Music for the Journey and Soul

Music has always been important to me. To me, music is often philosophical, reflecting the heart and soul of a person; expressing the essence and embodiment of our emotional alchemy, and as one philosopher once said, “music it the recreation of reality, hopes, fears, and dreams of person or culture through sounds.” Music can model the human consciousness, especially those filled with emotions, like passion, love, hate, fear, sadness, happiness, hope, love, and praise.
Every culture known to man has used music to, often times uniquely, express its existence and humanity of that culture. The Bible is full of passages about music, even with David (King of Israel). When David placed the ark in the tabernacle in Jerusalem, he instructed the people to “sing to Him, sing psalms to the Lord”. He even danced before the Lord and banged his symbols. 1 Chronicles (13:8) reads “And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.” And how can we forget Psalms, that Book is full of songs, with headliners to chapters that sometimes dictates whether it was harp or flute music. In Colossians (3:16), we are instructed to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing on another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (NIV).
I could go on and on about music in the Bible, but you are likely tiring of reading this. The point is that music is and always has been an important part of the worship of God (and, unfortunately, the worship of man-made gods); what Christian can help but still feel the Spirit when Amazing Grace is played. It’s also unfortunate that even in worship, we use music to divide us; is it too contemporary, is it “edifying” enough, is it too old (old hymns), etc. There are people that I know who think that Christian Rock is wrong and is “of the devil”); I say, why let any form of expression for worship be exclusive to Satan. I have also included many songs that are of romance and love, which is one of the most powerful emotions that God instilled in us. Did not God Himself use classic love stories in the Bible? Read the Book of Ruth, a classic love story; or the Book of Solomon, where many scholars believe that God used the love between a man and woman to represent His love to us.

I don’t know about you, but for me music has always been there. It is constantly in my head. I often think and feel through the music in my head. Even in my memories, when I think of major events in my life, it is as if a MTV video is playing in my head. Without the gift of music, much of life would be missing.
That is why I have included a play list on my blog; of which most of the 75 to 80 songs on the list represents certain times and events in my life, while many of the other songs represents my current mood or inspiration. Often times, I use these songs to uplift me when I am feeling down; especially the praise songs. Those help to “realign” my current state of mind and focus on the things that are really important in life.

Throughout this blog, which will be a Journey onto itself, I will use many of the songs to express a particular place that I am at or have been along this Journey called “life”. I will include a "song of day" each time that I post and give a little back ground on why it is or was important to me.
I hope you enjoy my selections and that they will in some ways effect you or bring back memories of events in your life, or be a worshipful experience for you. As always, feedback is always welcomed.

In ending, I would like for you to listen to the song "We will Dance" by Steven Curtis Chapman.