Missing out on the music

  I don't know what gives us tastes for different genre's of music and music artists, and distaste for others. What we are raised around may play into it, but not necessarily. I developed a love for Southern Gospel in my teens. Up to that point, what my parents listened to was very tame. Music with drums just wasn't played. I remember my parents not liking my Southern Gospel music and making comments about it being too wild..... that eventually changed, but I obviously didn't get my love for Southern Gospel from my parents.

  I kept that love for the Southern Gospel genre' of music, and for years, rarely listened to anything else. I remain convinced that some of the most encouraging songs that have been written, and are still being written, are Southern Gospel.

  However, in the last couple of years, I have tried to expand my musical tastes to include Christian Contemporary and Praise & Worship. For a couple of reasons: I feel I need more variety in my life, and I believe listening to just one genre' can limit me and cause me to miss out on some good songs.

  People can have wrong ideas about music. When a lot of people think of Southern Gospel, they think of hick, backwoods people. There are that type of singer under the wide spectrum of Southern Gospel music, but there are many who aren't, and some who lean towards a more contemporary style.

  CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) is the same way. You have Steve Green on one side of the spectrum, who just about bores me with most of his music, and P.O.D. on the other, who is so far out I would ground my kids for listening to them, if I had kids. Even Praise and Worship music has its extremes of artists and styles I don't want to hear.

 The problem is critics of any style of music focus on the one extreme and ignore some other music in that genre' they may actually enjoy and get some encouragement and help from.

  Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by my favorite group, the Southern Gospel Booth Brothers. By the way, 2 of my friends who don't like Southern Gospel went to a concert of theirs with myself and some others and enjoyed it immensely:


When He Saved Me:

I don’t believe He’s sitting up in Heaven
Evaluating sinners by their scars
But I see Him excited to forgive us
And it’s not at all in spite of who we are

Chorus:
When He saved me He knew
What I had done, what I would do
He looked beyond the worst in me
And saw not what I was, He saw what I could be

He looked at all the broken scattered pieces
And made a brand new vessel of my life
Every day possibility increases
‘Cause he placed me in a dream that never dies

Bridge:
And though I was a sinner, the Savior heard my cry
His mercy came and rescued me, He did not pass me by 

 Then there is the very encouraging CCM song that was popular this past year by a group with the dubious name of Big Daddy Weave:

"Redeemed"

Seems like all I could see was the struggle
Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
Bound up in shackles of all my failures
Wondering how long is this gonna last
Then You look at this prisoner and say to me "son
Stop fighting a fight it's already been won"

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be
I am redeemed, I'm redeemed

All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head"
I remember, oh God, You're not done with me yet

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be

Because I don't have to be the old man inside of me
'Cause his day is long dead and gone
Because I've got a new name, a new life, I'm not the same
And a hope that will carry me home

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, 'cause I'm not who I used to be

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, yeah, I'm not who I used to be
Oh, God, I'm not who I used to be
Jesus, I'm not who I used to be
'Cause I am redeemed
Thank God, redeemed 

  And the Praise and Worship song "Blessings" by Laura Story


"Blessings"

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise 

  Musical tastes are going to affect the styles of music we listen to, and some just grate on us, but it would do us all good to broaden our listening a little. We might find an artist, or at least some songs, in a genre' we don't normally listen to that could encourage us and help us through a tough time. Such as the Southern Gospel song below: