“God gave rock & roll to you gave rock & roll to you it’s in the heart of everyone…”
Well, I liked that song. I like a lot of songs. I’m not sure it’s true that God put rock & roll in the “heart of everyone” though.
We’ve recently had a double whammy if you will. Not only are we getting older and more out of touch with what kind of music our students appreciate but we moved to a new culture with completely different standards as well. Hindi music is very different from what we are used to. In fact they even use different scales! We were missing out. The sound of a soprano’s (if that’s what they call them) voice going into orbit in the bending pitches of an Indian scale can really be an awesome experience. We’ve had several occasions to hear some live music here and it really is beautiful even if it is completely different than what I’m used to. Move that to a church setting and a local church service can be a really amazing thing. Even if we still don’t always know what they are saying, they sure sound nice saying it.
Many things in life are like music. Simon Cowell makes us laugh with his belief that he is the foremost authority on what is good and what is not. Being a producer he is very influential but just like the record producers that turned down the Beatles he is certainly not the final authority. What an amazingly diverse world we live in!
Just like with music, folks often feel very strongly about things that really amount to nothing more than a preference. I also appreciate most what I like the most. It is a dangerous line though. We should always be on guard against elevating our opinions over other’s on matters of simple preference. I wonder at the number of people who have argued that a certain kind of music does not glorify God in church. Preference and emotion do not combine to create a “word of the Lord”. The Holy Spirit can actually do that all by Himself. Lets keep a guard on every aspect of our lives. Lets be sure that we aren’t clobbering people just to promote our favorite team, band, color, or mannerism. There are dozens of applications of this principle and in every area I am certain that those of us that reject something different for that reason alone will be worse for it. It is an absolute blast to explore the gigantic cultural differences between young and old, foreigners and locals… especially within the Body of Christ.
-ICA