Singing the Phone Book and Other Idol Observations

We serve a reliable God, and the Psalmist reflects on God's faithfulness in Psalm 44:
4 You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. 5 Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. 6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; 7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. 8 In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

We look to all sorts of sources for answers, but so much of what we place our trust in results in empty promises - verse 6 reminds us that, as believers in Christ, we don't place our trust in humanity's ingenuity or invention, but on the strength of our Creator God, the one in whom we can boast all day long - we give God the praise; He is reliable.

Regarding our source of wisdom, to make good decisions, to acquire the true answers we seek, Proverbs 4 says:
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. 6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. 7 Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. And, elsewhere in Proverbs, Solomon writes that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.   

Not unexpectedly, I wanted to put a punctuation mark on this season of American Idol,  which we've been covering some on TMH, with the help of Chuck Harvey of The One21 Music and former finalist Scott MacIntyre.    First of all, congratulations to Phillip Phillips, a talented, innovative musician from South Georgia, who embraces some of the qualities I appreciate - creativity, a strong love of family, and a sense of charity, as evidence by his involvement in Albany's Mission:Change organization, that partners with churches and other non-profit organizations to reach out to their community.   And, he has displayed an amazing amount of endurance in battling through some health problems.

The finale show was, well, pretty uninspiring to me.  There were some OK vocal performances, some a bit cheesy and contrived, and a couple outright scary.  There was a raunch factor, mostly centered around Steven Tyler.   There was a marriage proposal between 2 former finalists, which unfortunately followed that typical Hollywood narrative - Ryan Seacrest announced they had already "moved in" together, and deemed that to be good.    But, that timeline is not only contrary to Biblical teaching, the data shows that couples who cohabit are less likely to have a successful.

But, probably the most notable aspect of the whole two-hour indulgence, which will probably be #1 in the ratings - again, even though viewership has fallen off this season, was the musical number based on a Randy Jackson cliche that he uses to describe excellent singers - he has repeatedly said that a contestant could "sing the phone book" and sound good.   So, you had the finalist dressed in choir robes singing a song based on - the phone book!   Not bad.   It was really driven home at my house because during the show, we were actually looking for - our phone book.    Someone online pointed out that many of the Idol finalists may never have used a phone book.

This prompted me to think about where we go for our information.   Once the phone book was a valuable source to find out how to contact people - but now, you can go to Google, you can speak into a smartphone, and if you have Siri, it will even talk back to you.    You can even click on a link and the number will be dialed for you. 

But answers are only as reliable as the person or machine that has entered the data.   That's why sites such as Yahoo! Answers or Ask.com can provide you with a lot of opinions.   And, in the culture today, there are tons of people looking for answers, but sometimes answers are just someone else's opinion.  

And, we realize as Christians that many of the answers to questions people have can be found in God's Word.  As people seek for truth, they need reliable answers, rock-solid information, and in the pages of the Scriptures, people can find a firm foundation.    And, just like the ol' phone book, even though the delivery methods may change, we can be confident that He never changes, He is faithful and true, and His Word provides the power and principles upon which to build our lives.