Damo, a good mate from church, has been blogging about godliness. He takes a knife to music:
Everywhere and everyday we listen to music. Do we truly listen to the lyrics?, or just keep listening because it has a good beat. We as a Christian community need to think to ourselves, is this really what I want to listen to? Too often these days music is filled with crude language, sex implications and just plain bad messages.
Good call.
I usually nod approvingly when people talk about this. Don’t those other people who listen to sex-fueled, pleasure-driven, hate-filled garbage know how dangerous it is? Of course, since I don’t like hip-hop (except, of course, Lecrae) and positively detest music-in-a-can pop music, I would never need to repent, would I?
I mean, really, what harm could a bit of Jack Johnson do? The surfy rock I like to listen to is too chilled, too mellow to cause problems. They have good attitudes towards women, they don’t swear, they (by and large) don’t do drugs… heck, they just seem to be enjoying life.
Splashing through the sand bar
Talking by the campfire
It’s the simple things in life, like when and where
We didn’t have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair
(Kid Rock – All Summer Long)
And then, one day I realised what my perspective on life has become. My ideal lifestyle is living simply by a quiet beach with good surf, spending all day surfing or chillaxing in a hammock listening to my beautiful wife play a guitar, then spending the evening sitting around an open fire with a couple of close friends, maybe a guitar or some bongo action, singing songs and telling stories, drinking wine straight from a bottle (in moderation), watching the flickering reflection in her eyes. Early to bed, up again at dawn the next day for some more waves. Not a care in the world, just a warm contentment.
And we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking ’bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long
(Kid Rock – All Summer Long)
It’s not off-the-wall debauchery. It’s not hard-core crime. It’s not even rebellious. It’s just good-natured fun, right?
But I’ve been deceived. I’ve been sold a false ideal. That chilled, cruisy, contented life doesn’t exist. Around that campfire is jealousy, worry, unsatisfaction. If it is ever acheived (and I think I’ve come close, on occasion), it doesn’t last forever. But more than that, it’s unfulfilling. Would I really be satisfied to sit around a fire for my whole life? Nice as it might be, don’t I want my life to mean something?
Now nothing seems as strange as when the leaves began to change
Or how we thought those days would never end
Sometimes I’ll hear that song and I’ll start to sing along
And think man I’d love to see that girl again
(Kid Rock – All Summer Long)
At its core, this is why: we were not just created to sit around a camp fire. We were created for so much more! We were created for relationship with our Creator, and to worship Him with our whole life by loving Him, following Him, and serving Him. There are oppressed people to liberate, discouraged people to encourage, hurting people to heal, lonely people to love, and, above all, lost people to save. How much more grand an ideal is this
But if we are the Body
Why aren’t His arms reaching
Why aren’t His hands healing
Why aren’t His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren’t His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
(Casting Crowns – If We Are The Body)
And now I see: music doesn’t need to be crude and rude to be dangerous. What are you listening to? Is it creating false-ideals that bring discontent to steal your joy, and distract you from your mission? Let’s look instead to the glorious freedom of serving Christ with every ounce of our being, pouring out our life for His glory, as we await His return and that highest of praises, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
I take the shadow of the cross as my abiding place
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face
Content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross
(Beneath The Cross of Jesus, Elizabeth Clephane, 1872)
