Bubblegum Beat and Lyrics

The other evening when it was suggested I designate another couple of genres to my iHeart Radio app, I thought I might check out the today’s pop scene since I have often wondered as to what Grace and Sarah might be listening too. The first demo was of an artist named Lily Allen.  I’ve never heard of her but like her voice and what I’ve always called bubblegum beat and lyrics.  So I checked her and some of her songs out.  The particular one I found interesting, she had made somewhat popular in the 2000s. I thought this was just another clever pop tune, a little tapping the foot until I focused on the words to the chorus:

"I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear

I'm being taken over by The Fear." (name of the song)

This song does not appear to be  just another slickly produced tune without substance. This gal seems to be singing of the destructive impact of materialism:

"I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I want loads of clothes and loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them
Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn't matter because I'm packing plastic
and that's what makes my life so fantastic
And I am a weapon
of massive consumption
and it's not my fault it's how I'm programmed to function
I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore

Cause I'm being taken over by fear."

As I’m finding out, the song laments the vacuity (new word) of mindless consumption and its pervasiveness in the society of today. I am surprised of the wisdom this, relatively young, lady points out.  Consumption can be like any other form of addiction, providing an initial high that hooks anyone, but never again delivers what it promises. Instead, it leads people of all generations down the path toward diminishing returns and never ultimately calms anyone’s fear.

Over 200 years before Ms. Allen stepped onto the pop music scene, John Wesley, both citizens of the United Kingdom, articulated the dangers of materialism. "I fear, wherever riches have increased," Wesley wrote, "the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore, I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of religion to continue long....as riches increase, so will pride, anger and love of the world in all its branches." Even as thousands and thousands were joining his ranks, he spoke prophetically about the inevitable decline and dissolution of this revival as a result of the increase of wealth arising from Christian diligence and frugality.

Not being a student of human societies, myself, but a learned from those that are, I realize the fact that an increase in prosperity, more often than not, brings with it a precipitous decline in religious involvement. My question is, why not? After all, haven’t there been times when I haven’t demonstrated the need of God when there has been Master Card and Visa? Thank You, Father for the last decade or so and especially since I’ve been on a fixed income I’ve rethought owing anything. I’m also thinking of the declining numbers in churches of the Western World that sure could be affirming that Wesley's fears were warranted. I read or heard somewhere (I think it was Philip Yancy) that Christian leaders speculate that if current trends continue in England, for example, Methodists will cease to exist in that country in thirty years. Of course, long before Wesley uttered his fears, Jesus warned his disciples: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches." Jesus warns of the idolatry that so easily entraps us, luring us away from faithful allegiance.

All this talk of vacillating trade wars, interest hikes, the markets, etc., my friends and I discuss around briskets and gravy; if not careful can be tempted lull ourselves to the idea of another time of economic "slow down." How can people be tempted to serve "the master" of money, after all, when there is so much less of it? Yet even in its absence, I’m certainly aware I could find my heart soothed more by money than by God and behold the signs of a dangerous dependence. I think that probably when one's aged heart finds salvation and security in having more and more material gain—whether we actually hold it or not—we are reminded of "the deceitfulness of riches" and the narcotic effects of material success.
So clearly, I’m thinking; the abolition of wealth or production is not the answer to materialism! Rather, the answer Jesus suggests lies in the proper use of wealth in this old world: as a blessing for others and not just for my own use. Do I consider myself a disciple of Jesus?  Well then, Bill, didn’t Luke tell of Jesus instructing disciples to "sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven....For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?"

Reading some of The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, I’m convinced that he understood this, too, and in the spirit of Jesus reiterates the same idea: "We ought not to forbid people to be diligent and frugal: we must exhort all Christians, to gain all they can, and to save all they can... What way then (I ask again) can we take that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell? There is one way, and there is no other under heaven. If those who gain all they can, and save all they can, will likewise give all they can, then the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven."

Father, God, thank you for Your Spirit’s counsel, as well as, John Wesley’s, and Philip Yancy’s writtings. It may be, in fact, the very idea that finally breaks any unnoticed chains of addiction and reveals a far better treasure. Amen