Early one spring morning in 1971, John Lennon sat at a Steinway piano in his bedroom and composed one of the most popular songs of all time. His wife, Ono, watched as he fingered the final chords and crooned the closing lyrics. She said that he imagined it all in nearly one sitting.
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It begins,
Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No hell below us, above us, only sky
Imagine all the people, livin’ for today
For fifty years, those lyrics have been drummed into my ears thousands of times—from elevators to Olympic games—so many times that I automatically hum “ah, ah, a-a-ah.”
But Lennon was wrong. Seriously wrong. Dead wrong.
It is completely needless to “imagine” no heaven because it has already been tested. Rome scoffed at heaven, and when the plagues came, the elite (even doctors) fled. Only Christians stayed to care for the dying, at the risk of their lives. Because they were living for tomorrow.
In the 20th Century, it was precisely the governments who imagined no heaven that perpetrated its greatest atrocities: Stalin’s regime killed between 10 and 20 million, Mao’s communist China between 50 and 100 million, and the Khmer Rouge genocides decimated 25% of its population.
Living for “today” turned Strawberry Fields into Killing Fields.
Living for Today
Miroslav Volf is a Croatian theologian who lived through the Balkan wars of the 1990’s. He witnessed brutalities we can’t imagine, and some of his family members experienced barbarisms from hell. In his book on lessons learned, Volf explains why he didn’t take up arms against the monsters who executed these brutalities.
If you think that an idea of a judging God leads to violence, NOT AT ALL. Violence thrives today secretly nourished by the belief in a God who refuses to wield the sword.
If, when you are hurt, your children and loved ones are hurt or beaten or raped, when your village is plundered, or destroyed; what will keep you from being sucked into the cycle of violence? Only if you believe that there is a God Himself who knows what people deserve. God will judge, I don’t have to do it. (Exclusion and Embrace, slightly edited)
While the overwhelming majority of 20th Century atrocities were committed by regimes hostile to religion, some were executed by people devoted to religion, like the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. But both groups acted from the same motivations: They just can’t let it be.
The atheist regime and the religious terrorist are living for today, not trusting in a God who will ultimately bring real justice, tomorrow.
Singing for Today
There’s something enchanting about Lennon’s Imagine. The simple chords, whimsical melody, and sweet lyrics captivate us with imaginary earthly gifts of peace and prosperity. But once we unwrap that present, we find the same Pandora’s Box that Eve opened.
Satan’s message to Eve was: “God is holding you back. Forget Him and life will be all you can imagine.” Lennon let me down with his eerie echo of Satan’s lie: “It’s God and heaven that oppress and kill. Let’s come together and just forget Him.”
Pandora’s box didn’t end suffering and death, it released them. Lennon’s lyrics spit in God’s face, and its snake-oil sweetness poisons us with a desire to do the same. Someone once said,
“It’s not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It’s those who write the songs.”
Living for Tomorrow
Hebrews chapter 11 tells us to get back to eternity. It describes heroes who suffer horrible disappointments, torture, and death. It explains the secret that sustained them through the brutality of life here and now: to consider themselves “strangers and exiles on this earth.”
They desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Heb. 11:16)
Christianity rests on the unseen God and His returning to us a new heaven and new earth. Every other declaration—even when it’s whimsical—is the voice of the world, twisting and shouting its lie that living for a visible today is better than following an invisible God.
But in my life (and yours), the promise of a future heavenly life energizes us to live in the today:
- They say of temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into glory. (CS Lewis)
- I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for … that in the world’s finale, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all the crimes of humanity … that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened. (Dostoevsky)
Perhaps Sam Gamgee said it best after his ordeal to Mt. Doom: “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” Who in their right mind would ever want to “live [merely] for today”? After all, tomorrow, Here comes the Son.
Dear Lord, let it be!
Sam
++++++++++++++++++++
Ten years ago, my friend Gary Barkalow and I accidentally stumbled into a new annual spiritual exercise that has invigorated our lives. We call it, Discovering a Transcendent Pursuit. We begin each December, and we’ve come to love it.
