‘I don’t really listen to Christian music’
...and other things you probably don’t want to
admit on the EQUIP book club blog.
I was excited upon first being approached
to write for this blog – I love the EQUIP conference, I love that it presents decent
bible teaching, and I love that this is a blog for thinkers – it’s a privilege
to be asked to contribute. Except, my capacity for thinking seems to have
shrunk over the last little while, somewhere between planning a wedding and
heading back into full-time work. So when Siân Lim first suggested The Scriptures That Testify About Me: Jesus and
the Gospel in the Old Testament, “basically a bunch of sermons which
attempt biblical theology”, I baulked at the thought. This post would be due in
a week!
“Got anything lighter?”
“How about the new Sovereign Grace CD, Grace Has Come?”
I agreed, but in reality my heart had sunk
even further. Because, dear reader, here is my confession: I don’t listen to
Christian music outside of church/conferences/those times when you subject me
to Rebecca St James, Mercy Me, Garage Hymnal, et al in your car. Don’t get me wrong, I adore music and singing at
church, I just never have the inclination to purchase a Christian CD and listen
to it for pleasure. My prejudice tells me, whether rightly or not, that I’ll
only end up cringing over acoustic melodies and cheesy lyrics. I know many of
you will read this and be indignant at what is surely my ignorance of good
Christian music, but it is what it is. And so this month on the EQUIP book club
blog, you will be following a CD review AND my own personal experiment: can I
be ‘converted’ to not only listen to but also value Christian music in my own
time?
The first time I pressed play on my freshly
downloaded copy of Grace Has Come, I
was introduced to the album with the solo guitar strumming and accompanying
male voice I expected. I reluctantly allowed the first two tracks to provide
the soundtrack to the first 10 minutes of my train ride to work. They washed
right over me. So far, so unmoved. (Really, am I allowed to say this?! Editor: Yes, you are… we’re all about
honesty!)
48 hours later I pressed play again. This
time I simply wanted to get through the album, so I listened to it as I walked
around Fairfield on my errands. It was in Woolworths, picking apples for my
husband that I had my first positive thought: ‘Hey! I’ve been listening to this
for about half an hour now. It’s been kind of pleasant to have it playing in
the background as I go about life…’ I’d still not thought deeply about what the
lyrics actually meant, or how closely they followed the book of Romans (which
the album is based on), but I believed I’d made some steady progress in just
finding some enjoyment in the music. It wasn’t just enjoyment though, it was a
comfortable, benevolent background presence. It calmed me more than my
preferred musical brands of indie angst or bluesy melancholy. I began to wonder
why.
Perhaps… I’m finally catching on?
About our contributor, Christine Bransdon:
is married to Thom, grew up in Fairfield in Sydney's west and has stayed there,
is counting down the days until she can leave behind her job in the public
service and study God's word full-time, and only gets to contribute to this
blog because she goes to the same church as the EQUIP chair.