What songs...melodies...are moving around you this week?
Which notes are nudging you in new directions?
What lyrics are awakening you to the traces of God's grace all around?
In the last post I offered a quote from Charles Darwin. And recently scientists have been hopping on that bandwagon studying the positive impact of music. Recent research suggests that music releases dopamine - the natural feel good chemical of your brain. Music can, at the same time, decrease the stress hormone cortisol. When you are working out (walking or running or biking) music has been shown to boast your performance.
To be sure, I am not convinced that all music does this for every single person.
You probably known of music today that doesn't do any of that. Music that can sound more like a cat screeching on a hot tin roof or nails being run down a chalk board. Some music may make your soul shout/sing out...but for the next person those notes only produce a yawn and a glance at his cell phone to check the time.
Some people love classic music...others enjoy jazz.
Some people prefer organ...others piano...guitar...ukulele (which I discovered when doing research for this week, I learned Warren Buffet plays the ukulele. That is awesome!)
The invitation isn't just for you to decide and then defend your preference to everyone else.
The invitation is for you to know what stirs your soul...try to finger out why!
Why you find a song meaningful is so much more insightful and interesting to me than you trying to convince me that I should love the song too and join you for a three-day opera fest going on next week.
For example, here is another song stirring my soul by Carrie Newcomer
Why do I find this meaningful?? I am delighted you asked!!
First, I really love storytelling folk music...guitar/voice/piano/light drum is part of the soundtrack that stirs my soul.
Second, I love it when the melody and words invite us into something deeper. I am not a huge fan of lyrics that repeat over and over and over...and over again.
Third, I think that Carrie is exactly correct that everything we need isn't somewhere out there, it is right here within and between us. I love the notice that within me and between you/me God's grace is awakening what we need for such a time as this.
That is a prayer I long not only to sing, but I pray my life sings out with more than a trace of God's grace.
Blessings ~~
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