One of the boys in my youth group eluded to the fact that I am an airhead sometimes.  (He actually said I was an Undercover Blonde but since I have really smart friends who are natural blondes, I won't go there.  And he actually didn't elude to it...he just came right out and said it.)

He is right, though.  I am gullible and sometimes dingy...but I think it is a good quality.  At least I have the ability to laugh at myself. 

You are dying to know why I am saying this, right? 

I knew it.

How many of you fabulous people knew that The The David Crowder Band did not actually pen "How He Loves?"    It really is one of my favorite songs of all time.  I've felt this connection with DC*B because the lyrics are honest and raw and clearly come from someone who has experienced "afflictions eclipsed by glory."

But alas, just because an artist sings it does not mean that said artist also WROTE IT!

(Insert dingy joke here.)

This discovery in no way diminishes my utmost respect and obsession appreciation for The David Crowder Band.  Not. At. All.

After a quick Google search, I found that the song was really written by John Mark McMillan. 

If you like this song, please click over to his site and watch the video on why he wrote it.  I promise it will not disappoint.

(I will wait patiently right here while you watch the 5 minute video.)

Did you catch the difference in the lyrics?  We'll get to that in just a minute.

I love how he said that the word LOVE can mean so many things and that as a result, it really doesn't mean anything at all anymore.  It has become a word that we just throw around like a high-five. 

Then he talks about losing his good friend in a car accident and he was mad...at God.  The LOVE he sings about isn't tied up in a pretty package; it isn't cute; it isn't popular.  It comes from a place of intense sadness and hurt.  Yet, through that hurt and despite our anger, God loves us right where we are. 

The orignal lyric was changed when DC*B covered this song on the album, Church Music.  That is also something I learned today.  The second verse was written to say:


A sloppy wet kiss.  Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss.  How do you feel about that?  Do you still love the song?

'Cause I do.  Maybe even more as if that were possible.

You may be asking what he meant by those words.  He does a great job of explaining it here (see the last full paragraph). 

But I get it.  McMillan says, "the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth converge in a way that is both beautiful and awkwardly messy." 


Who has ever been kissed by a two year old?  Didn't you love it...but wasn't it sloppy?  If that two year old was your own child, you probably live for those kisses.  You don't critique your child for showing affection the only way he knows how.

How much more should this concept apply to our Heavenly Father.  He meets us right where we are. 

Angry.
Hurt.
Frustrated.
Messy.

And it is through those feelings that we begin to feel the pure, unconditional, bigger-than-we-could-ever-imagine love of God.

He loves us; oh, how He loves us.

(John Mark McMillan is from Charlotte, NC and his album,  The Medicine comes out in July 2010.)