Have you ever found yourself singing a song that you don’t like? And then it gets stuck in your queue and you can’t seem to get it out of your mind. Over and over it rolls. This bothers me the most when the reason the song got stuck there in the first place was the fact that I disagreed with the message of the song.
This is the reason I don’t like Country music. All the cheating and self-imposed heartbreak is too much for me. I don’t want to be thinking about my spouse cheating on me, or on the death of my dog. I want my mind to be focused on my goals and aspirations, on eternity. I get enough heartache and tragedy in my life without importing it from the music I listen to.
Jesus calls us to purposely listen to the good messages. He concludes the illustration of the lamp by using that familiar phrase, “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” I hear Him saying that we must be deliberate about taking in the positive. We need to focus on it. We need to take time to digest it and incorporate it into our lives. You can’t have passive spiritual growth. We must be active in order to grow.
On the negative message side, we have a responsibility to be careful about what we listen to. The old saying, “Garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind. That is why Jesus tells us to watch what we hear. We need to be aware of what we are taking into our minds. We should not be passive consumers of music or anything else. We need to be focused on what is coming into our lives. When things contrary to the Word enter, we need to be critical of it, take it apart, examine it, and refute it. We can’t eliminate junk coming in, but we don’t have to purchase an extra shed in the backyard to house it.
I have met too many people with Country Music theology. Everything they know about the Lord comes from what they have heard over the radio, none of which is true. The Gospel gets reduced to a collection of clichés. There is no depth and very little truth. And there is a whole bunch of lies. Just so you think I am picking on country music fans, Gangsta Rap, Rock, Hip Hop, and even much of popular Christian music lacks fidelity to the Truth and spiritual depth.
We have a responsibility to examine the life of the people delivering the message as well. The message of Jesus is intimately connected to the life of Jesus and to our lives. We are the vessel for the message. If our vessel is dirty, the message gets corrupted. If we speak about fidelity, but aren’t faithful ourselves, our message gets dismissed. We can’t be politically correct and be a Jesus-follower. Jesus was very politically incorrect. If the person giving the message, in word, music, art, or any other medium, and their life doesn’t match their message, don’t listen to them.
Our lives must match our message.
The Arnold Journey 