For Sweet Music

This post is copied from my column in the Nov/ Dec issue of The Message.

When Dale and I have dinner together we always have candles and music. The candles are still very, very old school. A candle is a candle. But the delivery of music has changed a lot. We use to do the music the old fashioned way. We played the radio. And you take what you get—including the commercials. Then we upgraded; we got a CD player. We get the music, minus the commercials, but we’re limited to what we have on hand.

We’ve upgraded again. To something called Pandora. This is internet radio. It’s a step up even from satellite radio. It has no commercials, and, it’s free. And the sound quality is flawless. It works like this. You pick an artist, a style of music, or even just one song, and Pandora uses an algorithm to parse the music you’ve selected into something called a “Station,” and it will then go and find more music for you that is like it. I can enter, “Macy Gray,” or “Bach,” or “Chris Tomlin,” and Pandora will play their music, plus others who are like them. Each song that is played comes with a little “thumbs-up,” or “thumbs down,” for you to click. In this way, you can further and further refine your new Station.

I realize the analogy can’t be pressed very hard, but there is something of sanctification going on here. You sign up for a Station. This is the principle you agree with. It is, if you will, the Truth. When you finally humble yourself and submit to the truth, you find God bringing it to you from many different places. You will find the truth in Scripture, in worship, in music. You’ll find it in the countless ways and places you have to make decisions through the course of a week. And each time you respond to God’s truth with obedience it’s like you click “thumbs up.” Each little act of obedience causes God’s truth in you to become a little more refined, a little more focused. It’s like God has a great algorithm working in your life, slowly, day by day, making you a little more like Jesus. Jesus said, “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17, Amp.).

The more you respond in obedience to God, the sweeter the music of your life will sound.