Music

In my first VOM (Vocation of Ministry) class, Dr. Marmon had us do some different association exercises where she would give us a topic such as "What is important to you" and have us jot down everything that came to mind. Then she pointed out that music is very important to most people and proceeded to have us spend about 60 seconds writing down our favorite songs. She then asked us to see if there were any unifying themes in what we just wrote down. The first thing I noticed is that I really like music that is in a time signature of 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8. I also seem to really like music in minor keys. So if a song is in a minor key and in 6/8, I'll probably like it. The next thing I noticed is that I like Celtic music, especially celtic music that fits the above pattern. this led me to the conclusion that this was a rather useless excerciese. But it really wasn't.
For the past three and a half weeks, I've been paying more attention to what kind of music I listen to. I've also been looking back over the list of songs I had jotted down, and I've found something else. I really am drawn to songs about love. But they're not just songs about love, they're songs about God's love for us and our love for Him. One of my favorite songs of all time, Life For Love, is by Enter The Haggis, which is a decidedly non-Christian group. So I've been thinking about why I like this song. It talks about giving your life for love, and one of my favorite lines is, "Arms stretched to catch the next horizon..." What does this remind you of? Hmm...let's see, you in the back, what's that you said? It sounds like something Jesus did for us? You are correct!
I know that the song is not written to talk about the Incarnation, and that it only really fits if you take certain lines out of context. I'm ok with that. I still really like the song. So what are some of the other "love" songs I jotted down? My next two favorites are "The Church" and "Lover" from Derek Webb's CD She Must and Shall Go Free, which is probably in my list of top ten favorite CD's of all time. I think the reason I love songs like this is because it reminds me of God's love for us. When I'm feeling really stressed or I find myself questioning why in the world I ever decided to go BACK to school, I listen to these songs for a reminder.
So I guess Dr. Marmon was right. We can learn a lot about ourselves from looking at what music we listen too. Give it a try, you might be surprised at what you learn.