The Grass Is Always Greener On the Other Side of the Fall

John Lennon said,

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

"Imagine" has been played at opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, at Times Square as part of the New Year’s Eve festivities, and is the official song of the human rights organization Amnesty International. According to these and other tidbits of information on Wikipedia, the world in general closely associates “Imagine” with the idea of world peace. In the minds of many, conditions like this would solve the world’s problems. This song is just one example of humans placing the blame for everything bad in our world on religion or on God. “If God is so great, why does he allow bad things to happen to innocent people? If He is so loving, why does he allow such evil in the world?”

The majority of my life has been spent around conservative Christians, many of whom do not have positive things to say about this song. I suppose they don’t agree with the “no heaven,” “no hell” and “no religion” parts. They might be right to have these negative feelings towards “Imagine.” Lennon himself said that it was "an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted." Christians are none too friendly to any of these “antis,” especially if they’re snuck by with sugar-coating.

When I hear “Imagine” I try to be offended like a good Christian should, but I just can’t muster it. I think Lennon was correct in writing “You may say that I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one.” He is not even the first one to come up with most of these ideas. God beat him to the punch. The reason Lennon’s words do not offend me is that they remind me of the Garden of Eden, even the parts about no heaven, hell, or religion. These things, or at least our awareness of them, only became necessary after the Fall. Now reread the lyrics. What do you think?

I am not going to attempt to describe the perfection of Eden or delve deeply into what was lost there. If you are interested in reading more on those topics I highly recommend you check out Donald Miller’s Searching For God Knows What, especially the chapters “Why Nudity Is the Point” and “Children of Chernobyl.” Suffice it to say that in Eden we (or at least our representatives, Adam and Eve) encountered a peaceful world, a perfect relationship with God, a place where all our needs were met (AKA no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man). We chose to reject it and have wanted it back ever since. And “Imagine,” in seeking to offer a resolution to everything that is wrong with this world, describes everything good we had and discarded in the first place. Given the choice, we preferred knowledge of good and evil over world peace.

As we head toward Christmas I have been thinking a lot about this and other ideas people have about how to fix the world. Several months ago it occurred to me that many of these ideas can be found in the Old Testament. As we move through Advent I hope to keep sharing my thoughts about some of the other been-there-done-that ways to a brighter future.

Coming Attractions

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for following me from MySpace! I'm following Aaron's suggestion and moving my blog here so everyone can comment. Let the smart-alecky free-for-all begin!

Over the next few weeks I hope to record some thoughts here in preparation for Christmas. We'll see how that goes since we're also going to be heading to Mongolia within a (very) few weeks. My experience with moving to the Philippines tells me I'm not going to have time to think, let alone blog, but I guess we'll see what happens. I might at least be recording some of our first experiences/impressions upon entering Mongolia as residents.

If anyone reading this is unaware of my previous blog, it's at http://blog.myspace.com/tksumpter if you're interested.

Tiff