She Keeps Me Warm

This song jumps out of the radio with it’s depth and quality. So many songs on the radio are just… songs. Maybe they feature a catchy beat or a chorus you can’t get out of your head. But they aren’t really about anything.

But then Macklemore’s song comes on. If you’re listening even a little, it’s an incredible exegesis of the cultural dialog taking place in school lunch rooms, church staff meetings, and Sunday family dinners. His words represent the arguments of so many.

It catches you with the tune and I find myself humming Mary Lambert’s hauntingly beautiful chorus all the time. She keeps me warm…. 

But it hits you across the head with one reality: No one would publish this song 5 years ago. No one would play it on the radio. Boy, things sure have changed.

On top of that the song also amazes me in its commentary about the church. (Even ending with a quote from the Bible.) These aren’t weak statements. This is a voice from inside the church offering an indictment about something they don’t understand about “us.” 

Of course, there’s the irony of the song

A core proclamation of the song is that people can’t change who they are.

  • And yet, our society has dramatically changed regarding the LGBTQ community in the past 4-5 years. (The video makes it clear that this is what the song is about.)
  • And yet, the song is asking people to change.
  • So the song is about how people can’t change… but asking for change.

Thoughts? 


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2 responses to “She Keeps Me Warm”

  1. Tony Vasinda (@perpetualmin) Avatar

    I love Macklemore. I love his keen ability to dissect and distill the culture. I love that he clearly takes a side on an issue and looks at the way that other people interact with it. I don’t agree with his perspective a lot of the time, but I love the way he expresses it and it helps me grow. My biggest frustration with this song, has always been the irony of challenging others to change while claiming an inability to do so personally (the irony you point out). My community has a clearly held belief on the core issue of this song(and I agree with it), but we need to change the way that we present, live, teach, and share this belief. When working with any youth or adult, I hope that we are both drawn into a process of change and transformation. That we come out of it as an “Us” not as and “Us and Them”. I would never want to assume that I know exactly what that should look like, because I need to be surprised by Christ as he leads us through His transformative redemption. We should become something new in Him. If we think we know what that is going to look like, we limit that grace.

  2. youthleadergina (@youthleadergina) Avatar

    My high school girls brought this up on Wednesday night at small groups. We had a really great discussion about the song “She Keeps Me Warm.”

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