Can you hear the Music?

In my life as a DYO i get to visit many places both in and outside of Anglia. On Sunday I was in Sudbury attending one of their youth fellowship evenings and being made to feel old because I don't know the latest Bruno Mars song (the woeful rendition of 'More than words' by INXS didn't help either, with raised eyebrows from the 'yuf' whilst parents nodded in appreciation). Last week I drove to Bourne on Monday, across to Cambridge on Wednesday and down to Ipswich on Thursday. Truth of the matter is, I spend a lot of time in my car.

However, despite this fact that i drive more miles than I would care to count, I have a very small selection of CD's in my car and with Radio 1 determined to play no more than three songs the musical entertainment is somewhat lacking. This isn't helped by my forgetfulness to change the CD before I embark on another marathon trek across the death defying roads that are the fens. For example, I have had the same CD playing over and over and over and over and over again for at least three weeks. To make matters worse this CD is a BONUS CD that you find in your Soul Survivor Live album and only consists of 6 very short songs totalling a massive 20 minutes!!! So as I drive to Ipswich this CD repeats 4 times, as I drive to Bourne this repeats 8 times. Safe to say I know the songs, I know the music, I'm bored of the music, the music no longer bothers me, in fact I don't even recognise it exists.

It was on one of my many journey's last week that something about this struck me. As this monotone CD with it's now predictable choruses and (un)improvised melodies played over me I thought 'can I hear the music?'. Sure I know I can 'hear' the music but do I hear the melodies, the words? Am I enjoying and immersed in times of worship with these songs which are sung over me? The words sung by the worship leaders at this recording of 'momentum' week are words of truth, power and love. The music that acommpanies these words communicate passion, purpose and promise (yes I thought hard about making sure they all began with a P, I'm a youth worker afterall). Yet these songs of praise to Christ hadn't lost any of these traits in the never ending repetition that is my car, somehow I had lost the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

The world is a numbing place, we misplace our wonder in becoming more 'mature', we lose sight of miracles through 'becoming aware', we dumb down the sacrifice through 'fashionising the cross', we forget God's will through planning (and sometimes controlling) his kingdom. I look at Malachi, my 2 year old son, and wish to dwell in his world, were bugs are not pests but a new creature to play and run away from, were planes are magical creatures flying in the sky, were God is seen in the blossoming flower, the game of football, the 'nemo' fish. You may think this is ignorance, I would say it is bliss.

Repetition can be a dangerous thing. The more life plays over us, the more we forget life is designed for us to play in. Food isn't something that just appears in our refrigerated supermarkets for consumption but is, as Elton John eloquently puts it, part of the circle of life. The wonderful design of creation which Genesis 1 vs26 points out we are to take part in, both in looking after the world and reaping (not abusing) the goodness of creation given by God. 



When did Iphones become more exciting??



It is not only the practical elements of creation we begin to overlook either as we struggle to hear the music. Prayer meetings become places where you would rather do something else, band practices become about ensuring this song or piece is played right rather than God is present and partaking in our worship, planning events becomes about our strategy and clever thoughts rather than hearing God's voice speaking into HIS will for HIS kingdom. In short, God is squeezed out as we numb our ears and eyes to the music of his glory playing constantly over us and around us. Jesus sums this up in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 vs 14-15 in which he explains his use of parables and poignantly says;

"For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes"

I'll finish by telling you about where I was going on that journey. I was meeting up with a friend for some advice and guidance on some challenges I am facing. In our conversations over bad coffee he followed up God's challenge to me (which he knew nothing about) and challenged me to see Christ in everything I do. To stop knowing this information with my head but to see it with my heart that I am God's co-worker and that Christ goes before me, is behind me and is with me. I was challenged to hear the music.

On the way home from that meeting I turned up this repetivitve monotone predicatable CD to the Tinchie Stryder level of volume and worshipped as if I had only just encountered the music and my God for the first time. In that moment of abandonment in the car, looking slightly obscure and crazed to my fellow drivers, I heard, I saw and I smiled. God's music is wonderful and all around us, if we'll only open our ears and hear.