A musician’s philosophy is not established to make other people happy,
but to set guidelines for living a Christ centered, God honoring life. Christ must have preeminence in our lives; He
must have lordship over all of our choices and decisions, including music. Francis Schaeffer says, “There is nothing
autonomous- nothing apart from the lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority
of the Scriptures. God made the whole man is interested in the whole man, and
the result is a unity.” (Schaeffer, Francis, Escape from Reason 1968 p. 29) Part of submitting
to His lordship is considering what God thinks about music. God loves beautiful things, and we bring to
Him our best offerings and abilities, but we do not perform art for the
glorification of art itself. Webber says that the arts are “vehicles for
communication. The arts are not venerated or worshipped. Rather they are used
to communicate truth about God.” (Webber, R, E. Enter his Courts with Praise, 1997, p. 78)
We
must not take off our “biblical worldview glasses” in the
area of music. It is not a neutral, ineffective, autonomous area, but on the
contrary, it greatly affects our lives and we must surrender our musical tastes
to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
There is a reason we must guard what we listen to. K. Marie Stolba put it well when she said, “Music
was peculiar among the arts in that it alone had the ability to influence
character.” (Stolba,
K.M., The Development of Western Music,
1998 P. 13)
When we are making wise musical
choices, we are able to enjoy the beauty of music as it infiltrates our lives.
“The result of aesthetic experiences is a richer and more meaningful life…The
antonym of ‘aesthetic’…can best be thought of as ‘anesthetic’- nothingness, no
life, no feeling, no humanness.” (Abeles, Hoffer,
Klotman, Foundations of Music Education,
1994 p. 63) How much should we thank our heavenly Father
for giving us so many aesthetics that our lives may be full and enriched! And
how important it is that we honor that privilege and take advantage of what He
has given us courts with Praise. (Ibid., Webber, 1997
p.78)
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