Grinding guitars and gritty vocals pound this message into the ears of those who have them to hear:  “The problem with the world is not ‘out there,’ it’s ‘in here.’  I’m my problem.  I’ve made a mess of my life and, I long for something more than the mess I’ve made. ”  No blame shifting.  No finger pointing.  Blame and the finger lay squarely on the chest of the sinner singer.  Isn’t that refreshing?  “Mess of Me” reminds me of G. K. Chesterton’s answer to the newspaper editor’s question “What’s wrong with the world?”  Chesterton’s memorable reply?  “Dear sir, I am.”

The song admits what our biblical worldview has made clear:  we’re not in Eden anymore, we’re to blame for the mess we’re in, and yet we have inconsolable longings for restoration and renewal.  We want to “reverse this tragedy” and spend the rest of our lives alive, living an abundant life that we sense is there because the Creator put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  We live in the Fall, but we long for Redemption and Restoration.  But such a worldview is to be expected from a band of believers like Switchfoot.  They have found a way to creatively expose and express the deepest desires of broken people who live in a broken world simply by communicating God’s truth about depravity in a song. 

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I emailed ">the video version of “Mess of Me” to a friend fighting for sobriety in a recovery program for alcoholics.  He loved the song.  When I asked how he thought “Mess of Me” might express his own struggle with alcoholism, he simply answered, “Perfect!”  The first step, they say, is to point the finger at the guilty party, and Switchfoot’s song about depravity helped put wailing words to my friends struggle to admit his mess and aspire for more.

One caveat, however.  Although Switchfoot gets our guilt right, and though they even go so far as to promote forgiveness as the answer to our guilt, they don’t go quite as far as the Bible does.  They fall short of the biblical worldview by suggesting the solution is to “forgive yourself” when the real solution is to be forgiven by God in Christ. But still, the biblical view of depravity displayed in songs like “Mess of Me” can prick the heart until it bleeds with conviction of sin (Hebrews 4:12), and that alone makes the song useful. 

One could certainly use Switchfoot’s admission of depravity as a point of conversation, but it would be necessary to also ask:  “On what basis can we forgive ourselves if we are sinners?”  This may open the door to gospel conversations about the Advocate we have before the Judge, “Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

Be encouraged, in a pop culture where “vileness is exalted among the children of man” (Psalm 12:8), God’s people are also there, taking their lights from under baskets and lifting them for a darkened world to see . . . and sing.

[Suggested activity for further study:  Sometimes artists who do not claim to be followers of Christ describe depravity, though not deliberately.  Listen to John Mayer’s “Gravity” on his Continuum project.  Notice how his description of gravity is a colorful metaphor (though Mayer did not intend for it to be) for the biblical doctrine of depravity or what the Apostle Paul called "the flesh."]

JIMMY DAVIS is an Associate Pastor at Metrocrest Presbyterian Church in Carrollton, TX, an Associate Editor for the Worldview Church, and maintains the Cruciform Life Blog.