Rock On!

Confession. Recently on the way back from a long trip I was spinning through the radio dial. Amidst a range of talk radio, jazz, classic, worship and hits...I did stop for two songs that in former days would have really captivated me: "For Those About to Rock" by ACDC, and "Foolin" by Def Leppard.

During our teen years we breathed the air of rock and roll. If I knew Scripture as well as lyrics, I'd be a renown scholar; if the Word captured my soul the way that music did, I'd be a saint.

It's taken awhile for me to recognize how much (not all!) of that air was and is toxic. I'm aware of how certain music has a capacity to corrupt a soul's wiring for real intimacy with God and others.

Music does matter. The Ancients regarded music as the language of the soul. The highest Angel was heaven's choir director. Music is immeasurably powerful. It is formative. And too many of us passively accept its formation.

If we want to know how the rock-and-roll (and secular music in general) culture translates into lived experience, we need look no further than all the VH1 “Behind the Music” biographies. Across-the-board, we’re given the evidence of chemical abuse, recklessness, broken lives, broken marriages, depression and even suicide.

The Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger put it best. Having tried all those things, they still couldn’t “get no satisfaction.” Look at them. Does it matter? They’ve been shattered! (from Rolling Stone’s tunes, “Satisfaction” and “Shattered”)

To recognize our souls have been fashioned for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is to recognize that we have a form, is to recognize that we need to be formed, is to recognize things which do not form, but corrupt.

God made us for Himself. He invites us to build not upon shifting sand, but upon rock, so when the storms come we will stand strong. Not be destroyed. (Matt. 7:24-27)

Lord, may we recognize, seek and desire only those things that form us for our unsurpassed nature in You.

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