Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Anyone love the music from the 80's? I think one of the greatest inventions is satellite radio! Living in a small-ish town my traditional radio stations are very limited. The local stations are dominated by country or rap/hip hop stations and I like neither. I love hopping in the car and listening to either the 80's station or 1st Wave, the British invasion of punk and new wave music from back in the day. What I like about this music is that it is authentic, it is raw, it was not remixed and digitized to death. In some cases you would listen to a song and think "That is a cool song but the dude can't sing worth a lick!" or "That is a great song but what the heck is it about?"

I say all of that to tell you about a song I was listening to the other day that I think embodies these characteristics of early 80's music - Should I stay or should I go by The Clash. As I was listening to the song I found myself singing along and playing the air drums on my steering wheel. But as I was singing along I was thinking to myself - What is this song about? Some say the song is about Mick Jones trying to decide if he should stay in The Clash or leave the band and others say the song is about Mick trying to decide if he should split up from his then girlfriend Ellen Foley. Take a look at some of the lyrics:

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An' if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So you gotta let me know
Should I cool it or should I blow?

As I sat there singing and thinking about the song a thought came to my mind. This could have been the Apostle Paul's theme song. Paul was caught between a desire to stay here on earth to do what God called him to do and a desire to go or depart and be with Christ.

Philippians 1: 21-26 - 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

In other words Paul was saying Should I stay or should I go?! I wonder if we too find ourselves caught in this place. Do we find ourselves caught between a desire to stay and do what Christ has left us here to do, Go and make disciples of all nations, and a desire to depart and spend eternity with him. I believe that for many, including myself, we find ourselves wanting to stay here, not necessarily to do what we are called to do but because we love the things of this world too much.

Paul ultimately decided to stay and many were blessed because of his obedience to his calling. Out time to go will one day be here so I as the question - are we making the most of our time here on Earth?