The quiet was killing me. A lack of any background noise involving crickets, frogs, traffic or even a fan allowed me to hear every bump from the apartment above me. I also heard every strange sound that came from my own dwelling. The roommate wasn’t home yet, so I knew he wasn’t scampering around doing things. I knew that I was alone in my apartment, but still, everything I heard left me with questions.
In order to resolve the problem, I crawled out of bed and stumbled over my furniture, across my room to my computer. I opened itunes and began searching for the perfect nighttime song. I needed something familiar, a song I knew so well that it wouldn’t wake me up. The frequency of this problem led me to create a playlist of music to fall asleep to. It has Everlong from the Foo fighters, My Night with the Prostitute from Marseilles by Beirut (scandalous title, no bad lyrics), Bach, Brahms, and Paper Route’s Last Time . All songs that I’ve listened to so many times that I anticipate every beat and note. I remember the vibrato or lack thereof in each of the fifteen or so songs in this playlist. I know them so well that I can turn them on to cover noise and then forget about them. Other music requires listening, forces me to pay attention to melodies and even the mood and therefore, keeps me awake.
I can’t listen to anything attention-grabbing when I’m playing with words. I get too distracted, so I bust out the same music I listen to when I need to sleep. Most of my “I need to fall asleep now or someone will pay for it or I need to write right now” songs are secular, but I have some Jesus music in there, too. Gungor’s The Earth is Yours frequently comes up as Jesus-centered white noise. This might be kind of a problem.
Christian music has become as consumeristic as the secular world. Actually, it seems that worship music is excessively commercialized. This is neither good nor bad. We have access to new Jesus-songs all the time and I love that but when we listen to them in the car, while we sleep or write, or just any old time, how often does this medium created for the sole purpose (hopefully) of glorifying God and our Savior become static, white noise? Does it inhibit our ability to worship?
This is true of a lot of the elements that Christian culture pushes right now. Can our marketing of books, materials, CDs, DVDs T-shirts and everything else “Godly” make Him too common? I want God’s hand to be seen in everything I do, but at the same time, I don’t want to forget that He’s actively participating in my life because He’s always there. Sometimes, a little bit of distance makes us grateful for the time we have with someone- anyone, including God. That said, I’d never suggest ignoring Him for a day but rather, maybe we need to pull out of our own culturally-induced fog every once in a while and see what happens to our relationship with God.
“We have access to new Jesus-songs all the time and I love that but when we listen to them in the car, while we sleep or write, or just any old time, how often does this medium created for the sole purpose (hopefully) of glorifying God and our Savior become static, white noise?”
I’ve wondered that myself!
Tammy, it’s a great excuse to listen to more secular music 😉
😛
I just plain don’t listen to a lot of music anymore…I listen to K-Love on the way home from work, and very little other than church. Otherwise, it’s just me singing whatever I want hehe.
I love it. Nothing beats not having to fight with the radio!
Last night at praise team practice, during our prayer time Jeff said something I thought was pretty profound: “The simple truth is that people need the simple truth.” I think when we try and fill up our lives with Jesus stuff instead of Jesus, it becomes about religion and not about Him. It becomes more about ourselves and less about who we’re supposed to be living for.
Favorite line: “I need to fall asleep now or someone will pay for it…”
Kathy, I like that one! I’d rather fill up my life with Jesus than Jesus stuff any day. It’s like getting a cheap imitation or something ridiculous like that, completely man-made and not necessarily worthless, but definitely not what we need!
I definitely agree with you. I think “Christian” has become just another genre used to make money. Granted, there are some great songs, movies, books that really do edify people and help grow their faith, but there are a lot more who just pump out Christian fiction as bad as romance novels are pumped out. Or write another worship song that sounds like all the rest just to fill an album (and make money on iTunes).
I’ve been trying to un-white noise (like that’s even a word) my life when it comes to the things of God – saving worship music for when I need an encounter or when I’m actually worshiping, learning to find times of silence to declutter my mind and hear Him, etc.
Great (and challenging) post, Jake!
Thanks Jason! I think it’s just one of those things that’s so interesting because it all comes down to what are we doing with this? There has to be plenty of people who can listen to Hillsong all day and not ever get out of worship mode but me? It doesn’t stick around at all!
Oh Boy! You don’t hide from anything do you? I am a bit concerned with the whole Christian movement that becomes more of a lifestyle than a life changing experience. It gives me the creeps when I hear someone claim God has to do something for them because they claim it in His name, like God’s anyone’s Jeannie In A Bottle. God is evident in life when average people do amazing things with power that is above anybody’s flesh. God’s power is manifested in peoples lives when they use His power to live a life of character based on His Biblical principles. I love music or anything that truly honors God, I get a little more than concerned when the Christian community blatantly breaks one of the Ten Commandments and takes God’s name in vain in order to make a buck. The problem is we can’t measure the heart of others, although with time everything is exposed. God will not be mocked. You just don’t hear people talking about the death, resurrection and the perfect sacrifice of the perfect God/man in Jesus Christ like the devout Christians use to. I left a church we had attended for 13 years due to the fact that it became a seeker friendly church and got so watered down with what I felt was trying not to offend or scare off new people. Didn’t sit well with me, to not speak about why we have hope seems like a slap in the face of God, and I for one don’t want to be part of that.
I’m also weary of the God’s people justifying their actions as if God’s church or people are part of a lost world, there is no grey, only black and white, right or wrong. Twisting our Christian society to feel like part of the world and using the same psychology to defend it makes my blood boil.
You asked for it!
Looks like I hit a pinched nerve! I love it though. I think you’re right though a lot of churches are becoming seeker-friendly and I worry that it isn’t to get people saved nearly as much as it is to fill seats. I think there are churches out there who are great at getting people saved, but almost have to expect them to eventually move on if they ever want anything a little more substantial than salvation talks all the time. It seems that a “good” church – or one with good leadership – would have a decent balance between their draw to the outside community and their ability to teach because each is equally important. In Matthew 28, Jesus tells the disciples to make MORE disciples, not jut tell people about Him and leave them at that.
Floyd, I love it!