Music. I’ve written elsewhere about my love of music.
Some people say that music can’t teach you what a good sermon can teach. Some people say that music, “worship” music shouldn’t have so much importance in a worship service.
I totally disagree.
A song can reach me far faster than any sermon ever. The greatest preachers in the world fall short with me when a short three minute song is available. The very same truths a preacher can spend 45 minutes expounding on will leave me cold until it’s put to music. You can tell me for hours how great God is and how majestic and wonderful and I will agree with you. But, start singing Chris Tomlin’s How Great Is Our God and I will be in tears over the reality of it. Tell me that God has me in the palm of His hand and He is watching over me and, depending on the day and the circumstance, I will agree with you. Or tell you it’s not possible. But let me hear Matthew West on the radio telling me “He Is” and my heart will thaw and wounds will begin to heal. Skillet telling me it’s the Last Night I’ll spend alone and I will believe it long before a preacher’s sermon telling me the exact same thing.
This past week I have refused to turn on my mp3 player at work. I’ve refused to seek out the comfort of Skillet, Chris Tomlin, Brandon Heath, Jars of Clay, Mercy Me. I needed them. Seriously. But I just couldn’t handle it. I preferred to wallow in my misery than seek the comfort of the music. Why? The only thing I can come up with is Satan found a new tactic to keep me away from God. No more.
It is my sincerest prayer that the next time I face a crisis I will run for my mp3 player, my cd’s, my computer, the radio…whatever….and crank it up! The words may have been penned by very fallible mortal people, but God uses their words to speak to my heart. He uses the words and the music to comfort me, encourage me, engage me.
I learned my lesson.
No matter what the crises, I need to let God speak to me in the song so I will hear Him.
