Still Worshipping Through Secular Music

In a [Facebook note turned] blog post from several years ago, I contemplated the idea of secular music having purpose as worship. Over the years, there have been songs here and there that I have added to my mental collection of "secular worship" music.

Just before Christmas, I heard Phillip Phillips' song "Home" for the first time. Initially, I was taken in by the melody and the vocals (he sounds eerily like Mumford & Sons). But once I listened closely to the lyrics, I was impacted powerfully by the song as one of worship. Not Phillip Phillips--but Jesus--singing His song of protection and care in these lyrics.

Beautiful.

"Hold on to Me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road."

Leaf on My Shoulder OR SOTC 31/365

It is well-known that summer is my favourite season. All that green, all that life, all that sunshine, all that warmth!

Still, there is beauty in every season. I have always known this, but I find my awareness of this truth heightened in the last year or so. Perhaps it comes with age. Or perhaps because, as a home owner, each season means something different for my space. Or perhaps because I'm taking more pictures. Whatever the reason, this past year, I have really noticed the seasons more, and have been trying to embrace the beauty that they bring. Still, knowing a truth, and believing it are sometimes two different things. For example, you could not have convinced me two winters ago that winter was beautiful. Aside from the bajillion inches of snowfall and lack of sunshine, there was too much going on in my own life to be happy about most of that winter. As another example, several years ago, as I was still fresh dealing with separation from my husband, autumn didn't even register.

I think the beauty we see in the seasons is heavily impacted by what else is going on in our lives. And I think, in part, it might be one of the reasons God imparted a planet in the universe that rotates around the sun such that seasons exist. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. Regardless of what else is going on, these seasons happen. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. They may each look a little different from year to year, but the seasons are a constant in a world that constantly changes, in circumstances that are different from one moment to the next.

I mean, how awful would it be if the soft cherry blossoms of spring--or juicy summer berries, or the rich colours of autumn, or pristine fields of winter white--only occurred once, and it was during a challenging time of your life, and you missed it?

I think my sense of hope would dwindle.

I do think that God wants us to marvel in the beauty of each season every year, regardless of our own personal lives. The whole of creation is for His glory--we should always be acknowledging and praising that! And yet, paradoxically, I think God recognizes our brokenness. Our own human nature often gets in the way of recognizing the blessing of creation that He has given us. And so, He repeats these seasons, knowing that we may miss the amazing beauty here and there, and mercifully giving us the next season as an opportunity to praise.

...There is a leaf on my shoulder in this photograph. I didn't notice it until I uploaded the photo onto my computer. And I suppose I could have Photoshopped it out, but the leaf is evidence of leaves raked, rolled in, and tossed. I am enjoying the autumn colours, the autumn sunshine, soaking up His creation by rolling around in it a little. :)

I have a leaf on my shoulder.

Way better than a chip, I'd say.

Any Song is Worship?

So, I was loading up my iPod with songs for a bike ride this afternoon, and I was trying to decide if I felt like Christian music or secular (I went with secular in the end, but that's beside the point). As I was pondering this, I remembered something interesting from high school.

In my high school, we had a lunch-hour youth group kind of thing. I only participated when I was in grade ten, and I only remember two of the get-togethers. One was ice blocking (also beside the point), and the other was listening to secular music from a Christian perspective.

I remember we listened to "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, which talks about a guy who's pretty much stalking his ex. Except we were told to listen to it as if it was God speaking to US, and I remember thinking that was kind of cool (feel free to check out the lyrics).

So that memory went through my mind this afternoon as I was choosing between Christian and secular, and starting to wonder if it really mattered.

Now clearly, there are songs out there that can't be viewed from any sort of Christian perspective; and I'm not simply talking about garbage types of songs. There are just some that tell a very specific story and can't be viewed from another perspective... like the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," for instance.

But that still leaves a lot of other songs. In fact, Stephen Curtis Chapman took the one-hit wonder 500 Miles and turned it into a praise song (although he replaced the line "when I get drunk..." with different lyrics).

I think there are so many songs that could be re-framed. That could shift your perspective on your mid-day drive while you are stuck in traffic. That could offer up a new form of praise. That could alter your presumptions about what love really looks like.