A Thousand Stories

I'm really not up to date on popular contemporary music, never mind the avant garde jazzy whatnot that Starbucks tends to play. I was thus all the more surprised when, as I sat researching at Starbucks this morning, a naggingly familiar guitar intro caught my attention. As I listened, I found myself shocked, then delighted, as the familiar intro resolved into familiar words:

“I've heard a thousand stories

Of what they think you're like,

But I've heard the tender whisper

Of love in the dead of night

And you tell me that you're pleased

And that I'm never alone.

You're a good, good Father

It's who you are

It's who you are

It's who you are

And I'm loved by you,

It's who I am

It's who I am

It's who I am.”

Starbucks is the place of a thousand stories. They have worked hard at aligning themselves with the values of progressive millennialism. Sometimes this manifests itself in good ways, such as creation care, fair trade, and sustainability. Sometimes it manifests itself in unfortunate ways, such as their obvious support for a culture increasingly centered on self-definition. And yet out of their speakers comes a song that rejects the thousand stories, to proclaim two simple truths. God is a good father. We are loved by God.

Starbucks is a sort of microcosm for how society at large likes to see itself: soulful and sensitive, welcoming and inclusive, accepting of everybody, ultimately tolerant. And yet this song got airtime. This song, which while not having the deepest theology has the most important theology. God is a good father – and fatherhood is something painfully lacking in our society. We are loved – and love is something that is painfully lacking in our society. There are a thousand stories we hear every day – but only one of them is true.

And if a song like “Good Good Father” can get airtime at Starbucks, maybe that's the message that can get Christians a hearing in today's world of a thousand stories: that God is good, and that he loves us. Doctrine can come later – doctrine must come later – but let us start with the most basic truth that the world has forgotten: that the true story of God is that God is love.