The Salty Peanut Gallery

This is a rant about music. I have this problem with music that requires very little talent to write or perform. I have no patients for it whatsoever. Yet that seems to be what is permeating the airwaves these days. Where have all the songwriters gone? Are there no real poets anymore? I also have no patients for what I like to call “cookie cutter vocalists”. You know the kind that the big record companies market because they have a certain sound that they think will sell, thus creating a world where everybody sounds the same. The voices are interchangeable since it’s more about producing a sound then it is fostering individuality. And then there are the “copycat vocalists.” You know the kind. They don’t have a sound of their own so they barrow other people’s sound. Look, if I wanted to here Alanis Morissette I’d listen to one of her albums, not some one else trying to sound just like her.

But here is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to contemporary Christian music. It has to do with this trend we’re seeing toward singing “love songs” to Jesus. Somehow songwriters today have decided that declaring our love for Jesus should be an important part of worship. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:

“I’m so in love with You”
“You are everything that I live for”
“I want to stay in Your warm embrace”
“Oh the love between you and I”
“Nothing left to lose loving you again”
“I am yours and you’re mine”
“All I really want is for your love to hold me”

Would somebody please show me the biblical precedent for this kind of touchy-feely worship? Where in scripture does it say that we are to honor the Lord with superficial love songs? Are there any examples of this being done say in the Psalms or possibly in early church worship? The answers is no, at least not in the way that it is being done today. So the real question is, how SHOULD Christ followers go about proclaiming their love for the One who created the universe and who gives eternal life? What is God’s love language so to speak?

Jesus gives us the answer in John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Our greatest expression of love is in our obedience to Him. God has spelled out in His word His expectations of us when it comes to morality and wisdom. When we surrender to His will for our lives we demonstrate the true extent of our love for Him and in turn we find happiness and blessing. So if you really want to sing about your love for God, sing about that, not some shallow gushing of emotion. Sing about obedience and surrender to the One we love.

I WANNA OBEY!
by Daniel Chafin Bryant
copyright 2008 ASCAP

i want to plant joy
i want to plant peace
i want to plant hope
yeah, i want to be free
i want to be kind
i want to obey
i want to grow stronger
each and every day

because i’ll reap what i sow
and what i sow is gonna grow
Lord i pray for Your strength again today…
and may the seeds that i sow
Lord, bless You as they grow
as i trust You, Jesus
all along the way…
i wanna obey!

i’m gonna reap joy
i’m gonna reap peace
i’m gonna reap hope
yeah, i’m gonna be free
i’m gonna be kind
i’m gonna obey
i’m gonna grow stronger…
each and every day

though my sins be as scarlet
You have washed me white as snow…
You have set me free forever
You’re my joy…
my peace…
my hope!

I WANNA OBEY!