"Babylon is Fallin'" by Slightly Stoopid

I seriously love Slightly Stoopid! They are a reggae/punk/psychedelic band from Ocean Beach, CA. For the most part their music is a fusion of mellow surf rock with different influences. A lot of their music is inspired by the sounds of Bob Marley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Dr. Dre, and Led Zeppelin. Many of their songs glorify smoking pot (which is bad) or scorn long lost love, but “Babylon is Fallin’” has a surprisingly spiritual message. This song is pretty much crying out on behalf of the Kingdom. It identifies how messed up the world has become (“everybody losing control/people use and abuse this world/and now they’re just taking a stroll/these times have changed”). In the second part of the song they claim that time will tell when all the wealth is gone and people have to start giving their love. They claim, however, that if you open your eyes to these problems you can end up in heaven. As Christians, we know that that’s not the way it works. Giving your love in the name of the Lord isn't a bad thing, but counting on that alone to get you into Heaven doesn't produce the desired outcome. The song ends with the band identifying that there is hope for us (“there is light at the end of the darkness/why don’t you come out and see…”). I think that this song has a good message (besides the fact that the band claims that Heaven is yours if you just open your eyes and give your love). This song recognizes the problems with this world: people taking without reciprocating, and the fakeness of wealth and power. It shows that there is hope beyond what we know now. This song condemns the falsity, “utopia,” and seduction of the Empire, and cries out for the victory, purpose, and change available in the Kingdom. Finding this song was definitely a pleasant surprise giving that this band is normally totally Empirical and stoned.

Once

The movie Once was a very inspiring and powerful movie. It shows the power of music over human emotions. It also deals very strongly with the subject of longing. This movie left me with a feeling of awe afterwards, causing me to stare into space and think about my own deep longings and love for music and life. 

The story of Once is based in Dublin, Ireland, and centers around a man who remains nameless the whole movie. He is a single man who lives with his father and works at the family Hoover Vacuum repair shop. However, he is also a very talented singer/songwriter who spends his off-time and nights on the streets of Dublin, playing the songs he has written on a guitar so old and worn that his pick has chipped away the face of the guitar, revealing the inside of the guitar's body. His songs are full of sadness, longing for a woman who has left, leaving him alone and wishing for the times of the past. One night, as he stands on the street, absolutely belting his heartfelt lyrics, a young woman walks up to him and stands and listens, and then puts 10 cents into his guitar case. This meager offering starts a conversation, after which it is agreed that the girl will bring her broken Hoover vacuum to his shop the next day. 

The story which follows is one of a growing friendship between the man and woman, who both remain nameless the whole movie. Their friendship is based around the man's guitar playing and the woman's piano playing. They both play songs full of longing for their lost loves. Their songs both ask what they've done wrong, what they could do better, and wish for the happier, brighter days gone by. 

The whole movie, as you watch, you begin to long for the happiness of these characters, and you feel elated when something good happens, and feel crushed when something bad happens. As each stage of the movie goes by, the characters sing songs that build on one another, and show their confusion, pain, and hope.

Finally, the man decides to travel to London to try and get his love back. This breaks the cycle of apathy he had been in. This shows the apathy of the empire. We get caught in our own apathy, wishing for things to be different, but never doing anything about it. When the man finally decides to do something about his apathy, he finds true happiness. The same goes for the woman. She contacts her estranged husband, and they finally begin to build their relationship.

This movie shows us how our longings can finally push us into action, and can then lead us into true change and redemption. The suffering that the two characters have gone through leads them into true change and action, allowing their lives to be better. This movie fills me with hope, and inspires me to break cycles of apathy, constantly wishing for things to be different, and to actually do something about it. I think this movie shows us, beautifully, the power of longing and the impact it can have in improving our lives.

The Office: Prince Family Paper

In the latest episode of The Office, Michael is sent on a mission to find out about a competitive paper firm.  On his mission he takes the ever corky Dwight.  As they are about to go into the other paper company, Michael goes on and on to the camera about business being "survival of the fittest" in which the big shark, eats the littler shark, and so on until the tiniest organism shark is eaten.  He sees business from a clearly empirical standpoint.  It is all competition and greed.  Part of your businesses purpose is to take down other businesses on the road to success.  

