"..this morning we kicked off a revamped early service that's a little more interactive and definitely more upbeat/younger when it comes to worship songs. That's both good and bad. Check out the lyrics to one song we sang. Tell me if it is about Jesus. I can't tell".
The song he is referring to is "Deeply in love with you" by Kate Spence.
Does Matthew have a point? Let's look at the lyrics:
In my life, You've heard me say I love You
How do I show You it's true
Hear my heart it longs for more of You
I've fallen deeply in love with You
You have stolen my heart
I'm captivated by You
Never will You and I part
I've fallen deeply in love with You
You and I together forever
Nothing can stand in the way
My love for You grows stronger each new day
I've fallen deeply in love with You
©1998 Kate Spence (Admin. by Here To Him Group, LLC)All rights reserved. International copyright secured.CCLI song #2583596
OK, maybe he has a point. it's a little vague and could be applied to different scenarios. But now look at lyrics in this song:
I can't stop the feeling I've been this way before
But, with you I've found the key
To open any door
I can feel my love for you
Growing stronger day by day
Is this love that I'm feeling
Is this the love that I've been searching for
Is this love or am I dreaming
This must be love
Because it's really got a hold on me, a hold on me
Now that's a great Christian song, right? Wrong.
Well, Song #2 certainly has similar lyrical themes - in fact, it was written before Kate's song so it makes me wonder if it perhaps influenced her? Was she a rocker in 1989? Was she at a Whitesnake concert and moved by David Coverdale tossing his long mane of blond and then moved by the Psalms of King David at a time of Christian conversion?
The Whitesnake song certainly wasn't written to bring glory to God, and that's what I believe is Matthew's beef. Kate's song is just generic enough that it's meaning could be changed based on the context it us used in. Therefore, the song becomes equivocal rather than univocal. If the song can be used in a church service, sung at a wedding, listened to on aisle 5 whilst selecting a cantaloupe then has it really distinguised and glorified God? I think not.
I'm privilged to be at a church that uses contemporary worship songs but they are chosen with great care. Once in a while something may come across the bow that may be somewhat like Kate's song, but in the context of our worship services you never, ever wonder who the focus of the song is about.
That's why I love words - they are so important, yet so fragile and easily misunderstood by the meanings we pour into them and the context in which they are used.
The poet John Donne had a life filled with advancements to greatness and then plunges into valleys of defeat. He had an amazing mind though, and his writing is reveals his relationship with God. For example, look at this selection. I don't think there is any ambiguity as to the object of his affection. If my life were a book, I hope the chapters reveal this kind of clarity not only of my love for, but my struggles with; Jesus Christ the Lord:
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,but is captived,
and proves weak or untrue.yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor even chaste, except you ravish me.
Now that's good writing! No ambiguity there, is there? Would that all of our songs have this kind of communication (from Holy Sonnett XIV, "Batter my heart oh three-personed God").
