The Valley: October 2010

I once read that good music, like truth never falls in your lap, it must be sought after. I cannot express how much I fully agree.

There are few things I enjoy more than listening to music. I may not be the most well listened person you’ll meet but I certainly enjoy the music more than almost anyone. But, to tell you the truth, I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately concerning worship music. I don’t think I’ve heard any album in the last 6 months (possibly a year) that’s knocked me on my butt. I have been looking to find that "next thing", but to no avail. I have been waiting for something to come across my ears that draws me in line the first time i heard Prosch's Reckless Mercy.

Now don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed Misty Edwards's Relentless and Audra Lynn's new album stayed with me for a while. The MorningStar youth cd Crash This Place has been a great supplement. I cannot express how much I loved The Medicine by John Mark McMillan. That has been my staple over the last few years. But I am looking for the next Songs Inside The Sound of Breaking Down. Not an album that sounds like that, but an album that makes that type of effect on what worship can be.

The other day in my pursuit I went to iTunes to look around. I went to the Christian/Worship genre for the first time in years. What I found was utterly disappointing. I listened to a quick snippet from the top three or four albums. It was the same song, well not literally, but it had the same tired phrases and chord progressions.

Phrases like, "we are the generation" and"such a time as this" throughout. How can we possibly expect to pioneer fresh visitation and experience with Him if we keep trying to express our hearts with the same old words? It is true that words loose their potency over time.

The first time i heard Palanquin and Prosch said I empty out the pockets of my life it did something to me. It caused me to open and express my heart to the Father in a new way. This perspective touched the way I connected to Him.

As human beings we have a tendency to relate the music we hear to what was happening in our lives at that point. Van Halen Is This Love immediately reminds me of the feeling I had as a teenager listening to that song. My girlfriend had dumped me and that song was on repeat.

We are similar in our relationship to worship music. I feel that I have a tendency to relate an album that i was listening to in prayer to the season of my spiritual life. David Ruis Fragrant Oil takes me back to exactly what I felt the Father doing in my heart at that time in my life. I know that we operate this way. Is that why I feel this standard of what music i am looking for? Is that why every time I hear a new artist I compare it to the gold standard I have set in my heart? Is that really fair at all?

Sometimes I feel so cynical. I look at my feeling toward music and think "why do I have to be so difficult"? Why can't I just be like this guy who devours every Hillsong cd like it's God's holy nectar? Then, I hear Van Morrison sing Into The Mystic, or Ryan Adams' I Taught Myself How To Grow Old and I think "if I feel this way when hearing this why shouldn't something that is directed to our Father cause me to feel something even greater"?

I think it is time to raise our standard. To not allow anything less than honesty to be expressed to Him. Who cares if it will be the next corporate phenomenon. Who cares if it is "singable". Why is it necessary that a song have a catchy chorus?

If you communicate your heart to the Father it will cause those listening, or worshipping, to be draw in to a personal conversation of their own. It will mobilize, and not exclude them. That is the album I am looking for. That is why I am writing this. I know that God is doing some amazing things in my heart. He is drawing so near to me at this time. I am just looking for the Album that marks THIS season.

In love not judgment
-J