Music

Have you ever stopped to think about why you listen to the music you listen to? Usually the answer is easy enough: we like the way it sounds in some capacity - the rhythm, the beat, the melody. But what we seldom think about in our world today is, what does the music that we listen to say to us as we listen?

Adam and I have been convicted anew about our music tastes after slipping into a very secular taste in music for the past couple months. Our default CDs were the Glee soundtracks, and on our iPod running mixes we had Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Ludacris and Timabaland to name a few. None of these are "bad" or "sinful" in themselves, but over a couple months of listening to primarily worldly music, our attitudes started to mold themselves to what we were hearing. How do humans learn? Mainly by repetition. And worldly music repeatedly puts worldly messages in our ears, brains and hearts, taking away the power of the Holy Spirit in us to instruct and sanctify us.

Most of this conviction is because of Trip Lee, the reformed Christian rapper and Adam's friend, Josh. For those of you who don't know of Trip Lee, please give him a try. His songs contain more theology than most Christian bookstores. He's one of my favorites, and the picture above is his new CD that came out this week, Between Two Worlds. Josh's contribution to this music conviciton will remain unspoken at this time, but as Adam and I pondered the messages our music was giving us, even while we ran, we felt the need for a priority shift. So we pulled out the old Lecrae, Trip Lee, Flame, Sho Baracka and Tedashii. We pulled out Jimmy Needham and Bethany Dillon. We switched out Glee for praise CDs for a while and remade the running playlists on our iPods. Today, I ran to a new but old mix of my favorite reformed rappers, and it was refreshing. The run itself was ridiculous; I felt like my legs weighed 100 pounds each. But the music didn't just give me rhythm to run to or beats to get myself up the hills on my route. It also made me think of things I hadn't in a while, eternal things of eternal significance. How amazing God and His love for us are. How we've been purchased with a price of great expense for Him. How the prosperity gospel "trips [God] of His flyness, making Him more of a servant and less like His Highness." And my spirit was revived, even if my body was worn out (which it was!).

My prayer for you today is that you consider the music you are listening to the most. How is that music instructing your soul? How is it affecting your attitudes toward the world? What ammunition are you giving the Holy Spirit to work in you?

Soli Deo Gloria.

Comments

  1. as always an encouragement! Thank you.

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  2. Thanks Kathleen. Just great. I guess I have to stop listening to songs about beer and belly shots. :) lol. I have been feeling convicted too. And this sort of, seals it. Thanks for writing. Ive been gently corrected today! :) Thanks sweet sister.

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