Today as I was driving around town this afternoon finishing up a bunch of things, my ipod popped up with The Beatles Let it Be. It reminded me of back in high school when our church youth choir sang that along with One Tin Soldier. Apparently we needed to sing some songs from the 70s, who knows.

In any case, as I sang along as I often do (and probably look ridiculous doing), I started thinking about that time, and about how the words of songs really affect me. I hadn't ever heard One Tin Soldier before, but it was amazing to me as we sang it, what power stood behind the message of peace.

I don't make it any secret that I don't like mainstream Christian music. Oh, I own plenty of it, but I generally don't like it. Mainly because I don't think that it is always telling a message. Worship is great, I love worship, but I want to be changed by the whole service, not just the message. I've been attending traditional worship again on Sunday mornings (for a long time I was going to the "contemporary" service) and I rediscovered my love for hymns. Oftentimes, I see hymns as ringing true to the heart, and not just being repeating stanzas of nothing that we just sing and raise our hands to because we are expected to. They aren't these kind of creepy love songs that in recent years have become so popular in worship.

When they aren't sung as dirges, and use more modern language, hymns can be a powerful testimony of the Kingdom of God here on earth. The vast majority are based solidly on scripture, which is more than I can say for a lot of contemporary Christian music. For me today, I experienced God while singing Let it Be. We don't have to have Christian music or other "Christian" labeled things in order to get a glimpse at the divine. We just have to be open to God speaking, and be ready to listen.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30, 2007 at 3:00 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.