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In the simplest of terms. We’re trying to make sense of what it means to be human.

I have a friend who continually hurts himself.  He’s entirely self-destructive in his attempts to make relationships work.  And no matter how much those around him try and love him it just doesn’t seem to make a difference. When he’s sober he’s a really interesting person to hang with.  But when he’s not he’s often found sleeping in a car for months on end.

Eminem’s new video, Love the way you lie, caught my attention this week after thinking about my friend. (Adult version embedded) The song is infectious and explores the dark side of relationships and what it means to be human.  In some ways it explains the world my friend lives in.  It is arguably one of Eminem’s best songs. I don’t think I could have written a better song exploring the tension of the root problem in Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity.

The song opens with a provocative line, with Rihanna singing:

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that’s alright
Because I like the way it hurts

Eminem shares the tension by singing:

And I love it the more that I suffer
I suffocate
And right before im about to drown
She resuscitates me
She fucking hates me
And I love it

Their lines made me wonder how often we create conflict because we need to feel.  We actually like pain because its the only way we can feel alive.  We closed our hearts down so much that the only way to engage the human experience is to feel something sharp.  We blunted our capacity to feel in a way that our defense mechanisms won’t let anything in.  What’s interesting is the title, which recognizes our subtle alliance with the lie.  We know its not good for us but we like it because it allows us to feel.

The conflict we create then produces the opposite effect of what we intended. In living in the polar extremes of passion and hate we lose touch with who we really are.

Cause when it’s going good
It’s going great
I’m Superman
With the wind in his bag
She’s Lois Lane
But when it’s bad
It’s awful
I feel so ashamed
I snap
Who’s that dude
I don’t even know his name
I laid hands on her
I’ll never stoop so low again
I guess I don’t know my own strength

The capacity to lose control reveals the moment we’re afraid of.  Maybe we aren’t so good.  Maybe we really are children of a lesser god.  Eminem’s line, “Who’s that dude” resonates on so many levels.  You can hear it in the anger of his voice.  Death has arrived in a way that he did not expect.  We’re longing to be human in a way that produces life. But when we lose site of who we are, we inevitably lose what it means to be human.

The video ends with what I think is a rather intriguing view of hell.  It’s as much a present reality that exists within. We don’t need it to be in the future because we’re already living it now.  Both Eminem and Rihanna are literally consumed by fire, their lives, their stories, their homes and burning.  This is their reality.  Their trapped under the weight of their own judgments, consumed by the evidence that renders them guilt of things they would never want to commit in a million years, but their actions betray them.

One of the central elements that I explore is the idea that we need a substitute.  The evidence produces guilt and the guilt drives us straight to hell.  Bu the problem is not solved when we commit suicide.  So we take out our pain on those we think love us, or as in the video’s bar fight, on those that represent the loved.  We need release from our own imagination in a way that reconciles.  So the cross is God saying, “Release your anger onto me.  I am the only place you can put it.”

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Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity explores a profound possibility. What if we’ve misunderstood the Gospel? What if our historical approaches to Christianity have been distorted by the very same problem they are attempting to solve?  Available today from CreateSpace and Amazon. Order from CreateSpace and use code 5GFARGT9 to receive a 15% discount.