You ain't got no alibi

81,729,433 and counting.

That's the number of hits Rebecca Black's song Friday has recieved on Youtube.  I am not a musical expert, I can barely sing in tune but in my opinion the song, while catchy, is pretty weak.  Some people are calling it the worst song ever and I find it hard to disagree with that.

However...

This little girl (13 years old) is having a go.  She has a decent voice and she's made a video that I would've been pretty chuffed with at 13. The reason I'm even mentioning her is not because I love or hate the song but because of the response to her on the world-wide internet.

The girl has had over 1.6 million dislikes on Youtube which is fair enough as that function is well known to anyone uploading to that website.  But some of the comments are wrong, cruel and unnecessary.  In my opinion the worst comments are the ones calling Rebecca Black ugly.  She is not ugly by any stretch of the imagination.  But who is, what makes a person ugly?

I would suggest that beauty comes from the heart and so does ugliness.  Be careful that your own heart is not ugly.  Are you proud, boastful and unable to take criticism?  Do you think of yourself better than you ought, better than those around you?  Do you feel free to criticise people you don't know, to ridicule their looks, personality or talent?  Do you feel superior and condemn others when the only thing stopping you from behaving as they do is the grace of God?

Are you ugly? Am I?

The only person who can make us beautiful is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He died to take away our ugliness and make us beautiful in the eyes of God. If He has done that, made us beautiful, then we have nothing to boast about because it not a result of our effoerts but the unmerited grace of God.

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; 

male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

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Paddy whack

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Or is it?

Northern Ireland is a country with a long history of hurt.  Wrongs carried out by both sides in a conflict which has reduced to simmer in recent years but has yet to disappear. As a result if feels like everything has become a symbol for something or other, whether it's your choice of football team, alcoholic drink or the shape of your facial hair.  We express our identity through all sorts of things.

St Patrick's day is no different.  It is an optional public holiday which many refuse to take for fear of looking a bit too papish.  Others have adopted it as a day to demonstrate political allegiances - a show of strength if you will. Others still rise above the politics and either simply take advantage of the day off or use it as a light-hearted celebration of Irish culture and leave religion out of it.

St. Patrick was a great man of God, a missionary to this fair land when we were all still pagans.  Through the power of God the word of the Lord was accepted here and the Christian church grew.  St. Patrick's day reminds us of the goodness and strength of God.  Or at least it should.

Christians, let's stop perpetuating the hate.  If someone wants to celebrate in a way you don't like, let them, it's their call.  But let us redeem the 17th of March as yet another day of remembrance of the grace of God and let's celebrate it with praise to our King.