Worship – The Soundtrack of My Faith #1

In ancient times it was believed that you could judge a nation/country by its music. Turns out that maybe there is more truth to this than we previously thought. Ask any person what kind of music they like and you can probably tell something about them. Life is a journey, and we all tend to gravitate to the music that best describes where we are in life. For me there are songs I listened to years ago that I thought were the greatest songs ever recorded (and probably would have fought you over it), and I haven’t listened to them in years. Other songs I am still listening to ten years later, because they have grown with me. This series is about the music that has traveled with me on my journey of faith.

I distinctly remember the first albums I ever received. It was my thirteenth birthday and my Aunt gifted me “Hello Love” (Chris Tomlin), “Revelation” (Third Day), and “Until The Whole World Hears” (Casting Crowns). To this very day, I can probably sing every lyric from every song, all in the album order. I still think it’s amazing how my Aunt picked those specific albums. Chris Tomlin was reverent and humble, Third Day was edgier and emotional, Casting Crowns was passionate and grounded. Those three albums were all on different spectrums.

What my Aunt ended up showing me was something incredible and mind-blowing. She taught me that faith wasn’t just merely reading my Bible and saying my prayers before bed. (all good things to be sure) I learned that faith was something that could be passionately expressed. This may seem simple, but this was actually a powerful truth. It meant that faith was not just about saying the right things; it was a part of life.

Those albums taught me that I could sing (with my scratchy, pitchy voice) and connect to God. I could sing these songs, when I was happy or sad, and things would be better. I listened to worship music and never really stopped. Over the years I discovered new artists who were writing these powerful and anthematic worship songs. Usually they would be easy to learn, and easy to sing.

I listened to the global version of “How Great Is Our God” by Chris Tomlin and felt a powerful sense of community, as I sang with believers from all over. Before I ever learned any real theology, I was already learning to see the movement of Jesus Christ as a global one.

My Aunt played “Today Is The Day” by Lincoln Brewster in her car, and we both sang out loud. (She’s a better singer than me by the way) That song instilled in me that the life in Jesus was a passionate and exciting one. We also both loved his guitar playing.

“God’s Not Dead” by Newsboys was huge. You couldn’t go anywhere and not hear it. It was such a powerful call that God was alive and well, and that we should live like it.

For Christmas, my cousins knew how much I loved worship music and burned a copy of ‘Come Away’ by Jesus Culture for me. They had this raw, Cranberry-esque sound that I’ve always loved. “One Thing Remains” was a song that sustained me as I would wrestle with perfectionism and legalism.

These are just a few snapshots of worship songs that have stayed with me. Sometimes, worship music gets trashed for not being creative or for being too glib. People who say these kinds of things really just don’t get it. Although I would later tackle everything from John Piper to John Calvin, the best theology I’ve ever learned came from these songs. I learned that worship isn’t merely sitting quietly while the Pastor speaks once a week.