Breaking Up is
Hard to Do
April
10th Devo
Acts
15:36-41
On this day in 1970, Paul McCartney officially announces the Beatle's break up. Paul and John Lennon started the band in 1957. They were in their mid-teens and the band was originally named the Quarrymen. Over time Lennon and McCartney would add the likes of George Harrison and Ringo Starr. These young men in their late teens and early twenties started to play in different venues. The sound of their music was unique and it didn’t take long for this band from Liverpool to skyrocket to the top of the charts. Their first major hit was “love me do” which was recorded by the EMI Abbey Roads studio, which was the premier recording company at that time. One of the biggest highlights for the Beatles came in 1964 when they arrived in the United States for the first time. They played on the Ed Sullivan Show. Nearly 74 million Americans tuned in to hear this revolutionary rock and roll sound (that was about 40% of the population of the United States at the time). Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show opened up the door to Beatlemania and the British cultural invasion of America. The Beatles would continue to be a household name through the 1960s. The band would go on to record 21 main albums, but that does not include other compilations or singles released over time. They would write and play over 230 different songs. Of those songs, twenty were number-one hits on the Billboard Charts (a record to this day). They would sell over 600 million albums (also still a record). It looked like the Beatles would be a permanent part of the culture. But everything started to fall apart in the late 1960s. Tension began to build in the band. McCartney had been flirting with going solo and reportedly Lennon left the band in 1969 but the band kept it a secret until April 1970. There were also some major tensions regarding managerial decisions. The last Beatles appearance before the break up was a public concert on the rooftop of the Apple Building in London in 1969.
The singer Neil Sedaka said it best, “Breaking up is hard to do.” It’s hard to imagine how a band as famous and influential as the Beatles could break up. They seemed like a perfect team. The Beatles weren’t the only famous team to break up; the Bible mentions a famous missionary team that had to go in two different directions. The book of Acts tells us about the great teamwork of Paul and Barnabas. They worked faithfully alongside each other during the first missionary journey. They even worked together to settle major issues at the Jerusalem council, but in Acts 15:39-40 we read “And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sail away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left…” These two men loved the Lord but could not agree with each other. This very easily could have destroyed the missionary work of the early church, but God used the break up to create two mission teams that would take the Gospel to more places. That being said the believer should not desire to break up with each other. We should strive for unity, reconciliation, for harmony in the body. We will differ and disagree from time to time, but we should work to set aside our feelings and opinions and work together for the furtherance of the Gospel. Don’t allow unresolved conflict in the body of Christ to exist. If you are harboring ill feelings about a brother or sister in the faith, repent and release it.
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