Confessions of a Follower

Today I wanted to talk for a minute about the music industry, particularly the difference in motivation between those in Christian music and secular music. In short, I am intrigued by the difference between these two categories of musicians. 

Over my years as a budding musician and now avid lover of worship and worship music, I have experienced time in the Christian music mindset from being involved in my church worship praise bands and the Rock-N-Roll mindset during my years in high school. The main difference in motivation between these two is one thing: self. The last band I was in during my senior year of high school dealt with this a lot. 

The band was made up of me, my friend John, and another guy named Ryan. We never had a name, and by the end of the whole experience, it was just me and John left. But regardless of us not having a name and only having a guitarist and drummer, the idea of self as a motivator still came into play. One night when John and I were trying to write a song about our experiences, we got to talking about how we got into music. I told him about how it was all God who blessed me with this and it's been snowballing to my love for worship music and he told me that he just wanted to play and practiced to be better for himself.

Hopefully you can see what motivated me and what motivated my friend John. I was into music to glorify the Lord and use my gifts for Him and John was out to be good and someday get fame and the like. Unfortunately, it was my motivation for the Lord (and my faith, really) that broke us up that night. Our conversation to try to write a song led to John telling me he was about sixty-six percent sure there wasn't a God and he was pretty much an atheist. Now, I don't write to hate on my friend John. He's an awesome guy, Christ-believer or not. I can only pray and hope for him that he would come to know God in a real way someday.

Anyway, all stories and rambling aside, there's a motivation to glorify God with music and there's the motivation to get money and fame and glorify yourself with music. I fall with glorifying God with whatever music I'm a part of. But what intrigues me about this clash of motivation is that I'm wondering where secular artists come up with their ideas for songs. It sort of seems easy for Christian musicians to write about a mountaintop experience they had or a time when God was there during a dark time in life, but that's not exactly a bitter breakup or hangover after a one-night stand that some rock songs are about.

It's easy for us as Christians, and Christian musicians, to take for granted what we have: the hope of Jesus Christ. But what about everyone else? I wonder if we really understand what a life that looks fine on the surface yet there's emptiness is like. I don't know that we can relate to that completely. Well, maybe in one sense we can because we were lost at one time in our lives. But, I think it's also true that once we know Christ, we sometimes forget what life used to be like; we forget what we came from.

Here's a song from one of my favorite secular bands, American Hi-Fi. This song's called "Lost" and I feel it may relate what a life with the God-shaped void looks like. Either that or he's lost without that special someone. I'll let you choose, but my challenge to you is don't forget the dark places you've come from in your life. Remember what life without Christ was like; understand that there are people still filling those voids in their lives with things that will never satisfy them. I pray that our hearts would break for everyone who's like this. I pray we'd be concerned over anyone who doesn't have the abundant life we have with Jesus. I pray we would really care about people and what those people are motivated by. I believe that's part of our calling as Disciples. Jesus wishes that none would perish, that everyone would have everlasting life. What about you?