Music and Lies

What does music do for you?

One of the worst moments for me is when I learn one of my favorite singers or bands does not write their own lyrics. I hear their voice, and something rings hollow. The songs aren't their own. They haven't lived them. They don't mean them.

Am I any different?

I lead worship, but I have a hard time singing some verses of some songs.

See, I can't sing a line that is a blatant lie. If a song says "falling on my knees in worship" but I can't fall to my knees, I don't want to sing it. In fact, this week, I will not sing that verse because I don't think it applies to what we are doing.

But those are the blatant lies. What about the sneaky lies? The ones that aren't so obvious?

The songs we sing make some pretty strong claims.

"My heart and my soul, I give You control."
"My whole life I place in Your hands."
"With everything we will shout for Your glory"
"I want to know the sound of Your heart. I want to live for You now."
"I pray to see Your love become our cause."
"All I am is Yours."

If we were to take seriously every line that was sung in every song during our services, what would our lives look like? Would they look at all the way that our lives look now?

What if, instead of just creating lists of what not to do, we started being "moved into action"? I have found in my own life, that when I sit still is when it is the hardest to still keep a "following" mindset. It is hard to follow when you are still.

I've been thinking about this for a while. What a challenge that would be... to live the words of every song sung during one service.

Because if we don't live the lyrics, isn't each song simply music and lies?

2 comments:

Romi said...

Hmmm....some excellent points to ponder, Richard! I especially found this to be very challenging: "If we were to take seriously every line that was sung in every song during our services, what would our lives look like? Would they look at all the way that our lives look now?"

Thanks for stepping it up a notch with these challenging questions!

Tara K said...

You have a great perspective on this whole subject. I've always been one to look at it as... if I'm not living this out, I don't wanna sing the lyrics..as if I feel guilty. But rather than saying I'm not gonna sing it cuz I'm not living up to it.... why not sing the words and then live it out?

Thanks for this challenge.