My most listened to song in 2022 was a song called “Strangers” by Bring Me The Horizon. In 2023 my most listened to single (I say single because there was one album I listened to a lot that pouched it down the list) was LosT, also by Bring Me The Horizon. Now many of you reading this, if you know anything about Bring Me The Horizon, might thoroughly begin to question a lot about me. A lot of their music is very dark, there is language in their languages that I don’t let my kids hear at their age, and often times the lyrical content can be seen as anti-God. I have been asked the question “how can you listen to that filth” many many times in my life. My answer is simple, “Because it causes me to live in awe of my God”.
Now you may be sitting there saying “woah woah woah BJ, you are a pastor and have been in ministry for a relatively long time, how can you listen to that and find God there? With lyrics like:
Why am I this way?
Stupid medicine not doing anything
What the hell is fucking wrong with me?
I guess there's no remedy, own worst enemy, I'm so terribly lost
HOW CAN YOU FIND AWE OF GOD IN THOSE LYRICS?!?!?!”
Once again the answer is simple, it’s because I’ve been there. I have been that person honestly screaming those lyrics multiple times in my life. The end of this song offers no hope, it simply asks the question “why am I so messed up and broken, am I stuck this way forever?”I have felt that so so many times… but I have the answer. The answer is, when I decide to do life my own way on my own this is what everything will eventually degrade to. Feeling alone and lost and wondering what is wrong with me and if anything can ever get better. BUT I’m not alone. God is there with me. Seeing the hopelessness in the lyrics asking questions and calling out with no answer causes me to pause and reflect that, in times when I do feel this way, I know I can cling to God. Because of him I am not lost but I AM FOUND!
I fully realize that the music I listen to is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s not designed to be. Art is subjective. However you can’t tell me that what I listen to doesn’t cause me to live in awe and praise of who God is and how He has changed my life. Our relationship with God is called to be a personal relationship. It’s not a cookie cutter one size fits all relationship. If I tried to only connect to God in the way that I see other pastors or other people in my life, my relationship would suffer. There are specific things we are called to that all people who claim to follow Christ are commanded to do: Read His word, spend time in prayer, and gathering with other believers. We are called to pursue God with everything we have, and to live in awe and reverence of Him, and weird dark metalcore screamy screamy music is one of those ways for me.
So find YOUR way to connect with Him. God created the world and art to explore and learn more about Him. Find what causes you to live in awe and reverence of our creator. Obviously avoid things that are sins, but outside of that the world that our God created is filled to the brim with art and things that should cause us to stand in awe of Him. It’s not going to be the same for everyone, so find what makes you reflect on and worship the God of the universe and then go share that reverence with the world!
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