When you hit rock bottom, you realize there’s only one perk. That means there is nothing to fear anymore. From that vantage point in the valley, life and death may seem like indifferent matters. Once you recover, the fear will return. Try out how to escape from the valley and it will show you how easy it is to return to the valley.
“I thank God every day…but I know that what God has given me, He can also take away.”
Benson Boone’s songs are at this point of instability.beautiful thingsThis may be the song that catapulted Boone to international fame. Although some say it’s the most played song of 2024, this song isn’t the story of a rising star waiting to take a nosedive. Rather, the protagonist of this song has climbed up from rock bottom, but is afraid of falling back into it again.
Boone (who is also credited in the song’s credits, along with Evan Blair and Jack LaFrantz) tells this story in very simple terms. You might hear phrases like these in the Salvation Army checkout line:
It was difficult for a while
But lately I’ve been feeling better
colder than the last four cold Decembers
I remember
The main character looks back on four rough years. “Cold December” suggests not only seasonal temperatures, but also seasonal depression and lonely Christmases past. Years of family estrangement are behind him, as he continues to see his family “every month” and “(his) parents found a woman they love.” Whatever this tough situation is, these lines suggest that perhaps his previous girlfriends weren’t all that helpful, and his family says they’re relieved he can finally date someone who is a good influence.
Things are improving, and he responds by thanking God for his new girlfriend. However, his prayers are motivated more by fear than joy. “I thank God every day…but I know that what God has given me, He can take away.”
Themes of faith are not foreign to Boone’s music. Some people hear about going to church (“in the stars”), I love Jesus (”throw it down”), Promise Ring (”sugar sweet), reflecting his upbringing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But unlike these more general references to faith, the line that what God gives can be taken away specifically alludes to the Book of Job.
Job also went through difficult times. After receiving news that his livestock (approximately 1,100 head), servants, and 10 beloved children had all been killed.
Job stood up, rent his cloak, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.” Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:20-21).
But in “The Beautiful Things,” Job’s words come not in the middle of a cold December, but when things are looking up. The protagonist’s situation resembles the restoration at the end, when God restores Job’s wealth (now 2,200 animals) and family (10 fresh children), rather than the suffering of the middle part of the book of Job. But how did Job feel when his wealth was restored? Is he filled with relief and elation? Or has his prosperity returned with a new afterglow? Now he knows how easily and without warning he can take what God gives him (Job is not provided with a window into the heavenly showdown between God and Satan). Job learned how fleeting and unstable the beautiful things he had regained really were.
Boone’s protagonist is a bit uninterested in livestock, as he is getting major airtime for something he is “afraid” of losing. But she’s not the only one he’s worried about.
I found my heart, I feel sane.
It’s been a while, but I’m finding my faith
If everything is fine and wonderful
Why do I sit and wait until it’s gone?
Along with a newfound harmony with his family, his recovery also restored his mental health and spiritual life. Now he has “peace” and “love.” So when she stays the night and thinks he “might be able to have it all,” it’s not just a statement of her importance. He not only wants to protect his beautiful daughter, but also “beautiful things” such as his sanity, family harmony, and relationship with the God he prays to.
But he’s scary. I’m afraid that if she leaves, these beautiful things will continue. That’s why the song’s chorus changes from a plea to a girlfriend to a prayer to God.
Please stay the night
I want you, I need you, oh god
please don’t take it
these beautiful things i got
If he takes away what God has given him, he loses his daughter, his family, his spirit, even his faith. He is not sure that he will not “curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
I didn’t grow up listening to pop music. Postclassical minimalism? check. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms? of course. Tuvan throat singing? Soundtrack from my third year of college. So it may seem strange to talk about “discovering” a pop sensation like Benson Boone. But for someone like me who doesn’t listen to the radio and don’t usually tune out Staples background music, it was certainly a discovery for me (albeit perhaps a little less smug) in the same way your friend discovered Sigur Ros or AnnenMayKantereit.
And perhaps it’s no wonder that songs about losing loved ones speak to what Jonathan Haidt calls “an anxious generation.”
