That’s Rubbish!

In her song “Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift includes the lyric: “That's what people say” after several derogatory lines about how she lives her life; then she goes to respond: “But I keep cruising, Can't stop, won't stop moving, It's like I got this music in my mind, Saying it's gonna be alright, I never miss a beat, I'm lightning on my feet, And that's what they don't see.” The 2014 song, from the “1989” album—her fifth studio release—was a number one song on the US Billboard Hot 100, and the best-selling single in the 2010’s. In an interview about the song Swift said, "I've had every part of my life dissected ... When you live your life under that kind of scrutiny, you can either let it break you, or you can get really good at dodging punches. And when one lands, you know how to deal with it. And I guess the way that I deal with it is to shake it off." The way the apostle Paul dealt with the heavy load of the world and the world’s expectations was to see it all as “rubbish,” and instead to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to press on toward that goal, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (vs12). In other words, shake it off, stay focused on Jesus, and press on towards all that is good in life! Good advice, in my estimation.