The newest installment of The Writer’s Closet is up.  It’s a song called “Baby, There’s Still Me.”  Here’s the message behind the music:

“It’s Better on MySpace.”  That’s what her shirt said.  Her eyes said it too.  I had seen her earlier walking through the mall with her boyfriend.  Now she sat on a bench near the food court and was currently necking (as the old folks call it) with said boyfriend.  From the neck down she was totally invested in this guy and in what they were doing.  But in her eyes she looked… bored… distracted.  She looked like she was thinking much harder than a person should while participating in full blown PDA.

Her shirt said it all.  “It’s Better on MySpace.”  It’s better when you make up a new you.  It’s better when you can give details about yourself that impress people, whether they are true or not.  It’s better when you can show people photos of yourself that make you look your best, whether they really look like you or not.  It’s better when you can make the person on the outside come across as someone others will like and maybe even love.  Because you are not so sure they might like (or love) the person on the inside.

So we play this game.  We buy the right clothes.  We drive the right cars.  We get the right jobs.  We hang out with the right people.  We sell sex for love and we sell love for sex.  We say the right things.  We act tough when we really feel scared.  We act pretty when we really feel ugly.  Inside we really just want to be loved, to be accepted, to be found worthy more than anything else.  And we’ll do just about anything to get it.

The problems come when the truth comes out – when we wear the wrong clothes, when we drive the wrong cars, when we take the wrong job, when we hang out with the wrong people, when we say the wrong things.  When our true self comes out it totally discounts the “better” self, and therefore it totally discounts any love, acceptance, or worthiness that came with it. 

Love based on lies is no love at all.

God doesn’t work this way.  God says nothing could separate us from His love (Romans 8).  This means that nothing we are ashamed of – our failures, our blunders, our mistakes, our weaknesses, our doubts – nothing would make Him love us less.  It also means that nothing could Him love us more – the right clothes, the right car, the right job, the right friends, our strength, our glamour – none of it will earn His love.  Simply said, we don’t have to play the game with God.  He loves us just as we are.

The sooner we accept this truth is the sooner that we really are better.

I hope you enjoy the new song, “Baby, There’s Still Me.”  Its available for a free download this month on The Writer’s Closet, my Home page, and, yes, on MySpace.

Also, I need your vote at Indie Heaven “Church or a Brothel” is currently #30 on the fan faves chart, and #3 on the Rock chart.  If you’d like to see my song climb to the top of the chart, vote here.