It started by thinking, “What kind of music is popular right now?” I didn’t know about it, so I looked it up. Spotify replied, “It’s a beautiful thing.” I was surprised. This popular song has some crunch to it. I was impressed. Hold your curly-haired 4-year-old, listen to it, and see what happens to your eyes. And I was curious. why? this Which song is at the top of the charts? Is it a song about the fear of losing what you have?
Benson Boone struck me as a Gen Z singer with a primarily Gen Z audience. This intuition was confirmed when I learned that he had gained his first following on TikTok. It’s no surprise that teenage girls are the main demographic that attends his concerts. Also, a song about losing something you love is what Jonathan Haidt calls “anxious generation” (TikTok is to blame, in Haidt’s view).
Gen Z is also in a precarious situation. On the other hand, they are also the beneficiaries of a period of relative peace and prosperity. World war? Panic? How to get drafted? 9/11? ancient history. But the suburbs are no longer the bubbles they once were.
When you grow up with a smartphone, you realize that peace and prosperity are rather unequally distributed. Visions of hunger, abuse and war greet you every day with a selection of sumptuous images. The past few decades have seen a decline in public debate, rising suicide rates, and growing distrust of public institutions and neighbors. Our systems of education, governance, and religion are on the brink of collapse because of the flawed foundations laid down by previous generations. “Deconstruction” is now an established member of the Christian lexicon. Our situation is not one to be optimistic about. Perhaps “Beautiful Things” speaks to such a moment. A time when we “wake up at night thinking we might lose everything.”
But perhaps Boone not only touched the horror of our moment, but also kept our hope alive. One could argue that the basis of “beautiful things” presupposes both God’s goodness and sovereignty. Every beautiful thing is one of God’s gifts, and it is God’s business which gifts we keep and what we give back. But Boone’s songs find no solace in portraying God as a kind father who loves to give good gifts to his children. But at the same time, Boone’s protagonist still harbors hope against hope. pray. No matter what thoughts the song suggests About God may not be as important as the fact that the heart of the song is addressed to God.
So let’s return to the story of Job. Although the first and last chapters of the book of Job are approved by the preacher, most of the book is a lengthy conversation between Job and his less helpful friends (Job 3-37). Job’s position is that he is righteous. If we can know the date on the calendar before God, he will be proven right. His friends’ position is that Job’s suffering shows that he must have sinned – God is not unfair, right?
In the end, Job’s righteousness seems to lie in the fact that: he seeks godEven if you wish against hope.
When God finally showed up, he did not answer the age-old question that had gripped Job and his friends. Instead, he asks whether Job was there when he created the world (Job 38) and lists the venerable menagerie of animals (Job 39-41). After this encounter, Job “repented in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). God then turns to Job’s friends and says that he is angry with them, as commonly translated, “because you have not spoken what is right about me, as my servant Job said” (Job 42:7 NRSV).
However, this statement raises an interpretive problem. Didn’t Job just repent of saying something he “couldn’t understand” (Job 42:3)? Is Job right to call God “cruel” (Job 30:21) and to say that God hates him (Job 16:9)? And aren’t Job’s friends saying some true things about God, even if they apply them incorrectly? As a result, some Bible scholars believe it is better translated as “God is angry because you did not speak.” to “I hold me fast, even as my servant Job has.” (my translation) On this reading, the difference between Job’s theology and his friends’ theology has less to do with the theology of that theology. content than that direction. The story of Job’s friend About God. Work talk (mainly complaints) to God. In the end, Job’s righteousness seems to lie in the fact that: he seeks godEven if you wish against hope.
When I wondered why “Beautiful Things” became world famous, it wasn’t just because the song was an apocalypse of personal doom and darkness. Because I was interested direction“God, I need you. Please don’t take away these beautiful things that I have.”
After decades of pop anthems telling us that we need to join hands and work together to build a better tomorrow, perhaps we’re ready for new hope. A hope that looks outward rather than around the goodness of humanity as a whole, and within our deepest selves. Hope is not born from optimism, but from despair. Contrary to our expectations that God would show up after 35 chapters of discussion to shut us up and set the record straight. I hope we can say this along with Job. “With my ears I have heard of you; but now with my eyes I see you” (Job 42:5). At a time when our prosperity and institutions seem so fragile, I hope we might start looking for something more lasting.
God, I need you.
God, we need you.
Source: Christ and Pop Culture – christandpopculture.com
