A 21-year-old Paul Simon would lock himself in the bathroom, sit alone with the lights off and play his guitar. It was while playing his guitar in the darkness he first sang, “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”. 

If you listen to Imagine Dragons lyrics, especially “Night Visions,” they are very honest about the nature of human existence. As we listen, it rings true with our own experience. But as we’ll see, the hope clung to is more sentimental and not so grounded in reality. The Bible shows us our problematic reality as well but also reveals God’s way of salvation from it.

Rachel Platten had a dream to become a successful singer-song writer. For over a decade she tried to make this dream come true. She wrote a lot of songs. None of them were hits. She travelled across America and sang in small venues sometimes with an audience of just 20 people. She made many CDs of her music, but sold few. What was she doing with her life? She was 32. Most of her friends had solid jobs, houses and families while she was struggling to get by! She had written over hundred songs that no-one seemed to want to hear. Should she give up or keep on singing?

Bruno Mars released this simple but very catchy song on his first studio album in 2010. In an interview, Bruno Mars talking about the song, said he was trying to capture the feeling “when you’re in Vegas, and you’ve had way too many drinks, and you love everybody, and you want to do something that you probably shouldn’t do and you’ll regret in the morning.” In the song that ‘something’ is to spontaneously marry someone.

A desire for freedom is inherent in man. A yearning for liberty is part of the very soul of mankind. We can see it if we look through any history book. Tale after tale of people struggling to free themselves from oppression.