Just a quick late-night post to say that I have two songs that I would like to add to the previous discussion of songs that actually convey deep, meaningful spiritual messages.
1. "Anyway" by Martina McBride. (Some of you might know it from American Idol.) Ironically not under a "Christian" label, this song is one of the most powerful, impacting songs I've heard in some time. Because you know what? God is great. And sometimes life's not good. But what do we do? We carry on doing the right things, the will of God, anyway. This is the kind of song we need to sing in church. It's real. It's where we're at. And the message doesn't end on a "this is how I feel and God is floating around somewhere" note. It ends on a "God is bigger than everything else and I am determining to follow Him anyway, even when life sucks" note.
2. "The Blessing" by John Waller. I can't do this song justice without getting into a long theological treatise that nobody wants to read, but I love this song every time I hear it because it has the Abrahamic covenant all over it and nobody ever sings about that. When God made the covenant with Abraham, He used the imperative form of the verb: Be a blessing. The people of God, from earliest times, were called to be a blessing among the nations. This was, like, a super serious thing to the people of Israel. We don't think about that anymore. We just want to be blessed ourselves. Whatever that means. We don't think about God's call for His people to be a blessing. And I love that this song touches on that.
4 comments:
Jana,
I have been checking your discussion of convicting songs for several days. I have not added, in large part, because I don't really listen to "Christian" music. I don't tend to like it much. (I am an old metal-head. Stryper, when I was a kid, impressed some girls I knew, and they had more noteriety than any others I knew, but their stuff was weak both musically and convictionally. It was a long time before I found Mortification, another Christian band, and I never found conviction in their music, but at least it ROCKED!)
So, I don't know what all that is worth. Not too much, really, I figure. And not being in the know on this kind of thing, I hesitate to participate....
But, last year our youth minister at Vandelia, where I church in Lubbock, TX, compiled a slide show of photo's depicting our neighborhood outreach programs for the worship assembly to view (many of whom do not really participate or participate in only one part and do not know much of the whole). He set the slide show to music and the song was "Does Anybody Hear Her" by Casting Crowns.
I had never heard of Casting Crowns before. It is not "my KIND" of music. But I really liked that song. It convicted me, and I am one of the street ministers reaching out to people church tends to functionally shun. So I asked him about the group and bought the CD.
It turns out that my Mom is dying with cancer (I hate to lay heavy stuff like that on a blog where I do not know you or your regular readers, but...). I found another song, "Praise You In The Storm", that really helps me.
I don't know much about other Christian songs. In fact, I find the rest of the album I site here uncompelling. I really only listen to the two songs and forget the rest. But the one has become something of a street ministry anthem for me and the other a comfort for deep grief. Perhaps they would prove meaningful for you?
Many blessings...
M.G.,
Stryper...ha! That takes me back. I could never get into them, but then, I've never been into super-heavy rock or metal as a genre (Christian or otherwise).
I am familiar with both of those Casting Crowns songs that you mentioned, and I have to agree with you that there is something deeply meaningful in them. Like you, I don't adore every Casting Crowns song, but the few that are good are quite good. I also like "While You Were Sleeping"; I find it quite profound.
I am sorry to hear about your mom. There really aren't words I can say that will do justice to the pain you must be experiencing, but I pray that God will continue to give you comfort and good moments with your mom while she is still here.
God bless....
Just to be a cynic, were the Israelites being a blessing when they slaughtered the Babylonians and other peoples to take their ¨promised¨ land? :) Or, dashing their babies upon the rocks... The Bible has some interesting contraditions sometimes...
You ask an excellent question, and I don't know that I have a great answer for you. Except to say that there's a lot I don't understand, either. I don't see how that stuff could be conducive to upholding the Abrahamic covenant.
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