Music: A new language, a different perspective

When I was growing up I didn’t go to church but I went to a Christian camp one week a year. One week to get my entire “Christian” fix for the year. One year, my counselor said she didn’t listen to any other music but Christian music. Why? Because she didn’t see a reason to be spending her time with things that didn’t uplift her. So, little malleable me decided I wouldn’t either. That was the way to be a good, growing Christian, right? Do I regret this? In many ways, yes. Yet, would I have found the one song that kept me alive when I was suicidal? I played “Friend of a Wounded Heart” by Wayne Watson over and over and over again. This was before CDs so I just dubbed it on a 90 minute tape so I could listen to the song over and over without having to keep getting up and rewinding it. (And yes, I was one of those damn Christians who couldn’t believe what Amy Grant was doing.)

In the words of Gomez, the father from the Addams family, “I am much better now.”

I think there is something intrinsic in music that opens up new ways to see. Perhaps it is just because it is a different language. I like or at least can appreciate nearly all kinds of music now. I don’t necessarily draw a line between Christian and non-Christian artists because often I hear God in it. Sometimes, it may just be an appreciation for God-given talent.

The book suggests we need to change how we articulate and understand our faith to proclaim it to the world (p. 134). If the only way we know how to talk about God is through “Christian-ese” then perhaps we don’t understand what we believe. Music, poetry, allows us to put new words and word-pictures to truth beliefs in a language accessible to so many more people.