Friend, your words are very powerful. Thank you for explaining the beauty and mystery of Jesus in such a heartfelt and revelatory way. Thank you for always being who you are and putting out music that encourages countless others to love their way back to Jesus. I really appreciate all you do. 🫶🏽
Thank you for this, John! This reminded me of your song, "The Road, The Rocks and the Weeds." I really appreciate your words at timecode 3:11-4:41: "Sure. I can bend the knee and say the magic words. I can sign on the dotted line. I can pray. I can serve. Maybe this God can even be my Lord, but not my Savior because we could never be friends. Unless there would be one who was willing to step down from the stars, descend the stairs of His penthouse and fellowship with our sufferings. I can love a God like that because while I can only make deals with the one who heals, I can actually give my heart to one who feels my wounds. And this is what I truly believe: God must be all-powerful expressly because He also must bear the weight of all the suffering that has ever transpired. I'm sure this has got to make Him the most joyful and sorrowful being in the multi-verse. The God who hangs between the earth and the sky--taking responsibility for all of it--the whole thing: our successes and failures, pain and elation, honor and humiliation, love and loss--absorbing it into His God-flesh right there at the intersection of all things appropriately upon a cross. Certainly this is who He's always been. God has always loved us. But in Jesus, the strength of His weakness, we can now fully love Him back. And maybe that's why this ugliest of days is also good because Jesus redeemed the whole world on Sunday, but on Friday, He kind of redeemed God." - John Mark McMillan
Your comparison to Superman has stuck in my brain. I always loved the concept of Superman but the comic bored me because who can beat the all powerful? I never saw his love of Lois as his humanity as a kid. So I grew up reading Spider-Man because he was a lot more like me and beatable and relatable. As a comic nerd, you made a deep theological truth bell ring for me with the analogy. I own all your music and we’re around the same age. Your art has made an impact here; whether it has been singing Belly of the Lion driving to work at 4AM or weeping to How He Loves when it hasn’t felt like He did. Thank you from a bassist fumbling towards the light.
Thank you for putting this video up! I was at your show in North Carolina last year and you read this to us. It has been on my mind ever since!
Friend, your words are very powerful. Thank you for explaining the beauty and mystery of Jesus in such a heartfelt and revelatory way. Thank you for always being who you are and putting out music that encourages countless others to love their way back to Jesus. I really appreciate all you do. 🫶🏽
Thank you for this, John! This reminded me of your song, "The Road, The Rocks and the Weeds."
I really appreciate your words at timecode 3:11-4:41:
"Sure. I can bend the knee and say the magic words. I can sign on the dotted line. I can pray. I can serve. Maybe this God can even be my Lord, but not my Savior because we could never be friends. Unless there would be one who was willing to step down from the stars, descend the stairs of His penthouse and fellowship with our sufferings. I can love a God like that because while I can only make deals with the one who heals, I can actually give my heart to one who feels my wounds. And this is what I truly believe: God must be all-powerful expressly because He also must bear the weight of all the suffering that has ever transpired. I'm sure this has got to make Him the most joyful and sorrowful being in the multi-verse. The God who hangs between the earth and the sky--taking responsibility for all of it--the whole thing: our successes and failures, pain and elation, honor and humiliation, love and loss--absorbing it into His God-flesh right there at the intersection of all things appropriately upon a cross. Certainly this is who He's always been. God has always loved us. But in Jesus, the strength of His weakness, we can now fully love Him back. And maybe that's why this ugliest of days is also good because Jesus redeemed the whole world on Sunday, but on Friday, He kind of redeemed God." - John Mark McMillan
This is so powerful John Mark. Well said.
Your comparison to Superman has stuck in my brain. I always loved the concept of Superman but the comic bored me because who can beat the all powerful? I never saw his love of Lois as his humanity as a kid. So I grew up reading Spider-Man because he was a lot more like me and beatable and relatable. As a comic nerd, you made a deep theological truth bell ring for me with the analogy. I own all your music and we’re around the same age. Your art has made an impact here; whether it has been singing Belly of the Lion driving to work at 4AM or weeping to How He Loves when it hasn’t felt like He did. Thank you from a bassist fumbling towards the light.
Love this
Beautiful.
We love you, and your thoughts, and your perspective John Mark.
Jesus redeeming God for us kind of makes me think of the Meister Eckhart quote “I pray God rid me of God”
🇧🇷💚