"Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential or something to be casually ignored. The church is God's agenda for the world. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it." The church is indestructable and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it."
- Rick Warren
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
There's a popular Johnny Cash video out there, set to the song "God's Gonna Cut You Down." The video is something of a collage of cameos by various celebrities. Even though the song speaks of God's judgment, some notably audacious hellions were awed enough by the legend of Cash to make an appearance and mouth a few lines for the video. In particular I think of Kid Rock. I have no doubt that, absent an amazing (not that there's any other kind) work of the Spirit in his life, this video will be on the big screen at the day of judgment.
It's a remarkable song, and jarring in its effect. The steady rhythm and repetitive lyrics will pound the reality of God's judgment into your head.
But as real as God's judgment is, this video captures a hidden gem of Christian truth-- one that too often gets passed over by critics and defenders of God's wrath alike. It comes at about 1:41 in the video, just after Bono.
(I will continue after the applause for Bono dies down)
Okay, let's go.
The video moves from Bono to a blonde lady whose face is filled with pain. (I'll betray my ignorance of celebrity culture here-- I have no idea who she is). Cash sings:
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
And the teary-eyed blonde shakes her head and mouths the words for a long time.
Now this may not seem like much, but it cut me to the quick. This is obviously someone who knows what it's like to be on the run. And that alone makes it powerful.
But it's not just the pathos that grabs you. It's the fact that she gets it. I don't know if she's a Christian, but I know-- in that moment-- she captured the agony of life apart from Christ. Most of us get the punchline all wrong. It's not about God cutting you down, although he will do it. It's about the running.
The tragedy isn't in getting cut down. The tragedy is running from God. We can waste our lives and wallow in our "freedom." You can run on for a long time. But in running, you don't postpone a bad thing. You risk losing it all:
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
It's the running, not the cutting, that demands a cry of lament.
Those of us who have been transformed by the Spirit know that God's judgment is a blessing:
God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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Comments on "It's the Running, Not the Cutting":
3. jenny
- 10/30/2007 8:52 am CDT
Wow...some hard livin' folks in that video, for sure, and an excellent reminder that EVERYONE needs our prayers, even celebrities. Every time I hear this song played on the local "indie" station, I praise God for the ways He gets His truth out there to people who might not otherwise hear it. Thanks for sharing!
4. Shrode
- 10/30/2007 8:55 am CDT
Wow.
That was Owen Wilson in the end, huh? (May he find the Lord.)
I wonder if any of those folks realized the picture they were creating, as though the video was talking about them, or if they were just posing for "a Johnny Cash video".
It's always been amazing to me how musicians can play off the lyrics of a song "it's just a song" or play them up "this song is meaningful to me" depending on the circumstances.
What you wrote here reminded me of a line from John Piper. That the safest (and only place) to escape the wrath of God's fists, is within the embrace of his arms.
7. Will Deuel
- 11/03/2007 11:45 am CDT
To add detail to Joe's post, both Shelby Lynne and her sister Allison Moorer witnessed the murder-suicide. On the run? Struggling with faith? Oh, yeah - and they've both sung about it.
Let's not play God and pretend to know the status of anyone's salvation or souls, regardless of their reputation. When Peter asked Jesus about someone else's salvation, Jesus told him in no uncertain terms, "He's not your concern. As for you, follow me."
The video does a great job of communicating the paradox of judgment. Judgment does cut us down, but we are cut down specifically in order that we can be redeemed. Jesus cut Paul down on the Damascus road - not because God was angry with Paul but because Paul could be redeemed and become useful for God's purposes. Just as success might be scarier than failure at times, it can be more frightening to us that God might want us for his own than to think that God is angry with us.
May God cut us all down, knock us off of our high horses, and fit us for his service.
This is obviously someone who knows what it's like to be on the run.
That's country singer Shelby Lynne. Her father, an abusive alcoholic, shot and killed her mother and then himself when Lynne was 17.