However, as Michael enters the office, he realizes that it is a very family oriented business.  They only people that work there are the owner, his wife, and his son.  They have a large client base, but are completely dependent on their companies success for their well being.  These people are very kind to Michael, offering him coffee, helping him fix his car, and telling him all about their business.  They trust Michael.  Eventually, the owner of the Prince Family Paper company gives Michael their entire list of top clients.  This is the best possible result that Michael could have hoped for, and his boss would be very pleased.  However, after getting to know the Prince family, Michael realizes that he doesn't want to give the list to his boss because he knows that it will hurt the Prince family's business.  

In this part, Michael represents the kingdom.  "Live, and let live!"  he exclaims to Dwight, when Dwight insists that they should give the list to their boss.  Michael realizes in this moment that business is not solely about competition.  He realizes that business can be personal.  People's livelihoods are invested in their businesses, and when bigger corporations take them down, they are ruined.  Michael doesn't believe that competition should completely drive a company.  He recognizes the greed of this own company when he says "our sales our fine!  we dont need this clients!"  

However, Dwight is a representation of the empire in this episode.  Dwight is bound and determined that they must give the client list to their boss.  He says that it is the best thing for the company, and the Prince Family Paper company is weak and does not deserve to be in business.  After an epic chase around the office and a struggle for the list, Dwight eventually snatches the list from Michael, and forces his hand in calling their boss.  After Michael gives into the empirical values, Dwight comforts him by saying "guess who's stock just went up!"  to which Michael replies with "It bittersweet".  

This episode of The Office is a great example of the conflict between to empire and the kingdom.  It questions the way that the empire does business.  Big companies are notorious for taking small businesses clients and putting those companies out of business.  And they are driven by greed and competition, a perfect example of empirical values.  Unfortunately in this episode, and for much of the real business world, the empire wins.  

cosmopolitan

The other day I was in my friend’s room and decided to pick up one of her magazines. Her roommate is gone for second semester but the magazines are still mailed to her room. The magazine that I decided to pick up was cosmopolitan. However, I thought I would be reading this by myself, but instead two of my friends decided to sit beside me and we all looked at it together. Normally when I read a magazine I don't really read it. I flip through the pages looking at the pictures, and if something catches my eye, I might read it. If nothing does, there is always hope at the back of the magazine where people tell some of their most embarrassing moments. However, I decided to really look into this magazine. Some of the things in the magazine disgusted me. Whether it was the pictures or some of the topics that were in the magazine. Almost every page you flipped through was either implying sex, or outright talking about sex. I know that my parents do not allow me to receive magazines like that anymore because I have 3 brothers and also many people that come to my house, whether its friends or family members. My parents don't want those kinds of magazines lying around the house, and they do not approve of what they are implying.
The magazine cosmopolitan was clearly the empire works. I found nothing in that magazine that was implying the kingdom.

Greys Anatomy

This last Thursday I watch the show Grey’s Anatomy. This show always has multiple stories going on in one episode but I want to focus on just one. There was a man who was in prison for murdering five women. He was sentenced to the death penalty. About a week and a half before he was going to be executed, he was stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush. He was rushed to the hospital and had to be given full care. He had many complications and they had to do surgery on his brain to help swelling to go down. At this same time there was a young little boy who had many health issues. He was in need of a transplant or he would die. It was very sad because he was extremely young and had many loved ones that could not stand to see him go. Not only was the family extremely consumed by this whole ordeal but the staff was working around the clock to do everything in their power to save this boy. When this man found out about the young boy, he wanted to give his organs and die in the hospital rather than in the prison. Some of the staff agreed that it was a good idea because he was going to die in a week and this boy had is whole life ahead of him. But others thought it was wrong since they took an oath to give their best to save their patient’s life. To them it went against the rulebook. There was one person that had a little compassion for the man on death row and that was Meredith Grey, everyone else only gave him the care they had to and nothing more.
They came to the conclusion that they should all do what was best for their patient’s health and didn’t allow the man to die. The young boy ended up getting organs from another donor and lived. The man on death row did have to go back to be killed. When he walked into the room he could see all the angry family members of the people he had killed. Towards the back of the room he saw Meredith’s face which was the only friendly face in the entire crowd. She decided to show him compassion in a room full of hated.
Through out this entire show compassion was easy to find. Lots of the staff had compassion on the little boy, the woman who had to pull the plug on her husband had compassion on the little boy as well, and Meredith had compassion on the man who everyone gave up on. The empire would not ever give that man a second chance but those who know Christ know that we need to forgive and have compassion on everyone, even those who seem like a lost cause.