If you know me at all, you know I love music. I love listening to it, playing it, singing it, and even watching it be produced. I love how artists can take sounds and combine them with words and make you feel something so deep, you can't explain it.
If you were to look at my ITunes library, I don't have a lot of variety. I mainly listen to Christian music and that is about it. I have a few "popular" songs, but not a lot. I never really have listened to mainstream radio- growing up I wasn't allowed to. We either listened to Country or Christian, and as I have gotten older I have seen no need to fill my mind with what a lot of time is garbage.
But when I started working at the BLOCK, I had to start listening to mainstream radio because thats what the kids listen to on the way home. I was astonished by what I heard. If I don't change the station (which most of the time I have to) I have 11 year olds singing about sex, drugs, rape, and a million other things. It literally makes me sick. Inbetween schools, I always switch back to my Christian radio station so that I can refresh my mind a little bit and clear out some of the crap I just listened to.
I'm not writing this to act like a "goody two shoes" Christian. No, there are some songs that I hadn't heard prior to working at the BLOCK that have a good beat and appropriate meanings and I really enjoy. I am writing because of the story I am about to tell you.
Yesterday I picked up some kids from one of the middle schools, and one of our kids, we will call him J, sat in the front seat. Now J is 11 or 12 and has a large variety of behavior issues, and has a very hard time focusing and sitting still. But, he LOVES music so I generally let him pick the radio station when he is in the van. A song came on the radio that isn't horribly inappropriate, but still just bad and I made a face. J looked at me and said "You don't like this kinda music, do you?" And I said "No J, I don't." and he asked me why and we began a conversation about mainstream music. He finally says to me "Ya know, I sing these songs a lot and I guess they have a lot of bad stuff in them and thats why I get in trouble for singing them at school. But I don't really even like the words or listen to the words, I just like how good the beat is. I wish they didn't have bad stuff in them so I could just sing them and not get in trouble!!"
And at that moment I was glad that my parents never let me listen to a lot of mainstream music when I was younger. Yes, I wasn't up on what was "popular". I got laughed at when I couldn't tell the Spice Girls apart, and didn't have Brittany Spear's newest album. But you know what? I also never had to even think about if what I was singing was "appropriate" or going to get me in trouble. These kids don't even understand what they are singing about. They don't understand that one of their "favorite" songs is talking about a man forcing sex on a woman and then telling her "Don't tell them!" It makes me so sad, that these kids (especially those who are not Christian) do not have uplifting, encouraging music to listen to. All they have is sex, swearing, and drugs. And yet, it has been a HUGE conversation starter with my kids. We speak the same language of sorts, and that is the language of music. I understand how they have their "jams" and they love certain songs and whatnot. But I have also realized this: This music is polluting their minds.
I can DEFINITELY see a difference in my life when I listen to mainstream music vs. Christian music. The difference? When I am listening to my Jesus jams, my focus is on HIM. My focus is on HIS plan for my life. Does that include future romance/marriage/kids, other relationships in my life, problems in life, and joys in life? Absolutely. Just because all of my music is "Christian" does not mean it is all worship music and I am okay with that!! When I listen to mainstream music, I suddenly find myself lusting over things I wouldn't normally- sex, money, power, even food, and things that have NO depth or meaning. They may make us happy in the moment, but for eternity? They are worthless. I find it appaling when some of my traditional Christian friends hate on Christians who listen to Contemporary Christian music. Um hello?! Would you rather me be filling my mind with Godly things? Or things of this world. So no, it is not your first world hymns. But my Contemporary Christian music is the same thing to the world now as your hymns were in that time period.
So here is my random thought of the day for you: I'm not writing this to tell you to never listen to mainstream music again. But I am writing this to challenge you to think about what you are filling your mind with and the affect that it then has on you. I'd like to challenge you to this: Take the 30 day Christian music challenge and listen to only Christian music. I know it will change your life!! But at the same time, don't shut people out just because they listen to something different than you. Use your tastes in music as a conversation starter. Ask them why they love what they listen to, why it makes them feel good. And then you will have a chance to tell them why you're music makes you feel good! It's a great opportunity to bring the light of the gospel into an area that Satan has overpowered with sin, because music is truly the one language that we all understand! :)
