The Day the Music Died

I'm a music lover. If you know me, you know that my idea of a good time is sitting at my computer with a cup of coffee while searching for new and random bands on either Myspace or PureVolume. I love the talent, thought, sincerity, and the sheer rawness of lyrics. There is, in my mind, nothing more intriguing than getting a glimpse at someone through the lyrics they write. Someone who writes lyrics is writing them because the lyrics mean something to them. The words they are writing are more than just words. They are perhaps a look into someone's private life, an expression of how they feel after an amazing day, the sheer daze of new love, the thoughts they have on life and all that comes with it, or maybe even a cry for help. No matter what though, the person writes them because in that moment they are expressing how they feel in arguably one of the most raw and surrendered forms.

The same is true for Christians. We sing worship songs to our God to express our love to Him, our abandonment, our struggles, our gratitude, our sheer amazement at Him and His works, among other things. In the moments we spend in musical worship to our God, we are, just like a writer of lyrics, expressing our thoughts and feeling towards God in the most raw form. Or are we? Do we even think about the words we are singing? Or are we too wrapped up in the sweet guitar riffs, whether or not there is the use of drums or not, whether the music accompanying our heart songs to our Creator is to our liking or not?

Recent circumstances have lead me to believe that corporate worship has totally distorted our view of what real, raw, genuine worship really is. Too often when people think worship, they think music and song. It is so much more than that! It can be words you speak to people, the work you do on a daily basis, the way you talk to people, ANYTHING pleasing to our God! It frustrates me when people get uptight about music and whether or not the worship services they attend and the music behind the lyrics to the songs they sing "ushers them into worship." Don't get me wrong, I do totally believe that a person can be ushered into worship depending on the types of music being played in a worship service, it just frustrates me when the music becomes a hindrance and distraction to genuine worship.

Tonight at a worship service I attended, the sound system decided not to work and the lead guitarists string broke. When he realized it, he tried to play the strings he had left in an attempt to keep the worship service going. It ended up just sounding distorted and awful, until finally he looked at the guitar, then shrugged his shoulders, looked towards the sky and closed his eyes in surrender to the Lord. Around the room the singing kept on in the most beautiful acapella voice, people were lifting their hands towards Heaven, and had eyes closed in focus of God. No one even cared or realized what was going on. It was to me, one of the most amazing and beautiful times of worship I have ever experienced. There was no music, no sound system, no fancy lights or glitz, just God's children offering their voices and hearts to the one that created them.

What I'm trying to get at is, God doesn't care in what form you worship Him. He doesn't care whether or not there is a guitar, or drums, or tambourines, or clapping, or no clapping, or dancing, or hand raising or no hand raising. He cares about our hearts and whether or not the words we are singing and the ways we worship Him are genuine. I don't think broken sound systems and guitar strings are coincidental. I think that's God's way of telling us to pay attention. To realize that the lyrics we sing go far beyond music of any form. They are fragrant and cherished offerings to our Father, the ultimate audience.