In a recent response on the blog, I very brought up (tongue in cheek) a song by Christian singer-song writer Chris Rice entitled “The Cartoon Song.” Rice wrote the song 15 years ago as a skit for a Junior High youth group in a church in Tennessee. He intended it as something of a satire on how we seem to make “Christian versions” of everything, “I'm sure someone will try to do that with popular cartoons one day. Here's what I mean...” The kinds loved the song, and he sang it for other youth groups, camp groups, etc. It was finally included as a “hidden track” on one of his CDs. It promptly became a hit.The song was met with the opposition of people who questioned its “theology.” People waited in line after concerts to explain to him why mentioning “The Smurfs” in the song was wrong because they were demonic. But mostly the song became hugely popular. It was still on the Billboard Christian Top-40 chart in 2005, more than 6 years after it was recorded. It remains the number one most requested song at many Christian radio stations all over the country. Finally, Rice decided to stop doing the song at his live performances and wrote something of an obituary for the song on his website.
Well, you can’t please everyone. Rice writes, “That’s the nature of public work. It’s really true--you can’t please everybody! I want to do excellent work. I want to reach a wide range of people… Well, when you can’t please everybody, you just have to check your own motives for purity, and then follow your own heart, and hope people will try to understand.” Sometimes that is all we can do.
Ricky Nelson’s old song “Garden Party” has the chorus, “It's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.” That’s not right. Our job as Christians is to please God, not ourselves. But there will be times when we do our best to serve him with a pure heart and motives, and still some people who will disapprove. Perhaps we need to make our motives or intentions more clear; perhaps it is their own motives and intentions keep them from understanding. Sometimes we simply have to do what be believe God wants us to do even though we are misunderstood by others.
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There is a point to the song writers song and it is a “happy song”. ‘I do not like to see animals depicted as people.’ They have no soul and there is no Santa Claus. Those of you who were taught that lie, believed that lie, clung to that lie and supported that lie with those you trusted had to learn the truth for yourself in your own time in your own way and be diplomatic with those who are still in that lie. I did not want to believe that there is no Santa Clause for if those I trusted had lied to me what else have they been lying about. Thanks to my older sister for telling me the truth and if it hadn’t been for her who knows how long I would have played the fool. I’ll say it again, THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUSE!
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