What We've Become

Linkin Park

What I've Done

In this farewell,

There’s no blood,

There’s no alibi.

‘Cause I’ve drawn regret,

From the truth,

Of a thousand lies.

So let mercy come,

And wash away…

What I’ve Done.

I’ll face myself,

To cross out what I’ve become.

Erase myself,

And let go of what I’ve done.

Put to rest,

What you thought of me.

While I clean this slate,

With the hands,

Of uncertainty.

For What I’ve Done

I start again,

And whatever pain may come.

Today this ends,

I’m forgiving what I’ve done.

This song by the very popular band Linkin Park and their latest album called Minutes to Midnight has a great hook that puts a claw in your brain, and the lyrics are interesting. The video they made for the song is provocative as they play with images streaming in of global crises, historical moments and thermonuclear mushrooms.

Linkin Park will be performing at one of the many Live Earth concerts going on globally on 07-07-07. The concerts are kind of about guilt, as is this song. The goal is to raise the global consciousness about the seriousness of global warming, to bring about a collective sense of guilt and point humanity to a kind of repentance toward the biosphere, or to Gaia.

The song is interesting from a Christian perspective, too, as it portrays well the human angst for our evils, our wrongdoings. Let mercy come and I will face myself and start again. The video of the song, the band playing in the desert, with images of planetary destruction by a reckless mankind, delivers a powerful message of looking honestly at ourselves and reassessing, striking out in a new and better direction, erasing what we have been.

This is the message of Christ to us as well, and refreshing to hear a secular band exploring this territory. The truth is, we all lament "what we've done." For we have all failed. But there is one of us who did not fail. It is to him we turn for mercy to help in a self-destructing world. To erase ourselves, forgiving what we've done. And to seize the reigns of our lives and do better. Even forgiving ourselves and moving on.

See on You-Tube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