I don’t believe in secular music.
It’s not that I don’t like secular music or that I don’t approve of it. I don’t understand what it actually is.
Music has a powerful yet gentle, moving and stubborn personality. It is all things to all people and it can mean nothing at all. I find that the music I listened to, the sounds that characterise my life, is changing. The soundtrack to my life is taking a shift as the years progress and I know it sounds so ‘old manish’ but it is a testament to music as a living being that can evolve and adapt itself to your life’s experiences, challenges and triumphs.
Whether you wake up by a chirp or bell or your favourite music track, music is there. Whether you get to work in the car, there is music, or maybe you walk, there is music everywhere in the world around you.
All good things God’s fingerprints on them. Love, friendship and work are just a few of them, and I believe that music is one of these things. Music was God’s idea and it is a very fine achievement. As humans we are made in the likeness of God and as such we have creativity hat can spring forth music that transforms, edifies and has the ability to bring people to life.
Music is used by cultures far and wide to express and praise the elements of our lives that deserve such elevation. In Christian faith circles you might listen to music that speaks of your love for God or somehow encapsulates your faith and music like this is essential because it can provide focus and it will often journey you to somewhere else, it is a vehicle.
What makes this music better than ‘secular’ music?
If this music type is acceptable yet; written by humans, flawed and forgiven and ‘secular’ music is written by humans, flawed and forgiven – where does the distinction lie? Is it merely words that excludes some artists from our libraries or it is just an old wives tale that results in us missing out on masterpieces created by people who use the same creative cells as someone writing a faith-based song.
Sure, there is music that is created with bad intentions. Music that is created to promote sinful things. The world is full of humans and as such will be susceptible to human ambitions, greed and outright evil. But it is a monumental generalisation to exile ‘secular’ music from our lives simply because the words don’t fit the exclusive and limited pattern that we can often set.
Wisdom and the inner peace we call upon should always be applied when navigating through choices in our lives, and often we may not have a peace about a certain song, movie or event. Being obedient to that voice can make or break us. I also think that we can learn so much and experience God and the divine in all sorts of unexpected places. I often wish that some faith based songs had the intro to a ‘secular’ song, there are mountains of music gold waiting to be discovered.
In the meantime…
dean hogarth 