Jordin Sparks: Battlefield
Does love have to be a war zone?
Jordin Sparks could have continued in her ways of groovy R&B (see One Step at a Time) or catchy pop (see Tattoo); but instead she has chosen epic ballad for the first single off her new album.
The songs starts off slow and reflective (the clips starts off plain boring – the expensive car doesn’t even move!), but when the bridge comes one gets a taste of what’s to come. The song builds to a chorus dominated by Jordin’s vocal prowess.
It is written by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder (he also wrote Bleeding Love and Halo), and while the verses and lyrics are nothing to write home about and the concept is an old one (for those under 25 google ‘Pat Benatar’) the song is well crafted. The song peaks at the ‘better go and get your armour’ bit – love it! By now the clip has warmed up to one worthy of the track.
But what of its theme? Jordin sings of the common experience of what love seems to be like. What is hard for her to grasp is: if love is meant to be lovely, why does it seem like war?
This question can’t be answered without the Christian worldview that human relationships are fallen as we have rejected God and are inherently self-seeking. With this perspective, love goes against our nature and hence is like a battlefield (or a least a battle). Jordin’s solution that ‘you better go and get your armour’ is in fact the opposite of what love requires.
Love needs the laying down of armour and being mutually vulnerable and selfless. This is the love that is modeled on and modeled by God who laid down his life to love us.
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