If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. -1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV)
I’ve been thinking about this verse as it relates to worship music, both as a music leader and a congregation member. What it boils down to for me, in a musical context, is this:
Whatever I do, no matter how beautiful or excellent, if I do it without love I’m just making noise.
Love for what? Who? The first and most important answer is God (surprise!). Without a love for God and a desire to know Him more, our Sunday morning music really is just noise. This seems ridiculously obvious. Of course we need love of God as the motive for our praise! I mean, we’re singing about loving Him, right? But when I take a step back and examine my motives, what’s running through my mind and driving me at rehearsals, on Sunday morning, and during services is not always a love of God. It may be impatience, daily worries crowding out my thoughts, making me want to get through the songs as quickly as possible. It may be musicianship, wanting to nail a certain part in a song or show off my chops. It could be a sense of obligation or duty, or it could just be apathy, singing without seeing any real connection between the song and my daily life. Realizing this, I can see how empty and “clanging” my own worship can be if I’m not careful.
We also need love for the congregation. This is where it gets more difficult. Love of God is primary, yes, but it should always lead us to a greater love for others. It’s possible to start with a passion for God and want to praise Him in song, and then forget that as a worship leader we are serving the congregation, not ourselves. We are meant to be encouraging and facilitating the congregation in their worship, not inviting them to watch us and sing along if they can. What a congregation needs may not always be in line with our own artistic vision, but humility should allow us to serve with gladness regardless.
I do think, however, that a love of artistic beauty is also necessary. While it needs to be balanced with practicality and service to the congregation’s needs, as artists we should aspire to do the absolute best we can with what God has given us. God delights in creativity, and using the artistic gifts we’ve been given in as creative and passionate a way as we can glorifies Him.
With a driving love for God and desire to praise Him in song, a servant’s love for the congregation, and a love for the beauty and mystery of music, our worship can be truly powerful. Without love? Well…
I read a C.S. Lewis essay recently that got me thinking about the nature of worship, and our times of praise in music. Titled “Dogma and the Universe,” most of the essay addresses the question: “How can any system of belief that claims to be absolute and unchanging stay relevant in the face of our ever expanding knowledge about the universe?” He argues that no amount of increase in knowledge about the world around us can ever make the fundamental truths of Christianity any less true. They are tools that explain the universe to us, not containers that we try to stuff new knowledge into. In the same way mathematics is absolute and unchanging, yet is used to illuminate ever more surprising and complex workings of nature, the truth of Christianity is fundamental to understanding the universe, and our place in it. No amount of new knowledge can change the truth.
He ends the essay with a paragraph that struck me. No matter how much we think we know, he concludes:
“When any man comes into the presence of God he will find, whether he wishes it or not, that all those things which seemed to make him so different from the men of other times, or even from his earlier self, have fallen off him. He is back where he always was, where every man always is. Do not let us deceive ourselves. No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God: there is no copse, no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide us cover. We read in Revelation of Him that sat on the throne ‘from whose face the earth and heaven fled away’. It may happen to any of us at any moment. In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanishing leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and great commandment.”
Something clicked for me in reading that. Even as a Christian, I think I still try to hide from God at times, or at least wish that I could. I have subconscious picture in my head of God the Father, looking quite stern, and I’m hiding behind Jesus’ robe, afraid to peek my head out. This is (obviously) not what Jesus accomplished at the cross. He is not offering to sneak us into heaven without the Father noticing. He came to restore the relationship with God that was broken, and the life of Christianity is in accepting that we no longer need to hide from God. Ever since Adam and Eve, we’ve been hiding in the bushes, and now it’s time to come out.
I think that a life of worship is one of accepting God’s love, our complete exposure to Him and, as Lewis put it, learning to like it. In our best times of praise and prayer, we throw ourselves open in front of God with complete trust in His promise that we don’t need to be ashamed, only loved.
Here is a new recording and video for the song “Father, Forgive Them,” which was first released in episode 8. I hope it is helpful in your reflections this Holy Week. Please forward it to anyone who you think might benefit.
Finally, a new episode of Word Like Fire is being posted today! Thank you all for your patience and support. I’ve decided to drop the weekly schedule of the podcast for the time being, as I’d like to try expanding my focus some. I’m hoping to branch into video, write more blog posts, and explore other avenues for sharing these songs. Please sign up for the email list (right side of the page), and check back regularly for updates.
Thanks again to those of you who are listening, and please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new, so I wanted to give you all an update on what’s been happening in the last couple of months.
As I announced at the end of Episode 25 of the podcast, my wife and I were preparing for a move at the end of September. While we had to move out of our rental, various complications have stretched the home buying process out much longer than we expected. We have been staying with some very gracious friends, which has been a blessing, but I haven’t been able to do any recording. I have been writing, and am very excited about some new songs that will be kicking off the next series of Word Like Fire episodes.
When will they start? Well, we were supposed to be closing this week, but I got a call in the middle of writing this that things have been delayed. Again. Whenever we are able to close, the moving process will take some time, and there are some projects to be done in our new fixer-upper. One of these projects is building a new studio to record the songs for Word Like Fire. When this is completed, I plan to jump back into the song-a-week schedule.
In the meantime, why not listen to some old episodes, post comments, and share wordlikefire.com with a friend? I’ve made a few changes to the site, most notably there is now a simple play button you can click on to listen to each episode, for those of you who prefer not to download them.
Finally, I hope that you all have a fantastic Christmas!
