Let's take a look at some songs shall we? I wish I could claim the words that I hear in songs. So many songs, Religious and Secular, have such amazing lines in them. They are able to communicate things in a short stanza or even shorter verse. I've heard songs that with a single line cut to my heart in a way I just hadn't thought possible. Or they brought something to my attention within me that I didn't even know was there. And still some songs just cut right to my soul, speaking words I've always wanted to say but just couldn't put them in the right order.
I'm a writer, or at least I am aspiring to be (lots of stories in progress), but never in a million years could I put things in such short order and beauty as song writers do. Now I'm not putting myself down, at least not trying to. Authors and Lyricists are honestly two very different jobs. Similar but not the same. Songs I truly believe are a way for us to communicate with God, a very unique and special way. Singing and Songs are a special thing that is almost unexplainable in our world, and though today we really just see it as entertainment it's so much more.
Take a listen to this song. Originally titled Be Thou My Vision, one of my favorite Hymns. This version is slightly modified (language is a bit newer) and the melody they've put with it is much more upbeat than the song is usually sung but that's not a bad thing, in fact in this case it's pretty awesome.
Not sure how you felt about listening to this version of the song but I have to say, this song has always cut deep for me. Now when I was younger I didn't really notice the song, but when I was a child I thought as a child and being just a little bit more grown up I see things different and not only that but God opens your eyes when you seek him to notice what you may have missed along the way. This was a song and a depth that I missed while I was young and my vision was bad.
My mind works in a very unique way. I can and will go in depth more with what I'm about to say but for now I'm going to gloss over it. I have a great community in my mind, characters, broken out aspects of my personality, and yes even a version of myself. I'm sure that doesn't make a whole lot of sense but again I'll address the great host in my head later. For the longest time these parts of me were out of sync and somewhat volatile and disagreeable. I could never bring them to order and even still I have trouble sometimes. But as I began to embrace Christ more and more, to love him and not just that but to embrace the salvation I received when I repented and was baptized, to seek the Holy Spirit and allow it to work in me, the Host began to come to order. This was only the beginning. Something amazing happened as this change took place.
To put it simply. The Host began to sing as one.
I would find myself singing in church and as is usual the Host would stand silent and so would I among them, we were silent and stoic in a dark space. If you can just imagine a great gathering of the most diverse characters from fantasy and imagination standing in a blank black empty space you'd be close to seeing what is in my head. (Except there's a high cliff in my head...not really sure why). But as I was trying to seek God, the me in my head began to sing. It was as if this woke up the others, they'd become somewhat orderly but now as I began to sing within me they took took up the chorus.
The Host is honestly comprised of good characters and bad characters (all from stories and ideas I have) as well as myself and other broken off aspects of my personality. I wish I could explain how uncharacteristic it is to see an evil villain that does horrible things in stories singing praise and worship to the Lord. To see some parts of my personality raising their hands (which is something I don't do) and crying out to the Lord in worship. There's just nothing I can say to do it justice. It was that singing, of songs like the one I just had you listen to that brought my mind together. It's songs like those that expressed something I'd been longing to say but just didn't have the words to say it.
And it's not just them singing, but dancing and kneeling and jumping for joy and crying and shouting and raising their hands and calling out to God all as one mighty entity with a thousand different parts and characteristics and passions and places, but all they want and all I want is to sing and love the Lord.
I think a song is the soul calling out, because let's be honest, the soul is not some stale monotone transparent ghost that hovers around going "ooooo" (ya know...kinda like a ghost), it's this strange mysterious and glorious created image akin to the Creator. It's desire is for the one that created it and I think singing is it's own personal way of speaking to the creator.
J.R.R. Tolkien illustrated this in a very unique way in the Silmarillion where the universe was literally sung into existence. It's beautiful really, to think of things like that. That the whole of creation is a song being sung.
I don't know that I've made some specific point here or even tried to, but what I'm setting out to do with this blog is to pose thoughtful questions and views, to make us and me think about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the world and what it is we are supposed to be doing and being as Christians.
If there's anything I want you to get from this, it's that singing and songs are important. It's the soul singing out in praise and yes even in just fun because this world was meant to be enjoyed by us, God made it for us to enjoy and praise him for, so we should do so in all it's forms.
