Stop Playing the Game

"Your eyes are closed when you're prayin.' You sing out aloud with the band. You shine up your shoes for services. There's blood on your hands. You turned your back on the homeless, and the ones that don't fit in your plan. Quit playin' religion games there's blood on your hands." 

                                                ~Jon Foreman

Blood has been shed.

It has been shed for you and for me.  

A real sacrifice for the real lost. 

A real death for real love.

And what am I doing about it?  

Am I condemning those that need help?

Do I grasp onto religion and ignore the poor? 

These games we play destroy the love we need to show to all. 

On the side of the road there is a man who longs for freedom. 

In the parking lot people gather to just feel something.  

The hotel is full of beings trying to fill a whole that was never there. 

And in the office there is a man who lost it all and when he hits the floor it is done. 

And there you are sitting in a pew watching it go down.

You are saying,  "Look at me,  I am good.  I am doing my religious duty." 

And there you are hearing the pleas. 

As you drive by to go gorge yourself on food and drink. 

You are perfect in every way.

You go to church and claim to pray. 

You lift your hands and surrender to yourself. 

But those around see it as a man surrendering to God.

You sit down after the song and listen like a good boy.  

You hear the words and then go about your day. 

When someone asks what you believe you think and say, "I believe in Love." 

But you do not think about God until you break the plane of that Church again on Sunday.

You are the perfect Christian in the eyes of you. 

You help the church by complaining about the lights being too bright.

You help by saying the music is not self fulfilling enough. 

You help be walking in the door.

Me, me, me, you sing, as you sing, as you sing.

I wish, I wish, I wish,  they sing, as they sing, as they sing. 

Food, shelter, clothes, I wish, I wish, I wish. 

As they sing,  outside your neighborhood watching you be perfect day in and day out.

Blood has been shed. 

By my savior and in the church. 

His blood does good yours is full of venom. 

Blood has been shed.

What are we doing for the one who died? 

Are we playing a game? 

Or are we practicing what we are praying? 

What are we doing for the one we claim to love.

If we love him we should be like him. 

If we love him pray and actually pray. 

Sing and actually sing. 

Leave church and practice what you have heard. 

You will go against the grain of this world. 

You will be mocked and hurt. 

You will swim up a stream. 

Who cares, love anyway and and never cease to do and pray.