Christian music bugs me

My associate pastor thinks I am incredibly picky when it comes to Christian music. He is not wrong. Picky is not exactly the right term though. The standards to which I hold music meant for our glorious Savior are just unusually high. While there are believers who attest that anything which mentions God or salvation is perfectly marvelous, more often than I'd like to admit I find myself scrunching up my face in frustration or disappointment, when I listen to popular Christian radio.

Just to clarify, this will not be a blog about the joys of old gospel music, or the impeccability of hymns, or the perfection of choruses, or the power of modern worship songs. I have no interest in defending whichever hill on which we've decided our worship will die.

Disclaimer number two: God cares about the state of our hearts more than the words of our lips. I have no right to judge heart motivations. But I do. Sorry. This will end with all fingers back in my face.

As believers, those who have had their death sentence shredded, replaced with life, hope, and divine, royal favor, we have the single greatest source of inspiration in all of reality. The mysterious, wondrous God should send our thoughts seeking knowledge and wisdom, pursuing a mind restructured to the ideas of the Holy Spirit in us. The beautiful, matchless Creator should send our heart soaring into poetry and passion, revolutionizing our perspective of the world. The gifts He spills out of too much grace, should make us rejoice so much that we laugh and cry and wonder. His goodness is so remarkable, we find moments of speechless silence.

So why does it feel like christian songs often take the easy way out? Why engage poetry when the rehashed slop of a secular love song serves just as well? Why force the mind to comprehend and imagine, when playing heart strings sells albums? Why focus on a huge God we cannot comprehend, when we could continue to wallow in the humanity we know so well? Why risk thoughtful, grateful, theological passion on a nation and generation of very safe Christians?

No, it is not every song. It is not every moment in certain songs. I know that it is hard to make art. I have been attempting to create for years.

Isn't He worth our all? The best lines, the best of our life, the best of our gifts given back to Him?

It is easy to pick on worship music, but I guess the question is much bigger, and therefore much more troubling. Doesn't God deserve the best that I can give Him? Where have I taken the easy way out, not brave enough to allow my mind to be stretched, my heart to be turned, my life to be re-directed? If we are to be worshipping with our lives, our lives should be effortful, submissive, beautiful creations to the One worthy of all worship.