24 June 2009 ~ 3 Comments

Polarize People With A Sloppy Wet Kiss

One of my new favorite worship songs over the past 7 months or so has been "How He Loves Us."
The second verse of the song contains these lyrics:

Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
and my heart beats violently inside of my chest.
I don't have the time to maintain these regrets
when I think about the way…

The first time I heard the song, I must admit, the sloppy wet kiss line kinda caught me off guard.
Then I thought about singing those words from the stage at church and I was sold.

I kinda joke, but I really have come to love that line.  So many worship songs are so cliche.  The thing I've loved about that song from day one was the depth and poetic nature of the verses.  A good balance for the rest of the song which consists of, "He loves us, how He loves us so" many times.
That lyric gives such a cool word picture of God's unabandoned, not "safe," passionate love for us.

Well, if you haven't heard yet, David Crowder's version of the that song came out on iTunes yesterday.
I've only heard a little bit of the version.  But yesterday, thanks to @loswhit, the Twitterverse was all abuzz about the song.  Why?
The lyric change:

Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss…

I must say, I was quite disappointed.  But that actually isn't my point.
As I read people's comments and Twitters, 95% of people had a strong opinion about it.
Apparently it's one of those lines that you either love or you hate.

And to me, that is one sign of great art.  Art that causes you to react.  That isn't like all the rest.
It reminded me of something Guy Kawasaki said about the art of innovation at Catalyst West Coast.

"Polarize people.
If you create something great you will create controversy.
Better for people to love or hate your product than be indifferent to it."

So, use your art and your life to polarize people.
I have to wonder, if the things you create don't bring about some reaction, are you really doing anything great?  Take a risk!
God didn't intend for us to live safely.

Now go create…and polarize.

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