Separation = Brokenness

Christian rap has been gaining more and more prominence in the... well, the Christian sector. As I've listened (and enjoyed) Christian rap over the past few years, I've been particularly struck by the intelligence and depth of theological insight available specifically from the rappers. There's a refreshing influx of theological concepts. As the artist Flame notes, in regards to predestination: "In the church, these are regarded as dirty words. But it's in the Bible, so we gotta talk about it."

Justin Taylor, VP at Crossway, recently interviewed Trip Lee, who is currently releasing his third album, "Between Two Worlds." You can - and I highly suggest it - read the interview here.

There was one line in particular from the interview which I just loved. Trip Lee said, "I wrote this song because most people don’t associate the brokenness in our world with our separation from God."

How true! In a promo video for the album, Lee recounts the myriad and obvious ways the world is broken. I'll post that video after the break. But anyone looking outside their window (or within their heart, for that matter), can clearly see the brokenness of this world. Flame noted the reality throughout his album, "Our World: Fallen."

Secularists and deists both know this world is broken. In a conversation with a non-believing student recently, I was told, "This is a beautiful but ugly world." The brokenness, hurt, pain and struggle is apparent to all.

But far too often, we fail to see the hurt and pain of this world as intimately, causally tied to our distance from God. In fact, Satan is so clever that he wraps humanity in the lie that in order to cover the pain of this world, we actually need to dig deeper into it! We're duped into fleeing from hurt, into hurt. From pain, toward pain. We escape sin by sinning. Humanity's answer to our separation from God is running toward that which stands in opposition to God.

As those who understand the truth of John 10:10: that Jesus came to bring us, "life to the fullest," we need to affirm the transformational and redeeming love of God through daily submission to His purpose, will and direction in our lives. We must stop simply saying we believe in God; we must start living out that reality. If there is hurt or brokenness in our lives, it's because this world has separated itself from God.

It's time we take our place as appointed agents in God's plan to reconcile broken humanity to Himself.