There
are very few things as universal to all of humanity both past and present as a
love for some kind of music. You can say you do not like a particular song or
style of music but I have never heard anyone say that they hate all forms of
music. As long as there has been a thing called culture there has been music to
accompany it. Savage tribal communities had deep resonating drums, Celtic
people had bagpipes, Indians have sitars and Swedes had 70’s teen dance powerhouse
Abba (though most would agree they could keep them to themselves).
Music
is so big of an idea that saying you love music can be expressed in a multitude
of different ways. You can love music so much that you want to become a
musician yourself and pick up an instrument or two and actually take part in
creating music for others to hear. Your love of music could compel you to
memorize every song on the radio and know a little trivia about every artist
that is played. Loving music might inspire you to study musical theory and be
well versed in the mechanics of what makes music work or drive you to learn
everything you can about a particular artist or musician. You could even be
rightly said to be a music lover if you are the guy who has no idea who sings
anything but you know your favorite song when it comes on and cannot help but
start dancing to it.
Having
a “love of music” is the most accurate metaphor I can think of to describe how
Humanity can love and experience God. Music is a really big idea but God is
even bigger and as a Christian I believe that there has not been one person who
has ever lived on this planet who cannot find some piece of God they would love
to experience. God has made Himself known to Humanity throughout each
generation in a way that His people could understand. He is big enough to
encompass every single personality trait this world has had to offer. We can
demonstrate our love for God with the same variety of expression as we can
demonstrate our love for music.
For
instance, your love of God may compel you to become a full-time minister and
take an active part in bringing your love of God to the world. Your love of God
may inspire you to memorize passages of Scripture and learn a little bit about
the major points of the Bible. Your love of God may cause you to become a huge
fan of a particular speaker or writer who presents God to you in a way that you
consistently understand and can relate to. You could even be said to love God
if you know nothing about Him or His people but recognize Him when He is moving
and cannot help wanting to be a part of it.
This
sounds like a pretty good metaphor to me but it has one huge pounding flaw. Whether
you claim to love music or not makes absolutely no difference to either me or
you because it does not really matter either way. Claiming to love God or not
has completely different ramifications. Christians believe that somewhere in
the midst of all these professing “God-lovers” is a tiny gray line that
distinguishes between who gets to spend eternity in heaven and who gets to
suffer forever in a burning sulfurous place of torment. This gray line makes
everything confusing.
As one
who does not like the idea of anybody spending eternity in Hell I have a few
questions. How do I know who is on what side of the line? How do I know if
someone is actually going to Heaven or if they still need a little help? What
is the standard of how much you have to love God before He lets someone into
His eternal theme park of happiness? How
far over the line do they have to be to be considered “good enough”?
My
thought process is flawed.
The
reality is that I will never know exactly where this line of separation between
those who are “saved” and those who are not truly cuts through. I only know
that I will get to Heaven and be very surprised as to who made it and who did
not. So if God is calling me to reach people, which I am certain is what has
happened, then I have to see things from a different angle if I am to make
sense of it all. Being a physical person by definition means that I am set a
part at some distance from God and seeing as how there are 7 billion “persons”
on this planet I think it is safe to say that everybody here is not there yet.
What I mean is that everybody still living is not as close to God as they could
or should be. That includes people in ministry, people in pews, people in bars
and people in other countries. It includes “good” people and “bad” people. It
includes people who shop at Christian book stores and people who shop at adult
novelty stores. Nobody anywhere is “there” yet (including myself) and God never
lets us see the timeline of someone else and know in tangible terms how close
they are to Him.
From
this conclusion, my first instinct is to give up on trying to reach anybody
because I have no way of knowing what good it is doing. I ask “Who am I to say
who is lost and who is found?”
To
which God responds “Then just reach everybody just in case.”
My
whole life I have been trying to reach those on the damnation side of that gray
line and pull them over to the side where God is like I am playing a big game
of Tug-A-War. Life is not like Tug-A-War at all. Tug-A-War requires two
definite and separate teams pulling against each other but when it comes to
knowing who is a Christian and who is not a Christian we are never shown for
certain what side a person other than ourselves is on. Sometimes people outside
the Church are closer to God than people inside the Church. I can never know
how truly close to God someone is so I might as well do everything in my power
to bring everyone I meet one step closer to God than they were before. I can
never know if someone is closer to God than I am or further away from Him but
that should not stop me from either pulling them to where I am or pushing them
from behind to where neither of us has been before. When I do what I can to
take others with me regardless of how saved or unsaved they appear to be I find
that I am growing closer to God and experiencing more of His Music far more
than when I was trying to do it by myself.
The
thing I have to remember is that it is going to look different in them than it
does in me. When I bring someone else closer to God they are not going to
experience Him exactly as I do just as if I introduced a new musician or style
of music to them. Being a Christian inspires me to be in ministry and study
theology but I cannot expect for someone else to do the same. I can only do the
best I can in showing the world how great God is and how much I love
experiencing the things He makes available to me in hopes that they will either
join me or pull me with them to places more near to God.
I have
to admit that I tend to write for the selfish ambition of social media
attention and the hopes that one day somehow my blogs will turn into a published
book that makes me famous but that was never my original intention. I started
writing because all I want to do with my life is experience as much of God as
humanly possible and bring as many people with me in that experience as I can.
I want to write to those well versed in God’s musical theory and those who are
just beginning to recognize His melodies. Together we make a great symphony.
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