thinking that their situation is normal. The normals of the world are not the normals of the Christian life! We cannot be writing songs that confirm wrong thinking, doubt, unbelief and the world’s way of thinking. Truly, we can find better things to put into music than doom and gloom. In any conversation about bad circumstances, there is always a “but God…” that should be inserted. I’m surprised that “positive, encouraging K-Love” even allowed this song on their list!
Seriously, if you are going to write Christian music, exalt Christ! Proclaim His power. Give hope! This song does none of that. As much as I like Casting Crowns, I have to wonder what in the world they were thinking about! Sadly the only thing this song is going to help is their bank account.
What do you think about when you look at me
I know we’re not the fairytale you dreamed we’d be
You wore the veil, you walked the aisle, you took my hand
And we dove into a mystery
How I wish we could go back to simpler times
Before all our scars and all our secrets were in the light
Now on this hallowed ground, we’ve drawn the battle lines
Will we make it through the night
It’s going to take much more than promises this time
Only God can change our minds
Maybe you and I were never meant to be complete
Could we just be broken together
If you can bring your shattered dreams and I’ll bring mine
Could healing still be spoken and save us
The only way we’ll last forever is broken together
How it must have been so lonely by my side
We were building kingdoms and chasing dreams and left love behind
I’m praying God will help our broken hearts align
And we won’t give up the fight
Seriously, this is all they could think of to write a song about? From all the scriptures, all the attributes of God, all the wonders of Christ, all of the hope and love and compassion we find in Jesus, THIS is what they chose to write a song about? Seriously, can you see the redeemed standing in front of the throne of God singing this song?
I get it that people get married not knowing what they are getting into. Honestly, that is most people’s story. It certainly was mine. Had it not been for the saving and sanctifying grace of God, we would be divorced today but instead we are completely fulfilled and happy in ourselves and in our marriage. I understand perhaps what the composer was trying to do, but this song really offers no hope and no faith that God WILL help them! “I’m praying God will help our broken hearts align?” Why not believing God can change our hearts?!!!!!! If this song had not made me so mad, I would have been totally depressed by it. At times like this, I’m thankful for my Scotch Irish heritage. That little streak of red hair that runs in my family serves me well. Seriously, this is so wrong on so many levels, it may take me days to describe how much this song stinks!
1. Music was created by and for God. It’s sole purpose is to glorify, magnify and reveal Him. Much of what I hear on Christian radio in no way meets this criteria. I doubt God even considers it music. You know, he hates the “noise” of our faithless songs! No wonder so many Christians today are spineless, sniveling, defeatist ninnies. Yes Saul, in his sin by the way, used music to soothe his soul, but I guarantee that David wasn’t singing some cry in your chalice song. No! He was probably singing some of those wonderful Psalms that we know and love in the Bible. Broken Together, as poetic as it sounds, in no way glorifies God. And it certainly does not lift the spirit. In fact, I seriously cannot understand how it could be classified as Christian. It sounds more like some secular sad sap country song. It’s right up there with a classic a friend of mine wrote when in jest. The first line was “she broke my heart, so I broke her jaw.”
2. It offers no hope. How can you write a truly Christian song that offers no hope? That’s impossible! In almost every evangelical church in America, the message is “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” This song not only denies that message, but makes it sound as if it’s God’s will for people is to remain “broken together.” No mention of redemption. In fact, being incomplete is expected and suggests that the two incompletes can never equal even one whole. And truly, suggesting that living hopelessly broken because of Christ is the Lord’s wonderful plan for your life is such a drawing card for the gospel-NOT. Come and live miserably, it calls! Ooooooo...that just burns my biscuits! God makes each of us complete in Him alone so that when we come together, we are ready to bring blessing into the marriage. While we are giving to one another, we are glorifying God and being a living witness of His power, love and humility. I do not need a man or my husband to make me complete! I was completed when I came to Christ. He fulfilled and completed me. Nor does my husband need me to be complete. He is complete in Christ. That is what makes us work so well together. Because I have Christ, I’m not dependent on Him to meet my needs. They are met through Christ. Christ just uses him sometimes and in some ways to meet them but if I didn’t have a husband who is open to the leading of the Lord in his marriage, Christ would meet them some other way. Christ is truly all we need in this life! Everything else is just extra blessing! No ones life is perfect, not even mine but we can have joy because we have Christ. We can have love, forgiveness, and peace because we have Christ. Christ can fix ANYTHING!
3. The thing that really, really disturbs me about this song is its complete denial of the power of God to change hearts and lives. It gives the message that getting fixed is a pipe dream or would take a miracle. Well, it will take a miracle, but what we view as a miracle, God views as His Will and His power is more than enough to accomplish it and He does-daily! That is what salvation is all about and it seems that the people in this song are at least claiming to be Christian. This song is a long way from “Power in the Blood!” Why are we writing defeatist songs in the name of Christ when Christ has already won the victory? Listen, the work that Christ did on the cross not only cancels sin, the cause of their troubles in the first place, but it washes and makes new! It re-makes! Hearts are re-made, minds are renewed, lives are changed! THAT is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t leave us in our misery, especially when two people are submitted to His will! Is it easy? Heck no! That I know first hand. My husband and I were miserable after just a few months of marriage and talking divorce. Then within 2 months, the Lord saved us both. It took years for Him to get us where we are today, but He did it. We’re not perfect but we are being perfected in Christ and we are happy in God and happy in our marriage. We didn’t have to live “broken together” forever. And neither does ANY OTHER COUPLE! This song does nothing but appeal to broken, ugly, flesh. It may even confirm the hopelessness that some people are experiencing leaving them thinking that their situation is normal. The normals of the world are not the normals of the Christian life! We cannot be writing songs that confirm wrong thinking, doubt, unbelief and the world’s way of thinking. Truly, we can find better things to put into music than doom and gloom. In any conversation about bad circumstances, there is always a “but God…” that should be inserted. I’m surprised that “positive, encouraging K-Love” even allowed this song on their list!
Seriously, if you are going to write Christian music, exalt Christ! Proclaim His power. Give hope! This song does none of that. As much as I like Casting Crowns, I have to wonder what in the world they were thinking about! Sadly the only thing this song is going to help is their bank account.
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