Music and Lyrics

I (along with my father) have never liked the term “Christian Music”. Music is sound and notes. Lyrics can have a Christian message, but music cannot. I grew up with piano and violin lessons and love music, all kinds. Even as I sit here typing, I have a light classical sound of Tchaikovsky in the back ground. I listen to music. I hear key changes and crescendos. I listen to music, thus I can’t really use music to distract me or put me to sleep. I believe music is very powerful and can change your emotion in a heartbeat. People get paid a lot of money to put the right music in a movie to make you feel what is happening. Because I listen to music, it has changed how I worship in church. I have had to teach myself to not be distracted by change in tempo or key. I often close my eyes in church, simply so I am not distracted by those around me.This isn’t for everyone, but I taught myself to listen to the words I was singing and what they meant, not what I felt from the music. If I felt close to God, or broken, or ashamed, I wanted it to be a true change in emotion by my thought and the words I was hearing or singing.

The second part to my idiosyncrasies of music is that I am easily irritated by modern cheesy so-called Christian lyrics. I like songs with depth. So when a teeny-bopper boy bands sings "I wanna know, wanna know what you were thinkin’ I can’t imagine why it didn’t even sink in They say you never know what you got till it’s gone", the only thing I am moved to do is change the channel. I am not saying everyone needs to adopt this view. Kevin loves Air1 and I am glad there is a positive alternative out there for people who need something different for themselves or their family.

But today on my way to work, every other station had someone ranting about the stimulus bill or the housing foreclosure bailout, and I switched my dial to Air1. (I guess radios don’t actually have dials anymore). This song came on and I was moved.

Sanctus Real - Whatever You’re Doing
From the album We Need Each Other

It’s time for healing, time to move on,
it’s time to fix what’s been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong;
it’s time to find my way to where I belong

Chorus:
There’s a wave that’s crashing over me,
and all I can do is surrender
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see,
but I’m giving in to something heavenly

Time for a milestone, time to begin again,
re-evaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything – I surrender

Chorus:

Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
that I’ve wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears
Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but I believe …

You’re up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something heavenly

Whatever You’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life
Something heavenly, something heavenly

Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out

I love the part where they say “Whatever you’re doing inside of me, it feels like chaos, but somehow there’s peace.” God works in amazing ways. He turns your life in every direction, but yet when you trust him and let him have control, there is still an overwhelming sense of peace. I have never been able to describe how two completely opposite feelings could be happening at the same time, and love how the artist describes it.

The artist asks himself and God “Am I doing everything to follow your will or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?” This is the question I have been working to the past few weeks. “God, am I doing everything you have planned for me or am I just going through the motions? What am I missing out of simply because I am not seeking you in every little thing I do.”

God uses everyday things to speak to us and today this song spoke to me.