MANY CHRISTIAN MUSICIANS HOLD BACK EMOTIONALLY!
MOST NON CHRISTIAN MUSICIANS DON'T!!
nothing else dishonors God more than passionless worship!!
i'm sure you've heard love songs where the man or woman express their love for each other in words that sound like worship, saying things that really should only be said about or to God. or you've heard raw emotion in the expression of a non christian musician in subject matter that is infinitely inferior to the glory of God.
yet an example of what i hear on some christian radio stations with "sorry cliche christian music" is an acoustic guitar with a whining man, who sounds more like he's talking than singing. when the christian musician is a woman, there is usually more passion, but the SAME KIND OF PASSION heard in almost every other song with "passion" on the christian station. in other words, the passion seems contrived, like the christian musician knows he or she should feel passion for God, BUT THEY SINCERELY DON'T, so they WILL themselves into a state of mock passion. we know raw emotion and passion when we hear it.
then there are some christians who indeed sing with passion, BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SINGING OR TALKING ABOUT! they focus so much on being creative that their creativity negates God's reality. these usually don't mention God or Jesus at all. this would be like a love song where the man doesn't mention the woman,or the woman fails to mention the man of her affection.
because the goal of the christian musician is to bring the listener WITH HIM OR HER into the presence of God, the musician must indeed BE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD!! THERE CAN BE NO PASSION WITHOUT THIS INTIMATE CONNECTION!!!!
so the lack of passion with the christian musician is the lack of genuine intimate communion with God. you can't sing passionately about what you are not experiencing.
but the non christian musician expresses his or her experience, JUST AS IT IS, HOLDING BACK NOTHING!!! SWEARING. ANGRY. LUSTFUL. GREEDY. NEEDY. LONELY. WHATEVER. IT'S THERE.
we, those who know the truth and are one with truth, rarely tell or sing the truth. because of this, our music is mostly sorry.
i believe i remember the christian rapper ambassador talking about the advantages the christian rapper has over the non christian rapper. according to him, rap usually involves rappers bragging about themselves, and they usually go too far! but you can't go too far in bragging about God!! you will never run out of things to say about Him, and you can never honor Him highly enough!!
i feel the same way about all christian music, art, or expression. christians should possess the most passion in creative expression, the most raw emotion, the most skill in their creations. we are the sons and daughters of God, those whose bodies are the temples of God! our music should bring all who listen into God's glorious presence with passion!
"SO WHAT?" some may ask. "What if I'm not a Christian artist or creative type? What do all of these posts have to do with me?"
EVERYTHING!
God The Creator, The Creative One, made you in His image and likeness. You look like Him and act like Him. The first and most practical place you can start is how you talk from now on!!!
I'll quote some of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis to illustrate what I mean:
"To say the very thing you mean, the whole of it, nothing more less or other than what you really mean, that is the whole art and joy of words."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.S. Lewis’s last interview was on May 7, 1963—six months before he died. One of Sherwood Wirt’s questions was on writing: “How would you suggest a young Christian writer go about developing a style?”
Lewis responded:
"The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that."" Never exaggerate. Never say more than you really mean."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What really matters is:–
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean 'More people died' don't say 'Mortality rose.'
4. In writing. Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was 'terrible,' describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was 'delightful'; make us say 'delightful' when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, 'Please will you do my job for me.'
5. Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two things that stand out to me that I give to you from C.S. Lewis:
1. Over and over, he focuses on saying what you really mean.
2. He even attributes this to the development of a style of your own.
Creativity is really self-expression, which means telling the one listening to you what you really think, feel, or want! The musician uses music to say what he really means. The artist uses art to say what she really means. You may be neither, but your words are music and art if you fully express them.
DON'T HOLD BACK, CHILD OF GOD! Tell people what you really mean, always, about God and yourself as His child, from this moment on.
And even if you are not a child of God right now, but you are reading my words, BE ABSOLUTELY HONEST WITH YOURSELF AND EVERY ONE ELSE FROM THIS DAY FORWARD!!! Not only will you stumble upon originality and individuality, as well as liberty, but you will, in the end, see the very face of God--The Face of the Lord Jesus Christ, The Way, The Truth, and The Life!!
No comments:
Post a Comment