Hallelujah

I know, I know. American Idol is for women and teenage girls. I like this season. I do. I only watched one other season--when Taylor Hicks won the thing--so I was due to get sucked in another time.

The reason? One of them is that I like this guy, in the video below. Dude rocks...especially this song, "Hallelujah." A lot of guys have sung it--Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright--but Jason Castro here is a professing Christian who was set to go on a mission trip with his church before American Idol came calling. He's said this song was his favorite performance because of its personal meaning.

So while it was originally written as a secular song, just about anything can take on spiritual meaning when understanding a very important fact: we are image-bearers of God, made in His image. If, then, we are capable of beautiful, artistic representations, then what does that say about God? Man, look out your window sometime. God made that. He is an artist. It should come as no surprise, then, that men and women are inspired to produce their own art, because whether it's sung about Him, all art comes from Him and, whether we realize it or not, to Him.

So, enjoy the video. Just forget it's from American Idol.