Imagine:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the varld
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one


This is perhaps one of the most famous songs of our time. We began to sing this in choir today, and reading through it, I thought: Wow, how wrong was John Lennon! Just look at the lyrics. The music is beautiful, the melody is amazing, but the words? Depressing. You read the words and if you think about them, they’re empty. It’s an easy way out, but it’s empty. Imagine, no suffering, no pain, no consequences, no passion (well, of course there’s love…yeah…free love man…), no causes worth dying for.

What I want to ask John Lennon is, if we had this world he’s “imagined,” what would the children of the people who made this world know? Would they know love? Would they know happiness? Would they know peace?
I looked up love: the primary definitions all had some other word that meant ‘love’ in it.
I looked up happiness: same thing
I looked up peace: I got a lack of violence, war, or disturbance…and definitions that included another word that meant ‘peace.’

Abstract things in this world are defined by their opposites. Tell me, if you can, without making any references to light (as that would be a circular definition), or saying the opposite of darkness, can you define “Light” for me?

Imagine: Ignorance. That’s what this song is really about. Ignorance, for Lennon, is bliss, because if there is no hunger, how will we know fulfillment?

Realize this: If you can accept the things that are undesirable, you can better appreciate what is desirable. If you stop whining about how hungry you are and realize that it wouldn’t feel so good when you ate if you didn’t have an ache to, you can realize how beautiful this messed up world is; because this world is so messed up, so we can see how organized, safe, fulfilling, loving, and accepting God is.
Imagine: Christ died so that we may live. We have pain so we can understand pleasure.