Why Are We Moved?

Sitting working on different things last evening I was listening to my iTunes on shuffle. Many times when "spiritual" or "religious" tunes pop up, I advance the song. I am discovering that a lot of what I thought were great spiritual tunes (of contemporary Christian music) are kind of dull today. (No, I won't name any names.) I was beginning to wonder if I had lost touch with the spiritual side.

But then a song comes on that I just can't skip. That happened last evening with Rebecca St. James doing This is the Air I Breathe. Chills go up my spine, I get goosebumps and my mind and soul are captured. This is a song that truly captures what it's singing about. The music and the words, the vocal stylings and the background arrangements all work together. They are in "harmony" that goes far beyond the musical harmony. They are synchronicity at its best.

Many years again the director of the Moravian Music Festival Band had an arrangement of hymns and he started talking about this perfect blend of all the elements of music. He mentioned one of our most popular hymns and then another that is often found with a different tune than the one that was in our hymnal. We looked at these two and realized that the words are so powerful that you need to have music that complements rather than fights with them.

For me that is why songs like In the Garden which I criticized the other week just don't do it for me. The mixture of poor theology, schmaltzy words and even schmaltzier music make me cringe. I realize some of this is personal preference. But we all can have music that truly moves us. My guess I that when we look at it we will find that it connects with our lives and then carries us away on the flow and power of the music.

Of course it doesn't have to be spiritual music. Much "political" or "patriotic" music can do that. The Carmen Dragon arrangement of America the Beautiful is one of those songs. But it can usually be for the same reason. True, music can be used to manipulate- and patriotic and spiritual songs have been used that way. But in its power, music can lead us higher and deeper into grace and life.