“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
1 John 4:16 NIV
With the recent event of the shooting Jacob Blake, as you can imagine, it’s been a bit of an emotional week. I watched the press conference for his family and I was in tears. They showed so much strength. I can only imagine the pain that strength had to rise from to speak so boldly. Then you had the NBA players boycotting as well. There was just a lot going on this week.
As I’m thinking on all of this I thought about a scene from “Captain America: Winter Soldier.” I thought about when Sam tells him to listen to the “Troubled Man Soundtrack” by Marvin Gaye. He says, “Listen to that and that will catch you up on everything you’ve missed.” As I’m thinking on that the classic song “What’s Going On?” starts ringing through my head.
I pull up the album and I’m listening as this album that was released in 1971 sounds like it came out last week. The lyrical content holds up almost 50 years later. It even speaks to hope we should have in Christ. Sometimes the heart of God is expressed in what we view as secular, but it’s no less the heart of God.
The answer Marvin expresses to us is that we love God and love each other. This is what Jesus told us in the gospels. He told us to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have to move in our communities and government systems to make change. We also have to show the love of Christ in how we treat each other. At the end of the day the love of Christ at the foundation allows us to build a community that wards off racism and anything else that tears away the fabric a strong society.
That’s my lead into this week’s Throwback Theology Song of the Week. We’re going back to 1972 to Marvin Gaye and the album “What’s Going On?” and the song “God Is Love.” Make sure to tune in to the Trackstarz show live on YouTube every Saturday at 12pm EST. Also, episode 2 of the Go DEAF Podcast is OUT NOW!!
Peace and blessings,
Damo
