Bringing Revolution

As with many of my blog posts, this one has been rolling around in my head for a while. I’m finally getting it down on “paper” – well, paper being the white space of a Word document at least….. ;-)

There are two songs that I can’t help but place in juxtaposition in my mind when I listen to them. They’re very different, but my overly analytical intellect makes a connection {which may or may not make sense to anyone else…}

So – the two songs are “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons (which I got introduced to by Lindsey Stirling :D) and “God’s Not Dead” by Newsboys.

Both talk about revolution (“It's a revolution, I suppose” and “bring a revolution somehow” respectively). They also refer to another similar theme: the Imagine Dragons frontman said “Radioactive” is “a song about having an awakening,” while “God’s Not Dead” refers to “shak[ing] the ground / With the sound of revival.”

But while the songs may be trying to address the same topic, I believe they do so coming from quite different angles. “Radioactive” describes a post-apocalyptic world, one of “ash and dust” and “breathing in the chemicals.” A picture of a world which has been decimated and killed by radiation. The singer can “feel it in my bones / Enough to make my systems blow.” Yet the song promises that this is a “new age.”

“God’s Not Dead,” on the other hand, centers around the living power of God (unsurprisingly) and it starts with the love which brings the dead to life. This song tells the story of hope and revival based on resurrection power. So the songs seem to have opposite starting points and to make progress in opposite directions.

In both songs, the singer can feel a difference in himself. In the former, he is declared to be “waking up” and finding himself “radioactive.” In the latter, God is discovered “living on the inside / roaring like a lion.” Both hint that this inner change can either precipitate or indicate a change in the environment as well.

Hopefully I’m making at least a little sense and you can see where I’m coming from….I’m not really sure how to put it in words….but I guess it’s just that “Radioactive” seems to be trying to ignore the truth. The singer seems to think being radioactive is a great thing, but we know that radiation is poison – that it is an agent of death, not life. It makes sense from a worldly perspective – if all you’ve got is what’s dealt to you, you may as well see it in as positive a light as possible.

But I’m not looking at it from a worldly perspective. I know that even when I was dead – even when the poison of sin had pervaded my body like radiation – that even then God stepped in and brought resurrection. We aren’t stuck in whatever situation we find ourselves. Instead, God is alive and He brings hope and freedom and the victory to overcome the world.

So that’s what I’ve been mulling over whenever I hear either of these songs. Which source do you draw on? Do you try to make the best of a bad circumstance on your own? Or do you recognize the redemption which God offers? If the latter, do you take the time to share that? Does the love which has set you free spread from your life to others?

“Let heaven roar and fire fall

Come shake the ground

With the sound of revival.

My God's not dead

He's surely alive….”