I’ve just come across this song on YouTube and found it compelling but it also raised a few questions.
The clear message from Riba McIntire, an american gospel singer, is that, to solve all the problems we are facing, we need to give the world back to God. The problems appear limited in the song to loss of children, race relations and addiction but the principle is extendable.
The song is perhaps necessarily emotional but I think it sensitively relates the tensions that exist within families and communities. It lives up to the Gospel genre but can it be taken seriously?
https://youtu.be/S9q-08aTNh8
Giving this world back to God is a big ask … assuming that we believe he exists in the first place and still wants it!
Music is a powerful medium for message but it carries the risk of the medium lasting longer than any effect of content (but at least here the words are clear and straight).
For me, I would hope that those involved in the video production believed in the message. I also hope that it succeeds in challenging our responses to the negative directions we are travelling in; the reality of our common humanity and need of each other and how we can begin to give the world back to God.
Perhaps it needs to start with me giving my personal and private world, my pride and prejudice, my strengths and weaknesses, my hopes and fears and my achievements, disappointments and regrets back to him.
Thank you Reba for the song and thank you God for giving me back so much.