Interpretation of art (whether music, sculpture, or canvas) is very fluid, and can find meanings in both the authors' intent, and the viewers' perception. Different people pick up on different points, because of their own personal experiences, meaning some people find songs beautifully meaningful, and others are lost on them.
The Taylor Swift or Lorde songs are interesting in this way. Taylor 'sees' love as a game to be used and abused, with dramatic and uncertain outcomes - a depiction often exaggerated and dramatised in movies, which the music video picks up on - there is no hope here, just a pleasure seeking self-driven living for the moment. Lorde 'sees' love as a club which you join in on, soemthing that people risk a little by opening themselves up to vulnerability and hurt, but it is a good club to be in - yet this seems a superficial type of love in view - a summer romance, a crush, but nothing substantial. "Love is an open door" is similar in many ways to both these videos, though all three come from different genres, It is the impulsive view of love, something that we supposedly fall into or out of - something that is emotional and maybe physical, but not more.
The songs evidently stand in stark contrast to I Corinthians 13. Here love is deep, inherent in all activities. It is not something that we may choose to take up or not - whether we join the club or not - nor soemthing we fall into, but something we must be, or everything else is meaningless. It is not about ourselves, but others. It is not something temporary, that might end in flames, but something eternal, which will last longer than this earth. And how are we assured of that? - By the Love shown to us by God, Who is Eternal, and Whose Love is eternal.
Here is one of my favourite modern love songs: Love is not a Fight. It is about marriage primarily, but the same attitude of entering into love and throwing away the key is relevant to all love in a Christian's life. Not necessarily with a single person like with marriage, although that is of course included in many situations, but in terms of entering into love as a way of life - we live in htis house now, God's house of Love - and a key to exit the house should not be something we are holding on to.
Lord, help us to Love, just as you have loved us. We need Your help in this, because our love is so often weak and fragile - nay, it always is without Your love. May we as Your servants show Your love to others, both fellow-Christians and sinners who without accepting Your Love will be lost eternally. Thank you that we need not rely on this world's passing fancies of love, but that we have experience of the deep and profound love that gives life to all. Your Love gives us our purpose, our meaning. Amen.
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