Don't just turn back to your TV. Don't act like it's just a nice song. How can you? How can you really just turn away?!

I just played a couple of Casting Crowns songs for my mom. She's a musician, so songs really get to her, and she's a visual learner, so I showed her the lyrics too.

Stained Glass Masquerade

Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today,
feelin so small

Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong
I know they'll soon discover
That I don't belong

So I tuck it all away,
like everything's okay
If I make them all believe it,
maybe I'll believe it too
So with a painted grin,
I play the part again
So everyone will see me
the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain

But if the invitation's open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain on our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who's been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who's traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

Does Anybody Hear Her?

She is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon's ever widening in the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She's another two years older and she's three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her
Can anybody see
Or does anybody even know she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her
Can anybody see

She is yearning
For shelter and affection that she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming and he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason and she gives herself away
If judgment looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

And then I tried to talk about it for a few minutes, I said that there were times I thought maybe I was too critical of church, of how we as Christians act...but then I hear songs like this and my heart is broken all over again that to be truly like Christ is not what many of us are doing!!!!!!!!!!!

After I said that first part, she asked me if I was going to listen to music with headphones now. *shakes head* She listened...my dad wouldn't have stayed long enough to hear part of one song. When we are leading churches like this, is it any wonder we have a culture of Christians who can barely even find time to get to church, let alone follow Christ with their whole lives.

I don't know how I can continue walking into the big box church...working there....my heart is everywhere but there. And if it's there, it's running up on the stage in the middle of the service, grabbing that $500 microphone off the preachers face, and screaming into it that this isn't life at all, this isn't love, this isn't Christ!!!