This year we invite you to join us. You can begin by listening to our most recent podcast or by joining us for a free class on Developing a Transcendent Pursuit. A link to the podcast and to the free class are below:
Click here for the podcast:
Click here for the class:
Why Can’t We Forgive Ourselves?
Sam,
This article on Lennon’s song is tremendous. You have made a number of important points. I am sharing this on Facebook. Thank you.
I would like to add something that I thought, upon hearing that song:
If you have to imagine something, then it isn’t reality. If you are imagining a world where there is no God, no hell, etc., then it’s just an imaginary world, and you will ultimately be disappointed. If we truly did live in a world where there is no God, people wouldn’t have to “imagine” that He didn’t exist. Whenever you ask someone to imagine something, you are asking them to step outside of reality.
And it doesn’t matter how many “dreamers” there are are – “I’m not the only one” – “Though hand join in hand, they shall not go unpunished.” The majority might appear to rule for a while, but Truth has to triumph.
Thanks again,
Marty
Hi Marty,
Love the point about “imaginary” worlds.
I know that to many, the spiritual realm seems inaccessible. But only the idols of the world have false, seductive faces we can see. As it says in Psalm 115, “Why should the nations scoff, ‘Where is your God?'” (Because they couldn’t see Him.) But it continues, “Our God is above the heavens. He does whatever he wants to.”
Thanks,
Sam
Great article, Sam, thanks! And having just binge watched 6 hours of “Get Back” followed by 2 hours of “John and Yoko, Above Us Only Sky” this past weekend, it is timely indeed! I had some similar thoughts during my time watching this, but you put this all together very clearly. It’s not wrong to watch this stuff or listen to the music, but it is wrong to not think about it critically. Well done!
-Steve
Hi Steve,
I think it’s GOOD to look at what the world presents, but we also need to be wise as serpents. Not naïve or gullible. Keeping both eyes open!
And I’ve heard that documentary is great fun!
Sam
This song has always made me think, too. But weirdly enough, my interpretation of the song has been different. I thought that the writer wanted us to understand that there may not be any tomorrow, so we should not put off any good deeds or allow ourselves to be unkind.
Also, I always thought it is a call to be mindful, present and a call for non-christians to be better.
I guess I just molded it to fit my view of things…
I also have a very unconventional take on the song Highway to hell?
Hi Cris,
I suspect the Holy Spirit in you shaped its meaning into something good.
Just like Paul in Athens said that one of their altars (to the Unknown God) was really about Jesus!!
Sam
Thanks for this reflection. I’ve never been a fan of this song for all of the reasons you cite, but you articulate all of those reasons far better than I! The song always reminded me of the tower of Babel, that ultimately humans COULD set aside their differences to do something great; great and terrible. And how sad it must be to live life believing that heaven doesn’t exist (not to mention the tragedy of rejecting God!) The verse you shared about being strangers here was very touching to me. When you live an extended period in a strange country, the greatest comfort you can have in times of hardship is the knowledge that you will one day go home… Like that fantastic song “Going Home” from Gods and Generals, “Love waits for me round the bend, leads me endlessly on, surely sorrows will find their end, and all our troubles will be gone. And we’ll know what we’ve lost, and all that we’ve won when the road finally takes me home.” Blessings Sam.
Hi Havalyn,
I always love to hear from you, especially knowing you literally live as an alien in a far-off country.
I guess we all do, but we forget and make our home here.
Thanks for your terrific sharing,
Sam
And yet another one you knocked out of the park. Well written, and an important message. I’ve often wondered why people get excited to think there is no heaven. You mean, this is it? This is all there is? That’s not a dream, that’s a nightmare!
Thanks again for the great blog.
John,
I literally burst out laughing at your closing sentences:
That was priceless. And oh-so-obvious once you say it like that.
Father, let this NOT be all there is, just as you promised,
Sam
Sam, this is such a penetrating and hard-hitting post, and a great encouragement to me this morning. The world screams its message in our face: “This is all there is, so live for today and grab what you can,” and “Imagine” has long encapsulated it in a lovely tune that sweet-coats the bitterest of poisons. I’ve long hated the song for that reason. Its beauty is a deception, like a witch singing a lullaby. “Above us, only sky”? Where’s the hope in that? Not much living for. Not much value in life, and not much reason to love others “with a pure heart, fervently,” if all love is, is freakish coincidence of chemical reactions flashing momentarily in a dark and unheeding universe. Thank God, life is about far more than that. Thank God for God. And thank you, Sam, for once again saying something that is far more hopeful and worth hearing, and, as always, for saying it so well.
