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One of the goals of this blog is to connect the gospel to the real intersections of life we all experience. Music is one of my passions; I love hearing new bands and I listen to an eclectic mix of styles. One of my favorite albums of 2012 has been the debut release “Night Visions” by Imagine Dragons. They are a fantastic blend of alternative rock, techno beats, and the use of innovative mixing. They have moments of sounding like Coldplay, U2, and other mainstream rock artists, but they always find a unique balance of their own creative style. But the beauty of this record is the lyrical beauty that captures the raw emotion, pain, depravity, and longing for redemption that resides in all of us. The first single from the album, “It’s Time” has been a radio hit, even used by Apple at its launch party this fall. But the standout song in my mind is “Demons.”
The band’s website (imaginedragonsmusic.com) states that their goal from the beginning has been to “take the pain they’ve each experienced in life and spin it into something redemptive and uplifting.” That is incredibly revealing. The fact is, all of us experience brutal pain and hardship in life. Sometimes it is through the consequences of our own choices, but others it flows from realities we have no control over. This is part of what it means to be human and what it means to be fallen. The Bible paints this picture of pain in graphic terms beginning in Genesis 3 and it follows throughout every human life since. That is why so many lives today are marked by despair, anger, and brokenness: because we know this is not the way it should be and we long for something more, something that can lift us out of the mire of sin and suffering. Something that can offer us redemption. This is where “Demons” is such a revealing glimpse into the human soul. These lyrics are hauntingly brutal:
Don’t want to let you down
But I am hell bound
Though this is all for you
Don’t want to hide the truth
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
Don’t get too close
It’s dark inside
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
(listen to “Demons” here)
The natural impulse for all of us is begin looking around us for the solution. When that fails we begin to look inside, thinking the answer lies within us. But all we find are the demons hiding deep in the recesses of our soul. Our hearts are actually deceptive and hide who we really are. The answer that I believe Imagine Dragons, as well as every other human being, is looking for can never be found around us or within us. It is found in a place completely outside of us, in the gospel of Jesus. Because the beauty of the gospel is that Jesus takes all of our brokenness, all or our sinfulness, all of our demons, and hangs them on a cross in his flesh. The Divine Son of God takes up residence among us (John 1:18). He takes on full humanity just like us in every possible way, except he lives it to the fullest and greatest potential – completely absent of sin (Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15). When Jesus went to the Cross, it was wearing all our demons, all of our failures, all of our ugliness. Isaiah the prophet tells us it is only by His wounds that our wounds are healed (Isaiah 53:5). It’s in Jesus’ Kingdom come that we can find real redemption, the kind that has an eternal significance.