Ok so I have actually had this song for a long time in my library of music but I have never actually listened to the lyrics (See below)…The song is “Wide Eyed” by Nicole Nordeman and I think that they have an amazing lesson for Christians today. A few weeks ago there was a group on campus here at MSU with signs that said these crazy things aobut Christianity, people were running around waving these signs yelling at people and telling them to convert to Christianity otherwise they are going to hell…Anyone who is a Christian knows that not every Christian is like this but to those who do not believe what we do, see these crazy insane unforgiving people, who are so far left of center that nothing they could possibly say means anything or could have any importance what-so-ever, when in all reality what we as Christians have to share has the upmost importance and is the most amazing Truth that any person will ever hear. BUT as Christians, as this song states, our first reaction when we see people like this we judge them and reject what they have to say. We laugh at them and shake our heads and then tell all our friends about these crazy people that we saw today, when what we should do is see through our first impression and see that they are lost and need to be shown how loving and forgiving God can be, so they can spread That message instead of the one that perpetuates the myth that Christians are these unaccepting fanatics who serve a cruel and unknowable God. This can go for almost any religion. Since 2001 the Muslim populations reputation has gone from bad to worse. Why? Because a small group of, fanatical, followers of their religion decided to take over a plane and fly it into a building. The media has expanded these actions to involve the enitre Muslim populaiton, portraying that this type of terrorism is supported by the religion and isn’t just the ideas of a small minority of followers. It has always been this way, people focus on all of the bad parts of the Religion and what those who claim to follow the religion do, and the aspects of the Faith and the good things that they have brought to our world get over looked and minimized.
Matthew 7:3-5
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
”Having lives in Hollywood for about a year,
I was forced to come face to face
with many diverse people everyday.
I was surprised and embarrassed by how sheltered
my life had been until then…
Surrounding myself mostly with people who were like-minded,
and consequently, safe to know.
I really had to come to terms with my quickness to judge,
to laugh, to dismiss anyone who threatened my sense of normalcy.
And it made me wonder -
how would I have reacted to Jesus
if I’d met Him in Los Angeles?”
Wide Eyed-Nicole Nordeman
When I met him on a sidewalk
He was preaching to a mailbox
Down on 16th Avenue
And he told me he was Jesus
Sent from Jupiter to free us
With a bottle of tequila and one shoe
He raged about repentance
He finished every sentence
With a promise that the end was close at hand
I didn’t even try to understand
He left me wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what he had to say
Then casually dismissed him as a fraud
I forgot he was created in the image of my God
When I met her in a bookstore
She was browsing on the first floor
Through a yoga magazine
And she told me in her past life
She was some plantation slave’s wife
She had to figure out what that might mean
She believes the healing powers of her crystals
Can bring balance and new purpose to her life
Sounds nice
She left me wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what she had to say
Then casually dismissed her as a fraud
I forgot she was created in the image of my God
Not so long ago, a man from Galilee
Fed thousands with His bread and His theology
And the truth He spoke
Quickly became the joke
Of educated, self-inflated Pharisees like me
And they were wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
They were tongue tied, drawn by their conclusions
Would I have turned and walked away
And laughed at what He had to say
And casually dismissed Him as a fraud
Unaware that I was staring at the image of my God
