Ava is in her first year of dance, and a few months
ago I got to take her because Leslie was unable, and it was a lot of fun to see
what she does each and every week. The
week I went they were working on a number that they are doing for their Spring
Recital. It is a cute routine they perform
to the song, “Hey Hey we’re the Monkees.”
Well, the other morning that song was stuck in my
head and I was just
mumbling the lyrics almost unconsciously to myself, and I came to a line in the
song that stuck out to me for the first time and it is the line where they say, “We're the young generation, and we've got
something to say.”
When I thought about that line in the song, I
thought to myself, “Really…The Monkees? They had something to say? They had a message for their generation?” I just remember them being a bunch of goofy
guys with a goofy TV show. Yet they are saying, “We’ve got something to
say—we have an important message that we are trying to communicate.” So with that in mind, I began to listen to some
of their other songs to see what this message was—to see what it was that they
were trying to say and here is what I found.
In their song “Hey Hey We’re the Monkees” they make
it clear that “People say they Monkey around, but that there too busy singing
to put anybody down.” They also had a popular song about not
missing a train to Clarksville, a song about a love story between a daydream
believer and a homecoming queen. There
is a song entitled “I’m a Believer,” but it is just a song about becoming a
believer in love at first sight. I found
that most of their songs were about love and breakups and being nice to people
and playing music and enjoying life and monkeying around. That’s about it—that’s pretty much the message
of The Monkees.
Now though it is not a bad thing to sing songs
about being nice to people and settling down with someone you love and enjoying
life, be honest, is that a message that is going to impact a
generation? Or, is that a message that we
will only learn from listening to The
Monkees?
Truth is there are many today who believe that they
have something significant to say—many who believe that they have something to
bring to the table and often their message ends up being as common and as
insignificant as the message of The Monkees. That is not to be true of us believers. We do have something to say. We do have a message that has transformed
cultures for good—a message that has bettered our world as a whole and has
transformed wicked people and has restored wayward individuals. We have a lifesaving—a life changing message.
For more on this life changing message, click HERE and listen to the sermon entitled,
KNOWING JESUS AS SAVIOR.
