The Measure of Music

I was recently listening to a recording of me playing in the prayer room from about a week ago, and I stopped to ponder the sound of my guitar. The quality of music is measured in so many different ways. From frequencies to personal taste, opinions run wild over what sounds good. I happened to think my guitar sounded pretty good, but I stopped to ask why. There were plenty of times I messed up, plenty of tweaks I would have made to my guitar tone or pedal settings in hindsight, but I had a certain respect for that set because of something that happened to me over a year ago. 

It was at the Onething Conference in 2009. I was playing with Justin Rizzo in the prayer room at Onething and I had been specifically seeking the Lord about my music and praying for 'melodies from heaven.' I remember standing on the stage, playing a simple rhythm and suddenly I felt the Lord's presents all around me, like I was in the grip of his hand. I was so shocked I stopped playing, and I listened as the Lord said "I love you." As obvious as those words seem, they pierced me in a particular way that day because I knew that the Lord was referring to my music. Then I heard Him say to my spirit, "Your melodies are as good as any others. What you play from your heart is what pleases me." I felt His delight so strongly that I started to cry right there on stage! In fact I went back later on the web stream archives and watched it again. I was just standing there as tears fell on my pedalboard. After a few minutes of just soaking the moment, I gathered myself and finished the rest of the set.

From that day on, I measure my music differently when it comes to sets in the prayer room. Of course I'd like to sound good, for the sake of everyone in the room, but even if I don't, I look back on those times with a smile because I know I played from my heart and it moved the heart of God. That revelation from onething 2009 was one of the most tender moments for me as a musician, and it set my perspective for how God sees my music.

Moral of the story: Tone and skill and gear are all secondary to heart posture. Those are all endless pursuits! All music boils down to who/what it worships and the authenticity of the worshipers. 

Crazy story... I'm done unless you want to hear a crazy way the Lord moves through music story. There was a time I was playing bass guitar on a ministry trip to a little church in Illinois. The whole worship team was quite rusty, just me on bass, my friend on drums, and another friend leading the worship from the keyboard. The sound system was awful, the acoustic of the room were awful. It was a sound nightmare, honestly. But, we were playing a little set on this ministry trip and I was filling in on bass. There came a moment during the set when the worship leader had an oracle (a sort of spontaneous song specified for that moment). None of us were doing anything special, I think just holding Bm, a single note. When the worship leader went into the oracle, something crazy happened like nothing I've ever felt before or since. The room, with less than 10 people in it, filled suddenly with the presence of God with a terrifying intensity! The Lord visited that room suddenly as the worship leader sang the oracle so much that I couldn't keep my eyes open or even stand up! I sat on a stool and looked at the drummer, and he could hardly move his arms! The presence of God was so intense I honestly thought I might black out! It was all I could do to keep my finger on the single note we were playing! Then, almost as suddenly as it came, the presence lifted after the worship leader ended the oracle. I remember finally looking up and thinking "What was that?!" When the set was over, we discussed the event in shock because we didn't do anything special! The worship leader was obedient to sing what she felt like God wanted her to sing, and I played a single note and the drummer was barely able to hit the drums, but we all knew God was there. We had all set our hearts on that trip to simply be tools for the Lord to use, empty vessels for the Lord to fill. We didn't care for glory and hardly for how we sounded, we wanted to be used by God, and we were! Turns out that night there was also an evangelism outreach that happened during our set that we prayed for, and lots of people were saved that night throughout the city!

Maybe some music is measured by the number of demons it scares...