sloppy wet kiss

Don't let the title confuse you, there will be no awkward first make out stories in this blog post.

One of the main themes in seminary that has been constantly reoccurring as we have written papers, counseled people (both in real life an in academic skill building life), read books, shared quotes, has been the importance of understanding the different contexts.  Often times people misunderstand the bible because they assume that it was written to them and while God certainly wrote the bible for them/us it wasn't actually written to us.  It was written to the different churches and people that the biblical authors were addressing in their time.

Its amazing how we do the same thing with biblical interpretation as we do with how we interpret other things in our everyday lives.  News stories take snap shots and paraphrased quotes to spell out the message they are hoping to portray rather then the actual story that took place, we recap heated conversations to show how we perceived the conversation rather then how it actually happened, high school students tell of the meanness of their parents for taking away their facebook privileges but leave out the side in which they ran their parents car into the tree because they were on facebook while they were driving and the list could go on an on.

There is a song that has been played often in churches and in our chapel at Bethel Seminary called by "How he loves us."  The song was originally introduced by a well-known band called The David Crowder Band and its popularity grew from there.  It is a great song and as people began to replay the song in their own worship settings and sing one of the lines which says "...heaven meets earth like a unforeseen kiss..." many were able to deeply connect with the words of the song (here is the song played by David Crowder in case your interested in hearing his song).

Recently I purchased another album by Jared Anderson called Live From My Church which is a great album.  He has one of my favorite worship leaders/singers/song writer.  If you want to hear why then listen to this song and skip to the end of it to hear his vocal range.  After I heard this one, I have been hooked ever since.  He has only gotten better.

Jared does a rendition of the song "How He Loves" in which he sings lyrics that say "...heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss..."  At our first listening I called my wife and told her about his version and her response was "Noooo, Jared why would you do that!!!!"  Both of us felt like something was stolen from our favorite worship song as it was shifted from a imaginative picture of heaven coming to earth (as a "unforeseen kiss") to a "sloppy wet kiss."

An "...unforeseen kiss..." seems a little more poetic then "...a sloppy wet kiss..." when singing a worship song.

What I learned this week was that the song's original author was not David Crowder (I'm sure I should have known that prior to this week, but I didn't so drop it.) but a guy named John Mark McMillan.  As I looked up the song "How he loves" and the story behind it I realized that I have missed so much of the original context in which the song was written from.  After watching the video below I am now a bigger fan of sloppy wet kisses sent down from heaven as it was intended to be a portrayal of a life's messiness and the grace that God has for us in the midst of it.

I wonder how often we get upset at people, or misunderstand people simply because we miss the context of which they are communicating from?

I might even go home now and give my wife a big sloppy wet kiss to celebrate my change in heart.