WWJLD Wednesday....God

This song is right up there with my favorite JL songs. It's simple and beautiful. I'm sure there have been many people throughout the years that don't really listen to the message of this song and just take it as JL's bashing God or religion. But it isn't that at all. The message is simple - in the end all these things society and your family/friends push on you to believe in mean nothing. Believe in yourself and love and that's all you really need. Everything else is just an idea or a false idol.

I can imagine the first lines - God is a concept, by which we measure our pain - offending many people right off the bat. I'm not trying to take away anyone's faith in their religion, but think about what many religions started to become. They use certain parts of the scripture to put the 'fear of God' into you. I think the basics that most religions were based on can be very beautiful. But then 'man' gets involved in preaching it and it just turns into something else completely - don't sin or God will send you to hell! God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

Push everything else aside and look to yourself and your loved ones. That's what is truly important.

Faith is great and can help many people through hard times. Role models are nice for you to look up to aspire to be like. We put our faith in our leaders of counties. Some even believe magic will get them through hardships. But in the end, the only thing that is concrete and you can truly depend on, is yourself and those that love you.

On a side note - I finally learned what the Zimmerman reference was only about a year ago. It's a reference to Bob Dylan's real last name. I'm pretty sure they were friends with Dylan, so you can see this song isn't meant to be a slam on anyone or anything. And the line about - I was the walrus, But now I'm John - is classic. The Beatles are done and over, that dream is over. It's pretend time anymore in this bigger than life world he had been living in with the Beatles. The dream is over.





God is a concept,
By which we can measure,
Our pain,
I'll say it again,
God is a concept,
By which we can measure,
Our pain,
I don't believe in magic,
I don't believe in I-ching,
I don't believe in bible,
I don't believe in tarot,
I don't believe in Hitler,
I don't believe in Jesus,
I don't believe in Kennedy,
I don't believe in Buddah,
I don't believe in mantra,
I don't believe in Gita,
I don't believe in yoga,
I don't believe in kings,
I don't believe in Elvis,
I don't believe in Zimmerman,
I don't believe in Beatles,
I just believe in me,
Yoko and me,
And that's reality.
The dream is over,
What can I say?
The dream is over,
Yesterday,
I was dreamweaver,
But now I'm reborn,
I was the walrus,
But now I'm John,
And so dear friends,
You just have to carry on,
The dream is over.