When God Made Us ~ Neil Young

NEIL YOUNG LYRICS
"When God Made Me"

Was he thinkin' about my country
Or the color of my skin?
Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion
And the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image
Or every living thing?
When God made me

Was he planning only for believers
Or for those who just have faith?
Did he envision all the wars
That were fought in his name?
Did he say there was only one way
To be close to him?
When God made me

Did he give me the gift of love
To say who I could choose?
When God made me

Did he give me the gift of voice
So some could silence me?
Did he give me the gift of vision
Not knowing what I might see?
Did he give me the gift of compassion
To help my fellow man?
When God made me
[Thanks to www.oldielyrics.com for these lyrics]
[ www.azlyrics.com ]

This song came out last year and I heard it today and it made me want to process what he was saying. As I recall, Neil was told he had an aneurism and less certainty about life and it seemed to spur a creative spurt that produce at least two albums, one of them an anti-war collection.

The first verse asks, "Was He thinking about my nation/race/religion/or worship style, and even my species (over other creatures)?" I think this is a good question. It is answered in scripture in that God is not partial: He does not show partiality. Man does show partiality: sometimes justly and perhaps more often not. But, with regard to God's other creatures, man is special and, because of his extra gifts, will be held responsible.

Three questions are asked in the second verse: 1) Is He partial to believers?, 2) Did He mean to spark so many wars?, and 3) Is there really only one way to God's heart? Scripturally, again, I think God's attitude to believers in Christ goes beyond partiality. It isn't about favoritism based on who is the best or is the most right. The point is, faith in Christ is what God offers us to set us free. It isn't like God has blinders on, that He ignores evil, or that He doesn't see hypocrisy in His people.

As far as war is concerned, Jesus recognized the potential for it that was present in the controversy surrounding His message. But he never encouraged it. He told Peter to "put up his sword" in the Garden of Gethsemane arrest. The gospel is not about killing people. War takes place outside of the revealed will of God.

Is there only one way to heaven? The scriptures are clear that Jesus is the exclusive door. It is only through faith that His grace is tapped to forgive sin. No other religion can or does offer this. That is not to say God hates people who are trying to approach Him some other way. He is cheering for them. But if they refuse His means ~ Jesus Christ His Son ~ they cannot find what they are looking for. They are looking in the wrong places.

With the bridge in the song, Neil becomes more difficult to understand, more obscure (which is OK in poetry). He asks if God gave him the gift of love to say who he could choose? These problems bug lots of people, of course. Love, at its best, is about relinquishing choice, actually. Love often requires loss. Sometimes even the loss of life. But to choose to love anyway is never a mistake.

I have a little more trouble understanding the musings of the third verse, but I'll take a shot. The first question seems to be about censorship, which is a political problem more than a theological one. The Bible bids us to censor ourselves, but there is no clear guideline with regard to the rest of society. That is a person's choice, whether to try to politically "clean up" a social problem. Historically, people are hard to force into narrow moral strait-jackets. Sinning is our human default: we do it quite naturally. It would benefit a society to properly censor itself, but Christians using government to enforce spiritual law has not helped. All governments tend to naturally supress crime anyway. They tend to enforce natural law.

Did He "give me the gift of vision, not knowing what I might see?" Certainly, He seems to have done just that. That is, I am free to do anything, including kill my fellow man. The problem is that evil is with us, even in us. So there is a need for restraint in human societies. How much restraint depends on what kind of society people desire. We have the freedom to choose good, if not for everyone else, at least for ourselves.

Finally, Neil mentions compassion, maybe as criticism against what he may see as a militant and angry Christianity. This is a valid criticism that Christians should listen to. Compassion was very present in Christ. We need to tap that virtue for all its worth. But it doesn't come easy to any of us, whether we are believers or not.