Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts

I first heard this song last summer on the show So You Think You Can Dance, which was the first debut of it and how the song has gained such popularity up to now. Ever since I heard it I couldn't stop listening to it. And once the music video came out I got it on iTunes right away.

Christina Perri has a gorgeous voice and the passion she sings with in this song is inspiring. You can't help but feel the emotion and the hurt that she has experienced and is communicating in this song.

Personally, this song has had a pretty big impact on me, not because it motivated me to do anything different or because it changed some aspect of my thinking, but this song gave my heart a voice. Maybe that sounds cheesy or shallow, but just because a song makes it on Ryan Seacrest's Top 40 Countdown doesn't mean it's dumb or bad music or that liking it means you lack musical depth and/or that you are a shallow person.

This song almost completely encapsulates my life experiences. Some of the lyrics that mean the most to me in this song are:

"And who do you think you are?

Runnin' around leaving scars
collecting your jar of hearts
Tearing love apart
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don't come back for me
Who do you think you are"

"It took so long just to feel alright
Remember how to put back the light in my eyes
I wish I had missed the first time that we kissed
'Cause you broke all your promises"

The chorus, which is the whole first quotation, is so powerful and her voice is so strong in these lines. I can't help but feel the same things that she is expressing.

And the second set of quotations from the song, those words are the one's that resound strongest in me. It did take a long long time just to feel alright, and I wish we would have never kissed. That was a bit of self-disclosure, but you need to know how much this song means to me and how personal it is.

Theologically, thinking about it, it was hard to see any theology in her lyrics. I do see that there are themes of staying out of unhealthy relationships, that according to Perri's music video, she got her "heart back" in the end... I think this song represents well, along with the music video, that Perri also learned to protect her heart better in the future. As Christian's we are to only give our heart's fully to Him until and only if we get married.

I love this song.

Manic for the Superbowl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwclLUcTF3E

This commercial probably doesn't show the norm of how most people view the Superbowl. In reality who would miss their child's, grandchild's or any other close relative's birth for a football game? But obviously, based on the six other men Visa is highlighting in there series of Superbowl commercials, there are some and possibly many more than we know, who take professional football that seriously.
The question I want to ask is; how have these skewed value's affected families? I'm not saying that the NFL is responsible for the rate of divorce and broken families, but I think it's a pretty significant sign of the moral status of our nation when a man, or even a few men are willing to miss weddings for a football game that happens every year, just so they can say they've never missed a game.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's something I'm missing in this wonderful game of football, but I don't think a new life being born or the union of two people is something to be missed for a game. Maybe this commercial does show the reality of what our country values--the union of marriage is less important and not as serious of a commitment as going to a professional football game every year, instead of being married, keeping a promise that lasts forever, once made.
You can disagree, maybe this is a long shot comparison. But when I first saw this commercial it genuinely made me sad. Sad for our country, sad for that man and sad for his family.