Our Hearts to Follow Our Voices

I remember that during my early college days, one of the music leaders from InterVarsity Christian fellowship prefaced the singing of "Shine, Jesus, Shine" by sharing about how this song had become particularly meaningful to him over the summer, and he admonished us not to sing the song if we really didn't mean it.

That experience made me think, "Is that the standard that we ought to hold? Is that a good examples of how we should exhort others?" And for a while, it shaped my perspective around how I should approach worship (which I think was healthy) and how I felt others should approach worship (which I think ended up being unhealthy). Let me explain.

I think it was fine for my to examine myself and challenge myself to "own" the words that I was singing. I think what was unhelpful was to use it as tool of judgment. This mindset turned me into the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who would disdainfully judge the unworthiness of my younger brother. I would have friends on the periphery of the faith who would come to fellowship and really get into praise and worship, belting out lyrics while raising their hands and instead of celebrating that I saw glimpses of them encountering Jesus in a real way, I was overly caught up in the misalignment of their singing of praise and worship and other parts of their lives. It turned me into the Pharisee which stewed while Jesus ate with prostitutes and tax collectors.

This comes to mind when people are singing all over the country are singing Christmas Carols. If you take a look at many of the lyrics in these traditional songs, they're no joke - they speak explicitly and reverently about the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And because of the tradition of the holiday, those with little or no inclination towards Jesus are singing these songs - even harmonizing if they have some vocal skills. So if you're a person of devout faith, you can either be frustrated of the seeming incongruity of them singing songs which declare and celebrate the coming of the Lord; or you can hope that something this Christmas season causes them to pause and think when they sing of the the "Newborn King" along the lines of "Newborn King... King of what? Who is Jesus and why did he come, and why should I care?"

Our singing isn't to be treated like communion in the PCA, where you are calling judgment upon yourself if you partake without believing. For the believer and the non-believer alike, the things that we sing are always going to be a little misaligned with the reality of our being at the moment. Even for the devout Christian, we don't sing with complete sincerity our praise due to our own sin and fallenness - the lyrics are aspirational to some degree, with a implied prayer that God would mold our hearts to meet the very lofty words that we sing. Christians can pray the same prayer for their friends and neighbors who will be belting out Christmas carols this season.