Hi Bob,
I love your expansion on how that message promises hope and delivers the opposite. Yike! I love the image of a “witch singing a lullaby.” Yes, exactly.
And I thank God for our friendship.
Thanks
Well done, Sam. Thank you for the statistical perspective. The gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be (questionably) blamed for the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ War, but Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin were much more proficient.
‘Tis the season, and we are presently being treated to “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” Wishful thinking will not cut the proverbial mustard, but when Jesus returns, when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and when the government shall be upon His shoulders, sin and death will in fact run backwards.
Thanks for the Miroslav Volf quote. Uncanny that after over a decade you and I are still reading the same stuff.
Uncanny indeed. God seems to work that way.
Which is cool!
Sam
Great blog, Sam (as I emailed to you).
• Marty made some great remarks that I’d like to extend a bit, about the incorrect use of the imagination – and its correct use. When I imagine what heaven will be like – or when my boys were young and I had them imagine themselves in their resurrection bodies and Jesus telling them one day in the next life that they were to go to the 5th planet around a distant star and establish a colony there – and they could take with them whoever they wanted – and they were to report back to Jesus after a hundred years there – you should have seen their faces LIGHT UP with excitement. This is a proper use of imagination.
• Marty has a point that the imagination allows us to step outside of the reality we currently live in – that’s true. It seems to me that the use of imagination IS proper when the imagination is attached to things that will one day be found to be true (like heaven, or the new earth and our resurrection bodies, and seeing Jesus face to face), but that imagination gets sidetracked when it’s attached to things that one day will be found to be false (like Santa Claus, or Lennon’s world).
• So we want to encourage the imagination to step out of THIS world sometimes – but not into an totally fictional-imaginary place – but to step into that greater unseen reality that we are also and always a part of – that spiritual world that angels and demons and God and Jesus himself inhabit but that is so rarely, so seldom seen by humans. For prophets and apostles did see this mostly unseen reality. Balaam wrote, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob…” and Elijah said before he prayed for Elisha, “Fear not, for those who are for us are more than those who are with them… O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.”
Bob Hazen
Hi Bob,
Really good thoughts on the beauty of imagination. CS Lewis once wrote about it in the context of something inside us knowing that there is something better and richer out there, that we’ve been made for a better world. He says:
I agree fully with your quote
“It’s not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It’s those who write the songs.”
I think if musician/composers like Caleb Quay (former lead guitarist for Elton John) who met Jesus and turned his life and music completely around.
As believers, we need to be careful not only what we let into our “eye gate “ but also what we allow to use our “ear gate”. It may stay with us, and influence our thinking for a longer time than we might imagine (sorry, no pun intended) ?
Merry Christmas ??
Jack Narvel
Hi Jack,
Merry Christmas to you.
Thanks for all your comments throughout the years.
Sam
Thanks Sam. An even bigger dilemma for me was Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
I am a piano teacher. In more normal times, I give three recitals a year. Each student generally plays three songs. I choose one (often from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart), one is negotiated together, and the third is whatever song they like. Over the decades I have allowed every choice… even Imagine… except once when I had to say no to a student on Hallelujah. On that occasion it was just too hard for me to outright take the Lord’s name so utterly in vain. He was a particularly gifted student and continued with me for years only leaving when he went off to college. He spent high school in a Catholic school with a really good performing arts program by choice. He now studies in Chicago preparing to be an actor. All that is to say, no can be a good word when it is done in love. Some re-written versions of Cohen’s Hallelujah are quite good. Pretty sure even Cohen himself had two different versions of the lyrics. It’s likely student had brought the darker of the two. Clearly we all have an abundance of what God would rather we dwell on: whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable.
Hi Candace,
Thanks for your insights. I’m sure it was hard to say, “No.”
I haven’t heard Cohen’s Hallelujah, so I’m unfamiliar with his lyrics.
Thanks,
Sam